Marxist. Trade Unionist. Socialist-feminist. Author. Poet. Speaker. Tutor. RMT ex-Exec. Workers' Liberty. Autie. Bi. PUFC fan.
Campaigning for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans* rights.
Opposing imaginary ribaldry
Detestable protests at a library
Serious, stern of jaw and dour
Objecting to Drag Queen Story Hour
Reckoning kids are groomed and primed -
But why don't they protest at pantomimes?
Tonight I went to Heaven
after months of pain
My friends held my hands,
the man at the not-exactly-pearly gate checked my bag
and the siren on the stage brought her dead pals
to Heaven with her
Tonight I went back to Heaven
I’d been on Earth, not in Hell,
maybe in Purgatory
I booked my ticket by
doing good, going without
and working hard
Nicola Adams
Is dancing with Madams
Instead of with Misters
Ten points for the sisters
J.K. Rowling
Is bawling and howling
That a wolf can change into a human
But a man can't change into a woman
Tony Abbott
jumps like a rabbit
from homophobic bile
to climate change denial
A response to an appallingly bigoted cartoon (pictured) which appeared in the Morning Star.
An oversight has come to light
our usual process
transgressed, broke apart
and through the cracks
crept a carnivorous
cold-blooded cartoon
a hand-drawn saurian,
fawning, crawling, stalking
readers bravely pleading for safety.
It wasn't the Stonewall focus group
or the Stonewall business case
It wasn't the Stonewall let's-present-
our-most-acceptable-face
Long years of asking nicely had not
got us anywhere
Our rulers did not hear us when
we whispered: it's not fair
So when re-writers try to say
we won by being quiet
Remind them of our history -
that Stonewall was a riot
I wrote this as an attempt to navigate the various arguments around trans and women's rights, as a suggested policy on the issue.
by Janine Booth
SUMMARY
The life expectancy of a Black trans woman in the USA is just 35. This is a villanelle about that shocking statistic.
Black boys grown women fighting to survive
In freedom's land are some folks not allowed
To live beyond the age of thirty-five?
Dysphoria and prejudice connive
From gender manacles to funeral shroud
Black boys grown women fighting to survive
A reflection on my son visiting the Stonewall Inn because of his passionate commitment to LGBT equality, only to find that he couldn't go in.
I remember the age of consent
cut from twenty-one
A landmark among the battles
our struggles have won
And now it's the age of admission
the Stonewall Insists