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.

Read more >
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.

Read more >
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.

Read more >
A car is crossing the trolley tracks in a city, perpendicular to all other traffic. Nearby, pedestrians are standing.

If you’re told your position is harmful

Someone’s mad at your car. Did you almost run them over? I can pause and apologize. I care about others. I recognize that their perspectives are valid and their observations about my behavior might be correct.

Read more >
hands touching a blank touchscreen

I just want to select NO

The worst YES/NO interface design I’ve seen. We can create a nonviolent culture with the first questions we ask, being willing to hear an answer that’s polarized or ambivalent, loud or quiet.

Read more >
two grebes swimming and touching bills

Atheist-theist encounters

If you’re pretty sure there’s no god, when may you tell theists they’re wrong? Sometimes knowledge is best cultivated through personal encounters rather than intellectual demands. We see each other, and we’ll also know the world.

Read more >