transponderings

Category: Trans issues

  • Scottish Green Party reaffirms trans positivity

    I’ve been a member of the Scottish Green Party since early 2014; for various reasons I hadn’t felt it important enough to nail my political colours to the mast before then. One thing I love about the party is its commitment to fairness, equality and inclusivity. As a trans woman, I was so pleased to… Read more

  • Emergency post: extended GRA consultation deadline

    This weekend the Scottish Green Party holds its annual autumn conference, and I was looking forward to going along as a (mostly inactive) member to participate in its democratic decision-making process. But, for me, that has been overshadowed by the UK’s consultation on reform to the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (GRA), the deadline for which… Read more

  • I would go out tonight …

    … but I haven’t got a stitch to wear! So croons Morrissey in The Smiths’ song ‘This charming man’, released in 1984. It was in that year, my first year at university, that I was introduced to The Smiths, and for some reason theirs were the first songs I’d really paid attention to for their lyrics.… Read more

  • Chinks of darkness

    This was very nearly an ‘unpost’, but I think I have given it just a little too much thought for it to fall into that category. I’ve had a lot of issues surrounding a wedding I was at this weekend. Despite the lovely weather we’ve been having here recently, my inner life has been rather… Read more

  • Shame and shamefulness

    In June 2001, a friend (now a Church of Scotland minister) forwarded me an email from the Evangelical Alliance (EA) advertising the appearance of Joel Edwards (who was at the time their General Director) on the weekly BBC TV programme Question Time (which was at the time something I might have considered watching). By this… Read more

  • Image, mirror, selfie

    Time for a proper blog post drawn from my cabinet of writing ideas. This one seems apt, since – according to Twitter – today is #NationalSelfieDay. Unhelpfully, the hashtag doesn’t tell us which of the couple-of-hundred-odd nations of the world celebrates this day. (It is, of course, the United States – a country that could… Read more

  • Close reading: Hinsliff on gender

    It’s been three weeks since my last blog post. (I’m sorry if that’s inconvenienced anyone who’s come to rely on at least one post a week from me!) Although I have plenty of blog-posts-in-waiting, I haven’t had a lot of time to do any writing recently, in part because it’s school exam season here in… Read more

  • My first Anna-versary

    On 20 April last year, I made my way to court, accompanied by a friend. There, in a tiny side room, in the presence of a lawyer, I completed and signed a statutory declaration and swore an oath to the effect that I would from that day forth use Anna as my legal name, on… Read more

  • Half a year of new hormones

    It’s been more or less exactly half a year since I switched from testosterone to estradiol as my sex hormone of choice. Thanks to seven injections (so far) of triptorelin acetate, my body’s natural inclination to produce testosterone has been severely curtailed. And courtesy of daily gel applications, my estradiol levels are a little higher… Read more