Blog

sail, viewed from the deck of a ship, gazing up the mast

Pirate secrets you can’t have at sea

They worried their mates might steal a watch, not that their mates might be trans. Many people today act as if trans people were secret pirates. But even pirate captains didn’t care if other pirates were secretly trans men.

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detail of the book cover for BAD GAYS, focus on the word BAD

There were gay Nazis

‘Bad Gays’ by Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller. Weimar-era Germany had LGBTQ society and culture and an early movement for LGBTQ legal rights. Of course, that was lost. And some of the Nazis were gay.

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Blonde woman has a surprised face. She is looking over her big sunglasses and she is holding both hands (with painted fingernails) in front of her face.

More shameful nonsense from ‘Gay Shame’

Regarding trans people, Gareth Roberts asks: ‘Who exactly invited the vampire in’? A continuation of my criticism of the ‘sex-realist’ aka ‘gender-critical’ aka transphobic book ‘Gay Shame’ by Gareth Roberts, published in April 2024.

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two hands almost touching against a sky backdrop with glowing sun between their fingers

Two things ‘cancel culture’ refers to

On ‘speaking first’ and the meaning of ‘engagement’. You can decline to “engage” online. Think quietly somewhere else. That’s not “cancel culture.” Rewarding someone for being wrong serves no one’s interests.

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two cartoon guys argue face-to-face, hands overlapping, against a backdrop of a city in flames

A hostile critic isn’t impartial

They complain about our greatest strengths. In real life, when our enemies point out our ‘faults,’ we don’t always need to take it to heart. They don’t have our best interests in mind.

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Swampy forest with little fires everywhere

Quit Twitter?

It’s been a Fire Swamp, and it’ll get worse. Here’s where you can go. If it isn’t Trump who’s given free rein to make Twitter swampier than it already is, it’ll be someone like Trump. Maybe a hundred Trump figures.

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We may not have Twitter tomorrow

Letting go is a complex process, and there’s no one right way to do it. Sometimes good things can’t be saved. We can be sad and frustrated. But, even not wanting to let go, we can give ourselves permission to actually let go.

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candle flame seen blurred in triplicate

We mortals must combat hate speech

Starboard buys Parler, and it looks like strange fire. This is all kinds of strange fire, except for the queer kind that we like. It is instead made of strange fires that deserve to be scrutinized and judged.

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