Sam Caslin
LightNews LightNews
banner
moderndecorum.bsky.social
Sam Caslin
@moderndecorum.bsky.social
3.3K followers 660 following 110 posts
Historian at the Uni of Liverpool. They/she.
🏳️‍⚧️📚
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Sam Caslin
jackiantonovich.bsky.social
In 1974, Cornell lecturer Lin Farley began recognizing a pattern in the experiences women shared in her Women and Work course: women were being pushed out of jobs by men’s sexual behavior. Farley coined the term, “sexual harassment.”
October 3, 2026 at 12:00 PM
Reposted by Sam Caslin
echomikeromeo.bsky.social
Does anyone have a scan of Roberta Cowell's Story (1954) that you might be willing to share?
August 29, 2026 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by Sam Caslin
kitdewaal.com
As I was saying … just looking for an excuse
August 26, 2026 at 12:10 PM
moderndecorum.bsky.social
This is great research which brings together histories of sex work and trans histories in England. The article notes that trans women who sold sex were targeted using laws on homosexuality, furthering our understanding of the ways medical and legal models were used to construct sex.
August 16, 2026 at 10:48 AM
Reposted by Sam Caslin
ikax.bsky.social
#BookHistory friends, this is the finest moment in our discipline’s history
August 2, 2026 at 8:43 AM
Reposted by Sam Caslin
gilescameron.bsky.social
Just a week until the deadline for this call: please do consider submitting or getting in touch if it’s of interest!
gilescameron.bsky.social Cameron Giles @gilescameron.bsky.social · Jul 27
Does your research consider: gender, sexuality and law; 20th century politics and social reform; social and political rights; sexuality and culture; global LGBTQ+ rights and/or criminal law reform? If so, please consider submitting to this one day conference marking the anniversary of Wolfenden!
August 7, 2026 at 1:53 PM
Reposted by Sam Caslin
samwetherell.bsky.social
Excited to announce that Liverpool and the Unmaking of Britain will be out in paperback on July 16. I’ll be doing a launch event that day with the wonderful people at West Kirby Books. See below for tickets! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/liverpool-...
May 20, 2026 at 2:47 PM
Reposted by Sam Caslin
echomikeromeo.bsky.social
You might like this if you are interested in where the fields of modern British history, intellectual history, & history of gender/sexuality are at atm! Or in my reflections on my intellectual & personal journey from PhD to permanent job. Also there is a summary of the book but it comes 55 mins in.
jhideas.bsky.social Journal of the History of Ideas @jhideas.bsky.social · May 28
For the In Theory podcast, Disha Karnad Jani interviews Samuel Rutherford about his book “Teaching Gender: The British University and the Rise of Heterosexuality, 1860–1939,” which explores how English and Scottish universities constructed gender and sexuality in early 20th-century Britain.
Teaching Gender: Disha Karnad Jani Interviews Samuel Rutherford
by Disha Karnad Jani
web.sas.upenn.edu
May 30, 2026 at 1:07 PM
Reposted by Sam Caslin
plutopress.bsky.social
This is the rich, overlooked history of trans activism in Britain

Deviants and Trailblazers is OUT NOW: www.plutobooks.com/product/devi...
May 25, 2026 at 12:47 PM
Reposted by Sam Caslin
bernietranders.bsky.social
Amongst many other things, what saddens me about the guidance is that it punishes openness. I’m “cis-passing” & am lucky enough to have been so for years, so people don’t know unless I tell them, & I like seeing the smile appear on trans people’s faces when I do share. I don’t want to be stealth.
May 24, 2026 at 1:46 PM
Reposted by Sam Caslin
thisislisapower.bsky.social
Today’s the anniversary of the passing into law of Section 28 in 1988, the first homophobic legislation in a century. Politicians and media said it was our own fault, told us to shut up and give up. We didn’t. Dont you dare give up now on trans people.
May 24, 2026 at 7:13 AM
Reposted by Sam Caslin
jackalpants.bsky.social
For business owners, the important part of the new ECHR advice is this:

13.179: There is no type of official record or document in the UK which provides reliable evidence of sex. [...] Therefore, it is unlikely to be proportionate or practical to ask for further evidence of a person’s sex.
May 21, 2026 at 7:14 PM
moderndecorum.bsky.social
How are they even going to define “biological sex”? How can this even be policed?
jonnymorris.bsky.social Jonny Morris @jonnymorris.bsky.social · May 21
If a government minister believes the supreme court has substantially changed how the law is interpreted from what was intended by parliament then the last thing that minister should be doing is nodding along with it. We are supposed to have Parliamentary sovereignty.
Phillipson said the draft code's content on sex and gender reassignment had changed substantially in light of the supreme court's judgment.
May 21, 2026 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Sam Caslin
juliaserano.bsky.social
if Anita Bryant was still alive and promoting Florida orange juice, you couldn't pay me enough to drink it. how is Harry Potter any different?
here is a timeline of JK Rowling's transphobia: web.archive.org/web/20241225...
& here is where her HP money is going: www.advocate.com/news/jk-rowl...
J.K. Rowling uses Harry Potter wealth to fund anti-transgender organization
This is where "Harry Potter" profits are going.
www.advocate.com
March 24, 2026 at 10:49 PM
Reposted by Sam Caslin
rossbrooks.co.uk
My first book, Darwin and the Queer Origins of Life, will be published by Yale University Press on 11 August (UK) and 8 September (US). Please help spread the word! 🙏

UK: yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300... @yalebooks.bsky.social 🏳️‍🌈📚🐵

US: yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300... @yalepress.bsky.social 🏳️‍⚧️ 🗃️🦋
Jacket design for Darwin and the Queer Origins of Life: A History of Sex and Science by Ross Brooks. It features a historic, drawn image of a gynandromorph gypsy moth, with distinctive female patterning on its left side and male on its right. Against a black background, the image and text (title and author's name) are brightly rendered in a spectrum of colours resonant of the Progress Pride Flag.
January 30, 2026 at 10:21 AM
Reposted by Sam Caslin
lottelydia.bsky.social
my dad didn’t go to university and he was extremely happy to pay taxes for his four children to do so; and, indeed, for the doctors who treated him at Addenbrookes to have gone to university as well.
2damntrans.bsky.social sasha @2damntrans.bsky.social · Jan 29
Rachel Reeves: "It is not right that people who don't go to university bear the cost for others to." I don't use local leisure centres and I don't drive, so will I be made exempt for taxation that pays for all that stuff? Or is it only education we'll be going after
January 29, 2026 at 10:22 PM
Reposted by Sam Caslin
doublehelix.bsky.social
If you feel "hamstrung" by human rights laws and by health and safety laws - you are the person those laws were designed to protect us against. You need to be obstructed by those laws.

Also, she's lying.
implausibleblog.bsky.social Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · Jan 26
Suella Braverman, "There is a very strong case to increase the powers of any immigration enforcement officers that we deploy"

"At the moment they're hamstrung by human rights laws, by health and safety laws, by all sorts of needless and obstructive bureaucracy"
January 27, 2026 at 9:28 PM
Reposted by Sam Caslin
liamthorp.bsky.social
Worth remembering when looking at the horrific scenes in the US right now that both Reform and the Tories have pledged to bring in ICE-style organisations to the UK if they win power
January 24, 2026 at 10:33 PM
Reposted by Sam Caslin
rossbrooks.co.uk
🤩 This is how it's done, folks!

'A lesbian couple at the centre of their community and a pair of brothers said to have been among the first people to medically transition are among the people whose stories are told in the Queer Norfolk archive.' 🏳️‍🌈📚🏳️‍⚧️📜🗃️

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... #queerhistory
Archive reveals hidden stories of Queer Norfolk
Figures such as Barbara Ross and Anna Gurney were ahead of their time, says archivist Adam Baker.
www.bbc.co.uk
January 22, 2026 at 3:22 PM
Reposted by Sam Caslin
reactiveashley.cat
I’ve seen drafts of this guidance several times before, but I’ve only just come across it in its published leaflet form.
A dark blue and red leaflet, titled A GUIDE TO THE SEX DISCRIMINATION gender reassignment REGULATIONS 1999, with gender reassignment in larger stylised letters. Logo of the DfEE, Department for Education and Employment. Page 14 Section. Flexibility regarding Dress Codes Many employers operate a Dress Code system. It is good practice to allow enough Rexibility in the dress code to accommodate the process of transition from one sex to the other. Good practice example: M was working as a sales assistant when she began her transition to female. Her employer discussed the possibility of temporary redeployment out of the public gaze, but M preferred to remain with her team. The company dress code was therefore relaxed along similar lines as for Muslim women and other groups, giving M flexibility over hair length and style, jewellery and makeup, prior to the point at which she felt comfortable in a skirt rather than trousers and without reference to any specific point of change of social gen-der. For a period some customers perceived her as female and others as male, but M felt happy to accept this, and indeed used the perceptions of customers as an indicator of when to begin presenting as unequivocally female. Section. Use of Single Sex Facilities The employer and employee should agree the point at which the use of facilities such as changing rooms and toilets should change from one sex to the other. An appropriate marker for using the facilities of the employee's "new" sex may, for example, be the point at which the individual begins to present permanently in the sex to which they identify. It is not acceptable to insist for the long term on a transsexual employee using separate facilities, for example a disabled toilet. Transsexual employees are entitled to expect support from their employer including any necessary discussions and explanations with other members of the workforce or members of the public. Similarly, a transsexual employee should be granted access to "men only" or "women only" areas according to the sex in which they permanently present. New page Section. The role of the Equal Opportunities Commission
January 22, 2026 at 1:04 PM
Reposted by Sam Caslin
romgothsam.bsky.social
I'm running a popular romance course at the University of Liverpool... but only if enough people sign up!

Come and join us!

www.liverpool.ac.uk/continuing-e...
A poster for 'Falling in Love with Love: A History of Popular Romance: An Online Course' including front covers from the following books: Fantomina by Eliza Haywood, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, The Sheik by E M Hull, The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer, Tabitha in Moonlight by Betty Neels, Indigo by Beverley Jenkins, Hen Fever by Olivia Waite, The Isle of the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri
January 13, 2026 at 10:33 AM
Reposted by Sam Caslin
sarahchurchwell.bsky.social
Also we've fetishized "debate” in these spaces as some kind of civic good, when what matters is competence, trust, shared purpose. Medicine, engineering, boardrooms aren’t organized around debate or requirements of false balance. We've poisoned public discourse by insisting it be adversarial.
paulgcornish.bsky.social Paul Cornish @paulgcornish.bsky.social · Dec 15
"Bluesky is an echo chamber."
"Bluesky doesn't have enough reach"
"Liberals must return to X to challenge the far right"

I'm not a tech bro or a journalist. Your priorities are not my priorities. Stop telling me I need to do anything other than chat about comics & telly with people who seem nice.
December 15, 2025 at 12:00 PM
moderndecorum.bsky.social
Very few women in responses to a post about actors with iconic voices, so: Holly Hunter, Jennifer Tilly, Joey Lauren Adams, Cate Blanchett, Jodie Foster.
December 14, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by Sam Caslin
samanthabarker.bsky.social
Hello! I’m seeking volunteers to be interviewed for my PhD thesis on the cultural significance of the tailored suit within queer communities during the 1970s and 1980s. If you’re interested and would like more information, please contact me. Thank you, and feel free to share this with your networks!
A poster with a title that says "Call For Participants." The poster states: Are you part of the LGBTQIA+ community and have vivid memories from the 1970s and 1980s? We invite you to participate in an exciting project exploring the cultural significance of the tailored suit within the community. We are looking for volunteers, aged 18 and older, to participate in an exciting project exploring the cultural significance of the tailored suit within the LGBTQIA+ community during the 1970s and 1980s. This study is open to: • Individuals who self-identify as queer or belong to the LGBTQIA+ community and were 18+ in the 1970s and 1980s. • Relatives or close associates of queer individuals from this era, are encouraged to join. You would be invited to participate in an interview session, either online or in-person. If you choose to come to one in person, they will be held in The Townsend Room, located in the Bishopsgate Institute (230 Bishopsgate, London, EC2M 4QH) or in public spaces such as coffee shops, public libraries, or LJMU classrooms. If you choose to take part virtually, you will be sent a secure link to a Microsoft Teams meeting which you can join from. Each session would take about two hours of your time. You would be asked to share your personal stories related to the tailored suit, and ideally, bring a photograph or meaningful clothing item, although this is not required. If you are interested and would like more information, please reach out to the investigator. There is no obligation to take part. You will receive a gift card as a thank you for your valuable contributions. Thank you!
December 11, 2025 at 10:08 AM