Simon Lock

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Thrilled to see this piece with Douglas Page & Sam Whitt) published in PRQ! We examine how LGBT+ activists can counter backlash by discrediting anti-LGBT+ messengers.

Huge thanks to the PRQ editors and reviewers for their thoughtful feedback.

🔗 Read it here:

🧵 (1/4)

You Can’t Post Your Way Out of Fascism Authoritarians and tech CEOs now share the same goal: to keep us locked in an eternal doomscroll instead of organizing against them, Janus Rose writes.

“Outrage disseminated on social media in response to these ridiculous claims actually reduces the effectiveness of collective action. The result is a media environment that keeps us in a state of debilitating fear and anger, endlessly reacting to our oppressors instead of organizing against them.”

The AI Opportunities Action Plan (Matt Clifford report), trailed in today’s morning news is now out in full. I’ve read it, and here’s a few observations 1/10

Link to full report

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6784eb...

Copyright and Artificial Intelligence This consultation seeks views on how the government can ensure the UK’s legal framework for AI and copyright supports the UK creative industries and AI sector together.

UK WRITERS: You need to fill in this consulation. Govt is very clearly looking to an opt-out model of rights licensing that puts all the burden on creators instead of profiteers. It's long and boring but this is important.

www.gov.uk/government/c...

We are deeply concerned by the decision by @teamlabouruk.bsky.social @rthonwesstreeting.bsky.social to ban puberty blockers.

It's hard to fathom how he can say he cares for the wellbeing, safety and dignity of trans people, based on this decision.

This is wrong, cruel and heartless.

Puberty blocker consultation: my response In early September I recieved an email from the Department for Health and Social Care, inviting me to participate in a closed consultation on the Labour government’s proposed extension of the…

With the UK Parliament reportedly considering a longer-term ban on puberty blockers, here is the evidence against the ban I provided to the UK Government and Commission on Human Medicines.

I have no doubt that Parliament will ignore that evidence today. But this is a long fight we intend to win.

As in Tennessee, this ban does not apply to cis children, because the drugs themselves are not a safety hazard. The only thing at risk is a society’s discomfort with allowing young people to make their own decisions about their own bodies.

Caroline Litman is the mother of Alice Litman, a young trans woman who died to suicide at 20. An official inquest found NHS delays in offering medical transition contributed to Alice's suicide.

Today, she has found an audit of trans suicides used to exonerate the NHS did not include her daughter.

Tucked into the Cass Report, deep in the appendices, you'll find that they reviewed thousands of patient records and found no one who'd been harmed by puberty blockers and fewer than 10 detransitions.

Day 6! 🎁🎁🎁 @simonjlock.bsky.social is reading Systems Ultra by @gsvoss.bsky.social which "brings a multidisciplinary eye to the importance of large-scale technological systems from industrial ports to air traffic control to car crash testing, unpicking and challenging how power flows through them".

Queer & Trans Studies Cultural Studies Starter Pack. This one was a bit tricky and there’s lots of room left in here still. LMK who I’m missing —was looking to build a list of queer & trans cultural studies (and adjacent) folks mostly, as I haven’t seen on of thede on here yet.

go.bsky.app/6tcCTzg

Define a woman? Now French dictionary falls foul France Charles Bremner - Paris The sages of the Académie Française have done nothing in a hurry since the august institution was created in the 17th century to police the French language. This week, however, they have been called on to “urgently rectify” entries in their new official dictionary because they are said to be sexist, homophobic and racist. The Human Rights League (HRL), founded in 1898 to defend Captain Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish army officer falsely accused of spying, has taken exception to definitions including “woman”, “race” and “heterosexual”. According to the left-leaning organisation, they convey out-of-date attitudes that conflict with modern views on inclusion and tolerance. Its protest followed criticism of the lexicon of 53,000 words released last week by the 24-member academy, after the completion of a four-volume update of the previous eighth edition, which was published in 1935.

I can only assume that the Times wanted to keep these definitions

Well quite. Good grief.

‘Decolonization is not a metaphor’ by Tuck and Yang 2012 is a must if you’ve not read it yet

New publisher Spines aims to 'disrupt' industry by using AI to publish 8,000 books in 2025 alone A new publisher has claimed it aims to “disrupt” the books industry by publishing 8,000 books in 2025 alone using artificial intelligence.

“How’d the world die? A pack of no-talent tech grifters created a digital artbarf machine to spew endless artbarf and each time the machine threw up it drank more water, destroyed more resources. Nobody wanted it but they did it anyway! Eat your roach paste.”

www.thebookseller.com/news/new-pub...

This obsession is unhealthy. Our horizons are fine. Also social media, for most, is not a job. It is not school. It is socializing. And it’s fine to say “I don’t want to hang out with Nazis, homophobes, transphobes etc in my free time.”

I have created a Starter Pack for British Trans Activism

Let's start organising and making the UK a better place. We've been on the defense for too long

🇬🇧🏳️‍⚧️✊

go.bsky.app/N6Qai5F

There can be no left resistance to the reactionary onslaught without an uncompromising radical intersectional commitment

You can't fight fascism if you're not fighting racism, transphobia, ableism, classism etc

There can be no pick and choose and no opposing one to the other

Thank you! ☺️

Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance. We have witnessed another year of violence, harassment, and policing of trans people. As we mourn, we must continue to challenge politics that ritually subjects trans folk to debates about their existence and degrades trans lives as an “ideology” or “agenda.”

Normalize Professors:

⁃ Having tattoos
⁃ Having body piercings
⁃ Having colored hair
⁃ Wearing casual clothing
- Wearing (excessive) jewelry
⁃ Speaking non-academic English

Omg. Paging @damianbarr.bsky.social

A “Gender Critical” and “TERF” Primer for readers trying to make sense of “feminists versus transgender activists” debates

since all the "gender critical"/TERFs are migrating here, thought I'd share this primer explaining their history, dissecting their beliefs, & debunking their talking points. no-paywall links, pls share!
Substack: juliaserano.substack.com/p/a-gender-c...
Medium: juliaserano.medium.com/a-gender-cri...

X Out A salty, cranky case for letting Twitter die

I briefly put principles and values aside to make a saltier, crankier case for leaving X: Elon Musk is uniquely insufferable holapapi.substack.com/p/x-out

Whenever I posted this in the bad place I got a load of spam and fake people applying, hopefully I'm in the right echo chamber 🤞🏿

Want to help improve future sexual health services in the UK?

Take part in one of our upcoming focus groups.

If you take part in a focus group, you will get a £50 e-voucher as a huge thank you!

To take part go to thelovetank.info/shresearch

My body and brain certainly do not seem to have registered it

Did it even get light today?

My new dating profile just dropped…

Thanks lovely!