"I see no day," I heard him say, "so grey is the face of every mortal". Some Sherlock Holmes, some musical theatre, some politics, some things that just looked shiny. Rather a lot of Star Trek at the moment. TERFs, please consider developing some human empathy, then you won't be TERFs any more.
stop posting about your badly behaved dog i mean husband online if you’re going to get upset with the people telling you he’s a bite risk. “look at what my husband packed me for my lunch” and it’s the most insulting low effort assortment of snacks you’ve ever seen accompanied with a note that says “i see you as subhuman”. “ugh guys stop telling me my husband doesn’t respect me you’re not the ones in the relationship you don’t know what he’s really like” yes i do and i think you should have him put down.
Transphobia is about to be signed into law in the UK. We can fight this.
I am begging the UK trans community and its allies to attend the Mass Lobby at Parliament on June 25th, 11am-4pm, organised by Trans Solidarity Alliance.
Last year we broke the record for an LGBT+ mass lobby of Parliament. Will you help us break it again? Join us on 25th June 2026 to demand be
The new EHRC Code of Practice pushes trans people out of toilets, hospital wards, and community spaces. It normalises gender policing based on appearance and stereotypes. It becomes statutory guidance in the UK by the end of June.
Trans people are now legally their assigned gender at birth and must join gendered spaces accordingly, but if they are perceived as their lived gender, they can also be ejected from those spaces. The guidance says: either break the law, or don’t pass too well.
A mass lobby is where you invite your MP to discuss your concerns with you in-person. Ask your MP to:
Demand full parliamentary scrutiny, debate, and use their free vote on the EHRC Code of Practice.
Support any motions rejecting the EHRC guidance. As of June 4th, Labour MP Nadia Whittome has submitted a prayer motion - Early Day Motion 240.
Write to Bridget Phillipson, the Minister for Women and Equalities about our concerns
Your MP does not have to be an ally, they do not have to respond to your email for you to show up and greencard them (details below the cut.) What matters is that as many people as possible show up.
I cannot stress this enough: Showing up in person matters. It is much more effective than petitions, emails, and letters.
It is a horrible, stressful time, and I am so sorry if you're trans and live in the UK. But I was at last year's mass lobby and the line for greencarding alone stretched around the back gates. It was a record breaking mass lobby and made us impossible to ignore. Let's do even better this time. Details under the cut:
Worried about what to say?
Bring your personal worries about transphobia being signed into law, and trans friends being excluded from public spaces. You are a living person who deserves dignity. Remind your MP of that. You will also get guidance and brochures from Trans Solidarity Alliance that outlines our demands. This is mine from last year.
Money issues?
Trans Solidarity Alliance provides a travel bursary that you can sign up for via the link.
Got a refusal or no response from your MP?
Come anyway! You can request a same-day appointment with your MP through a process called greencarding. They will come and see you if they’re already in Parliament. Even if they don’t, they’re made acutely aware of your cause because you showed up in person. This is my greencard from last year.
Here is the EHRC Code of Practice in full. It's a tough read, but some highlights are:
Organisations can’t provide trans-inclusive, single-sex services, or they risk being sued for discrimination.
e.g. domestic violence support for women including trans women, men’s rugby group including trans men (12.68).
Trans people will have nowhere safe to pee.
If you’re a trans man, businesses can't allow you to pee in the men's, and you can also be ejected from women’s bathrooms if you’re perceived as a man. Vice versa for trans women. EHRC suggests a ‘third space’ bathroom, which is discriminatory and unworkable for most businesses. (13.130-133)
Sports organisations must exclude trans people from single-sex competitions (13.73).
A women’s only sports competition must exclude trans women because of their biological advantage or face potential lawsuits (13.74), but a trans man who has undergone testosterone treatment can also be excluded based on fairness rules (13.81).
Trans women are stripped of the legal definition of ‘lesbian’, and therefore no longer have legal protections if they’re discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation. (2.50, 2.92).
Here is the Good Law Project's better explanation of the EHRC Code.
I have also made a PDF printout of QR codes for the government petition, email your MP tool, and mass lobby link to pass around your communities. DM me and I'll send it to you.
It's also important for us cis allies to show up and support our trans community members, so think about joining this if you're able no matter your gender identity.
I'm not going to be able to go, but I do have some experience with lobbying my various MPs over the years, so here's some quick advice off the top of my head:
If you're resident in the UK but not a citizen you still have the right to go to Parliament and be seen by your MP.
If you don't know who your MP is you can look it up by putting your postcode into the Find My MP page on Parliament's website (pro tip if you are a uni student, check your MP for both your family home and your uni, one may be a better option for lobbying than the other, you may even be able to Green Card both of them, but I don't know if that's possible, ask on the desk when you ask for the card).
And everyone needs to remember that while officially you're not required to show photo ID to get into Parliament the official guidance from the House of Commons is "you don't need photo ID to get in but we suggest you bring it anyway" (which is just unhelpful)
You will also be required to pass through airport style security which obviously may be a stressful experience for some of the people taking part in the mass lobby. That can take anywhere up to half an hour, the staff are usually pretty nice, but the entry into the security check is a sloped metal ramp with zero shade and nowhere to lean or sit so plan accordingly.
If your MP is not in the building to come and meet you they are required to respond to your Green Card as soon as possible via the contact details you put on your Green Card. While meeting them in person is the ideal you will get a response so it will be worth it even if your MP is unavailable.
Have a safe, productive lobby! Proud of all of you who can go and support the cause.
Yes! This is also a good point! MPs are traditionally expected to spend their Fridays in their constituency and to hold regular opportunities for you to meet with them to discuss issues. This is called a constituency surgery. If you are unable to make it to London you can look up when your MP is holding their next surgery and make an appointment to see them in your home town to discuss it there. Maybe even reach out to local pride groups in your area and do a local mass lobby of your MP in order to show them this is an issue that matters in your area too.
Every time an author reassures readers that the smut is skippable I sigh a disappointed sigh. This is not a reassurance. Why would anybody who likes smut want to read smut that was only included as an afterthought and has no impact on the narrative? Insulting. Just don't write it at all if you're not going to make it matter.
#on the one hand I understand that some people don’t want to read smut
Like 85% of tumblr users hate and loathe embarrassment based comedy with every fiber of their beings, but never in my life have I ever seen an author reassure their audience that the embarrassing scenes are skippable.
Lots of people dislike tragedy but never in my life have I ever seen an author reassure the audience that the death and grieving scenes are skippable.
Stop trying to pass off self-censorship as “accommodation.” Stop trying to pass off pandering as “inclusivity.”
Your audience can smell your fear, and it smells rancid.
Ye knowe eek, that in forme of speche is chaunge
With-inne a thousand yeer, and wordes tho
That hadden prys, now wonder nyce and straunge
Us thinketh hem; and yet they spake hem so,
And spedde as wel in love as men now do.
glossary:
eek also
and even
tho at the time
prys great value
wonder a cause for astonishment
nyce stupid
spedde succeeded
You know the form of language, too, can change.
Within a thousand years, even the words
that were most precious then, seem strange
and foolish to us; yet they spoke them so
and did no worse in love than we now do.
Daily reminder to Americans on this website that American war on Iran is bad because Iranians are getting killed not because you can no longer afford going to the movies in the weekends or refill your car 😒
Meg being into Erik in LND seems weird because i don't know what is their actual relationship besides he is her boss. It seems weird and I don't understand it.
Meg even being in LND is weird. Let's be real. She would not leave her job as a professional ballerina at France's most famous and elite opera house to go sing show tunes on Coney Island.
We're also supposed to buy that she helped Erik fund his theme park by sleeping with investors and I cannot for the life of me figure out why or how that even works.
Did Eirk put her up to that? Did Madam Giry? What became of the 20k francs a month Erik was pulling from the managers for years back in Paris? That's like 250,000 USD spending power in today's money. Even just a year of raking that in puts him over 2 million. How did he lose all of that? I get that he fled or whatever but I'd figure maybe he kept that money in some kind of bank or somewhere he could grab it if he needed to run?
Why is Meg selling her body to fund your theme park, ERIK?
Does he know she did that? If he does then that just makes his treatment of her 10x more abysmal and if he doesn't know then how does he think he got the money to build a theme park? Did he think Madam Giry just had a bunch of money laying around?
Why would Meg and Madam Giry agree to be Erik's employees and not insist on being partners in the business? Seems kind of a stupid move not to ensure you have some security in case something happens. Like the implication is that Erik will leave everything to him and Christine's surprise spawn and the Girys will get nothing which:
Shitty thing for Erik to do to people who have helped him for over a decade now. Truly his selfishness and self-centeredness knows no bounds
Doesn't make sense if Meg and Madam Giry had an active hand in building the place and help run it in some capacity.
Doesn't make sense for Erik either because after he pays off Raoul's debts and keeps Christine what's he going to do with her? Retire? After taking a huge financial hit from paying off Raoul's debt? What does their future even look like? Does Christine, the former Prima Donna of the Opera Popular become a headlining act at Coney Island? Because I guarantee the people who go to a place like Coney Island probably don't actually attend the Opera and the Vaudeville style music Meg sings is more popular to that audience. Also Meg has is an established act and probably a crowd favorite after 10 years of working there. Christine is not just going to be able to come in and supplant her when she's from a completely different genre of music and doesn't have an established career in the US.
Like, Taylor Swift may be one of the most popular pop artists of the decade but she doesn't belong in the lineup at a Heavy Metal concert because that is not her audience.
If I think about that too much it's just going to make me angry because for the plot to work even a little everyone in it has to be as stupid as a rock.
It also makes Erik look lika a complete fool. Like he's complete oblivious. Is he just accepting money from Meg? Or accepting money from the investors without questions? Is this the same man from POTO? The same man who literately managed to run a blackmail operation for years and outsmarted everyone over and over again?
The Doylist reasoning for this is that ALW's Phantom has more or less always gotten by on vibes because Webber is not actually very assed about continuity and for LND the vibes just aren't enough to save it.
The Watsonion reason that makes the most sense here seems to be that Erik can't function without Madam Giry to baby sit him and in all reality she is probably running Phantasma behind the scenes and was probably acting as his accomplice back at the Paris Opera House. But you'd think if that was the case and she was the one with the brain cell she'd put up some safety nets for her and her daughter in case their cash cow bails on them or something.
Or you know, she wouldn't quit her job as the head of the corps de ballet and take her daughter away from her career with the Paris Opera Ballet (one of the most prestigious performing institutions in the world) to have her do stripteases at a theme park in Brooklyn.
coffeeshops used to give you a free drink for your birthday and now they just text you like "Hey bestie! Since you're a CoffeePoints™ rewards™ member, order yourself a birthday treat right now in our app™ and you will receive two (2) extra CoffeePoints™ with your purchase!! That's two points closer to a 1500 CoffeePoints™ reward™: your choice of one (1) disposable napkin*!!!"
*Exclusions apply. Offer is non-transferable and valid only at participating locations. Cannot be used toward plastic utensils or straws. Expires 20 minutes after qualifying purchase.
Say no more, here they all are!
(I post about them more on my sewing & art blog @vincentbriggs, though I'm afraid I haven't got proper tags for each individual machine.)
c. 1885 White VS2, made in the U.S. Basic straight stitch treadle in good working order. It came to me very dirty and needed a lot of cleaning and a new drive belt & bobbin winder tire.
Singer 15-91, made in Canada sometime between 1936-48. This was my first one, which I bought refurbished when I moved out of my parents house, since it's pretty similar to the one I grew up using. It came with a knee lever but after a few years the speed control box failed and I replaced it with a foot pedal.
1945 Bernina KL 105, made in Switzerland. This is my most recent acquisition and I haven't started on the cleaning & refurbishing yet, but I'm excited to use it! It's a treadle that has backstitch and drop feed.
Gimbels department store branded Singer 15 clone, made in Japan. No idea what the date is, but the style of the logo makes me think maybe 50's? All cleaned and stitching again, though I still need to put the motor back on. The case was too rotten to save, so I've got to learn how to make a new one.
Being a 15 clone, it's extremely similar to my Singer 15, but there are quite a lot of differences in the smaller external parts and it has a much better drop feed system.
1958 Singer 99k, made in Scotland. All cleaned and adjusted, and my father helped rewire it, but I still need to finish fixing up the wooden case. It wasn't so bad as the previous one, but it's in no condition to stain so I'm going to paint it.
This one's something of a foster kitten, as I've promised it to a friend.
1964 Singer 185J, made in Canada. I've cleaned it up and replaced the missing bobbin plate, but I need to make a new wooden case for this one too because the plastic case it came in was all cracked and warped.
It's the same basic machine as the 99k, just in a more space age style shape. The bobbin winder is more stripped down, but other than that the workings are identical.
1970 Pfaff 360, made in Germany. This was the second machine I got, and it was meant to be a backup because this was when my 15-91 speed control was acting up. The pebbled greige paint job is horrendously fugly, but it's a splendid piece of engineering. I still need to get around to taking apart and unsticking one particular area, but if I'm successful in that it'll be able to do zig zag, plus a variety of other fancy stitches controlled by that nice stack of cams on the left.
The 2 treadles were given to me, the 15-91 was bought refurbished as mentioned, and the other 4 electric machines were thrifted.
As you can see from observing the shape of the newer ones compared to the older ones, sewing machines are born with a large store of baby fat and they become scrawnier as they age.
