Kestral Gaian

Books That Built Me: Station Eleven Burnout, breakups, and banana bread: how Station Eleven became my 2016 survival guide.

"More than anything, this book taught me to keep looking for the light in the cracks, the weird, beautiful resilience of people who keep telling stories."

This week in 'Books That Built Me' I talk about the incredible Station Eleven by @emilymandel.bsky.social.

news.kestr.al/btbm-station...

Is the UK government’s new RSE guidance a return to Section 28? The worrying parallels in the language used to talk about trans people.

ICYMI: I wrote about absurd, self-contradictory, transphobic mess of the UK Government’s new RSE guidance!

Instructing schools not to “encourage pupils to question their gender”, trans people are worried that this could even include acknowledging that we exist. magazine.gaytimes.com/uk-governmen...

Sat on the Thameslink. It’s just me and one other person in the carriage, who has the sound turned up loud whilst watching pornography.

I don’t hate the cheesy muzak, it’s just a shame about all the grunting and slapping noises.

How do you like THEM apples?

Breathe A meditation on limbo, loss, and the strange joy of toasting crumpets at noon.

"If you’re somewhere in the middle, between griefs, between plans, between what was and what might be, consider this your gentle reminder: it’s okay to breathe."

I wrote some thoughts on... well, I'm not sure really. Life? Beauty? Crumpets?

news.kestr.al/breathe/

Is the UK government’s new RSE guidance a return to Section 28? The worrying parallels in the language used to talk about trans people.

Proud to have contributed to this article written by @onqueerstreet.bsky.social about the new RSE guidance for UK schools and how it feels a lot like Section 28 all over again...

magazine.gaytimes.com/uk-governmen...

I specifically meant communities where folks share paying links for art etc, but yes I do get what you mean in general. It's awful.

I'm grateful for the thriving queer and disabled art scene over on the fediverse, which seems to have really grown into something beautiful of late. But it still only hits a slice of those it could/should.

The Age of Verification Because nothing says freedom like letting an AI scan your face before you can look at cat memes on the internet.

I wrote down a few thoughts on why I'm not a huge fan of the new age verification laws in the UK.

news.kestr.al/the-age-of-v...

Sending strength and solidarity. Even my queer-led publisher is struggling in the wake of all this censorship. We might need to go back to posting books around and putting up posters.

I would absolutely never suggest that this is easy to circumvent with a simple VPN. I absolutely don't recomment that at all. Nu-uh. Nope. No rule breaking here.

No, let's not fight each other on this. It's the government who should get the ire for their dumb-ass bill.

Guess I'm not able to check my DMs here anymore. As always you can find me over on the fediverse.

I don't particuarly want to give a third-party AI company my details and face - so I can no longer check my DMs on Bluesky. If you sent me anything after last night, or want to follow-up with me, please drop me an email. Sorry!

And replied!

I did! Will drop you a DM!

Code is never neutral—every decision shapes our world. Join @kestr.al as they explore the ethical and political impact of software, urging developers to embrace responsibility in their work.

#EthicalTech #DevOps #Inclusion

devopsdays.org/events/2025-...

Tickets: ti.to/devopsdays-l...

Thank you! Hackers is wonderful.

Seeya, Bluesky. It was fun, but privacy isn't just a feature to be ignored.

So 2025 is finally tbe year that Windows Vista's glass-like Aero styling gets adopted everywhere, huh?

Whip my ass like I'm a Llama and you're a Windows-based audio player from the late 1990s.

You've GOT THIS, have a great show!

Fed up of people who are allies when it suits them, and then when the money runs out they go right back to suckle at the teat of the transphobes.

Allyship is for life, not just for cloutmas.

Hope the workshop goes well!

Huge congrats!

"When they strap me in the chair make sure they know that it was just."

hope recovery is going well!

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH. Our logo is a rainbow all year round, as we exist to support marginalised queer voices.

If you've just added a rainbow to your logo today, please note that you need to cram 365 days worth of allyship and amplification of queer narratives into the next 30.

Y'know, fair's fair.

Me, a vegan spy trying to blend in at a grill house: “uhhhh yes I’ll have my chicken rare please.”

A photograph of a lonely biro pen sat atop the toilet paper dispenser in the stall of a public toilet. The walls are white tile, and the toilet paper dispenser has a blue window showing how much is left inside.

Public toilet cubicles are often festooned with the poetry of the proletariat, but this is the first time in my life I’ve walked into one and the pen was provided.