penwing.site

So, I live in Warrington - this is a town half way between Manchester and Liverpool with a public transport system courtesy of the fairy godmother - the trains turn into carrots at midnight. As such I don't know the gay scene very well at either city and consequently have very few gay friends. This has little actual bearing at what's coming up, it's just a general moan. Manchester is obviously well known for it's gay village and annual pride event.

Every time someone describes something as "so gay" my heart sinks. It bothers me that 'gay' - an identity many people struggle with - growing up in a culture where 'gay' is negative, is derogatory, is demeaning. It's part of the culture which leads to internalised homophobia, depression and other problems for queer youth as described in Stonewall's media depiction report and a US study of queer youth and the benefits of relationships.

Yesterday the UK Supreme Court issued a ruling in an asylum deportation case. The court decided that asking people to hide their sexuality (as the Home Office had been suggesting) was not appropriate. A Win! That was about all I knew.

The Consenting Adults Action Network (CAAN) have just published a book (booklet?) by Jane Fae Ozimek (one of the last projects written as John Ozimek) - Beyond the Circle. I got my copy of it the other week and have read it over the past couple of days (the joy of a nicely timed work commute).

I've not blogged much recently despite wanting to say quite a bit. Other voices can sometimes say it better than I can and I do try and share those voices on my twitter stream.

David Laws resigned from the cabinet the other week after the Telegraph revealed he had been claiming expenses for rent paid to his partner against the rules. They claim that they weren't intending to reveal that his partner was male and therefore pull Laws out of the closet but it's hard to see how that could work in any meaningful way.

So, with the elections coming up, it's time to start thinking about who I want to vote for. And therein lies a problem. I'm embarassed by all the parties (that is a polite understatement of my true feelings) and live in an ultra-safe constituency. On the one hand, there is Labour who have produced a more and more authoratarian, Orwellian state and who appear to equate liberation with equality with quotas, who abuse parliament and hold the public in utter contempt. On the other are the Conservatives.

A couple of things I want to talk about in the Queer space.

No, I'm not dead. No I haven't been ill. I've been suffering from a case of "can't-be-arsed-and-what's-the-point-anyway-itis". I'm hoping this will clear up as I work on Queer Commons (the working title for what I discussed previously). I have a site up, I need to do some work on it and write a couple of articles to start it, but I hope that I can open it up more fully on Monday. If you're interested in a sneak peak, or want to help with an article or with theming or anything else, drop me a line.

The other side of politics I've been discussing tonight (see last entry)was The Equality Bill and the Tories. A brief discussion with @lawandsexuality through the medium of Facebook comments about where the Tories would likely go with Equality.

Warrington, where I live, is split into two parliamentary constituencies the boundary being, pretty much, the Mersey. They are represented by "the Helens" - Jones for the North and Southworth for the South. Apparently there's going to be some major work on redirecting the Mersey as we will be switching Helens at the next election. Both Helens are in fairly safe seats - I normally get no election publicity except from the very fringe parties.