Aunty Cis

Politicians cutting domestic abuse shelter fundings and causing financial crisis where women are unable to leave abusers and end up murdered. Of course they jump on vilifying a scapegoat to act as if trans people are harming women when the harm comes them and austerity politics in Westminster

NION Women Rejects Anti-Trans Narrative at Kenwood Ladies Pond Image of women swimming in the wild

🏊‍♀️The women who swim at Kenwood Ladies Pond have already made their decision.

In 2024, almost 900 members voted to keep their trans-inclusive policy - a policy that has worked peacefully since 2019.

Now, a small campaign group is seeking to overturn that democratic decision through the courts.

1/5

Aside from her time at university, Em had lived in Gamlinberg her whole life. Growing up, her friends would moan that the town was dull and that they couldn’t wait to escape. They would talk of going to live in one of the great cities of the Empire, becoming adventurers or travelling the world. She’d never understood that. To her, Gamlinberg was home. The world outside of it was fascinating, sure, but it was also scary and overwhelming. She was perfectly happy experiencing it through the words of others. This was why she never objected when her friends suggested they visit the Launderette. Em’s father, with his scars, tattoos and of course his eye-patch, was someone who the other parents talked about in hushed words. He definitely didn’t look like the kind of man who had spent his whole life dry-cleaning in Gamlinberg. They didn’t know what he’d done, and politeness prevented them from asking, but he’d definitely done something. This was equally obvious to Em’s friends. So visits to the Launderette were a chance to quiz her father on the wider world. For her it was an extra opportunity to spend more time with him and she was more than happy with that. He didn’t seem to mind, as long as it wasn’t busy. They’d all sit in here, on the same bench she was sat on now, pestering him for stories about his days as a fighter. Begging him to tell them about monsters and demons as he folded sheets on the counter or worked through a load of washing.

Em closed her eyes and allowed herself the luxury of falling into a memory. She could see her dad now, a giant in their eyes, describing the epic battles he’d fought in, and the incredible beasts of legend that he’d encountered in the mountains and deserts of distant lands. All while quietly ironing or sewing up a torn pair of trousers. Even at that young age they noticed that many of his stories seemed to be versions of the old legends they heard at school or from bards in town. None of them minded. Adults think that children can’t tell when they’re lying, but it’s not true. It’s just that adults forget what they once understood implicitly when they were children themselves: Sometimes the truth needs to be protected by a tale. Em and her friends knew that most of the stories her father wove for them while darning socks couldn’t possibly be true. But even at that young age they’d learned to recognise the look that enters an old soldier’s eyes when the real memories are a bit too close to the surface. Her dad got that a lot. So if he found it easier to tell a tale than share a memory, then they didn’t feel the need to point it out. All that mattered was that he was a great storyteller. So they sat there, listening, enraptured. One day, after school, she’d overheard a couple of the mums discussing her father when he arrived to pick her up. The first, new to Gamlinberg, had asked who the fighter was. When the second told her that he ran the launderette now, she started to laugh, then stopped. Em heard her say, with a curious mix of sympathy and humour, that maybe it wasn’t such an odd career move for a man like him. “Perhaps the smell of the soap covers up the smell of blood.” She’d said.

Em didn’t understand what that meant at the time. As she became a teenager, she began to resent that her father never opened up to her. Whenever she tried to ask him about his life before Gamlinberg or how he’d met her mother he’d deflect the question. The more she pushed him, the less he said and the angrier she got. Indeed by the time she’d left for university they were barely talking at all. It was only as she’d grown older. More aware of how the world, and people, worked that she’d finally understood what the woman had meant that day. That what Em had seen as his refusal to let her into his life was the exact opposite. He wanted her to know him only as the person he’d become, not what he’d gone through to get there. The man who wielded a needle, not a sword. By the time she’d worked that out, it was too late. Her father was dead. Em wasn’t a person who had many regrets, but that was one. She’d never got the chance to tell him that she understood his silence now, and that it was okay.

For those asking: yes. I'm still slowly chipping away at writing Goblin Launderette.

This feels an appropriate extract for this month. Functions as a self-contained short story.

(Usual caveats about draft status and typos applies: you don't need to tell me about them)

Hope you enjoy.

FFS, this really needs to be stopped!

Train company LNER 'extremely proud' of rail worker in critical condition after mass stabbing as family call him 'hero' The "extraordinary bravery" of the LNER worker who intervened during the train mass stabbing attack on Saturday has been hailed by his company.

I’m sure Matt Goodwin will be along shortly to tell us all whether LNER Customer Service Host Samir Zitouni counts as British or not. news.sky.com/story/train-...

Train hero who saved passengers during attack named The rail worker credited with saving multiple lives is named as Samir Zitouni.

Algerian-born train hero saves train passengers from attack.

Since the right-wing press loves reporting criminals’ race and religion, surely they should report heroes’ too.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

I'm giving this an Oooooooh for the @saraalfageeh.bsky.social artwork.....

Looks like Labour have FINALLY got around to the 'Find Out' part after waaaaaaay too long fucking around 🤣🤣🤣

Funnily enough, in re-enactment, those of us peasants in cloth armour with billhooks often refer to folks in metal armour as 'tinnies'

Line drawing of 4 different partisan type weapons. All have a long, pointed, central blade and 2 shorter symmetrical blades at the side. 3 have a thin central blade, and the side blades curve forward. The 4th has a wider central blade and angular side blades. All 4 are pointy goodness set in the end of a long wooden stave but the picture only shows the very top of the staves.

Partisan?

Spotted one of these on my way to work, in Sheffield, this morning 😁

Cass Review does not guide care for trans young people Good medicine is guided by the values of the patient, not those of a clinician, politician or commentator. The Cass Review, lacking expertise and compromised by implicit stigma and misinformation, doe...

6 Oct 2025 -- 16-person Aussie team publish a killer take-down of The Cass Review in the prestigious Australian Medical Journal titled, Cass Review Does Not Guide Care for Trans Young People ("lacking expertise & compromised by implicit stigma & misinformation..." @rikiwilchins.bsky.social

Screen cap of parodic version of William Blake's "The Tyger" that begins: Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright (Not sure if I spelled that right) What immortal hand or eye Could fashion such a stripy guy? What the hammer that hath hewn it Into such a chonky unit? Did who made the lamb make thee, Or an external franchisee?

In honor of National Poetry Day, the greatest parody rewrite of all time:

That white cat sat at a table with a salad picture that usually has a woman shouting at it...

Wait...isn't that just the negative for this??

The fact that this seems to have been *very quickly* hidden from view makes me want to share it widely....
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Applause!👏👏👏

I think this may be the best one yet, but also props for the Idol-inspired version down thread....

The Quakers are doing exactly what all public services are legally allowed to do even if the EHRC wants to pretend they're not: say gender-based toilets are inclusive and for anyone bothered by that as a matter of belief, there are stand-alone cubicles that they are very free to use. 1/

This, from the Quakers, is a pretty good example of how to resist pressure from bigot lobbying groups. Effectively “we legally can allow trans people to use the loo, we morally should, and we tried it and nothing bad happened”

I prosecute and defend the most serious sexual offences in our courts.

The overwhelming majority of offenders are British-born. Overwhelmingly the victim is someone known to them, either a partner or relative.

Anybody purporting to care about protecting women might start there.

Ellen Ripley and Facehugger in American Gothic by Grant Wood.

making great art even better: thread

Isn't it great!

That really is the only clue from the outside though.

I think my favourite bit in terms of thorough committment is the kitchen ceiling.

Calling all fellow goths in possession of a sense of humour! This is worth a look...

Ikr? Had a good giggle at that

No Proof Hamas Routinely Stole U.N. Aid, Israeli Military Officials Say

Think of all those pro-Israel pundits you saw on your television screens this past year trying to sociopathically justify the mass starvation of Gaza by robotically claiming Hamas steals the aid. They were all lying. Shamelessly. Even the Israeli military confirms it now.

Enjoyed this!

Leftover pizza - first thing I used mine for and that convinced me.

Since then, lots of things where it seems a bit overkill to put the oven on for 2 people's worth of food...

Well this is rather gorgeous

YouTube video by Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust *UGHILL FARM: May 2025* | Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust

Great work by Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust at Ughill Farm.