Words are every much a weapon of war as the bullets that fatally wound. Words start wars. Words can end them too. Speak carefully but speak free. "When discourse collapses into demonisation, violence stops being unthinkable" @lindacooganbyrne.bsky.social lindacooganb.medium.com/charlie-kirk...

“Crisis… is an attempt to dislodge us from a toxic status quo and constitutes an insistent call to rebuild our lives on a more authentic and sincere basis.” Wonderful wonderful read on the importance of breakdowns www.themarginalian.org/2021/10/13/a...

"We see things not as they are but as we are" – Anaïs Nin We see the world through our eyes, not others A Talmudic referenced truism from Nin's Seduction of the Minotaur (1961) Quote Origin: We Don’t See Things As They Are, We See Them As We Are – Quote Investigator® share.google/IIMKRqLOWjdA...

More than 100 women's rights groups have warned "racist" attempts to link sexual violence with immigration are putting victims at risk. 87% of prisoners serving sentences for VAWG are white v 81.7% in UK. Perpetrators are disproportionately white (white British 74%) www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

Ashamed to say that my time as an evangelical Christian was influenced by James Dobson. He was pro corporal punishment of children & pets, anti abortion, anti gay, anti immigrant, pro Reagan/Bush/Trump. He resigned from the APA over homosexuality being depathologised! www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/u...

Polari Prize halts 2025 competition following John Boyne ‘TERF’ controversy https://www.booksns.com/156628/ Personally, I think this was their only viable option. They'd squandered the goodwill of pretty much everyone who was invested in the prize, and 16/24 of the nominees had withdrawn. I …

Trans Polari Prize nominee ‘heartbroken’ over decision to ‘pause’ awards

great story from @robynvinter.bsky.social and @benquinn75.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Really quite scary the heartless unhearing language of the EHRC's guidance and likely enforcement of sex segregration, birth certification, shunning of trans (and indirectly through unintended consequences – intersex and gender stereotype non-conforming people). www.thetimes.com/article/d748...

3 of 9. I think I have 9 #CatsofBluesky #InternationalCatDay

I'm not sure my therapist, family or friends would agree that I'm an adult! The age verifying app also knocked over a decade off my age so I will take that win.

Beshear creating “the grace and the space for people to disagree” on hot-button issues. A Southern Democrat encouraging politicians on the Left to "talk like normal people" be pro-diversity, choice, LGBTQ+, but also basic needs & beliefs. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

"Talk to each other before you kill each other." Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, a cellist survivor of the Women's Orchestra of #Auschwitz which she entered aged 18, shares some #wisdom as she turns 100 years old. Via BBC Radio 4 Today programme www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Reform UK Kent County Council says it has removed all transgender-related books from the children's sections of its libraries. Fact check – and book was moved within the library. Age appropriate yes Book banning NO www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

You can’t see me bc I’m holding a flag but guys I live in a 2k person extremely rural town in one of the reddest counties of WI. So many people showed up there was a line all the way to the highway. I often feel a bit afraid due to my identity in this area but #nokings brought out so many

Minnesota assassin was a militant evangelical Trump supporters, according to sources. America is polarised and armed. And dplit down the middle. 54% approve Trump on immigration policy removals. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Deaths from bipolar suicidality are rising in the UK. The NHS has a severe shortage of mental health professionals with years long wait lists and around 9 years for a #Bipolar diagnosis and even longer to land on successful medicated management. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

However clear or perhaps simplistic the SC ruling, the #EHRC is behaving as ideologically as many GCs critiqued Stonewall for. Beyond strict interpretation and application, it's the heartless blunt inhumane tone of an organisation tasked with upholding human respect and rights that's so depressing.

My main reason for staying on X was to avoid echo chambers and create dialogue but watching Elon Musk and Donald Trump implode on each other with a front row seat is addictive. I can't decide who is more dangerous for the US or the world.

Love the creativity of protest. In the US, DEI work goes on under DIB or Wellbeing etc now and some US cities are designating the Pride flag an official flag to circumvent bans on displaying it. www.erininthemorning.com/p/missoula-m...

Mellow Manhattan mood Missing the sun Pond got a refill So might the cocktail!

This is immoral and backward. I know too many, including myself, living in fear of varying work-helping benefits being withdrawn by a government intent on taxing the poor and over taxing the disabled, neurodiverse, and those with mental wellbeing challenges. www.touretteshero.com/2025/05/23/a...

Greenland signs minerals deal with EU. Trump slaps 50% tariffs on European Union. Time to ignore Trump and his trade tantrums. Meanwhile, Harvard may want to consider relocating to Europe...

Lady Hale’s response to the Supreme Court decision and EHRC guidance at the Chareleston Literary Festival and fellow panellist, her daughter Julia Hoggett, the first gay woman CEO of the LSE: “it’s the duty of society to foster that conversation now.” www.theguardian.com/law/2025/may...

May is mental health awareness month I have Bipolar++ I've just spent 2 days in Dublin living positively, like there's no tomorrow and then 2 days in bed wishing there was no tomorrow Tomorrow, I'm speaking about suicide Today, I'm drinking, reading, and reflecting

We grow up with stories, sagas, a search for belonging, companions in our journey or quest, identity, meaning, purpose, hope. That's why Narnia, Middle Earth, Alagaësia, Star Wars, Star Trek, Blakes 7, Buffy, Firefly, Farscape, Andromeda, X-Men, Guardians, Avengers, and, yes, Harry Potter resonate.

Interesting @listentotimesradio.bsky.social to hear @ayeshahazarika.bsky.social conversation with @janeclarejones.bsky.social and @katyjonwent.bsky.social about the Supreme Court ruling. It was considered, and looks to the future. Can only find clip via x.com/MrsNickyClar...

"And, on the third day, the Department of Education rose again in an act of divine unforgiveness of all debts" (Gospel of Donald, 3:16) apnews.com/article/stud...

Predicting the future is being a seer. Creating the future is being a doer. Intelligence comes in many forms from IQ to EQ, SQ and FQ etc. It can be academic and/or practical, emotional, social. It has been called the ability to learn from mistakes, to adapt, change, evolve, grow, imagine...

Orban – somewhere between Putin and Trump. Is there a spectrum of autocratic repression of LGBTQ identities? Defunding Pride in the US, banning in Hungary, and declaration in Russia that "we have no gays" suggests attacks on Trans rights often extend to LGB www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Trump seems to be running the biggest market manipulation, insider trading scam the world has seen. Either he doesn't know what he's doing at all OR he knows EXACTLY what he's doing and that is worse, unethical and disreputable.

"The Trump project is global in scope and fanatically ideological in content. Favour is bestowed on foreign politicians who will join a crusade to sweep away the clutter of multilateral governance, purge effeminate liberal decadence and assert white Christianity" www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The future murderers program was originally called the “homicide prediction project”, but its name has been changed to “sharing data to improve risk assessment” – much less sexy, dystopian, Minority Report! www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Labour trying so hard to be seen as a safe pair of hands for the Economy, Security, Immigration that it's being more Tory than the Conservatives cutting welfare, refugees, funding defence, accepting Trump tariffs and values with little resistance. Ashamed www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

"after 72 days in which Democrats have appeared lame and leaderless, Sen Cory Booker stood up [and] delivered a [25 hour] vivid portrait of a great nation breaking promises to its people, betraying overseas allies and sliding off a cliff towards authoritarianism" www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

I often forget International Trans Day of Visibility as it's one day among 365 and has become one of the least important things to me about me, yet to others, it remains one of the most important – something about me that they cannot but see. #TDOV #Transgender #InternationalTransDayofVisibility

"A toddler was suspended from nursery after being accused of being transphobic". The idea of "transphobic toddlers" - all 13 of them aged 7 or under running amok is terrifying! The reality? Well, it was homophobia or transphobia but headlines only mention trans www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/11236e3...

More fighting back in France as far right leader found guilty of misappropriating EU funds. Marine le Pen barred from election running for 5 years and faces 1-2 years in jail with 2 years suspended, subject to appeals of course www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

Vive la #France! The French economy ministry dismisses Trump: “This practice reflects the values ​​of the new American government. They are not ours” in response to US memos demanding that foreign companies prove “that they do not operate any programs promoting #DEI” www.nytimes.com/2025/03/29/b...

#DPAC protest against the shameless cuts on disability and welfare, #PIP, #DWP. People are not numbers or pounds to be cut from budgets. They are real lives, many cut short by being disabled, ill health or suicidality without the government helping! #WelfareNotWarfare #Norwich

The world's richest man stole food from the world's poorest children. Now they are beginning to die www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

People forget that #PIP is extra money to cover extra costs of being disabled e.g. carers, aids, utilities, transport etc. It's not an unemployment benefit but often paid to those in work to mitigate their extra costs of living. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

These Words Are Disappearing under Donald Trump & Elon I've been comparing before and after #Diversity, #Equity, #Inclusion and #Belonging pages of dozens of companies. The NYT has done similar with hundreds of US federal agency pages to see what is being edited out www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Forgot to do #Caturday so here's a two-fer the price of one, lounging #cats on a sunny #Sunday, in March!

I could eat outside today. It was double digit temperatures. 11°!

Today is like a moderately fast car. Instead of 0 to 60 in 3s, it's been -2° to 10° in a couple of hours, exceeding expectations, and is a spring welcome. Mehr vorsprung durch sonnig als vorsprung durch technik.

Zelensky has had to be strong for 3 years to stand up to Russia and now Trump and Vance berate and belittle him with passive aggressive exchanges. Trump was humiliating #Ukraine. No wonder Zelensky tried to stand up for facts and justice vs duplicitous "diplomacy" and Donald deals.

We live ever-polarised lives, pathologised, politicised, but not often humanised. Seeing the person beyond the label is more needed than ever. The Human Library Organization creates neutral, safer, braver spaces to encounter those who are different to ourselves - which, in the end, is everybody!

Freedom of speech is a right but not without risk. Salwan Momika was an Iraqi Assyrian refugee in Sweden and anti-Islam activist, known for public demonstrations where he burnt the Quran. He was assassinated during a livestream on TikTok.

#London come and read a #Book - a human one, that talks back and answers all your curious questions about different life experiences that are typically misunderstood or even maligned. From addict to adopted, immigrant to intersex, mental health to muslim, polyamorous to police officer, and many more