As well as writing today's edition, with news writing support from Rowan Gavin, they’ve helped select and curate this year’s QueerAF and Trans+ History Week articles, illustrations and podcasts. We start this week’s edition with a note from him:
Today, I have two historical images in mind.
The first is the canary in the coal mine — often used to describe marginalised groups who are attacked first during authoritarian revivals and who tried to raise the alarm. The metaphor is not perfect, however; in real mines, people heeded the canaries’ warnings.
The second image came to me from Churchill’s VE Day speech, which I heard on the radio recently. I’m no admirer of Churchill, but one phrase stood out: “Wherever the bird of freedom chirps in human hearts, [people will] look back to what we’ve done and they will say “do not despair, do not yield to violence and tyranny”.
It struck me because, despite everything — the ascendance of anti-trans bigotry, monstering by the media, betrayal by politicians, academics and doctors, and now the Supreme Court ruling — that bird is still there, chirping.
We are both the canary and the bird of freedom. That’s the unbearable tension we live in.
Trans people symbolise a particular, daring kind of freedom: liberation. Not only in terms of physicality and identity, but in how we fight, how we protect one another and how we hint at different futures for society as a whole.
You can read about real-life examples of this in the special edition newsletters we’ve been sending you all week: about Italian trans women fighting for the freedom to swim, about Egyptian dancers challenging strict binaries and about Japan's first trans politician, who did not pull the ladder up but used her power to push for wider freedoms.
It scares people. That is another reminder we get from these stories. We are an easy target, imagined as a "threat" because, just by existing, we challenge a social conservatism that is both deeply entrenched and unthinkingly enjoyed by the cis-het majority, even those who are in other ways progressive.
As overwhelming as it feels, the anti-trans backlash we are currently enduring exists for the most basic reasons. It is the stuff of human frailty: fear, prejudice, cynicism, contingent justice and, regrettably, the ick. But because it is basic, we understand full-well what is happening. And we are not petrified. We are exhausted and bruised, but we are alert. We stand in solidarity. We are busy AF.
QueerAF and Trans+ History Week are proof of all that.
The newsletter you get here is vital every Saturday, but this bumper week’s edition carries greater meaning and power than ever. It brings together urgent, expert reporting and instructive, affirming histories.
Trans+ History Week connects us in ways both practical and spiritual, both of which matter in times of unique stress. It reminds us we’re not alone, not new, and that we resisted and persisted well before we had the ability to even know either of these things.
If you already subscribe, you know: this is where the best writing on and clearest analysis of the Supreme Court ruling is found — more informed, more grounded, and more compassionate than anything in mainstream UK media.
So: support it. Subscribe. Upgrade and become a paying member. Donate if you can. Share it with your family and friends — especially those who care, but don’t yet understand what’s really happening.
Because we’re not just fighting for ourselves. We are warning of what’s to come. We are holding the line. We are chirping that bird of future freedom.
So why not chirp with us and help us fight back.
Understand the LGBTQIA+ headlines and keep track of the latest queer content and perspectives. This week's QueerAF newsletter is guest edited by Freddy McConnell, with newswriting support from Rowan Gavin.
💬 This week:
- Dr Victoria McCloud: Another exclusive revelation from the judge taking the UK to the European Court of Human Rights, which changes the context that the Supreme Court decision was made in.
- Solidarity: A look at how sector after sector is lining up to challenge, and refuse the Supreme Court ruling - plus, a look at just how we got here from Freddy.
- Trans+ History Week: Everything you might have missed and need to know about our launchpad project’s second year - plus today’s history lesson!
Skip the doomscrolling and support queer creatives instead. We are QueerAF – and so are you.
How did this Supreme Court ruling happen? A brief history of how Great Britain became Terf Island
On 16 April 2025, the UK Supreme Court delivered a decision on the meaning of “woman” in the Equality Act 2010. It was the first of a tumultuous set of events for the Trans+ community which we’re only just getting our heads around. But what we haven’t yet had time to work out is - how did we get here?
Upgrade to read
Time to become QueerAF
Enter your email to read the full story and understand the LGBTQIA+ news every Saturday.
There’s a better way for the LGBTQIA+ community's stories to be seen, heard, and celebrated in the media. Join us to help rewrite the narrative and change the media for good.
