Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Cal Horton (they/them)

@fiercemum.bsky.social

4.5K followers 750 following 910 posts

Non-binary researcher supporting trans kids and challenging cis-supremacy

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Cal Horton (they/them) @fiercemum.bsky.social · Nov 24

Who would like to read a ten tweet (skeet?) summary of my latest article "Towards a Theory of Cis-Supremacy".

For those too tired to read a whole academic article, here's a very short summary thread on cis-supremacy. 1/12

Cal Horton (they/them) @fiercemum.bsky.social · Nov 22

Thank goodness I can say cis on Bluesky!

My new article is just out: "Towards a Theory of Cis-Supremacy: Conceptualising Ongoing Barriers to Trans Equality".

It examines forces of cis power over trans communities, building on scholarship on white supremacy
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Towards a Theory of Cis-Supremacy: Conceptualising Ongoing Barriers to Trans Equality - Cal Horton, 2024

Trans scholarship and trans perspectives have historically been marginalised from mainstream academia. There is value in ongoing theoretical exchange between so...

journals.sagepub.com

7 47 130

Reposted by Cal Horton (they/them)

trasgernder @gemma.transwrites.world · 1d

It is hard not to despair when literally anyone could accuse you of having hid your "transgender status" from them and have you imprisoned and put on a sex offenders register.

Trans Writes @transwrites.world · 1d

transwrites.world/ciara-watkin...

Ciara Watkin has been convicted and imprisoned for being transgender in a transphobic nation

by @gemma.transwrites.world

Ciara Watkin has been convicted and imprisoned for being transgender in a transphobic nation - Trans Writes

Ciara Watkin is now a 21 year old woman who, 3 years ago, met a man of the same age through instant messaging apps and engaged in sexual activity with him. She has now been convicted and will be house...

transwrites.world

46 140

Reposted by Cal Horton (they/them)

Gendered Intelligence @genderedintelligence.co.uk · 1d

Are you non-binary? If so, we’ve got an opportunity for you.

We’re collaborating on a 3-year project exploring non-binary people’s expectations and experience of family life in the UK.

Find out more and join here: https://tinyurl.com/FamilyBeyondBinary

Join the “Family Beyond the Binary” Community Advisory Board

We’re seeking non-binary individuals to ensure our research project, exploring non-binary families, is community-led.

Apply by 31 Oct.

1 9 7

Cal Horton (they/them) @fiercemum.bsky.social · 1d

And in under 18s it is standing at an indefinite wait and no one has accessed endocrine care in the new service's history

1 2 4

Cal Horton (they/them) @fiercemum.bsky.social · 2d

New short blog: Trans health waiting lists are a political choice

growinguptransgender.com/2025/10/12/t...

Trans health waiting lists are a political choice

I’m just back from an awesome trans healthcare conference in Norway (blog on that to follow). Here I wanted to share information from a presentation by the founder of the transit trans health…

growinguptransgender.com

4 17 56

Reposted by Cal Horton (they/them)

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 2d

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera

In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion.

As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.

400 6.1K 21K

Cal Horton (they/them) @fiercemum.bsky.social · 2d

Have you looked at the question? Did you find it easy to use? Did you look at the one question asked to young people? Do you think it will lead to useful inputs?

2 2

Reposted by Cal Horton (they/them)

Jolyon Maugham KC @goodlawproject.org · 4d

Any comment Wes Streeting? Or will you call the coroner a liar as well?

Sophie Molly @sophiemolly.co.uk · 4d

www.thepinknews.com/2025/10/09/n...

17-year-old trans girl's suicide over NHS wait times was preventable says coroner

A 17-year-old trans girl's death by suicide over NHS wait times could have been prevented with swift intervention, a coroner has ruled.

www.thepinknews.com

13 130 440

Cal Horton (they/them) @fiercemum.bsky.social · 4d

The survey looks to me like it is designed with bad intent. This is not a survey design you would do if you wanted to collect meaningful data, but it will work well for laundering anti-trans research priorities.

2 4

Cal Horton (they/them) @fiercemum.bsky.social · 6d

Good luck cutting it down!

Cal Horton (they/them) @fiercemum.bsky.social · 6d

I don't have a published reference for this - its a combo of personal knowledge and data from my own research. Are you doing a second book? (sadly I haven't managed to find an agent yet for the one I've written)

1 2

Cal Horton (they/them) @fiercemum.bsky.social · 6d

Some adolescents had an actually agreed date for starting endocrine care (a feat that takes literally years, involving an unbelievable range of interminable assessments & approvals), and because that date ended up being early 2024 they then NEVER got anything through the NHS.

1 1 13

Cal Horton (they/them) @fiercemum.bsky.social · 6d

Have a deadline I need to hit and have spent hours completely stuck on getting started. Can anyone bully or cajole me into doing it please.

1 4

Cal Horton (they/them) @fiercemum.bsky.social · 6d

Also no-one got anything in the first months of 2024 at all, as the old service shut down.

Even those promised access to endocrine care in late 2023 found no route to actually getting that care when we moved into early 2024 and beyond.

1 1 13

Reposted by Cal Horton (they/them)

Sammi Narramore @narramoreart.bsky.social · 7d

An interesting piece on how old papers advocating for conversion therapy, persist like weeds in modern medial literature.
Problematic papers are cited by proxy, and the ideas therein influence current policy (despite being harmful and decades out of date).

Cal Horton (they/them) @fiercemum.bsky.social · 8d

"Conversion therapy is harmful & shouldn't inform NHS Practice - New Insights from Clinical History" A short blog on an important new article:

"An autoethnographic critique of a past report of inpatient psychiatric treatment for gender diverse children"

growinguptransgender.com/2025/10/05/c...

1 3 7

Reposted by Cal Horton (they/them)

Sammi Narramore @narramoreart.bsky.social · 7d

For a more palatable primer on the subject, I recommend this piece from ABC news.

It's in fact worth a read even if you've read the paper directly
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

'Conversion therapy' survivor speaking out against trans health study

A decades-old psychiatric study is influencing current debates over transgender youth health care. But a new analysis led by a survivor says the findings were deeply harmful and dangerously misleading...

www.abc.net.au

5 9

Cal Horton (they/them) @fiercemum.bsky.social · 8d

Cass literally did recommend putting in place statutory barriers to overseas private prescribing - she just did it at the very end of a very long report utilising slightly vague terms to avoid it attracting attention. She was too politically astute to recommend "A PB Ban".

1 7

Cal Horton (they/them) @fiercemum.bsky.social · 8d

Cass Review p. 228 Recommendation 27:
"The Dept. of Health & Social Care should work with the General Pharmaceutical Council to define the dispensing responsibilities of pharmacists of private prescriptions & consider other statutory solutions that would prevent inappropriate overseas prescribing".

1 2

Reposted by Cal Horton (they/them)

Rob Mullins @robertmullins.bsky.social · 8d

If I were an investigative journalist in the UK (are there any left?), I would be having a good look at the extent to which NHS leadership seems to have allied itself with a fringe medical movement that more or less condones conversion therapy. qnews.com.au/australian-r...

Australian report says UK’s Cass review should not guide transgender healthcare

QNews LGBTIQA+ News

qnews.com.au

13 190 540

Cal Horton (they/them) @fiercemum.bsky.social · 8d

1 32 100

Cal Horton (they/them) @fiercemum.bsky.social · 8d

An excellent new article outlining all that is wrong with the Cass Review, condemning its harmful impact on UK policy and practice, and calling it a failure of evidence-based medicine. Written by those involved in trans children's healthcare in Australia.

www.mja.com.au/journal/2025...

Cass Review does not guide care for trans young people

Good medicine is guided by the values of the patient, not those of a clinician, politician or commentator. The Cass Review, lacking expertise and compromised by implicit stigma and misinformation, doe...

www.mja.com.au

2 24 53

Reposted by Cal Horton (they/them)

🦇 Killy Witches 🎃👻 @tillybridges.bsky.social · 10d

writing a letter to your younger self, saying the things you needed to hear but had no one to say?

…it’s not easy

There's a reason you kept that barrette you found in the street while walking home from school in fourth grade and hid it in your room, and put it in your hair every time you were home alone. You never knew why you did it.
It embarrassed you a bit, even though no one knew.
Because "boys didn't do that." Why would you do that?
What's wrong with you, you freak? I hear you wondering that over and over again and it breaks my heart.
Nothing. Nothing is wrong with you, you beautiful tortured little child. What's wrong is the way the world treats you based on your biology, and who they decide that makes you. That's all it is. It doesn't make you a freak, and it doesn't mean this world isn't for you.
It just means you're a girl. Yes you are. I am. Look at me.
Look at me. Do you see? Can you imagine? This is you one day. You'll get here. Don't give up. It's going to feel like it takes forever, but you can't give up.

4 18 80

Reposted by Cal Horton (they/them)

TransHealthNow @dadtrans.bsky.social · 10d

tacc.org.uk/2025/10/03/i...

Brilliant investigative journalism. Shedding light upon the truly murkey dealings of a group of anti Trans lobbyists cosying up to government departments & spreading misinformation with malice.

Inside the DHSC’s secret courtship of anti-trans lobby groups - tacc.org.uk

An FOI (FOI-1632059) disclosure has laid bare how the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has been quietly opening its doors to anti-rights groups, giving them access, influence, and legitimac...

tacc.org.uk

1 11 22

Reposted by Cal Horton (they/them)

Foxdie @foxdie.bsky.social · 11d

Labour + Streeting launching review into "over diagnosis" of mental health/neurodiverse conditions.

Simon Wessely been given vice chair position for it.

Excited for Cass 3.0 🫠🫠🫠

11 33 100

Cal Horton (they/them) @fiercemum.bsky.social · 11d

For anyone who is interested in doing FOIs, I wonder if it would be worth asking the children's gender service how many under 18s have been discharged from the service since it opened.

I know a bunch of people who have asked to be discharged, and others who have been discharged without asking.

Reposted by Cal Horton (they/them)

Stéphanie says… 🏴‍☠️☕️🍰 @stephaniejane.bsky.social · 12d

Disgusting inhumane behaviour.
But, of course, transphobes don’t see trans children as human, so they’re more than happy to let this abuse take place.

Sophie Molly @sophiemolly.co.uk · 12d

"She said the union has received several reports of “significant, detrimental impacts” on transgender and intersex pupils as a result of a recent UK Supreme Court ruling."

It's child abuse!

news.stv.tv/politics/tea...

Teachers say trans pupils 'limiting food and drink' to avoid school toilets

The new guidance said students will be asked to use toilet facilities which correspond to their biological sex.

news.stv.tv

2 17 57