Hesse Phillips
@hessephillips.com
🏳️🌈 Historical fiction | Queer history | Theatre history | Early modernist | USian in Spain.
Debut novel LIGHTBORNE out now.
Rep: Brianlangan.bsky.social.
More at hessephillips.com
Debut novel LIGHTBORNE out now.
Rep: Brianlangan.bsky.social.
More at hessephillips.com
Pinned
Hesse Phillips
@hessephillips.com
· Feb 27
Coming to the UK 6th March 2025, the gorgeous new trade paperback edition of #Lightborne, from @atlanticbooks.bsky.social
"A stunning debut on queer love, betrayal and survival in Elizabethan England. Perfect for fans of Hilary Mantel and Maggie O'Farrell." uk.bookshop.org/p/books/ligh...
🌈📚⌛📚💙
"A stunning debut on queer love, betrayal and survival in Elizabethan England. Perfect for fans of Hilary Mantel and Maggie O'Farrell." uk.bookshop.org/p/books/ligh...
🌈📚⌛📚💙
Reposted by Hesse Phillips
Holy shit.
This is in South Jersey?!
This is in South Jersey?!
Yesterday morning kids were sent running from their bus stop in panic because ICE showed up. This guy at today’s ICE Out of Lindenwold protest is a must watch 😭. @maddow.bsky.social
February 14, 2026 at 3:48 PM
Holy shit.
This is in South Jersey?!
This is in South Jersey?!
I'm someone who has read up a lot on trauma, esp related to SA because I write a good deal about SA, but I'm avoiding the hell out of the Epstein Files because I have limits. I don't need to hit myself in the face with a hammer to know that getting hit with a hammer hurts.
I really think the whole notion of “bearing witness” has gotten deeply twisted
“Witness” does not mean merely to observe firsthand. It means to carry truth and to testify to that truth in the pursuit of justice
You don’t need to traumatize yourself in order to know that atrocities are happening
“Witness” does not mean merely to observe firsthand. It means to carry truth and to testify to that truth in the pursuit of justice
You don’t need to traumatize yourself in order to know that atrocities are happening
genuinely i cannot believe that i have to say this but you do not need to - and absolutely should not - expose yourself to CSAM material in order to “witness” the crimes of the elite.
this does nothing except make vicarious trauma, moral injury, and potentially places you in legal jeopardy.
STOP
this does nothing except make vicarious trauma, moral injury, and potentially places you in legal jeopardy.
STOP
February 14, 2026 at 4:31 PM
I'm someone who has read up a lot on trauma, esp related to SA because I write a good deal about SA, but I'm avoiding the hell out of the Epstein Files because I have limits. I don't need to hit myself in the face with a hammer to know that getting hit with a hammer hurts.
Reposted by Hesse Phillips
When we say "The press doesn't cover Trump's scandal!" we don't mean that they NEVER cover them, we mean that they don't do this.
a stat i always cite is the number of anti-trans articles in the press went from 60 in a year, to 7,500
February 13, 2026 at 3:21 PM
When we say "The press doesn't cover Trump's scandal!" we don't mean that they NEVER cover them, we mean that they don't do this.
Today in "No Doy":
"A new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York confirms what economists have long warned about: The burden of tariffs is borne almost entirely by the people living in the country that imposes them," writes Allison Morrow. | Analysis
A year in, it’s official: Americans, not foreigners, are paying for Trump’s tariffs | CNN Business
A new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York confirms what economists have long warned about: The burden of tariffs is borne almost entirely by the people living in the country that imposes ...
www.cnn.com
February 13, 2026 at 8:28 AM
Today in "No Doy":
FYI, UK citizens can move to Ireland with few restrictions. After 5 years you can claim citizenship. Just in case anybody out there might be interested in, y'know.
The EU has just voted, by a VERY wide margin, for the full recognition of trans women as women…!
February 13, 2026 at 8:26 AM
FYI, UK citizens can move to Ireland with few restrictions. After 5 years you can claim citizenship. Just in case anybody out there might be interested in, y'know.
If you're a UK citizen who cares about the wellbeing of trans kids you have until April 22nd to do everything in your power to make sure these new rules do not come into effect. Lives are literally on the line.
Respond at this link 👇
Respond at this link 👇
February 12, 2026 at 6:38 PM
If you're a UK citizen who cares about the wellbeing of trans kids you have until April 22nd to do everything in your power to make sure these new rules do not come into effect. Lives are literally on the line.
Respond at this link 👇
Respond at this link 👇
Reposted by Hesse Phillips
"We cannot afford to overcome. We are too busy doing GoFundMes for the funerals of our friends whose previous GoFundmes failed to cover their health care."
-- HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT (2020)
-- HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT (2020)
February 12, 2026 at 2:01 PM
"We cannot afford to overcome. We are too busy doing GoFundMes for the funerals of our friends whose previous GoFundmes failed to cover their health care."
-- HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT (2020)
-- HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT (2020)
I realise this is the opening salvo of some sort of scam, but I'm annoyed and offended at how badly conceived it is. Like, you can't open Amazon? Use a search bar? Are all your googlin' fingies broke??
February 12, 2026 at 12:40 PM
I realise this is the opening salvo of some sort of scam, but I'm annoyed and offended at how badly conceived it is. Like, you can't open Amazon? Use a search bar? Are all your googlin' fingies broke??
Reposted by Hesse Phillips
Right, another key thing that historians do is working with important records that have not been digitized.
And the vast majority of the world’s records *have not been digitized* and thus do not exist in any format that LLMs/AI can work with.
And the vast majority of the world’s records *have not been digitized* and thus do not exist in any format that LLMs/AI can work with.
it's literally impossible for an LLM to do a historian's job
it's not even LLMs sucking it's that they need data input to do anything and where's that data supposed to be coming from without historians
never met a computer that can dig through a thousand year old book in a library
it's not even LLMs sucking it's that they need data input to do anything and where's that data supposed to be coming from without historians
never met a computer that can dig through a thousand year old book in a library
February 11, 2026 at 8:36 PM
Right, another key thing that historians do is working with important records that have not been digitized.
And the vast majority of the world’s records *have not been digitized* and thus do not exist in any format that LLMs/AI can work with.
And the vast majority of the world’s records *have not been digitized* and thus do not exist in any format that LLMs/AI can work with.
Reposted by Hesse Phillips
There's a metric fuckton of money to be made harassing and dehumanizing a tiny minority of innocent people just trying to live their best lives.
"A conservative network led by Michael Gove and Nigel Farage’s senior adviser James Orr has spent more than half a million pounds pushing far-right and anti-trans voices – some of it fuelled by profits from Russian oil."
Putin’s megaphone: Orbán’s far-right push into UK universities is fuelled by Russian oil | Good Law Project
Good Law Project has uncovered a network funded by Hungary’s authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán, that uses profits from refining Russian oil to platform far right and anti-trans campaigners in the UK
goodlaw.social
February 12, 2026 at 11:33 AM
There's a metric fuckton of money to be made harassing and dehumanizing a tiny minority of innocent people just trying to live their best lives.
Me 10 years ago: I mean, what woman HASN'T thought of herself as a gay man? A gay man who is also a lesbian?? A woman who is a man who is gay but like gay for women??? But also a man???? And a woman?????
Me now: Oh. Right.
Me now: Oh. Right.
Olivia Colman sometimes thinks of herself as a gay man. As a gay man myself, I say – welcome | Jason Okundaye
Olivia Colman sometimes thinks of herself as a gay man. As a gay man myself, I say – welcome | Jason Okundaye
Her comments have been put through Britain’s culture war meat-grinder, but sexuality and gender is as fluid and interesting as we want it to be, says Guardian assistant Opinion editor Jason Okundaye
www.theguardian.com
February 12, 2026 at 10:54 AM
Me 10 years ago: I mean, what woman HASN'T thought of herself as a gay man? A gay man who is also a lesbian?? A woman who is a man who is gay but like gay for women??? But also a man???? And a woman?????
Me now: Oh. Right.
Me now: Oh. Right.
Absolute clown shit.
February 12, 2026 at 9:58 AM
Absolute clown shit.
If you read one long thread today, make it this one.
And then contact your reps and senators. This. Must. Stop.
And then contact your reps and senators. This. Must. Stop.
And even when we move at warp speed and outpace this regime, DHS doesn’t care. They’ve moved people to Texas hours or days after being enjoined.
When ordered to return them, DHS just… doesn’t. The AUSAs let them: when we notify them of a violation, they send the email equivalent of a shrug.
19/
When ordered to return them, DHS just… doesn’t. The AUSAs let them: when we notify them of a violation, they send the email equivalent of a shrug.
19/
February 12, 2026 at 8:39 AM
If you read one long thread today, make it this one.
And then contact your reps and senators. This. Must. Stop.
And then contact your reps and senators. This. Must. Stop.
Absolutely SLAMMED that follow button on Eventbrite.
#earlymodern scholars working in religion, check this one out!
#earlymodern scholars working in religion, check this one out!
The CFP for the Society of Reformation Studies' Annual Conference has been released! The theme is 'Lay Relgion in the Reformation' but topics outside this are very welcome.
Please share!
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lay-religi...
#churchhistory #skystorians #nuntastic #earlymodern #history #theology
Please share!
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lay-religi...
#churchhistory #skystorians #nuntastic #earlymodern #history #theology
Lay Religion in the Reformation
SOCIETY FOR REFORMATION STUDIES
32nd Annual Conference
www.eventbrite.co.uk
February 12, 2026 at 8:01 AM
Absolutely SLAMMED that follow button on Eventbrite.
#earlymodern scholars working in religion, check this one out!
#earlymodern scholars working in religion, check this one out!
Reposted by Hesse Phillips
For real, I am so tired of explaining to colleagues that all it does is pattern-match. That Apple paper showing its reasoning conks out after about 37000k tokens? Is because humans *rarely write out every detail of long-form reasoning* because we don't have to and it's boring. No examples.
Also I’m sorry but I don’t think this is Claude developing a personality or ethical values. It is *simulating* those things because that is what humans value and reward. The programmers are falling for their own Clever Hans trick!
February 11, 2026 at 5:36 PM
For real, I am so tired of explaining to colleagues that all it does is pattern-match. That Apple paper showing its reasoning conks out after about 37000k tokens? Is because humans *rarely write out every detail of long-form reasoning* because we don't have to and it's boring. No examples.
"Female brains are bad at math" but ask a married heterosexual man to balance his own checkbook or how much his household utilities cost and see what happens
the people who spread the “female brains are bad at math and spatial reasoning” lies should be tried at the Hague
Another fun wrinkle from that period (that might still exist): I was good at math and loved it and then my geometry teacher told me that I'd probably struggle because female brains were bad at spatial thinking. I kept loving math & being good at it but assumed that would end so I ended it first.
February 11, 2026 at 5:21 PM
"Female brains are bad at math" but ask a married heterosexual man to balance his own checkbook or how much his household utilities cost and see what happens
"People are protesting because they want to go back to brunch"
Bitch my desire to eat waffles without the taste of blood in my mouth and my desire to see the wicked and unjust of this world finally brought to heel are not mutually exclusive
Bitch my desire to eat waffles without the taste of blood in my mouth and my desire to see the wicked and unjust of this world finally brought to heel are not mutually exclusive
“People are protesting because they want to go back to brunch”
Restoring normality is good actually
Restoring normality is good actually
February 11, 2026 at 4:13 PM
"People are protesting because they want to go back to brunch"
Bitch my desire to eat waffles without the taste of blood in my mouth and my desire to see the wicked and unjust of this world finally brought to heel are not mutually exclusive
Bitch my desire to eat waffles without the taste of blood in my mouth and my desire to see the wicked and unjust of this world finally brought to heel are not mutually exclusive
Reposted by Hesse Phillips
#EarlyModern 🗃️
Rosamund Oates is researching the history of early modern deafnes - see her P&P article, book out soon I think.
academic.oup.com/past/article...
Rosamund Oates is researching the history of early modern deafnes - see her P&P article, book out soon I think.
academic.oup.com/past/article...
February 11, 2026 at 9:18 AM
#EarlyModern 🗃️
Rosamund Oates is researching the history of early modern deafnes - see her P&P article, book out soon I think.
academic.oup.com/past/article...
Rosamund Oates is researching the history of early modern deafnes - see her P&P article, book out soon I think.
academic.oup.com/past/article...
Trump said he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Ave in broad daylight and it wouldn't make a difference. The truth is, what he's actually guilty of is orders of magnitude worse than murder in broad daylight, and no one wants to do jackshit about that either.
Remember when the FBI put thousands of man hours into searching the Epstein files for Trump’s name?
Tax payer dollars were spent redacting any mention of him.
The unredacted files mention him a million times.
Epstein survivors have named him personally.
When is it enough?
Tax payer dollars were spent redacting any mention of him.
The unredacted files mention him a million times.
Epstein survivors have named him personally.
When is it enough?
FBI personnel were told to flag Epstein files mentioning Trump, Senate Democrat says
Sen. Dick Durbin questioned DOJ leadership over their handling of the Epstein files, including reports that FBI personnel were told to "flag" any mentions of Trump.
www.nbcnews.com
February 11, 2026 at 9:29 AM
Trump said he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Ave in broad daylight and it wouldn't make a difference. The truth is, what he's actually guilty of is orders of magnitude worse than murder in broad daylight, and no one wants to do jackshit about that either.
"EVEN WE, THE LOYAL FOLLOWERS OF THE GREAT GOOBER, KNOW NOT HOW THE GREAT GOOBER FUNCTIONS, NOR THE FULL EXTENT OF ITS MIGHT, NOR THE DEPTH OF ITS CONCIOUSNESS, BUT WE'RE PRETTY SURE IT WILL CURE CANCER OR SOMETHING"
One employee at the A.I. research company Anthropic said that he doesn’t worry about wearing sunscreen because Claude will cure all tumors. Not everyone there buys such speculation—but most of them expect that life as we know it will be wholly transformed. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/me2Mxp
What Is Claude? Anthropic Doesn’t Know, Either
Researchers at the company are trying to understand their A.I. system’s mind—examining its neurons, running it through psychology experiments, and putting it on the therapy couch.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
February 11, 2026 at 9:11 AM
"EVEN WE, THE LOYAL FOLLOWERS OF THE GREAT GOOBER, KNOW NOT HOW THE GREAT GOOBER FUNCTIONS, NOR THE FULL EXTENT OF ITS MIGHT, NOR THE DEPTH OF ITS CONCIOUSNESS, BUT WE'RE PRETTY SURE IT WILL CURE CANCER OR SOMETHING"
Reposted by Hesse Phillips
A timely reminder that doing the right thing isn't always legal and vice versa. This is pretty amazing.
A dresser inside a museum in New York City has been discovered as a secret stop on the Underground Railroad — the first of its kind discovered in Manhattan in over 100 years
February 11, 2026 at 6:49 AM
A timely reminder that doing the right thing isn't always legal and vice versa. This is pretty amazing.
Reposted by Hesse Phillips
we need to talk about that Ring Super Bowl ad
February 10, 2026 at 8:18 PM
we need to talk about that Ring Super Bowl ad
Would like to apologize on behalf of Spain to all of humanity for the minions figure skating routine. Yeah I know it's not really my place to do that but good GOD someone has to.
February 10, 2026 at 8:40 PM
Would like to apologize on behalf of Spain to all of humanity for the minions figure skating routine. Yeah I know it's not really my place to do that but good GOD someone has to.
Reposted by Hesse Phillips
As someone who has co-written two National Historic Landmarks, I know just how much work goes into getting these important sites designated (even more so for monuments). I keep thinking about the group of scholars who must have dedicated so much time to this, only to have it made meaningless.
“This is a deliberate act of erasure . . . The Pride Flag is history, resistance, and Pride born at Stonewall itself. Taking it down does not diminish our community. It exposes an administration afraid of visibility and truth."
gaycitynews.com/trump-rainbo...
🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️ 🍎
gaycitynews.com/trump-rainbo...
🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️ 🍎
Trump administration removes Rainbow Flag from Stonewall National Monument
The Trump administration removed a large Rainbow Flag from a flagpole at the Stonewall National Monument, the National Park Service confirmed to Gay City News
gaycitynews.com
February 10, 2026 at 6:38 PM
As someone who has co-written two National Historic Landmarks, I know just how much work goes into getting these important sites designated (even more so for monuments). I keep thinking about the group of scholars who must have dedicated so much time to this, only to have it made meaningless.