When you scroll through twitter to find the news, it requires reading hours of depressing news. Stories of things to fear and when you take a week off, so much happens it takes ages to get caught up. So instead of doom scrolling for hours to catch up, just scroll for a few minutes instead with this weekly column summarising the news!
So to kick off this week on Monday it starts off with some very positive news. And a massive sigh of relief.
On the 27th March the SNP party revealed the winner of their leadership election. It was a choice between anti abortion, anti gay marriage and anti LGBT people candidate Kate Forbes, or pro LGBT, pro abortion candidate Humza Yousaf, and Ash Regan who I had to google the name of because I forgot it.
Because the people of the SNP had common sense, the vote came in and Humza Yousaf had won the vote.
Close SNP result shows party has ‘work to do’ on LGBTQ rights (thepinknews.com)
This came as a large relief for so many people. However despite winning, some people also pointed out the gap between Humza and Kate Forbes, pointing out that the difference wasn’t stark. But came quite close, The dreaded 52-48 (Sound familiar?…).
But with that, it means the person steering the rudder will be a more progressive person but we will see how the vote dynamic turns out as that may have quite an influence now knowing that half the party may want a more reserved and conservative SNP, or whether it will split things further. Or if the Alba party may come to the fore more to split the vote in the future.
Next up on Tuesday came some really difficult news. Following a recent shooting in Tennessee, it came out that the shooter was a trans Man. Of course facts are still coming out. The Shooter’s motives are still unknown and there should not be too much of a focus on them.
However with this news much fear was expressed by the trans community about the repercussions of such news, and as the trend “#trans terrorism” started spreading, it was confirming people’s fears. And with statements from republican lawmakers, it does not look good.
Alongside ever increasing lists of trans hostile bills being rammed through many republican held legislative chambers throughout the US, and a waging culture war. It isn’t looking great for LGBT people in the states.
On Tuesday, it was announced that Paul O’Grady had passed away at the age of 67. Well known for his drag persona Lily Savage, he was a massive ally for the LGBTQIA community and was well loved.
It might seem utterly bizarre, but for me I somehow didn’t know about Paul’s drag persona. Only his TV series “Paul O’Grady For The Love Of Dogs”. Which I watched religiously at one point. But hearing about this, it only gave me more respect for him.
On Wednesday more negative trans news came to light as a recent GIC in Sussex had it’s commencement date had been pushed back to september.(6) Sussex GIC pushed back again – to September 2023 : transgenderUK (reddit.com) I suppose it’s not that it’s been scrapped for a change. But it is disappointing that the increased capacity isn’t coming sooner. Especially with news of how long waiting times are at the moment. (98) I Emailed My Doctor 133 Times: The Crisis In the British Healthcare System – YouTube
But Wednesday wasn’t just bad news. On Wednesday we also heard that Kate Forbes, the leadership candidate, had decided to leave Scotland’s government. This is despite being offered the role of rural affairs in Hamza’s cabinet. But despite this tweeting out her support of Humza.
Not going to lie, no big loss there.
Then came Thursday, and Thursday was a busy day. To Kick off the day, there came an announcement that a recent committee set up by Ron Desantis (Or as I like to call him ron desatanist) to govern the land disney owned, had found their board stripped.Disney quietly took power from DeSantis’ new board before state takeover | CNN Politics It was found that all it could do was manage basic road maintenance and other basic tasks.
Another piece of promising news that came out this week came in the form of a declaration from the UN saying that self identification is a fundamental right and calls on states to implement laws to bring in Self ID. https://twitter.com/ArgentinaONUOMC/status/1641074232963506180
Honestly, when your rights are being advocated for by the UN, it is quite reassuring. Whether this does anything, who knows? Did the UN ever intervene in the invasion of Ukraine? Nope. and the UK is a founding member which means on a constitutional level I doubt it will do anything. But to have something like this come out is great nonetheless.
This seems like a good day so far, but it also introduced an element of nail biting tension as it was announced that the government will be bringing in new guidance regarding trans kids in school. And with a think tank calling for kids to be outed to their parents.
Now it’s obvious what ramifications would come of it. The government has remained tight lipped, so I doubt we will get any news until it comes out. But given recent articles by the times. This is going to be a nervous wait.
Speaking of waiting, a recent announcement by the BBC has confirmed a new cast member to the latest Doctor Who series! And this new cast member is Pete MacHale! Exciting news, it is awesome news to get trans representation with the latest Doctor Who Series. Alongside Yasmin Finney coming to the fore. I am so excited to see what their characters will be up to!
On Friday, it was trans visibility day! However, to kick it off.
some more negative news came to the fore. Following up from recent articles from the Times calling for trans kids to be outed to parents. Kier Starmer came out in support of this to be included in the guidance. Following recent news of Kier claiming that self ID in single sex spaces breaking equality law (Despite it being in law since 2015, and also being reaffirmed after a court case challenging it was rejected). It’s not looking like a good indication on what stance Kier will have on trans rights.
Alongside this, on the topic of trans people being excluded from things. News recently came out that british athletics would ban trans women from competing in female only events.
UK Athletics bans transgender athletes from female competition | The Independent
Not a great look for Trans Day of Visibility. However, if you wanted positive trans related sporting news. On the same day, the first all trans masc football team took on a cis football team! First all-trans masculine side makes football history (thepinknews.com)With a 500 strong audience, it was one for the history books. Despite an 8-1 loss, it was still a jubilant night for the TRUK team. And I look forward to hearing more. Maybe I’ll have to come down to one. Though I’m not much of a sports columnist. So we will have to see how that one goes.
Next to this, the news came out that Dr Webberly, a GP who is known to run the well known clinic Gender GP. had her suspension overturned. This was after she had originally been suspended for serious misconduct. There have been criticisms on how GenderGP is run, but nonetheless, this is good news to many people as it would highlight to other GPs that they can relax their approach to trans healthcare and that Trans people need to be respected in their wishes when it comes to accessing the healthcare they need.
But that was the summary of all the major news this week! Lots of ups, lots of downs. When it comes to what happens in a week, it is crazy. But with the state of the trans news cycle, we know next week will be the same amount of shit. All we can do is continue to keep aware.
