Chris(tyn) Parkes
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parkesland.bsky.social
Chris(tyn) Parkes
@parkesland.bsky.social
Senior Lecturer in history. Views my own. Historian of US politics and sexuality, especially Sumner Welles. Canadian. Non-binary (they/them). Fabulous.
Reposted by Chris(tyn) Parkes
Like the Guardian, people view the BBC as left wing and, as a result, their combined anti trans campaigning has done more damage to trans people than the entire right wing media machine, because they legitimised the right wing's lies.
November 11, 2025 at 10:06 AM
Reposted by Chris(tyn) Parkes
Out today in HLR, my piece Skrmetti Beyond Scrutiny. What happened, what it means for trans rights and sex equality more broadly: harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-13...
Skrmetti Beyond Scrutiny - Harvard Law Review
In United States v. Skrmetti, the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee Senate Bill 1 (SB 1), a state law that prohibits transgender minors from accessing gender-affirming care.
harvardlawreview.org
November 11, 2025 at 1:36 AM
👀👀👀
November 10, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Reposted by Chris(tyn) Parkes
"As someone working in law, it’s heresy to say this, and it might even kill my chances of a career... But as a trans person, and someone fighting for the rights of my community, I refuse to remain silent. To me it just seems obvious: a heavily prejudiced society produces prejudiced institutions."
It’s no surprise that only 31% of trans people trust a legal system built to enforce prejudice, says Jess O’Thomson.
It’s no surprise that only 31% of trans people trust a legal system built to enforce prejudice, says Jess O’Thomson.
goodlawproject.org
November 10, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Reposted by Chris(tyn) Parkes
Heads up 😅

Sex Matters have launched their own MP letter-writing campaign insisting on trans segregation, an exclusionary Code etc etc

📝Let’s make sure our letters outnumber theirs+++

Template here!
If you’ve already written, grab a mate & get them to write too 🤗
actionnetwork.org/letters/scra...
Scrap the Bathroom Ban
🚨This is urgent🚨 Bridget Phillipson, the Minister for Women and Equalities, has a decision to make. The EHRC, a regulator mired in controversy over anti-trans views, has sent a new draft Code of Prac...
actionnetwork.org
November 9, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Reposted by Chris(tyn) Parkes
Folk apparently found helpful my exposition of what I have been calling the ‘Hansard Gap’ in the For Women Scotland judgment. At the suggestion of a correspondent, I am going to set out the myriad other difficulties with this judgment one by one over coming weeks.
November 9, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Reposted by Chris(tyn) Parkes
When Green party critics call our thoroughly researched policies that are often worked through for years "simplistic" "undeliverable" etc, they are never specific about which policies or why.

That's because it would reveal that what they really mean is "our donors don't like them"
November 9, 2025 at 7:52 AM
November 8, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Reposted by Chris(tyn) Parkes
Who's Funding the War on Trans Inclusion?

“The stated goal of strategic litigation is rarely to win every case. It’s to make the target behaviour—in this case, implementing trans-inclusive policies—expensive, risky, and exhausting”
Who's Funding the War on Trans Inclusion?
A 40-fold surge in cases and the litigation infrastructure behind it
ajustsociety.substack.com
November 8, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Indeed. Treat yourself to the 10 minutes of literate delight that Coviello provides by ripping the NYT a new one.
November 8, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Reposted by Chris(tyn) Parkes
Today is Intersex Day of Solidarity and Remembrance.

It's an opportunity to highlight the continued struggles faced by intersex people globally, from unnecessary medical intervention or stigma.

We all deserve to be treated with dignity, and live a life free from discrimination.
November 8, 2025 at 7:49 AM
Or as the Labour Party describes it: Unserious promises from student politicians who prefer protest to power and won't make the tough choices like the grown ups in the room who fought the scourge of antisemitism and stand up for women's spaces growth delivery working families dignity and respect ...
Public options for essentials, strategic price interventions, investment in housing and childcare — this is antifascist economics. It tackles the material conditions that make authoritarianism appealing.
In making life livable, democracy defends itself.
November 8, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Secure in the knowledge it's slightly harder to evict me, I sit at home, not daring to leave for fear of needing a public toilet, take the HRT the doctor won't prescribe anymore, and watch the news show my taxes being used to blow Palestinians to smithereens.

Life changing policies, indeed.
November 8, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Reposted by Chris(tyn) Parkes
Someone at a Russell Group university was moved to almost-poetry by their Faculty Meeting… Can anyone do better?
November 7, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Reposted by Chris(tyn) Parkes
succubus - female demon that seduces men

incubus - male demon that seduces women

vengabus - non-binary demon that likes to party
November 6, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Reposted by Chris(tyn) Parkes
Transphobic beliefs are not worthy of respect in a democratic society. The fact the courts say they are simply creates a problem of power and of force, but does not change the basic fact that transphobia is a gateway to Nazism.
JFC!

This is appalling on its own, but the fact that Joyce has deemed it useful to deploy as propaganda demonstrates the “gender-criticals” deep lack of compassion, empathy or humanity. This is why I regard transphobia as a core element of fascism, starting with its esprit fasciste.
Joyce is utterly devoid of empathy, compassion or comprehension.

It makes me weep that her GC (trans-hating) beliefs are protected and ‘worthy of respect in a democratic society’ when part of this belief is that trans people and those that love them are not worthy of respect at the undertakers.
November 7, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Great idea!

Say, what happened the last time an insurgent leftwing anti-corporate pro-Palestine candidate propelled by a mass movement of youth enthusiasm tried to right the Labour ship?

Everyone in Labour was cool with that, right?
Interesting article which glosses over the rather critical fact that Mamdani won as the Democratic Party candidate, not as a usurper from a third party of the left. In terms of the UK his victory is surely more of an argument for righting the Labour ship than for trying to defeat it?
‘Hope has just won in New York – it can win here too’

✍️ Zack Polanski on Zohran Mamdani

https://bit.ly/49CGAeW
November 7, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Reposted by Chris(tyn) Parkes
MINI LECTURE SERIES 3/10

Here I consider the scope of the Supreme Court’s decision, effectively stating that in some (rare) circumstances, trans people may be excluded if justified, but are not automatically excluded.

#humanrights #womensrights #transrights #nonbinarybarrister #law #lecture
November 7, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Chris(tyn) Parkes
Not Darlington, but this is the men's where I work, two toilets and a shower and two of the doors have fallen off, not fixed for months. But obviously the issue is trans people using changing rooms and not the fact that the NHS lacks resources for basic maintenance
November 7, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Reposted by Chris(tyn) Parkes
Just a regular pipeline now of dubiously funded cranks targeting the NHS to enforce their horrific, hateful politics on the public, by seeking out, targeting and harassing the fuck out people who have quietly been going about their business for years without anyone bothering
Darlington trans medic used female changing room for years
Rose Henderson felt within her rights to use the Darlington hospital facility, a tribunal is told.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 7, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Reposted by Chris(tyn) Parkes
The Guarditerf producing quality investigative journalism like this only serves to expose the way it reports so much trans-related stuff superficially without looking behind the euphemistic government press releases and transphobic Contrived Authority output. They do it by choice.

archive.is/qYKcv
November 7, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Reposted by Chris(tyn) Parkes
We have to talk more how transphobia has taken strong root among well-to-do journalists & politicians when in both the UK & US, the evidence is that voters do not share it.

The demographics of transphobia are people least likely to suffer prejudice in their lives. Richer, maler, whiter, straighter.
Spanberger’s GOP foe spent 57% of her ad budget on anti-trans attacks. Spanberger focused on the economy. You see what won. trib.al/fkMmsR4

The simple truth told time and time again in the polls: The public doesn’t care about trans issues. Voters care deeply about the economy, inflation, & prices.
November 6, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Kudos to the cis women here standing up for trans rights.

Shame on @cyclinguk.bsky.social for capitulating to transphobic bigots and their deceitful lawfare.
November 7, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Reposted by Chris(tyn) Parkes
🏊‍♀️The women who swim at Kenwood Ladies Pond have already made their decision.

In 2024, almost 900 members voted to keep their trans-inclusive policy - a policy that has worked peacefully since 2019.

Now, a small campaign group is seeking to overturn that democratic decision through the courts.

1/5
November 6, 2025 at 6:00 PM