Safe to say it's been a grim few days, on top of already grim days, on top of a hard year. I was raised never to be angry. Never to disrupt. Never to raise a fuss. For abuse victim survivors of any sort, anger can bring with it a variety of outcomes, all bad: more abuse perhaps, to 'put you in your place'; more attention, which may draw eyes to the abuse, which in turn will definitely destabilise your life -- and make everything worse.

So. I spent the first nine months of 2025 feeling pretty freaked out: everything seemed worse, and likely to keep getting worse. Pillars of what most people in the world have taken to be truths and even basic human rights crumbled and continued to crumble. I for one felt that the ground I had stood on my whole life was shifting, inexorably.

I have been writing and re-writing this post in my head for months. What happened? I considered this for weeks. What I did not want to admit (to myself, or anyone) was how completely shaken I was by the re-election of an abuser to the White House. His re-emergence, followed by lawless action after lawless action, rendered me almost paralysed. What is the point of working away in my small corner of the fight against Violence Against Women and Girls, when the whole world order has turned justice on its head?

In first interview since resigning, former archbishop of Canterbury says more cases were arriving every day and he ‘got it wrong’

National monument commemorates 1969 riot led by trans women of color outside historic New York City bar

Leading feminist philosopher Judith Butler has declared that abandoning trans people or any minority is operating within 'fascist logic'.