Trans Writes

A trans non-binary person is bringing legal proceedings against the British government, urging it to legally recognise their gender as non-binary. Ryan Castellucci, a US citizen who moved to the UK for work in 2019, is legally recognised as non-binary in their home state of California, including on their passport and birth certificate.

A Trans Man Walks Into a Gay Bar: A Journey of Self (and Sexual) Discovery by Harry Nicholas is available to buy now. Elia Cugini writes;

Trans people live in diverse communities, intersecting ethnicity, age, disability, religion and sexuality. This is not news, but the Office for National Statistics released fresh data comparing the gender identities of people in England and Wales with key demographics which were recorded in Census 2021.

Rachel Pollack, widely known for her Tarot reading and comic books, passed away on April 7th 2023. We wanted to honour her life and commissioned this piece from a friend of hers in her memory. Roz Kaveney writes;

"We need to talk more about the ideology which Posie Parker tried to import at her Let Women Speak event in Victoria, Australia", writes LilahRPG - who was part of the counter protest.

Helen Webberley, the doctor behind GenderGP, has been ruled fit to practice medicine and can return to work, according to a judge at the Royal Courts of Justice last week. This marks the end of a seven year battle between Webberley, the General Medical Council (GMC), and other professionals involved in trans healthcare and the regulation of healthcare, with gender affirming care at the heart of the matter. 

Most readers will probably be aware of the situation at the moment in Uganda, where under the influence of American far-right so-called Christian groups, the government has enacted a law criminalising all LGBT people. But the story on the ground of the Uganda LGBT ban is much darker. Jenny List from Trans Rescue writes;

On #TransDayOfVisibility we wanted to do our extra best to give the spotlight to the least visible members of the transgender and gender diverse communities around the world. Thank you to Michael for reaching out and writing this piece on culture specific identities they titled "What an Indigenous person would like the queer community to know":

Like many trans people recently, researchers at Trans Safety Network have joined with our communities to attend, speak at, and help organise vigils so that we can mark the death of Brianna Ghey, a 16-year-old trans girl from Warrington. The question we hope to answer in this letter is a difficult one - what is a vigil?

Following a piece by a tory councillor in the Daily Mail who alleges that a trans woman attempted to intimidate her in a bathroom we may have tracked down the so-called "penis woman"! Sophie writes;

"When offered the chance to read Twenty Eight: Stories From the Section 28 Generation, I had some preconceptions about what the book was likely to be." Laura Kate Dale writes;

As a Black trans person and long-time resident of San Francisco, I was excited for the opportunity to review Miss Major Speaks. While I haven’t had the honor of meeting Miss Major Griffin-Gracy in person, I have met and worked with many trans folks whose lives she has touched, several of whom are named in the book’s Acknowledgements.

On healthcare for young trans people; There is no magical moment at which a child becomes an adult. No single instant at which we may safely declare that a young person has exited adolescence, and is fully equipped to enter the world of mortgage stress, Saturday morning food shopping and running arguments about the thermostat says Max Morgan

Billy Connolly used to talk about arsehole detectors. Flamboyant trousers. Beards dyed in primary colours. These things upset the arseholes so much, just by existing, that arseholes reveal themselves by complaining loudly. Sam Smith is a perfect arsehole detector. Their body, their music, their gender, their pronouns, their videos: arseholes can’t help but comment loudly and persistently.

On the 20th of December, I sat down in the Scottish Parliament viewing gallery watching Scottish democracy at work. Almost every MSP sat in the chamber preparing to debate one of the most disputed issues of the last five years - reforms to the Gender Recognition Act.