Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Cal Horton (they/them)

@fiercemum.bsky.social

4.5K followers 740 following 900 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

Cal Horton (they/them) @fiercemum.bsky.social · 20h

Good luck cutting it down!

Cal Horton (they/them) @fiercemum.bsky.social · 21h

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 · 1d

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 · 1d

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 3

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

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 · 1d

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 · 2d

"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 · 1d

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

4 8

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

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 · 2d

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 · 2d

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

12 190 530

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

1 32 100

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

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 23 53

Reposted by Cal Horton (they/them)

🦇 Killy Witches 🎃👻 @tillybridges.bsky.social · 4d

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 · 4d

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 · 6d

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 · 5d

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 · 6d

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 · 6d

"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

Reposted by Cal Horton (they/them)

Hellvetika @hellvetikaseraph.bsky.social · 8d

Oh look, it's that easy. 🤷🏼‍♀️

PN: If there was a Green government, would the Greens reverse the Tories, and subsequently Wes Streeting's, ban on puberty blockers for trans youth?

ZP: Absolutely.

It's really important that policy for trans people is informed by the National Health Service and is done in consultation with trans people. It seems like an abominable gap, particularly in the Cass review, that trans people were not included in the conversations.

It's a basic principle: nothing about us without us.

1 110 400

Reposted by Cal Horton (they/them)

Chris but he’s a ghost @gothcasual.bsky.social · 7d

See if you’re arguing that you should roll back human rights laws because it’s stopping you from deporting people to places where they’ll be tortured. You shouldn’t be Prime Minister.

Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 7d

A Labour Prime Minister. A LABOUR Prime Minister.

Pressed for details about what was blocking deportations of foreign criminals, Sir Keir cited Articles 3 and 8 of the ECHR - which ban torture and protect the right to private and family life respectively.

"But it's more than that," he said, pointing to the UN's Refugee Convention, Torture Convention and Convention on the Rights of the Child as potential barriers.

1 24 63

Reposted by Cal Horton (they/them)

Ruth Pearce @notrightruth.bsky.social · 7d

A beautiful piece on grief, loss, and the complexity of trying to be part of a fractured community, from another friend of Robyn and Jessica.

Grieving and Trans Community

In writing this post I am trying to organise my thoughts to conclude a complicated month. I am not a writer and this piece was somewhat intentionally rushed while the tumultuous vortex of emotions …

intransigentnotebook.wordpress.com

5 16

Reposted by Cal Horton (they/them)

TransHealthNow @dadtrans.bsky.social · 7d

There were ~7000 children & young people on waitlists for NHS Youth Gender services in 2023. Only 22! were referred to the adult services in 2024? Thousands of youth are being kept in limbo, whilst those who do manage to be seen are subjected to the worst forms of harmful assessments & gatekeeping.

TransHealthNow @dadtrans.bsky.social · 8d

The Multi Disciplinary Board for Youth Gender Services is designed to gatekeep & control. Now evidenced it has a 100% success rate in blocking Trans youth from accessing healthcare. I have heard some truly shocking things about their sessions where young people & families are subjected to trauma.

EmiB71 @emiliab.bsky.social · 8d

#UK #TransRights An FOI has just confirmed what all of us have feared: for the Youth gender services, since July 2024, not a single patient has been referred to commence HRT. And 22 have been moved from youth to adult services , also without treatment. This is scandalous.

3 31 77

Reposted by Cal Horton (they/them)

Vagina Museum @vaginamuseum.bsky.social · 8d

*sigh* Bluesky is Blueskying again. Here's that link again, this time visible to everyone. Trans people's experiences are not adult content, mods. www.vaginamuseum.co.uk/communitygal...

A post from the Vagina Museum, labelled as "adult content": The last day to view Trans Ephemera is 5th October. This community-created exhibition explores diversity, medicalisation and experiences of oppression through the medium of things that are normally thrown away. The exhibition is free to visit - plan yours now!

9 350 890

Reposted by Cal Horton (they/them)

Sian Berry MP @sianberry.bsky.social · 11d

I have come to the conclusion the EHRC guidance on single sex spaces should not even come to Parliament. It is misleading and has caused distress for my trans constituents.

I urge @bphillipsonMP to reject it on grounds of practicality and human rights.

sianberry.org.uk/publications/l…

An image of Sian's letter to the Minister for Women and Equalities.

You can read the full text of her letter at:

https://www.sianberry.org.uk/publications/letter-regarding-statutory-guidance-from-the-equality-human-rights-commission/

82 470 1.5K

Reposted by Cal Horton (they/them)

Scottish Trans @scottishtrans.bsky.social · 12d

For trans and non-binary organisers across Scotland!

Despite the challenges, your efforts are helping to build a stronger, more vibrant community.

This series of meetings is all about bringing us together. Let’s share knowledge, collaborate & amplify our impact.

www.outsavvy.com/event/29503/...

7 16

Reposted by Cal Horton (they/them)

Ruth Pearce @notrightruth.bsky.social · 12d

New essay: REJECT TRANS DOOM-POSTING.

It's about grief, loss, institutional failures, and the horror of the current moment.

It's also a love letter to trans community, and the things we do with and for one another.

Reject Trans Doom-Posting

This week I took the long train down to the south of England for my friend Robyn’s funeral. She died very suddenly three weeks ago, aged just 32. Robyn gave so much love to the world, and was so lo…

ruthpearce.net

14 140 350