Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
@nicomaramckay.com
12K followers 600 following 18K posts
Historian in Tkaronto (Toronto). Likes bats, monsters, sincereposting, and alt text. Genderqueer. Trans. Autistic. 40s. 👬 🧛 nicomaramckay.com There will be typos. Ephemeral Record of trans and queer histories: patreon.com/ephemeralrecord
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nicomaramckay.com
I added half a dozen new entries to the Bibliography of Medieval Trans Studies, with a shoutout to @tswingard.bsky.social who added a few things recently as well. (Thank you!!)

There are a ton of great resources on here, many of which are freely accessible.
Bibliography of Medieval Trans Studies
A Bibliography of Medieval Trans Studies This list builds on the works of several other great queer lists, namely: Lucy Allen's "A 'Queer Medieval' Reading List," Jeanne de Montbaston: Reading Mediev...
docs.google.com
Reposted by Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
rlstar.bsky.social
The questions in this survey are so depressing, go do it and put some resistance in your answers, like asking where the space is for research that isn't just giving money to businesses and doing their R&D for them.
Reposted by Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
nicomaramckay.com
Unban Link.
nicomaramckay.com
tl;dr: Bluesky began with genuine promise: a new social media platform where users could feel safer, but inconsistent moderation quickly eroded trust.

When systemically marginalized users pushed back, Bluesky’s leadership minimized concerns and began to target them for bans.
Bluesky’s CEO meltdown: How leadership continues to fail its most marginalized users
tl;dr: Bluesky began with genuine promise: a new social media platform where systemically marginalized users could feel safer, but…
plutopsyche.medium.com
nicomaramckay.com
Unban Link.
nicomaramckay.com
tl;dr: Bluesky began with genuine promise: a new social media platform where users could feel safer, but inconsistent moderation quickly eroded trust.

When systemically marginalized users pushed back, Bluesky’s leadership minimized concerns and began to target them for bans.
Bluesky’s CEO meltdown: How leadership continues to fail its most marginalized users
tl;dr: Bluesky began with genuine promise: a new social media platform where systemically marginalized users could feel safer, but…
plutopsyche.medium.com
Reposted by Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
nicomaramckay.com
I will be co-presenting a workshop at The Enchanté Network‘s Together for Change Conference in Ottawa on Wednesday, 15 October 2025, representing @arquives.ca.

Learn more about our workshop and the conference here: www.nicomaramckay.com/events/works...
Poster for The Enchanté Network's Together For Change Annual Conference running from 15-17 October 2025 in Ottawa.

Pushing Forward: Building a Just and Equitable Future.

The poster features people around tables, clapping and others on a stage. It's giving a general conference vibe.
nicomaramckay.com
There's a joke in here about pride, but I can't find it.
Reposted by Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
nicomaramckay.com
I need someone to invent a brain that sleeps.
nicomaramckay.com
Just because I am in bed does not mean my brain will let me sleep.
Reposted by Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
kendrawrites.com
Al Jazeera is doing videos of the Palestinian releases and they're heart wrenching. One man was detained for over a year and was released to find out that Israel had killed his two kids. The youngest was three. Her birthday would've been on Saturday. He'd made a small bracelet for her in prison.
Reposted by Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
johannestevans.bsky.social
Just some questions to consider when writing the Accessibility notes for your event or your venue!
white text on a blue background, with an icon of a person in a wheelchair beside the heading "accessibility at your events".

the body text reads, "Some things to consider adding to your Accessibility section for your event and/or your venue, from a disabled man.

“The venue is semi-wheelchair accessible” is a good place to start, but when planning a night out, more information is better than less!

Accessibility is the most basic thing I look for in a venue, especially for events." white text on a blue background, with an icon of a cane beside the heading "accessibility at your events".

Firstly, not all wheelchairs look the same. Motorised and power chairs might be wider, longer, or heavier than lighter chars without a motor - these chairs may need more space to go through doorways.

Secondly, wheelchair-users are only a fraction of disabled people who may have additional access requirements - some people use canes, crutches, frames, rollators. Some may be photosensitive or use hearing aids, etc.
Reposted by Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
mayawest.online
Nunavut, the only Indigenous led province, is starving.

because of the Canadian governments neglect.

Please buy a copy or donate to these organizations to help fight hunger in the far North.
💸💕
ivacheung.com
Please read this to understand how dire the situation is in Nunavut: www.aptnnews.ca/featured/foo...

I made print copies of my book a fundraiser to raise awareness of food sovereignty/security issues in the North, but the PDF is free if you want to download + donate directly to QCFC + other orgs.
Reposted by Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
jessiegender.bsky.social
He is frankly everything I wish actual mainstream news outlets would be - focusing on and informing about larger scale systemic problems and issues but remaining steadfast in support of smaller scale issues and marginalized communities.
nicomaramckay.com
You can tell you're in a Canadian hotel when the closet has a designated spot for ice skates.
Sign in a closet indicating where snow boots and ice skates should be placed. Wider view of the hotel closet.
Reposted by Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
dopegirlfresh.blacksky.app
Black people suffer social or literal death when we say no. He wouldn’t kiss that white woman’s ass or make nice with her, so they banned him.
the-pied-piper.bsky.social
So, Łink is still banned? All the accounts we see catch bans and come back, and all the ones that mysteriously never get banned, but the one that stays banned is Łink?

Free Łink.
Reposted by Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
clacksee.bsky.social
@transactualuk.bsky.social have released a tool you can use to ask your MP to tell government to scrap the bathroom ban and demand any new Code of Practice ensures providers can lawfully include trans people in their services.

It's time to turn the pressure up.

actionnetwork.org/letters/scra...
a transgender flag with the word rights in the corner
Alt: a transgender flag with the words trans rights are human rights
media.tenor.com
Reposted by Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
kendrawcandraw.bsky.social
Me: I just don't understand why I can't just out-think my anxiety and emotions and simply react and respond in the most ideal way every single time and never feel bad
My therapist of eight years: *audibly loading gun*
Reposted by Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
kendrawcandraw.bsky.social
You can't logic your way out of being burnt out. Unless you're me. Who should be able to do it and it's a personal failing that I can't
Reposted by Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
autisticadam.bsky.social
Sorry for infodumping about my special interest out of nowhere, I'm autistic and you said a keyword and it activated my unskippable dialogue which I simply had to share.
Reposted by Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
kashana.blacksky.app
Why would a billionaire want a functioning paper? Functioning papers cover shit like “did you know this billionaire makes his workers pee into bottles instead of taking a break” and “you pay way more tax than a guy with ten yachts”
Reposted by Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
themountaingoats.bsky.social
Please be conscious if you protest this weekend that there are feds at the protest. They look like you and they sound like you, not like Steve Buscemi in that one clip with the skateboard. Thinking you can spot them is self delusion. Nobody you haven’t met needs to know your last name.
Reposted by Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
bowlerhatscience.org
and on that note, Free Łink
bowlerhatscience.org
people PLEASE use alt-text ESPECIALLY if you're screenshotting something that's all text, good lard on toast
Reposted by Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
thetransfemininereview.com
"You make the best of it all and hope you can help make it a little better for the gurl after you."

- Miss Major, 2023 💔
One of the things I hear with some younger trans people I know is they feel, "I'm gonna get this surgery, and I'm gonna learn that way of speaking, and I'm gonna be done." You're never done. If you're a straight, cisgender person, you're never done. Things are always happening that have the potential to change you. So all I am today is not who I'm gonna be tomorrow, because of the things that happened to me today and later tonight. People forget that. "Oh, after I transition, I'm gonna be through." Well, good luck with that. 'Cause if you're through, then it's time to leave, you know, and I don't wanna go anywhere yet.
I'm in my seventies. Why didn't I stop? Number one is community. My gurls. I've had moments of thinking about stopping, but I didn't. I made sure I would step back, reju- venate myself, and then got back out there, and that's how you make a way. Our stories are not all the same, but the destination is: to get some place where we have some peace and harmony, and we can be at ease with ourselves and the people around us. You make the best of it all and hope you can help make it a little better for the gurl after you.
Reposted by Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
sandyernestallen.bsky.social
hey it's a great day to leave substack ... like every day
Reposted by Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
histoftech.bsky.social
every big AI pitch is like “what if we took away your means of survival and devalued all your skills to make stonks go up temporarily? You’d like that wouldn’t you?”
Reposted by Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
mbsycamore.bsky.social
"Mainstream visibility hasn't helped our community at large. It's actually *more* to our detriment"💥
Miss Major spoke the unvarnished truth until the end, long live her legacy💥 (From MISS MAJOR SPEAKS: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary, Toshio Meronek/Miss Major @versobooks.bsky.social)
74

MISS MAJOR SPEAKS

Motherfucker, you brought me here to show the public you care about the gurls and you don't--there's no honesty or transparency in that. And how about let sex workers be sex workers, because whoever's dick they have in their mouth is bound to be a whole lot cleaner than a hidden agenda of some obnoxious gay guy or lesbian who woke up in 2019 and saw a billboard for Pose and thought of calling up their minions: "Maybe we should put a Black person on a float during the Pride parade."

It was really cute when they put Laverne Cox on the cover of Time magazine back in 2014, but I can't help but think, what has that done for the average gurl on the street? Mainstream visibility hasn't helped our community at large. It's actually more to our detriment. The images that the cis people have of the community, they're images that aren't real to the gurls who are barely making a living. It's not real life. It's not keeping us alive. It hasn't slowed the murders, or the abuses.