Interesting Links for 09-07-2014

[andrewducker]

• SSRIs: Much More Than You Wanted To Know
  (tags: depression drugs )
• Apparently we now have sniffer dogs trained to detect electronic circuitry...
  (tags: dogs technology )
• I'm gonna open up a retail store called KickstartMart
  (tags: kickstarter funny comic )
• A list of things which are accidentally Turing Complete
  (tags: turing algorithms computers )

Comments

[bart_calendar]

I'm curious why a UK LGBT community is appropriating the name "Stonewall" - a particularly US landmark moment for the gay community.

I would also note that dissing transgender members while calling yourself "Stonewall" is ridiculous. All accounts of the Stonewall riot say that it was the drag queens and transgendered people in the bar who fought the cops first and fought the cops the hardest.

[matgb]

When they were set up, they were a) fairly inclusive and b) specifically referencing Stonewall as a rights campaign as it's a landmark for the gay community everywhere, especially the English speaking world.

But, it's a member driven organisation that's overly reliant on the chief exec to set direction, the previous CE was notorious for, basically, following the Labour party/govt line on rights-not just trans exclusionary stuff, but also actually went public saying he was opposed to campaigning for equal marriage as it was unnecessary and of no interest to members.

The new (acting) CE is trying to be more inclusive but if you're member driven and you've pushed out and alienated a lot of your bi- and trans- members/potential members then you increasingly become an LGbt org at best-they're never getting my money, being a member of LibDem LGBT+ has done a lot more for equality in this country in the last 5 years than Stonewall has managed.

[alitheapipkin]

Yeah, the fact that they opposed equal marriage but then still tried to claim part of the credit when it was achieved was a really classy touch.

[andrewducker]

FWIW I believe that Stonewall Scotland is an independent organisation that's much better with T and B issues.

[alitheapipkin]

Are they independent? Or just registered separately because we have different charity law up here? I've never heard anyone from Stonewall Scotland interviewed in the media but I don't listen to Scottish radio stations so I guess that may be as much my fault as theirs.

[andrewducker]

They're at least semi-independent. They have different policies towards transgender issues (and consider them part of their remit) for instance.

[alitheapipkin]

Yeah, I just went and had a nosey at their website and discovered that. I guess this is one of those cases where Scottish charities struggle to get coverage in comparison with their rest-of-the-UK counterparts. It still amazes me the number of folks (even up here) who don't realise that the RSPCA doesn't cover Scotland and the SSPCA is a completely separate organisation.