LGBT+ liberation

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

Written on the bus home from Pride in London 2015:

Among Pride's stars and thespians
Were Stonewall 69ers
Trade unionists and Lesbians
And Gays Support the Miners 
So let's remember if we may
The Pits and Perverts stories
We didn't get where we are today
Without Mostly Hating Tories