@ginagwenffrewi
Co-Director of SUISS at the University of Edinburgh, where I also lecture and tutor in Trans and Queer Studies (Culture/Media). LGBT+ rep for UCU Edinburgh. Trustee of the Scottish Queer International Film Festival (SQIFF). She/Her. Cymraes.
The perception that younger people (Millennial, GenZ et al) are governed by "emotion" rather than "intellect" like Gen X / boomers, is part of the dismissal of the distress of younger generations suffering the bigotry, self-centredness and self-righteousness of the establishment and its media.
This was from a TV review but the broader sense of generational superiority is palpable. Here again:
"a line so great ... for its infinite accrued wisdom and compression of an entire generational divide from the mouth of a character accustomed to privileging intellect over emotion."
A Guardian journalist's condescension against younger generations gets to the heart of some of the adjacent cruelty against trans youth:
"We contain multitudes, and nothing is black or white. And whatever young people think now, they will learn this too – and probably sooner than they would like."
The one slight positive is that trans women and cis women can have shared spaces which exclude cis men (same for trans men / cis men). However, there would still need to be separate single-sex spaces for cis women. This is segregation, undermines our privacy, and forces the outing of trans people.
Concerning service providers, "[c]hoosing not to provide any single-sex toilets might constitute indirect sex discrimination against women." This is also worrying if it gets raised as an issue, further consolidating the segregation.
This is really bad for trans women and trans men, then. It confirms a blanket-ban against trans men and trans women using single-sex toilets in the workplace. It doesn't clarify what should happen for trans people if there are only single-sex toilets, indicating instead 'difficult judgment calls.'
This is a powerful story for me. Several branches of the Women's Institute are closing across the UK in protest at the new trans-exclusionary ban against trans women. It cuts through the lie by the media and GC groups about speaking on behalf of women. Solidarity.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
It's the same confusion at universities: students (i.e. fee-paying customers) who are trans would therefore be able to access toilets in alignment with their identified gender, but staff (i.e. workforce) who are trans wouldn't.
... for anyone interested in the media's role in contributing to this climate, I recommend Oxford University's Migration Observator study of UK press coverage 2010-2013, with key words emerging: 'illegal,' 'influx,' 'economic,' 'failed' and 'terrorist':
migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/press/migran...
Someday we'll be displaying these in museums to show how ugly austerity became, those 2013 postered vans with the message, “In the UK illegally? GO HOME OR FACE ARREST.” With that keyword, 'ILLEGAL,' constantly emphasized in the press. And Labour came in, offering 'Change.' But nothing's changed.
Superb analysis of Sex Matters' eliminationist agenda against trans people:
"some are starting to realise supporting Sex Matters’ position has entangled them in something they never sign up for ... those seeking compromise find they have surrendered nearly everything they once stood for"
I'm actually meeting with the Scottish First Minister at Bute House in February for an equalities award. I've wondered what I can say in that kind of limited space: I will definitely mention this. X
Exciting news for U.K.-based people who love theatre, literature or creative writing and have dreamed of spending summer weeks up in Edinburgh.
SUISS are now offering for the first time a Domestic Student Discount of 30% off course fees. Come study with us! Registration now open:
... the other was a Bedouin child, born by emergency Caesarean after her mother was shot; the baby died a few hours later' (p. 71, Complicit, Oborne). Some of the atrocities being associated with Hamas are, however, happening to Palestinian children (e.g. sniper-based deaths) on a weekly basis.
Hamas did commit atrocities on 7 October but the 'babies were beheaded' is disinformation. As Peter Oborne says in his book Complicit: 'The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has confirmed that in total, two babies were killed on October 7. One was killed when a bullet was fired through a safe room door ...
Totally. I think it's dangerous (and inaccurate) to say that racism, transphobia, ableism etc are centrist/right-wing positions, they can absolutely exist on the left; people are complex and multi-faceted, can hold several progressive positions while being racist etc.
Maybe. But there can be all kinds of harmful attitudes on the left as well, even if some of them are misplaced rather than pernicious (Zizek is a transphobic leftist; Sarkar is usually an ally). I think the 2019 defeat of Corbyn's Labour Party is leading to some desperate re-strategizing and harm.
I'm glad you noticed that too, it did strike me as a strawman argument, as if Self-ID (i.e. GRA reform) is the 'trans' issue. It isn't. It's the relentless attempt to erase trans people from the public sphere, including toilet-bans, cessation on transitioning, legal erasure, as in U.S. red states.
I have liked Sarkar for years, which is why I've noticed this latest pivot - I can see how the Novara team (Walker, Bastani, Sarkar) are moving towards TYT's 'coalition' position that sees minority issues as holding back the Left. They don't get the seriousness of what some minorities are suffering.
Totally agree though I'm not sure this is just a centrist position. On Novara Media's end-of-2025 review, Ash Sarkar spoke of the need to avoid 'low-salience & low levels of support' issues like trans rights in order to build coalitions, but leaving minorities behind is a depressing message.
For anyone looking for an immersive, LGBTQI+-welcoming experience this summer, come study at the SUISS summer school school in Edinburgh in 2026. Courses on literature, creative writing and theatre, the latter coinciding with the queer-friendly Edinburgh Fringe/Festival and its thousands of shows.
I agree those are similar sentiments. My point is that your original post presents "underground trans mafia" as something Truss said, and people might start repeating it as a quote, but she didn't say it. There's enough GC conspiracy theory stuff without needing to misquote them, is all.
But according to Pink News, Truss didn't really say this? www.thepinknews.com/2024/10/01/l...
I don't remember what they said on Twitter in 2024, but I know what they're saying on their website, including regarding their clear opposition to a blanket ban on PBs. Twitter isn't their space anyway; it's the back rooms of power, it's the corporate world, we need Stonewall there, not on Twitter.
The BBC spins it as: 'A spokesperson for charity Stonewall said it was "vitally important" that all LGBTQ+ people, including young people, have access to high-quality, evidence-based and timely healthcare.' The BBC added the 'evidence-based' as if Stonewall are saying this, but they're not.
Have Stonewall said they support the trials, though? The only quote I can find is: "We urge the government and policymakers to invest in delivering excellent healthcare for trans young people and to make sure the voices of trans young people and their families are at its core." ...
... while the editor of the Daily Express, James Douglas, leading the campaign described the book in the following terms: "I would rather give a healthy boy or a healthy girl a phial of prussic acid than this novel." The book, which I quite like, is worth a read just to see how understated it was.
I agree with CN, I'm thinking about the 1928 campaign (yet again) by the right-wing media and Conservative politicians to ban the 'lesbian/trans' novel The Well of Loneliness. The book was described by the Home Secretary as ‘inherently obscene and gravely detrimental to the public interest" ...
If management want to timetable Peggie to no longer be around a trans staff member, that's one thing, but I don't think there should be any obligation on a trans woman having to go round with post-it notes to notify anyone they're using single-sex facilities. Even in this current climate.