Blog

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.

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.

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.

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.

High school debate judges have their own opinions
They want an inclusive, non-hostile environment. Oppression can be systemic. We know our own experiences. These are obvious facts. How can we pretend not to know them when we make any judgment whatsoever?

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.

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.

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.

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.