The play was staged at the ADC Theatre, ‘the smallest department of Cambridge University’ and run by students with almost no faculty involvement, according to its website. It’s across the way from the prestigious King’s College. The theatre encourages patrons to wear masks to protect themselves from coronavirus. Encouragement rather undermined by Charli collecting spit from audience members into a cup on entry into the theatre space, later to be thrown over him by Jack.
A Human Ape Jabbers Away
About this event Different: What apes can teach us about gender World-renowned primatologist Frans de Waal explores what we know of biological sex differences and
(Un)Safe to be Me?
More bed wetting from the gender-addled gerbils, featuring cast of thousands and Nancy Kelley About this event An inter-disciplinary half-day conference exploring the legal, social
The Tragedy of Heterosexuality: Invitations Forward with Author Jane Ward
The audience of the webinar were mainly therapists, likely with a specialism in couples therapy and began with a land acknowledgement from Jennifer Hollinshead of the counselling service Peak Resilience hosting the session. She encouraged us to visit the land acknowledgement website she was reading from, so that we too can learn tribe names we can’t pronounce. Gender and sex was intricately linked to colonialism, she told us, and these tribes had a much more diverse gender system than ours (I don’t see how though, when we have at least a gazillion). The gender binary had been used to suppress peasant uprisings in Europe. The money raised from the seminar would go to an indigenous women’s group in Vancouver (I note from the blurb the term ‘self-identifying’ is used) and what sounded like a BLM-type justice project in LA. Neither project are registered charities, nor appear to have any governance in place.
What do you get when a Q, two Ts and A meet up?
Imagine my excitement when I saw this oppression olympics event. You can’t?! Well let me tell you the £7 ticket was cheap at half-the-price for Travis alone, but to have three further gender-addled-gerbils thrown into the bargain was a bonanza. Travis was resplendent in a high-neck orange gingham mini-dress. Preferring to sit to the side he was soon asked to sit centre, which makes sense really, being the main man. Fox was almost unrecognisable, I couldn’t quite make it out at first, but finally settled on her eyes being noticeably smaller. Tiredness, perhaps.
Review of trans memoir by Sarah McBride
The book is called Tomorrow Will Be Different – Love, Loss and The Fight for Trans Equality, the covered adorned with blue and pink eggs and a yellow love heart on top. I wondered whether it was ghostwritten as the text is so devoid of any eccentricity or personal foibles, but perhaps McBride wanted it to be what it is; a political manifesto filled with propaganda.
Review of Travis’s new play – I’m Tired of Waiting, Pass Me the Duct Tape
So we have one professional actor and two who aren’t. I’m Tired of Waiting is a reference to the NHS waiting list for treatment for gender dysphoria and Pass me the Duct Tape a reference to tucking (or binding for the teen girls in the audience, and believe me there were plenty). I guess this must be Travis’s current work in progress. Predicted crapometer rating 11/10. And thus it came to pass.
Banning Conversion Therapy and Single-Sex Space Guidance explained by Mermaids
From my original thread posted on Twitter. Mermaids Gender have held a webinar on conversion therapy on their Instagram account. Hosted by Alex Woolhouse, Mermaids
We need to talk about Owen J. Hurcum’s genitals …
They mentioned a certain wizarding franchise,
Should be ignored.
And that no one was going to see the film,
That couldn’t be mentioned.
(At the time of writing, in the second week of its release, Fantastic Beasts, had made more than $203,816,750 worldwide according to Box Office Mojo. Boy, have people ignored that film.)
‘Volatile Contexts: Identity, Technology and Politics in a Moment of Danger’
Stryker said Manning was the example of a queer trans person who had experienced the most brutal of all marginalisations. With such sophistry it is easy to forget that Manning is responsible for illegally sharing over 700,000 military documents which will have aided the West’s enemies.
The Ace Project with Stonewall and Yasmin Benoit
It was jointly hosted by Stonewall and Benoit but the platform appeared to have been Stonewall’s choosing, since Benoit told us she had never done a broadcast on TikTok before. Clearly Benoit wanted it known she was an equal in this partnership – and who could disagree?
Transpose JOY: Pit Party held at the Barbican
This ridiculously portentous short film (trailer above) opened the show. It was a mix of Islamic Koranic singing, Black Lives Matter, the necessary dose of victimisation and phoenix rising out of the ashes. Which nicely prepared us for what turned out to be a decidedly religious and po-faced 90 minute performance, despite protestations of form-breaking and counter-culture.
Talking Penis with Grace Lavery
About the event A memoir of gender transition and recovery from addiction, a dance across genres, a ripping-up of the rulebook, Please Miss is unlike anything you’ve
Transgender Health Care: Caring for Trans Patients
This four week course is currently available for free on FutureLearn and was developed by St George’s Hospital, University of London. Week 1 – Introduction
‘Ain’t I a Woman?’ – UCL Institute for Global Health dumbs down for IWD
Note the faux folksy language and the cutesy drop of blood. About this event For IWD 2022, UCL’s Institute for Global Health will be hosting
An evening with Patrisse Cullors from Black Lives Matter
As suspected very few people coughed up the cash for expensive seats but the audience size was pretty reasonable, given the utter gubbins we were about to hear. It was mainly women, about half were black women, with a few men here and there, accompanying girlfriends for the most part. It was late starting as people were late arriving – an indication of apathy I wondered, but no, when Cullors was finally introduced it was to rapturous applause and, that most un-British of all things, whooping. Two BSL interpreters were in attendance.
Equity in Healthcare for Trans and Gender Diverse People
Dr Nambiar began by telling us that he did not have any competing interests and welcomed any emails from junior doctors after the talk. The difference between equality and equity, was that with equality everyone gets a shoe, and with equity a shoe that actually fits (like Cinderella). Hence Dr Nambiar believes that trans people require their own special sexual health service. On the one hand, one can quite agree with this, especially if the patients are on exogenous hormones, you need a clinical team which understand the implications of this. On the other, if it is creating an environment where vulnerable adults end up being around trans activist medical staff, being presented only an affirmative approach to treatment, it might not be such a good idea.
CliniQ Annual Conference 2022
Because ‘transphobia’ was on the rise it was becoming increasingly difficult for people to talk to their GPs about their healthcare needs (and when they say ‘healthcare’ they really mean access to cross sex hormones). Thus began the conference which repeatedly focussed on GPs having the responsibility to manage ‘trans healthcare’, which really requires the monitoring of an endocrinologist if anyone has to be saddled with such a responsibility.
Review of short film – HIV Made Me Fabulous
What is particularly jarring about the film is that the three people who appear on screen don’t speak at all, they are just there as dressing to Roche’s uninspiring monologue, pulling faces and inexplicably knocking on doors and dancing in public places.
Review of Grace Lavery’s book
Please Miss: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Penis Lavery has been very lucky collecting in glowing reviews from his mates, and I am ashamed to
Cambridge Uni presents a ‘TERF Grammar Book’
About this event ‘Sex is Real,’ and other Gender Critical Non Sequiturs: A TERF Grammar Book Dr Jacob Breslow, Assistant Professor of Gender and Sexuality,
‘The science of LGBTQ+ identities: tensions and common misconceptions’
About the event Scientists have been trying to understand and classify variance in human sexual orientation and gender identity since the 19th century. More than
Webinar on ‘Camming: Money, Power and Pleasure in the Sex Work Industry’
Jones claims that she is a former sex worker, though naturally enough was short on any further details, and sounded curiously removed from the peoples’ lives she was discussing. She cheerfully told the students that camming reproduces a system of oppression, like heterosexism, sexism and ableism, which oppresses people. On the other hand, cammers reported ‘high rates of job satisfaction and experiences of pleasure’. Good rates of pay were also possible, she promised, but wanted to emphasise that doing the job wasn’t ‘just about money’, describing the global expansion of this sex industry as ‘exciting times’ and that sex workers had always been at the forefront of improving human sexual pleasure.
Conversation with the Author of ‘I am Jazz’
Jessica Herthel is a straight ally activist, who has made media appearances with Jazz Jennings, and wrote the book I am Jazz. About this event
Focus on Trans and Non-Binary in the City
Williamson moaned about the implications of COVID affecting the length of ‘transition’. There had been a shortage of hormones during lockdown and there were only three surgeons in the UK who do phalloplasty surgery (I met one of them, he was obese and fell asleep in the meeting). Juno Dawson had apparently compared being trans to having a power draining app on your phone, a metaphor I think we can all agree with.
Trans And Non-Binary Voices in the Legal Sector
With typical hyperbole we were told that the panel was made up of ‘five non-binary and trans superstars’. The law firm Latham & Watkins LLP sponsored the event and was facilitated by their internal LGBT network group, with two of the panel being on its LGBT leadership committee.
Review of podcast series – Harsh Reality: The Story of Miriam Rivera
The Miriam Rivera Story is a podcast which looks at the reality TV series broadcast in 2004 called There’s Something about Miriam. The ‘something’ was that Miriam was a man, who hadn’t yet had his penis removed (we even hear that Miriam has undergone a medical inspection).
Trans Artists in Conversation …
… with Charlie Craggs and Travis Alabanza About this event This is a live online event hosted by The Research Forum at The Courtauld and
Charlie Craggs’ documentary ‘Transitioning Teens’
I watched Charlie Craggs’ BBC documentary Transitioning Teens and just five minutes into it we learn that we can go online into trans forums to learn about how to source hormone treatments illegally and that other users are able to provide advice on all aspects.
Review of documentary: In The Turn
Like other documentaries in this genre, the film is really about the mother and has the added dimension of providing a justification for mixed sexed sports. The mother is on a roller derby team (which appears to be mainly men) and she tells us she was drawn to the sport because it was inclusive of queer and transgender people. Roller derby is a full contact sport which appears to be 90 percent tackling, it has no governing body, and the rules of the game aren’t clear cut. I hesitate to denounce it as not a real sport, given my all-round ignorance on such things, but let’s just point out there’s no ball, and leave it at that.
Discussion on coalition building with pioneering thinkers and writers.
The point of the debate was to find out how to coalition build; but only with people you basically agree with as it turns out. O’Hagan told us that there was a narrative being built around the idea that migrants and trans people were the enemy of the working class and said that in Parliament that very day there was a plan a foot to privatise the whole of the NHS (there wasn’t).
Stonewall Festive Reception
A night with Z-list celebs and career LGBTQ+ activists! What could be more Christmassy? Hello siblings! Dr Ranj Singh does intro. Boo-hoo poor beleaguered Stonewall.
Discussion: The Activist Museum
The event was attended by around 90 people, the majority of whom were from the museum sector or PhD students in related study areas. The host, Richard Sandell, told us of his hurt that not everyone agreed that activism had a place in museums, and that the word ‘activism’ was beginning to be used pejoratively. Not just by the ‘right wing’ media either, but also amongst museum leadership itself! Sandell wants to reclaim the ethical roots of ‘museum activism’.
Review of films: Lola and the Sea and animated short
Another film festival, another film celebrating gender identity and body modification. Spoilers.
Review of documentary: Girl Like You
A content warning that suicide and depression will be discussed is the first screen, but not that a young woman will be humiliated and pushed beyond her comfort zone by her abusive boyfriend and camera crew repeatedly over years. So that’s my content warning.
Review of documentary: Against the Current
Film festivals worldwide are suffering rapid onset gender dysphoria, because every single one carries at least one or two trans-themed films. This time it was
In conversation with a non-binary drag queen
… who has a new book out. About this event Drag performer Bimini Bon Boulash will be joining us for a special livestreamed event, to
‘Science, Abortion and the Effectiveness of Adolescent Medical Transition’ with gender woo academic
I know what you’re thinking, these three things have got nothing to do with each other. Let’s let an adult man explain why it is
Film review: Sediments
I’m not even sure how I made it through the trailer to be honest. A group of Spanish trans women go on a road trip
It’s teapot time at Goldsmith’s again!
About the event The idea that children can be ‘recruited’ into queerness or non-normative gender is an old one. Starting in the nineteenth century but
The Gender Agenda
About this event Gender identity, fluidity and transition are complex issues – this day aims to discuss how to make services more inclusive and supportive.
Book Review: The Passing Playbook by Isaac Fitzsimons
This is a young adult fiction book published by Penguin Random House Children’s UK. Contains spoilers Summary of plot Spencer, a trans-identified female, goes to
Mridul Wadhwa – Building Intersectional Inclusion in Rape Crisis Services
If you want the short version … Mridul Wadhwa, the trans-identified man who wormed his way into a protected post meant for women-only as protected in the Equality Act, is not backing down on his recent comments made on the Guilty Feminist podcast. Not one bit.
‘Pride in the NHS’ Week: Part 2: Trans and Non-binary Allyship
About the event Needless to say, difficult questions around the complex medical problems arising from cross sex hormone use were never fully discussed. GPs up
‘Pride in the NHS’ Week – Part 1: Nancy Kelley
Nancy Kelley kicked off a week-long Pride festival held online for NHS staff, funded by NHS England. About the event Why Pride? A history of
Transtopia: A Book Talk with Howard Chiang
About this event Join us to hear Dr. Howard Chiang discuss his new monograph, Transtopia in the Sinophone Pacific. This talk proposes a new paradigm
In Conversation with Travis Alabanza and Shon Faye
Introduction So, Shon Faye, Stonewall employee, has a new book out. One likely overly fair critical review of the book has already landed from The
The Lies They Tell 
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