I’ve covered the issue of homophobia in football before in quite some detail, and so was interested today to see someone in another sport come out as being openly gay. This is the former British Lion Gareth Thomas, who is something of a high-profile player (ninth highest ever test try scorer) even if at 35, [...]

Now and again, I get those big chain emails forwarded on to me by people who think that they are funny, that the messages are inspiring, or that there’s certain information I just must know. I don’t tend to get these emails very often because I tend to work on the theory that if it’s [...]

Blogging against Disablism Day for me isn’t just about writing your own post, it’s also about reading what other people have to say, accepting I won’t necessarily agree with all of it, I won’t necessarily like the writing in some of it, but still an interest in what other people think and experience. From previous [...]

BADD 2009 = Blogging Against Disablism Day 2009. I’m not disabled. I do however have a dodgy knee, which seems quite likely to cause me more difficulties as it gets older, so it is entirely possible that I will become disabled at some point. In fact, were I to live long enough, I suspect it [...]

Yes, it’s that time of year again, when the Goldfish turns BADD. If that makes absolutely no sense at all, then I’ll explain. The Goldfish is a fellow blogger who organises Blogging Against Disablism Day. The premise is quite simple: basically, you blog about disability, disability issues, disability politics, or something or other related to [...]

I was going to save this one for the Goldfish’s BADD, but as that is usually in May, and it’s only March now, I didn’t really think that I’d remember about it. A few days ago, I noticed an article on the BBC News which was about someone with Down’s syndrome: Otto Baxter is 21 [...]

Apparently, some parents think that their children should live in a world filled with fluffy pink cotton wool, ethnically cleansed of anything potentially offensive, controversial, or even anything that will make their children ask questions that the parents will have to answer. And these people are cockwits. Now, as a parent I understand that it [...]

Now we’ve had a black president, various women premiers, and now the first openly gay head of state (Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir), I would appreciate it if the media would stop caring about the skin colour, gender, sexual preference, religion, and sexiness (or otherwise) of partners of politicians and concentrate instead on things that actually matter like [...]

There are some words you just don’t use in conversation. This post is going to discuss them. If you are likely to be offended by them, when used in context about the use of language (as opposed to them being used as a slur), then you might not want to read on. Oh, yeah, and [...]

I’ve been to London. Well, I say I’ve but really ’twas the Clan Pickard: me, GLW and the two kiddies. We had a couple of nights staying with my Dad and his family in Brentwood (and the kids were delighted to see Grandad, Nanny and their Auntie and Uncle), and a couple of nights staying [...]