I'm so very sorry. Solidarity with you and all your colleagues

If the BBC had focused its report on dodgy immigration advisors exploiting people seeking asylum and providing them with false information that would be one thing, and it is an issue which needs addressing. Instead they have framed this as people seeking asylum pretending to be LGBTQIA+ 5/

This reporting puts LGBTQIA+ as well as migrants' rights, groups at more risk of far-right attacks, undermines safe spaces for LGBTQIA+ individuals, and makes it harder for LGBTQIA+ people seeking asylum, who already face significant barriers, to be recognised, all based on a handful of anecdotes 4/

Legal advisers help migrants pose as gay to get asylum, undercover BBC investigation finds The BBC exposes a shadow industry charging migrants thousands of pounds to help them cheat the asylum system.

Disgusting reporting by BBC using a tiny number of cases to suggest widespread abuse of a system which routinely denies LGBTQIA+ individuals asylum and forces them back into environments of persecution. This article massively distorts the reality of the situation. 1/
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

On the other hand, I love how good Meghalaya is for women. Women are valued in their own right and as necessary for inheritance. Baby girls are cherished as heirs. Women are educated, own businesses & walk the streets safely. This is not something that can be taken for granted in the rest of India

On one hand, tourism helps preserve the land; Costa Rica is a superb example of how ecotourism makes forests more valuable as forests than as wood. Ecotourism pays and people need the money. The Seven Sisters are astonishingly biodiverse and the more protection that gets, the better.

And there are tourist demands and expectations about food, culture, religion and gender. Khasi, Jaintia and Garo culture risks becoming commercialised and commodified as something quaint for the tourist gaze, rather than living and real.

I don't know how I feel about it.

And when this comes into contact with mainland patriarchal Hinduism, strange things happen. There's a tourist industry of offering traditional clothes to dress up in, offering "traditional villages" to visit and eat in, offering tours to places that were previously quiet and known only to locals

People are largely Christian (Catholic or Presbyterian) or follow indigenous religions. We eat distinct foods: neï iong, jadoh, tungrymbai, doh khleh, tungtap. We'll try to pickle anything. We wear jainkryshah and jainsem. We do not practice arranged marriages and the man moves into his wife's house

Something that's changed a lot in Shillong is the sheer amount of tourism from the rest of India. The 7 Sisters have always been geographically, linguistically & culturally distinct. In Meghalaya, the Khasi, Jaintia & Garo tribes are matrilineal - property passes to Ka Khadduh, the youngest daughter

Have you seen season two? Gremlins every one of them

yessssssss join us

Finally brought my wife to Meghalaya to meet the family, and I can't tell whether she's happier about the sheer variety of pork dishes on offer or that we show affection through brutally roasting each other.

Finally made it - after a 28 hour journey - to my aunt's house in Shillong, Meghalaya. Now doing my marking on my phone's hotspot. Strange how technology collapses the distance and I am both very far away (geographically, culturally, linguistically) and close to the UK

Signing the Collective Statement on Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill 2026 Collective Statement on Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill 2026. Note: Translations of this statement in multiple Indian languages are available at the end. We, the concerned ...

Solidarity with the transgender & intersex communities in India after the Amendment Bill was bulldozed through houses of parliament replacing self-identification with mandatory medical certification. My #KilljoySolidarity with you in this fight. Friends, sign & fight!
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Amazing news! Many congratulations!

View of Old Joe clocktower in the morning. The sky is grey and it's a bit misty.

View of Old Joe clocktower in the late evening. It's dark and the clock face is glowing green.

Long and intellectually stimulating day at the University of Birmingham discussing trans discourses, media and policy - thank you so much @drcharlottegalpin.bsky.social!

Congratulations Viola!

An extremely close up, blurry, out of focus photo of an Egyptian goose staring at us head-on.

Valiant, noble, mighty. An awesome sight to behold from the other side of the glass in the library.

He would do this every day btw

I do hope that these are the descendants of the Roehampton goose who kept trying to fight his reflection in the library windows

Today I wrote a chunk of an article and wrote one blindingly good sentence. I don't know if that sentence will stay in or get edited out at some point, but it's nice to feel that I can write - and write well - after having a couple of knocks to my confidence

Excellent and comprehensive summary of the perfect storm of genAI, the pressure to produce and publish public academic work, and the ailing system of academic publishing. We should be worried about this - more than we currently are

Trans Unity Quilt Makers Workshop at Triangle Deptford Join us at the Triangle LGBTQ+ Cultural Centre for a free morning of crafting for the new Trans Unity Quilt Project from Good Law Project

On Sunday morning I'll be running a free makers workshop for @transunityquilt.bsky.social in Deptford - no experience required - we provide all the equipment, and as much caffeine as you need: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/trans-unit... All trans people and friends welcome - please spread the word?

New #OpenAccess article. This one has been in development for a while, so it is nice to finally see this research published.

'Paths to action: Fantasy, ideology and incitement in an extreme-right narrative'. Language in Society doi.org/10.1017/S004...

Gender washing war: If asked what “arms manufacturer” first brings to mind, few people would likely answer “women’s rights.” And yet, each International Women’s Day (IWD), leading global arms manufacturers present themselves as working to help bring about gender equality. “Gender washing” refers to corporate social responsibility communications aimed at presenting a corporation as empowering to women and girls, even while their own products, supply chains, or employment practices harm them. In this article, we show how arms manufacturers use social media communications about IWD to gender wash their images, positioning themselves as progressive and caring. Bringing into conversation feminist work in Security Studies and International Political Economy, we identify new varieties of gender washing specific to war and martial violence: client military and government partnerships, and constructive silence. We also expand the global hierarchy of publics targeted by gender washing communications, reflecting the fact that unlike other transnational corporations, arms manufacturers are not concerned with garnering “brand loyalty” amongst the general public. Rather, they communicate both to and with Global North governments and militaries. Thus, what is at stake in these representations, we argue, is not simply the reputation of the individual corporations concerned, but a broader process of gender washing war.

Happy International Women’s Day! Please enjoy this article I wrote with Rosie Walters in 2024. We explore the IWD communications from arms manufacturers, arguing that these function as a form of gender washing (whereby discourses of progress obscure violence)

doi.org/10.1093/ips/...

In a world where appalling acts of violence are committed every day, our climate teeters on the brink of collapse and where powerful men act with impunity, don't we have better things to do than make marginalised people fight for scraps of dignity?

and it's wrong to think that Black people and disabled people are separate groups that have irreconcilable needs when Black disabled people are offering nuanced perspectives

I've linked to a transcript of Jhónelle Bean, a Black woman with Tourette syndrome:

bsky.app/profile/pygm...

But context matters. Being able to read the room matters. This interaction was stoked up and made to go viral - clipped from footage, stripped of context and engineered to cause outrage.

Two minoritised groups pit against each other and made to fight. That is what I find so incredibly disturbing.

God knows I've been on the receiving end of racism, homophobia, transphobia. I know the words that are used to hurt me and I know their power - that caught-breath flinch and that split second decision of how to respond - aggression? defusion? ignore? - and all the ways that you cannot respond.

The shitty thing about Tourette syndrome is that it makes you blurt out words that you know are offensive & hurtful. It's not an issue of education or lack of control - it's not something that can be controlled. And they should fully be in society, incl accepting awards for their achievements.