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Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)

@nicomaramckay.com
13K followers 673 following 20K posts

Historian in Tkaronto (Toronto). Likes bats, monsters, sincereposting, alt text, and DEIA. Genderqueer. Trans. Autistic. 40s. 👬 🧛 nicomaramckay.com There will be typos. Subscribe for queer and trans culture and histories: patreon.com/ephemeralrecord

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Reposted by Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
Brian G. aka urbanbohemian 🪩🥂💖 @urbanbohemian.com · 1h
We're on Bluesky, put the link in your post. Put the link in your post. Put. The. Link. In. Your. Post. Links in posts aren't buried or de-prioritized here. This is one of the last platforms you don't have to make interested users do detective work to find the link. Just put it in the post.
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Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel) @nicomaramckay.com · 1h
Is there a secret setting somewhere that I can click that will stop advertising products aimed at middle-aged women to me? It's not my cookie history. I haven't shopped for anything marketed towards women in about a decade. Do other trans people experience this? What did you do about it?
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Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel) @nicomaramckay.com · 3h
This Truth and Reconciliation Day, get in touch with your MP and let them know what you think about how they've failed to meet the plan outlined for them. Be specific and reference one or two Calls to Action that touch on issues that speak to you. Get personal. nctr.ca/about/truth-...
ourcommons.ca
Find Members of Parliament - Members of Parliament - House of Commons of Canada
Find Members of Parliament - Members of Parliament - House of Commons of Canada
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Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel) @nicomaramckay.com · 3h
I donate when I can to mutual aid and organizations I know are doing important work. Indspire is one I specifically give to every Truth and Reconciliation Day. You can support Indigenous education here: indspire.ca/ways-to-give/ Or click through the thread below to find others.
Screenshot from a successful donation to Indspire.
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Mary Gillis @marygillis.bsky.social · 4h
I keep seeing Carney stans saying building fossil fuel infrastructure is a way to deal with Trump's threats. Really? Canada has to build infrastructure that'll last decades and won't even be finished for years to deal with a threat that'll be gone within 3 years? Your fear has made you very stupid.
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Thinking Person's Guide to Autism @thinkingautism.com · 18/09/2026
Autism acceptance isn't about pretending everything is fine if it isn't. It means understanding why autistic people do things, not blaming them (or your autistic self) when it's hard, or when you have competing needs. Ideally, it also means cherishing joy harder. (So much harder.) #neurodiversity
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Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel) @nicomaramckay.com · 6h
Not a woman, but four or five. I was told that I shouldn't be allowed to be shirtless, even though it was ok for my best friend, who was a boy, to go shirtless. Other incidents include a man who took pictures of me on a swing even when I told him not to. Sexual comments from men and boys. Groping.
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Jenny Lee Shee @jennyleeshee.bsky.social · 8h
On the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we acknowledge and reflect on the deep intergenerational harm residential schools have caused to Indigenous families and communities. Art by Elaine Landry #OrangeShirtDay #EveryChildMatters #TruthAndReconciliation
A handprint on an orange background. The handprint is broken into segments, inside of which are different symbols representing elements of Indigenous culture, including animal paw prints, landscapes with trees, and other images drawn from nature. There is a large black eagle feather on the left side of the handprint, and bird silhouettes appear in the upper left hand corner of the image. The words EVERY CHILD MATTERS appear at the bottom of the piece.
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Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 16h
Seeing people post about how unfair the “mob justice” against the Cornell rapists is doesn’t really move me when there is no justice for survivors. The system doesn’t work; it enacts further punishment on the victims. Society is even crueler. So spare me the “mob justice” rhetoric about the accused
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Kat Abughazaleh @katmabu.bsky.social · 22h
A man replied to this saying in earnest that women need to get organized and fight for our rights and men will follow. We did that. We do that. We mobilized the largest single day protest in global history on every continent and yet I have fewer rights than my mom did at my age.
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Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel) @nicomaramckay.com · 28/09/2026
This Friday I will be presenting a conference paper on the effects of nonbinary erasure on historical research at Critical Feminist Histories in Canada. 🌈 🗃️ 🏳️‍⚧️
patreon.com
See me at the Critical Feminist Histories in Canada conference | Ephemeral Record | Nico Mara-McKay
I will be presenting a paper at the Canadian Committee on Women's and Gender History – Comité canadien de l'histoire des femmes et du genre'
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Jess O'Thomson @jessothomson.co.uk · 29/09/2026
🚨 We need to hear from YOU Have you had a problem accessing gendered services since April last year, outside of school and the workplace? Are you a service provider worried about remaining inclusive? PLEASE let us know through this form - and share widely goodlaw.social/mzb3
goodlaw.social
My branded typeform
Turn data collection into an experience with Typeform. Create beautiful online forms, surveys, quizzes, and so much more. Try it for FREE.
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Erin Grievances @erinbartram.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I don't want to make civic arguments about history. I don't want to make instrumentalist arguments about history. I want engineers to understand my discipline is rigorous too and if not I want to be able to make fun of them forever because no historian ever built a bridge that broke in the wind.
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Erin Raeburn @erinraeburn.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Meanwhile white nationalists just gathered on Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc land with a "Got Bones?" banner. Destroying these records erases vital evidence, history, and the painful accounts of people who deserve to be remembered. That serves the agenda of residential school deniers not reconciliation.
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Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel) @nicomaramckay.com · 28/09/2026
This Friday I will be presenting a conference paper on the effects of nonbinary erasure on historical research at Critical Feminist Histories in Canada. 🌈 🗃️ 🏳️‍⚧️
patreon.com
See me at the Critical Feminist Histories in Canada conference | Ephemeral Record | Nico Mara-McKay
I will be presenting a paper at the Canadian Committee on Women's and Gender History – Comité canadien de l'histoire des femmes et du genre'
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Pru @prufrockluvsong.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Please stop calling me on my phone that's not what it's for
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Elizabeth Minkel @elizabethminkel.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Do you have to write a whole article to give yourself permission to feel joy, all while beating yourself up and quoting other people beating themselves up? If you actually participate in fandom—making things with other people—you don't sit there stewing in your constant-consumption shame-hole.
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Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel) @nicomaramckay.com · 28/09/2026
Good morning, Bluesky! This is your weekly reminder to take your HRT, medications, and vitamins. Bluesky still deserves better leadership. Trans rights are human rights. 🏳️‍⚧️ Unban Link
HRT still life with a jar of cotton balls opened, isopropyl alcohol, testosterone bottle and box, used needle and syringe.
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Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel) @nicomaramckay.com · 28/09/2026
Good morning, Bluesky! This is your weekly reminder to take your HRT, medications, and vitamins. Bluesky still deserves better leadership. Trans rights are human rights. 🏳️‍⚧️ Unban Link
HRT still life with a jar of cotton balls opened, isopropyl alcohol, testosterone bottle and box, used needle and syringe.
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The Autistic Coach | Mati (he/they) @theautisticcoach.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“Can I do it?” is a terrible measure of disability. Yes, I can do it. Can I do it repeatedly? Can I do it safely? Can I do it without support? Can I do anything afterwards? Can I do it tomorrow too? What does doing it COST? These tell me a lot more about my capability.
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Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel) @nicomaramckay.com · 27/09/2026
Why do you think I subscribe to so many newsletters.
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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I went no contact with my dad, no therapists involved. I decided I was done with his shit and ended all communication. This was 20 years ago, well before this moral panic. The only person making "adult children" go no contact is the toxic parent themself.
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Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
yes my bull went rogue in your china shop but I think we can all agree there’s no liability here it’s an agentic being
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Kaya Skovdatter 🏳️‍⚧️ (She/They) @gothgreenwitch.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Friends: looking for recs for a Canadian artist doing detailed-SF style covers (ACE era, full SF, painterly). Not my project. Passing along recs. I'm drawing mental blanks, but if anyone has any good options, please send my way.
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Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel) @nicomaramckay.com · 26/09/2026
Broke: all vampires are sexy Woke: all vampires are gay Bespoke: all vampires are trans
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Anna Mehler Paperny @mehlerpaperny.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Officially, Canada has no solitary confinement. But we found it uses confinement that mirrors solitary as defined under international rules on the most vulnerable prisoners - and it's using it more. ijb.utoronto.ca/news/hidden-...
ijb.utoronto.ca
Hidden solitary: Canada's growing use of prison isolation - Investigative Journalism Bureau
New data obtained by the IJB shows a dramatic rise in the use of observation and dry cells—a form of hidden solitary confinement in Canadian prisons that disproportionately impacts Indigenous inmates.
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Julie S. Lalonde @julieslalonde.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The literacy crisis is not just referring to people's ability to literally read and write. It's also people's inability to read for context. I've been a public educator for over 20 years and I have never, ever seen it this bad.
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Jacqueline @notjack.space · 25/09/2026
there was one thread called Hellthread with thousands of posts from hundreds of users across literal months and no specific single topic of discussion that basically functioned as a discord server full of queers shooting the shit and posting nudes
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Anna Holmes @annabookwriter.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This list just assured me it has gay friends and that they have nothing against women, it’s just its exes are all crazy bitches
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Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel) @nicomaramckay.com · 25/09/2026
I'll be presenting a paper on nonbinary erasure at Critical Feminist Histories in Canada, a hybrid conference taking place in Kingston and online next week. 🌈🗃️ 🏳️‍⚧️
nicomaramckay.com
See me at the Critical Feminist Histories in Canada conference | Nico Mara-McKay
I will be presenting a paper at the Canadian Committee on Women's and Gender History's 2026 conference, Critical Feminist Histories in Canada.
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Reposted by Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
el camino acid @sexdracula.rocks · 25/09/2026
the "don't bring iced coffee to an interview" discourse is great bc it's such a succinct and clarifying example of how private businesses aren't efficient & logical enterprises, they're just arbitrary in-groups ruled by sociopaths, power tripping on their ability to enforce pointless bullshit norms
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Monica H Green @monicamedhist.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Very cool! The Medieval Academy of America & @uchicagopress.bsky.social have kindly agreed to temporarily lift the paywall on a short essay I published a few months ago: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/.... Dating, dating, dating. Vital for the historian; essential for interdisc. dialogue.
journals.uchicago.edu
The Future of Time: Methodological Dialogues between Philology, Archaeology, and Genomics | Speculum: Vol 101, No 1
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Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel) @nicomaramckay.com · 25/09/2026
I'll be presenting a paper on nonbinary erasure at Critical Feminist Histories in Canada, a hybrid conference taking place in Kingston and online next week. 🌈🗃️ 🏳️‍⚧️
nicomaramckay.com
See me at the Critical Feminist Histories in Canada conference | Nico Mara-McKay
I will be presenting a paper at the Canadian Committee on Women's and Gender History's 2026 conference, Critical Feminist Histories in Canada.
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Reposted by Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel)
Kathleen E. Kennedy @themedievaldrk.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Neither LLMs nor GenAI can DO any of that, bc the pattern I saw DIRECTLY contradicts all known discussion. Automation can replicate what it trains on, but because it doesn't reason, it can't successfully iterate defendable hypotheses. My (and your) squishy, tired brainmeats remain unmatched.
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eustace @eustace.justshootme.ca · 25/09/2026
You know what? It’s #FundFriday today and I am happy to repost any requests for #MutualAid that anyone would care to share! As usual, I’m sharing a feed full of mutual aid requests for those who might have a moment to repost or a dollar to share.
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Rodney 🚧🚇 @chanface.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Bike lanes on Adelaide yesterday morning. Over a dozen cyclists taking up the same space as one or two cars.
Over a dozen cyclists
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The ArQuives @arquives.ca · 31/08/2026
Coming up at The ArQuives in September 2026 View full calendar: arquives.ca Plan your visit: arquives.ca/plan-your-visit Inspired by The Body Politic Gay Liberation Journal No. 26 September. Image: Perceptions Magazine.
September 2026 event schedule at The ArQuives featuring tours, queer trivia, and the On Our Own Terms Exhibition with dates and times.

Sat, Sep 12 | 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Church-Wellesley Village Tour

Wed, Sep 16 | 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Church-Wellesley Village Tour

Thu, Sep 17 | 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Queer Trivia at Church Street Garage

Thu, Sep 24 | 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
On Our Own Terms Exhibition opening reception

Fri, Sep 25 | 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM
On Our Own Terms Exhibition

Sat, Sep 26 | 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM
On Our Own Terms Exhibition

Sun, Sep 27 | 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM
On Our Own Terms Exhibition
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Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel) @nicomaramckay.com · 24/09/2026
Makin' zines for @arquives.ca.
84 zines: 7 copies of each Community Ties zine for each city.
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Senthorun S. Raj @senthorun.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
Whenever media say “end trans ideology,” they mean end the rights of trans people. Remember “gay ideology” referred to gay people marrying, having kids, not getting fired from work, showing affection in public without harassment (aka basic human rights). Transphobic rhetoric is recycled homophobia.
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Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel) @nicomaramckay.com · 20/09/2026
Trans rights are women's rights. Trans rights are men's rights. Trans rights are civil rights. Trans rights are human rights.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Wtaf is this question my university just asked me about my project?
Does the project involve any work that could be interpreted as promoting DEIA, climate change research, or non-compliant to any Presidential Executive Orders?
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treaty of frrms (42069) @frrms.blacksky.app · 23/09/2026
Excited for them www.wral.com/news/ap/ad22...
wral.com
A nation renamed stands up at the UN: 'Say our name. Naoero.'
NEW YORK (AP) — His voice forceful and proud, he rose in front of the world's largest gathering of leaders on behalf of his nation and announced that he had something important to say. The tiny South ...
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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I cannot imagine in 2026, with the full breadth of the internet available to you, choosing to move your newsletter to substack. There are so many other platforms out there that don't directly put money in the pockets of fascists.
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Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel) @nicomaramckay.com · 23/09/2026
Trans rights have eroded under Carney more than any prime minister in Canadian history.
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Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel) @nicomaramckay.com · 21/09/2026
Reviews of four zines about disability and queerness by Devin S. Turk: Disabled Queer Madness, The Right Words: CripQueer Articulation, Written by Our Bodies: Exploring NeuroQueer Rhetorics, and 16 Trans Agendas for the Modern Queer. (Must be a free or paid subscriber to read.) #zines 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ 🌈🗃️
patreon.com
Review: Four zines about disability and queerness by Devin S. Turk | Ephemeral Record | Nico Mara-McKay
Review: Four zines about disability and queerness by Devin S. Turk by Ephemeral Record | Nico Mara-McKay on Patreon. Join Ephemeral Record | Nico Mara-McKay's community for exclusive content and updat...
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Frances Larina @franceslarina.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
"Gov Gavin Newsom over the weekend vetoed legislation aimed at protecting providers of gender-affirming care from being extradited to face charges for doing so by another state." He was "worried about constraints on the governor's power to approve extraditions". www.ebar.com/story/170505...
ebar.com
Newsom vetoes bill aimed at protecting providers of transgender care
Governor Gavin Newsom used his veto pen over the weekend to ax legislation aimed at protecting providers of gender-affirming care from being extradited to face charges for doing so by another state.
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Ash @fishyash.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Friendly reminder that Duolingo was initially concieved to trick people into translating articles for free, which they later used as training data for MTL algorithms. Duolingo's primary purpose has NEVER been about teaching you a language, even from the start! slate.com/technology/2...
If it doesn’t charge users and, so far, doesn’t serve them any ads, how does Duolingo make money? It tricks you into working as an unpaid translation service. At the end of some lessons, Duolingo will ask you if you want to practice by translating a real-world document. Which will turn out to be, say, a BuzzFeed article. By melding together enough stabs at this task from high-level Duolingo users, the app can render a surprisingly accurate translation. Which is worth good money. So far, Duolingo has contracts with BuzzFeed and CNN to translate stories from English into languages such as Spanish, French, and Portuguese. This service is already earning Duolingo hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, but von Ahn predicts he will be adding a raft of new clients soon. “The language translations market is huge,” he says. “It’s a $30 billion per year market.”
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The Sex Work Historian ☂️(#DecrimNow) @sexworkhistorian.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
EVENT: "On Our Own Terms: Femme Life and Culture in Toronto, 1990-2000" 📆 Sept. 24 - Oct. 18 📆Opening reception: Sept. 24 | 6-8 pm EST 📍The ArQuives | 34 Isabella St, Toronto, ON M4Y 1N1 🔗 arquives.ca/event/on-our...
arquives.ca
On Our Own Terms: Femme life and culture in Toronto, 1990-2000 - The ArQuives
On Our Own Terms: Femme Life and Culture in Toronto, 1990-2000 explores the proliferation of queer and trans femme politics and culture in 1990s Toronto.
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Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel) @nicomaramckay.com · 22/09/2026
I miss being effortlessly warm. I resent the need to wear more clothing for the next 7 months.
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