So we have finally got a date for the first same-sex weddings – Hogmanay 2014! For me it had been a long time coming and my journey only, but for some of the people involved in the campaign it had been a whole lifetime. Just a week previous on Friday 10th October I woke up to see that whilst I had been sleeping the first UKIP MP elected to parliament (I am never sleeping again).
Whether it comes from the media or from our peers, there is a lot of pressure within our society to be having ‘good’ sex. This entirely undefined term seems to refer to having frequent sex, as well as, of course, having lots of orgasms. There is a decent amount of resistance to these notions, which is great. I’ve lost track of the amount of times I’ve been reassured by women’s magazines that penis-in-vagina sex alone doesn’t quite do it for most women (information which I will store in the ‘in case I ever become sexually involved with a man’ file in my brain). But this reassurance that penis-does-not-equal orgasms (necessarily) just adds fuel to the most persistent of rumours: that lesbian sex is inherently amazing.
Reading our preview copy of out there on the Glasgow to Edinburgh commuter train!
Out There brings together work from over 25 writers – some professional and some very good not-professionals, united in a shared sense of both queer-ness and Scottish-ness. The unique interactions between these two identities are central to each work included in this anthology.
Queer spaces have always felt like home. From meeting like-minded people to not being on red-alert for the constant risk of unwelcome groping and everything in between mean that I feel safe.
But what isn’t fun is when we are made to feel like interlopers in our own spaces.
Happy Pride!
Gay? Check! Brit flick? Check!
Set in the 1980’s, a London Pride movement make an unlikely pairing with Welsh miners as they work together in resistance to the Thatcher government.
The Guardian describes it as,
Billy Elliot continued with rousing gay rights romance set during miners’ strike
What’s not to like?!
For the full review from Cannes check out Peter Bradshaw’s review on the Guardian website here.
This week we interviewed the fabulous Kirsty Logan about her book ‘The Rental Heart’, her experiences being a queer author writing queer stories, and what the road to success looks like, sharing some top-tips for early-career publishing!
Photo cedit: Monkeytwizzle
Me: So Kirsty, you’re a published author, which is awesome!
It’s easy to see Manchester pride as a massive success: it’s one of the few Prides which is omnipresent throughout the city attracting people from across the UK and wider – amazing! But this year made us question whether Pride in and of itself is intrinsically valuable to the LGBT+ community.
The Gay Agenda 