Owen Blacker

I think I've also missed the opportunity to buy one 😭

It’d done. The guidebook has been sent to the printer. If all goes well. Decks should begin going out by the end of the month. 🥱 I’m tired

Nadine Dorries gets #bbcqt switched off from the get go. Having people like her on is just an affront to the audience. She’s irrelevant.

If you’re looking for E2E DMs on bluesky check out @germnetwork.com with its new in-app integration!

Don't hold back there, Stonewall...🙄

20:42 'Vast majority' of parents should be involved if children question their gender, schools told Family & Education 12 Feb 2026, 14:39 Updated 56 mins ago

A spokesperson for the charity Stonewall said it would be reviewing the guidance carefully, and the final statutory guidance should listen to and reflect the experiences of young people who are questioning their gender. "Many in the LGBTQ+ community, especially trans people, are increasingly feeling their voices are not heard," they added.

Small mercy that they have at least, finally, updated the piece with a comment from @stonewalluk.bsky.social, but it doesn't change that this is a hideously biased article which quotes Cass without question on a policy which will undeniably harm trans and non-binary young people.

Also noticeable in this guidance is how it reinforces gender stereotypes, you know exactly the type of messaging used, as in US, but obviously elsewhere, to attack women's rights. This may seem minor, but why is girls playing with trucks treated as something to "grow out of"
bsky.app/profile/lous...

I highly recommend reading all of this thread by @lousadzak.bsky.social detailing the guidance, and significant issues with it, for a more detailed look at everything, and there is a lot, which is wrong with this government's approach to ostracising trans young people.

bsky.app/profile/lous...

H/t to @ameresolicitor.bsky.social for sharing this. I will try my best to do same as I did with the earned settlement route consultation to come up with some simple guidance for filling it out.
Please fill it out and stand with trans and non-binary individuals against this
bsky.app/profile/amer...

Telling parents is downright dangerous. It will very clearly put many trans and non-binary young people at risk of abuse, bullying, potentially homelessness, among other things. This is the exact opposite of "protecting children". It's transphobia as policy.

Labour has brought back section 28 against trans and non-binary individuals. I lived through section 28 last time. I suffered the harms of it. This will do the same thing. Not even allowing young people to socially transition is plain wrong. It prevents them finding their own identity.

Worth noting that in their continued "unbiased" reporting (sarcasm) the BBC doesn't cover how the Cass Review has been repeatedly discredited by peer reviewed studies, that suicide rates among trans young people have increased or, not a small matter, QUOTES A SINGLE TRANS OR NON-BINARY INDIVIDUAL.

'Vast majority' of parents should be involved if children question gender, schools told School leaders welcome the

If you were trying to come up with more harmful guidance towards trans and non-binary young people you would be hard pressed to find it. The fact it is backed by Cass shows how wrong it is.
We are already seeing an increase in suicide rates among trans young people.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Hugo Noms have opened and I want to get in quick with this: there is a fabulous and vibrant contemporary SFF novella scene and the quality is *not* disproportionately located at tordotcom, which puts out brilliant work but does not have a monopoly on it.

5 titles for your consideration follow:

My kid is in the background, chatting to me about her day as I type this. I am distracted & feeling sick.

I'm trying not to cry.

I don't know what to say to her.

She's already been failed so many times.

Its so fucking unfair.

I don't know how to function in a world that is so continuously cruel.

Where so many will celebrate this pointless, pointless harm. This will devastate a tiny minority. It will benefit no-one.

So many across our country will comply with this violence. So many others will stand silent.

I am beyond angry at the way trans children are being systematically persecuted.

The full power, violence and force of our state is smashing down onto them, making their life impossible.

Trans kids are already pushed out of education. Denied qualifications. Denied a future.

This will push so many more trans kids out of education entirely.

How can I send my own daughter to school with this law in place? She would not cope.

I am one of the most published academics on the childhood social transition, with 5 peer reviewed articles that relate to the topic.

There is so much evidence of benefit of social transition.

There is no evidence of harm. Not one jot.

This will literally kill trans kids. No exaggeration.

It announces:

Heavy restrictions on any social transition (which in any case would be very limited, see above).
Social transition to be hardly ever allowed at primary school.
Heavily pushed under psychological scrutiny.
Supportive parents deemed suspect & linked to need for safeguarding.

New School Guidance announces:

Full bathroom ban.
Full PE ban.
Full school trip accommodation ban.

Trans kids will not go to the bathroom, do PE or go on any school trips. 1/

i saw a headline that trump was supposedly ending the ICE operation in MN and now the other shoe has dropped — they found other tactics to harass their opponents

This is just not something a well written villain would say in public!

Once again, reality has shitty writers and no editors.

Because an editor would note that this guy is off-putting and pathetic, and how could he have any of the supporters the writer gave him?

BUT TRANS KIDS!!!!!

"Starmer stood by his decision to ennoble Doyle for more than six weeks after being made aware that his communications chief had campaigned for Morton as an independent councillor despite him being charged with sex offences."

Hilary Cass, who is setting trans policies in the UK. Even she knows she's not an expert in trans people -

Can we get a strong statement on this @zackpolanski.bsky.social, show people there is another way, another choice.

I think trans people could do with hearing someone vocally standing up today.

Thanks.

Labour's Manifesto promised to ban conversion therapy. But I defy anyone to explain how, looking at the totality of its policy platform, Labour's real policy is anything other than promoting desistance.

I hope this is true, but I'll believe it when folks on the ground tell us it's true.

(The administration has every reason to think if they announce a withdrawal but stick around, what reporting is left will dry up anyway. That already happened with the "change in tone"!)