MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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When some humans are more equal than others
CAILEAN MCBRIDE welcomes a refreshing and timely study of the way officialdom creates structures that exclude LGBT+ rights and humanity
Toilet block at a park in Brisbane, Australia: the toilet block has two cubicles, both marked as unisex and accessible toilets, and a sink outside of the cubicles for handwashing. / Pic: EMsmile/CC
New releases from Mountain, Soul Asylum and Michael McDermott
ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
The Rainbow Trap: Queer Lives, Classifications and the Dangers of Inclusion
Kevin Guyan, Bloomsbury, £20
PUBLICATION can often be something of a long game. From commission through writing to hitting the bookstands, months and sometimes even years can have elapsed. If you’re writing something even vaguely related to current events this can be bad news, especially in these days of wildly accelerated news cycles, because its topicality could have all but evaporated.
The opposite is also true, of course, and a book can be given a boost by an unexpected turn of events. And that, to an extent, is what has happened here. Given the ongoing – and often heated – public discourse on sex and gender, there was never any question of there not being an audience for the Rainbow Trap, but with its publication coming not long after the UK Supreme Court’s controversial ruling on the definition of “woman” under the Equality Act, it has suddenly graduated from a compelling read to an essential one.
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