Matteo Bassetti

University of Essex to shut Southend campus and cut 400 jobs The Southend-on-Sea campus is home to the award-winning East 15 drama school.

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

None of these tests have diagnostic significance, and their scientific validity has long been discarded. All they do is cause distress and give gatekeepers something to back arbitrary decisions.
I wondered what was a "good" level of distress: which body parts was I expected to hate? How much?

This test is (was?) used by Italian GICs.
I filled the long list and ranked how distressing I found each part of my body, 0 to 5. This particular test was at the top of a thick stack - hundreds of pages - of other tests.
It set the scene about how humiliating the rest of the process would be.

They are forcibly de-transitioning trans children/adolescents. Those most severely impacted are aged 11-15. The risk to this group is very high, and NHS England/NHS Sussex know this. They don't care at all about the safety or well-being of trans under 18s.

📣SAVE THE DATE 📣

📆 29-30 gennaio 2026

📍Dipartimento di Scienze Umane - Università di Verona

Deadline: 31 ottobre 2025

La CfP è aperta al mondo dell’accademia, dell’attivismo e delle istituzioni, con l’obiettivo di stimolare un dialogo intersettoriale.

sites.dsu.univr.it/politesse/wp...

Conor Gearty · Unwelcome Remnant: Erasing the Human Rights Act The Supreme Court is quietly editing the Human Rights Act out of existence. In cases where human rights cannot be...

‘The​ current members of the Supreme Court, ten men and two women, all of them white, seem to regard the Human Rights Act as an unwelcome remnant of a past era.’

In his final piece for the 𝘓𝘙𝘉, Conor Gearty writes on the Supreme Court’s reinterpretation of the HRA: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

It is hard not to despair when literally anyone could accuse you of having hid your "transgender status" from them and have you imprisoned and put on a sex offenders register.

Hello! To make sense of the world, transphobia and my research, I’m looking for *poetry* suggestions about:

- agency, activism and solidarity after torture
- life/emotions post dehumanisation
- the oppression-trauma-guilt-shame mix

With a preference for 🏳️‍🌈 authors other than cis straight men! 🏳️‍🌈

Thank you @pagingdrpaige.bsky.social for such a cool idea to sketch while listening to the podcast!! (And yes, it seems like I’ll be able to take it out of the sketchbook!)

The banality, everyday-ness of hate is one of the most striking parts of this.

The way in which bystanders are once again happy to make humiliation of trans and gender non-conforming people a part of their routine social interactions.

The NHS are forcibly detransitioning trans kids in Brighton and calling it “managed withdrawal.” Their own impact assessment acknowledges trans kids will be at increased risk of harm as a result, don’t want this, and are likely to just use DIY hormones instead

It was so nice to see @pagingdrpaige.bsky.social and Gina, and to have a small PhD workshop filled with feminist and queer care practices to navigate academia!

I confirm - once again - that not having to justify your whole existence to access basic gender affirming healthcare FEELS GOOD. And light. And decent.

Thank you Australia (2025) and Belgium (2021) for these brief encounters with your imperfect (!!) but not violently transphobic healthcare systems.

I’m taking a breather from England and its transphobia, and reading this from a place where gender self-determination is a solid policy makes the hate and cruelty so visible and incomprehensible at the same time.

I know. But there’s nothing legally binding about pronouns. The Court made an active choice to misgender the applicant and not respect their/her dignity. It’s about recognising that a person’s identity exists and deserves respect before legal recognition and while their/her rights are being violated

All good BUT details matter:

> the Court misgenders the applicant EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. 🤯

> no critique of aim of the interference - the aim to maintain states’ ability to exclude some trans people from recognition and protect cisnormativity is still *fine* for the Court.

Oh wow, yes, absolutely that would be amazing!!!

Oh amazing! I heard from Gina and planned to see each other in July, it would be great to catch you for a coffee too!

Summer is winter, winter is summer - I’m staying from the end of June to mid September. 🥶

Matteo in an orange leather jacket and jeans, being happy to be in a city and not a village for once!

Hi!
I’ll be in Melbourne this summer for a research visit :)

If anyone has tips about the city, bookshops to visit, queer things to do, leads on housing, or anything else, let me know!!

Last week I had the amazing opportunity to chat about trans rights catastrophes in the Uk with @pagingdrpaige.bsky.social and Manon!!

Chatting and complaining about the case with such amazing minds was such an important part of making sense of what’s happening on terf island.

Time to make *those* worst-case scenario type of plans for trans people in the UK.

The hard reality is that this is not a panic-induced call, but a very calm and rational one.

I’m listening and - wow - they all really do want a medal for most transphobic speaker of the year. The passport stuff they’re throwing around is scary too.

Uh.. is the UK parliament having having a fight about who’s more transphobic?

The ruling, as I understand it, did not say that trans women cannot use women's toilets as such. It said it is lawful to exclude us. Which sucks but the difference matters. If organisations discriminate against us it's a decision they are making, not something they've been forced into.

I’m still struggling to express my horror for the UK Supreme Court judgement in full sentences.

To be with thousands of fellow trans people and allies made it possible to feel and think about resistance.

After reading the UK supreme court case twice, I still do not understand how - even with infinite imagination - the new interpretation of the meaning of 'sex' in the EA2010 could be in compiance with ECtHR jurisprudence.

The ECtHR has had a major role in the achievement of trans rights in the UK.
One of the central elements of Goodwin v. The UK was the recognition of the applicant's affirmed gender in *all aspects of her life*
This is one of the few aspects of on trans jurisprudence where the ECtHR has been clear.

🏳️‍⚧️UCU and the trade union movement stands with the trans community.

Join us and fellow unions for an emergency demo on Saurday:

📍Parliament Square
🗓 Sat 19 April
🕐 1pm

Solidarity means standing together, especially when it’s hardest. ✊

This is very true.

There are many things to abhor about the judgment but the protected characteristic of 'gender reassignment' stands.