Finding Me, Being Me, LGBTIQAPNb...

Easter (& Passover, Ramadan) Reflections: Ideological Conflict begins and ends with Words. We need to talk not wage wars, cultural or actual.

Easter is a time of reflection, not just resurrection. Indeed, for me, my faith is probably beyond resurrection. Passover and Ramadan likewise offer reasons to reflect. Last week I was invited to a Pesach Seder hosted by a gay Rabbi and his husband from a country where his sexuality is deemed inappropriate to depict to children, his same-sex marriage not recognised. The blend of modern and…

One Billion Rising to end sexual & physical Violence against Women & Girls, #Norwich #VAWG #1BillionRising #ValentinesDay #VDay #RaiseTheVibration #RiseResistUnite

Stats and facts may be boring but they are real people, real lives, real stories – ones we shouldn’t have to be hearing because in a modern enlightened society we should be doing better and not perpetuating gender-based violence towards women and girls.   1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten and at least 1 in 10 raped during her lifetime, adding up to more than ONE BILLION women and girls in…

Happy New Year/New Me pt2 gets to 2015 and ends with pre-op trepidation, PIP, CBT, Pride, Orchids, and my partner moving out but not on

This is part two of my last decade’s reflections on self and society, mainly the former, but ‘who I am’ resides in a gender constructed society too, and that has been my journey working out how to be me, whoever that is, in a world that gives me just two boxes, neither of which fit. I’ve written nearly half-a-million words in my diary the last ten years, it’s been a rough but rewarding ride and…

Happy New Year - From Teens to Twenties, a Decade of Change - mine and society's. Reflections on mental health, transition, relationships...

Everyone from Spotify to the Trainline is wrapping up our year or decadein music or travel. The biggest gifts to myself that I unwrapped over the last decade were my transition(s) and life purpose/career reboot(s). All that whilst managing mental health which included suicide attempts, eviction notices, near death-by-debt, and ever-growing physical back pain and arthritis. So as we go from the…

Ideology is no more relevant than an employment tribunal in determining someone's gender. Neither is JK Rowling an authority on sex & science.

The court of social opinion or social media at least is no more relevant than an employment tribunal in determining someone’s gender. It is a reasonable place, though, to decide on the application of the Equality Act (2010) which protects both against sex discrimination and gender transition.  Respecting someone has little to do with the biology of sex and presentation of gender.

The Maya…

On being allies & (l)earning mutual respect #WithTheT on #TransgenderDayofVisibility (#TDOV) #TDOV2019

I’ve written about the Transgender Day of Visibility (#TDOV) – meant to be a positive and the more negative memorialised Transgender Day of Remembrance (#TDOR) most years. Since 2014’s “transgender tipping point” and 2015’s year of transgender visibility, we now seem to be getting too much visibility and attention and not necessarily of a good kind. For with the visibility has come the vitriolic…

I like International Women's Day #IWD because the only adjective added is inclusive not exclusive. Women the world over are celebrated. It is refreshingly broad in an age of deterministic defining language such as biological, cisgender, natal, real, trans etc. I am human first, sexed second, gendered third, but how I identify and live is by positivity and inclusion.

In the current febrile atmosphere surround transgender women in single-sex spaces and indeed both trans and intersex trait women in sport, today – International Women’s Day is a good day to celebrate all women. Indeed, one of my preferred yet also subtle ways of being inclusive has been the addition of a plus sign at the end of many Women’s events, groups and societies. Women+is such a…

Why is Holocaust Memorial Day necessary still? How are modern prejudices and hate rooted in the past? How the story of one gay Jewish doctor changed history.

Why is Holocaust Memorial Day even necessary still? Because 1-in-20 people think the Holocaust never happened. Because 1-in-12 think it is exaggerated. Because genocides of people by ethnicity, faith, or sexuality, still happen. Because anti-Semitism, anti-Romani, anti-disabled, homophobic and transphobic feelings still exist. Running the Human Library in the UK, I see people’s incredulity at the…

What Political and Economic Future do we have if we can’t even agree Brexit

Well, the “meaningful” Brexit vote happened but didn’t seem to mean anything. The worst Government defeat in modern history by a margin of 230 votes and an unheard of stubborn clinging to power, despite a No Confidence vote. The previous worst was 95 years ago in 1924. On most occasions, resignations and lost elections followed. Momentous. Since Parliament cannot agree and only 25% of the…

Various people want to make Britain Great again by building #FortressBritain with the armed forces patrolling the channel, building army bases around the world. Presumably, a wall at Dover paid for by the French to keep out #migrants. What happened to Christmas and Christian generosity? What Would Jesus Do? There's no such thing as a pure-bred Brit, we're all foreigners - part Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Viking, Norman, and Dutch weaver, at the barest minimum.

The Home Office, Minister of Defence, and an inconsequential former-UKIP xenophobe called Nigel – want to make Britain Great again by building Fortress Britain with the armed forces patrolling the channel, building army bases around the world (the Caribbean and SE Asia are earmarked so far) – all this after reducing the armed services! Sajid Javid has declared it a “major incident”. In the big…

The Battle of #Brexit continues with more disorderly chaos, Cabinet resignations and #UKIP quitters. Meanwhile, Winston Churchill is being lauded by both sides, what would he have thought of the disUnited Kingdom and its relationship with his dream of a 'United States of #Europe'?

The war of words, or even war of the worldviews, continues apace over Britain’s relationship with Europe. The Battle of Brexit has already seen Dunkirkesque fishing fleets with Bob Geldof and Nigel Farage traversing the Thames and shouting at each other! Rather than resigning ourselves to the inevitable the Blitz spirit of Remainers has been to stubbornly resist Brexitwhilst a small number of…

Vote Leave says "very real risk of no #Brexit". UKIP are marching for Hard Brexit. PeoplesVote against any Brexit. What happens if we do Remain, will we revolt? To Brexit or No Brexit that is the question.

Making a Dog’s Brexit of Leave

When the DUP and Labour combine forces to elicit the full text of the Government’s legal advice surrounding the Brexit deal you know the traditional Left and Right sides of politics or Parliament’s chamber have been traversed. When UKIP and Tommy Robinson plan to march against Brexit– at least in its current form, you know that those that pushed for it don’t want…

#Inadequate barely describes the abject failure to solve or serve the #Norfolk & #Suffolk #MentalHealth Care needs as the #CQC continues to slam #NSFT & its services

“Inadequate” is such an insipid inadequate term to describe an abject failure to manage critical mental health services and to continue over 5-years to fail to improve. 

Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust is the seventh largest mental health trust in the UK, running over 100 community services across 50 sites and GP practices for 1.6 million people in an area of 3,500 square miles for £227m a…

Every 24 hours a #trans person is murdered, 369 this year. #TDOR remembers lives lost to violence & hate, mostly POC in Brazil but also 72 other countries.

Transgender Day of Remembrance 2018

Every 24 hours a trans person is murdered, 369 this year, nearly 3,000 the last 10 years – that we know about, i.e., it may only be the tip of the iceberg. It is a number that is rising annually and particularly affects those in the Americas but also in over 70 other countries around the world.

Since 1999, the Transgender Day of Remembrance(TDoR) has taken…

750 Norwich residents untied against racism in a counter demo to the 50 or so Unity UK pro-Brexit demonstrators in a peaceful stand-off with occasional dialogue

Union Jack Leave Protester

Six years to the day after the 1500 v 200 EDL counter demo and the fine welcoming city of Norwich has another small demo, Norwich Against Fascists! Counter demonstration!  “There are many many more of us than you” was being chanted by 750 anti-racists and Remainers (mostly) and 50 Unity UK pro-Leave Brexiteers shouting back the same and “More of us voted Leave than you”.

#Norwich's #HostryFestival 2018 play: Rebecca Chapman's "The Boy in the Lighthouse" @TotalEnsemble production that is inclusive in every way embracing people, narration, music, movement & song @hostry_festival @EDP24 @UEAEvents @BBCNorfolk

Norwich’s Hostry Festival 2018 play is Rebecca Chapman‘s “The Boy in the Lighthouse“, a Total Ensemble Theatre Company production that is inclusive in every sense of the word. From the actors it casts to all the various forms of visual and audio art forms it embraces, and to the warning to be careful that the cast don’t step on your toes if you’re in the front row!

“Our focus this year is on…

Sharing a tale about #MilesToGo at the #TrueStoriesLive event in Norwich, an intimate evening of pain and pathos, heart and health, wit and wisdom, cheek and cheer. TSL describes itself as "a lively, moving and unpredictable event where people tell true stories about their lives in front of a warm, supportive audience."

I loved doing True Stories Live – “Miles to go” on Sunday night at Norwich Arts Centre. What a range of stories from humour to danger, movie, song and dance, pain and health, through nearly punching a Buddhist and being either miles high or grounded.

TSLdescribes itself as “a lively, moving and unpredictable event where people tell true stories about their lives in front of a warm, supportive…