Written by Elle Windsor A-spec history is a little tricky to pin down. It’s a pretty nebulous thing, by it’s nature. It’s not really possible to know someone is or was asexual or aromantic unless they tell us. And the language we use today is specific, complex and fairly new which make searching for […]
Category: Voices
Transitioning through bisexual erasure – a transmasc perspective
Written by Daryl Hodge (they/them) My GP was flicking through pages and pages of computer records. I was at my one-month check-up after starting testosterone and she was trying to find the results of my previous smear test. “Of course,” she said, “You don’t need to worry about contraception.” I was confused for a […]
The Importance of Community
Written by Luanne Thornton (she/her) Pride month comes not only as a moment of celebration for the LGBTIQA+ community but also a moment of reflection. We take this opportunity to question what do LGBTIQA+ individuals need to recognise, accept, and celebrate their most authentic selves? The LGBTIQA+ community need and deserve a knowledge of LGBTIQA+ […]
What is ‘Normal’ anyway?
Written by Lollie Melton (she/her) “One of the deadliest tools of powerful systems is narrow definitions of what is “normal” and the reduction of difference to deviance.” ~ James Arpin-Ricci There are power structures present in our society. The world is designed to favour some people over others, based on facets of our identities that we […]
LGBT+ Education in Schools
By Sanjana Idnani … After almost two decades following the repeal of section 28, education about the issues faced by LGBTIQA+ individuals has massively progressed. In 2005, Schools Out UK initiated the very month that we are celebrating to educate young people about the issues that LGBT+ people faced and to make schools more inclusive […]
Equality is Controversial, Apparently
Written by Lou Gibney Trigger Warning: mentions of transphobia, racism, homophobia … Bias. It’s something we all have – to varying degrees – based on our worldview. The BBC claims to be as objective as possible whilst producing TopGear, which, with Jeremy Clarkson behind the wheel, regularly causes controversies and problems of diplomacy. What else […]
LGBT+ Representation: It’s Not Forced Diversity, People Just Exist
Written by Lollie Melton Trigger Warning: discussions of homophobia, transphobia, brief mentions of death … The Baker Thief by Claudie Arsenault is the most brilliant book I have ever read. Well, actually, no it’s not…it’s just the first book with unquestioning aromantic representation that I’ve ever encountered. And it also happens to be gripping, seriously […]
Why Trans People are Joining the Greens
Written by Pandora Hughes Trigger Warning – mentions of transphobia … Although I had voted Green on occasions, I didn’t join the Party until December 2019, in the middle of the last General Election. Up to that point I had been a Labour member and supporter. I had been voting Labour and occasionally campaigning for […]
LGBT+ Rights and the Trade Union Movement: Building on a Historic Allyship
Written by Joe Lever (he/him) Trigger Warning: homophobia … It’s difficult to properly dissect modern UK LGBT+ history without at least acknowledging the impact of the Stonewall Riots, from across the pond. The fallout from ‘Stonewall’ resulted in the creation of the Gay Liberation Front in the US. Which in turn inspired the UK group […]
A Brief History of Transphobia
By Josh Farrell Trigger Warning – mentions of transphobia … Feminism has a long history, with the advent of Western Feminism being somewhere in the mid-1300s however it wasn’t until the 1960s that feminism as a topic was being analysed critically by feminists themselves. From this analysis came what we know as Radical Feminism which […]
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