Glen or Glenda? and the History of Trans Healthcare

I would have said it had Virginia Prince’s fingerprints all over of it, except the film predates Prince’s Transvestia magazine by several years. Nevertheless, Wood clearly spent time speaking to such men (probably Prince) and the psychiatrists who treated the same, as the description and depiction of transvestism is all too familiar to those who know it. A reminder also that gender identity ideology was already fully formed before most of us were even born.

Film review of ‘Orlando, My Political Biography’ with Paul B. Preciado

It was packed in the Barbican’s biggest screen, filled with lots of trans-identified females of all ages (but mostly younger) eager to see, who I guess must be a hero to them, Paul B. Preciado. Preciado is now 53 years of age but is blessed with youthful looks and an even more youthful mind (some might say adolescent, but I’ll get onto that). According to the Wikipedia entry, Paul was previously Beatriz and transitioned in 2014, i.e. aged forty-four years. An internet search for Beatriz bought up this article from 2013, from when she was on the brink of her ‘transition’, being interviewed for the book she is most famous for – Testo Junkie : Sex, Drugs and Biopolitics in the Pharmacopornographic Era.

Greta Thunberg returns to the Southbank with friends

Last year the Southbank hosted Greta Thunberg for the launch of her book The Climate Book, covered by me in this blog. The then CEO committed to make environmentalism core to the Southbank’s values. Then it was reported that the Southbank was going to plant 390 trees outside the gallery in a pocket forest, which hasn’t happened yet, and I don’t think it will, given there is no space for such a huge numbers of trees.

In conversation with Dawn Butler

Announced just four days prior to the event taking place, Dawn Butler, most famous for saying (in terf society at least) that babies are born without sex, was to be platformed by the British Politics Centre at Birkbeck.  As a long time subscriber to their newsletter, the normal lead up is several weeks in advance, especially if it’s a biggish name.  Therefore I suspect the approach was made by Butler herself.

Prison abolition panel discussion, featuring Bents Bars and Neil Bartlett

Wynter began by telling us that the whole conversation was going to be held around the ideology of abolition.  This basically means one is anti-prison, anti-state and pro-anarchy.  Much prettier words were used obviously, but this is the bones of it.  Wynter believes in the revolution and that post-revolution black-, trans- and working class people would finally be centred.  Needless to say Wynter herself is white, trans – only in the sense that anyone is -, and massively massively middle class, even if she did try her best to drop her aitches.  The door to Oscar Wilde’s cell at Reading Gaol was on display in the museum, supposedly a timely reminder of today’s ‘totalitarian government disguised as a liberal one’ (you know, the one who just paid us all during the pandemic to sit around doing fuck all for months on end, that government).  There was also the ‘rising threat of terf ideology’ to contend with.  

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