Editorial – March 2023
This issue is a bit short. I’d like to have some complex excuse to offer, but I think the main issue is that it has been Six Nations season. Sorry.
This issue is going live on the international Trans Day of Visibility. These days, at least in the UK, trans people are heartily sick of being visible. There are attacks on us every day in the media, and much of the supposed support we get on days like this is purely performative (looking at you, Labour Party). I’ve had two requests for media comment today. I have ignored them both. Regardless of how supportive young programme-makers might want to be, their management will have other ideas and nothing good will come of their efforts.
However, despite the ridiculous claims on social media that trans people are a very new thing (allegedly I didn’t exist 8 years ago – who knew?), they keep turning up in history. Thanks to Neil Gaiman, John Clute and Roz Kaveney, I have been made aware of a quite remarkable story. Nicholas Stuart Grey was a successful actor, playwright and author of children’s fiction in the 1950s and 1960s. Many fantasy writers, including Neil, Garth Nix, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, and Kate Forsyth, have cited him as an inspiration. We now know that he was a trans man. The research (which inevitably lays out his life prior to transition) is available here.
I’m now wondering who has the rights to his literary estate.
It being that time of year, if you have the right to vote in the Hugos (and can make the voting website work for you), I should mention that this magazine is eligible for Best Fanzine, and I’m eligible for Best Fanwriter.
And finally I have had a request. the venerable fanzine, SF2 Concatenation (since 1987) has recently lost two of its regular reviewers. This has left them with an entirely male reviewing team. They are looking for new people (unpaid obviously) and would like to restore some diversity. If you are interested, see here.