Hey, they're welcome to fan side of the podcast for all those complex and complicated conversations about the great areas in our lives. I am a journalist author and a professor, Jarrett Hill.

And I am Trayvell Anderson. Welcome back to yet another wonderful show.

Let's see. Oh, that you know what this is. This is one of our mailbag episodes. We call them. What was that?

And we are going to jump right on in to an email that we have here from one of our long time listeners and often contribute or, you know, to the schools, you know, discourse, Alistair.

The subject of their email is the great British moral panic can get us all quotation up. That's not a quotation parentheses. This is a read. Okay.

Alistair says hi, Trayvell and Jarrett. This message is in regards to is pride for not queer people based on the title.

I was all set to write in about how children of the leg beauty of of LGBTQ leg booty queue parents are absolutely members of the queer community and thus totally welcome to pride.

But as I listened, I sidelined my family focus thoughts for another time because this episode was very specific. I understood what you Trayvell meant by queer just for the record. Great. Thank you so much.

As soon as I heard British Vogue was involved, I knew the plain old Anglo anti-LGBTQ fuckery was to blame. The British press is famously homophobic and transphobic and as recovering anglophile living in this racist system, I was sadly not surprised by the magazine's choices.

This is the UK establishment saying, hey, some people like being in the closet, some people are proud to be in the closet. Wouldn't it be better if more people stayed quiet and in the closet? Go there now, please.

It's no secret that UK government and institutions, including their own healthcare system, the NHS, would prefer queer people of all backgrounds and identities to disappear or die in the closet so they can go on pretending they still have an empire in that racism doesn't exist. I wish I was exaggerating.

Some months ago, Scarlett Parliament, which is a constituent democrat, oh wow, this is okay, getting a little history lesson, okay. I hope you got your pen in your paper and your pad, or I think they take notes on iPads these days, I don't know. Anyway, okay.

You get the pencil and just scribble it on there, make you feel like you did something.

Yeah, you know, the pencil, the HP, we need to get sponsored by Hewlett Packard. They still making products anyway.

No, no, no, no, I want the apple. I want the iPad.

Let's go for what we want. Sorry, I was there. Go ahead. If you want me to pick up some of this, this is a long letter. Let me know.

Okay. Yes. Some months ago, Scottish Parliament, which is a constituent democracy under the UK, passed the Gender Recognition Reform Bill, which aimed to amend the Gender Recognition Act of 2004 in an effort to make it easier for trans and non-binary people in Scotland.

And in Scotland, and just Scotland, to change their IDs and birth certificates to the names and gender markers that best represent them. Still with me, question mark? I hope so.

UK Parliament promptly and unprecedentedly overturned this democratically passed act using a rarely mentioned and often ignored until now part of the UK law known as Section 35.

Section 35 was invoked and used in April to effectively nullify the passing of the bill, halting it entirely.

This, in my opinion, is a travesty, and not just because it undermines decades of grassroots, queer, and ally work for basic gender-affirming recognition in Scotland, but puts gasoline on the trash fire that is UK politics, and puts trans and non-binary lives in a perpetual state of anxiety and fear in their own country. Sounds familiar, huh?

Infuriatingly, British Vogue's article this June is intended to muddy and convolut the conversation around gender identity in UK society and culture and its legal system. Much of the British press reeks of, quote, just asking questions with this sort of divisive bullshit.

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