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Tom Smith 🏳️‍🌈

@tomsmithgerman.bsky.social
1.3K followers 243 following 64 posts

Lecturer, writer, mostly German and queer stuff, some radio, lots of music 🎶 he/him 🍉

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Reposted by Tom Smith 🏳️‍🌈
University and College Union (UCU) @ucu.org.uk · 29/09/2026
Colleagues at Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow Caledonian are all on strike today over job cuts. Please show your solidarity as they take to the picket lines to defend jobs and education.
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Sarah Arens @saraharens.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Over the moon that the special issue of Social History of Medicine @sshmedicine.bsky.social I co-edited with Sam Goodman on "Ailing Empires: Medicine, Science and Imperialism" is finally out in the world. Endless gratitude to @fcondrau.bsky.social. All article links below: academic.oup.com/shm/issue
academic.oup.com
Issues | Social History of Medicine | Oxford Academic
The official journal of the Society for the Social History of Medicine. Publishes research concerned with all aspects of health, illness, and medical treatment in the past. Articles treat the social h...
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German Embassy London @uk.diplo.de · 13/08/2026
Congratulations to everyone getting their A-level results today & herzlichen Glückwunsch to those who chose German 🥳 If you realised that German is an absolute blast and want to continue past GCSE, you're in luck: @goethe-institut-uk.bsky.social is launching the National German A-Level Class.
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Tom Smith 🏳️‍🌈 @tomsmithgerman.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Well I guess it's too late to save Britain, then.
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Bad Gays @badgayspod.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
GLADT offers counseling for queer people who also experience racism, inquire at info@gladt.de. All Berliners affected can call a support hotline at 0800 – 0009546.
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Tom Smith 🏳️‍🌈 @tomsmithgerman.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
If anyone on my TL isn't already following the very sound voices on Germany on this issue, here is Fatma Aydemir in the Guardian for your algorithm: Germany's leaders say the Berlin Pride attack targeted 'all of us'. What utter hypocrisy | Fatma Aydemir www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Germany's leaders say the Berlin Pride attack targeted 'all of us'. What utter hypocrisy | Fatma Aydemir
The queer community has lost resources and protection due to decisions made by the people now mouthing solidarity in public, says Guardian Europe columnist Fatma Aydemir
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Tom Smith 🏳️‍🌈 @tomsmithgerman.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Horrified by what's happened in Berlin. Sending my love to all my loved ones. 😞🏳️‍🌈
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Tom Smith 🏳️‍🌈 @tomsmithgerman.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Cutting language courses puts social mobility at risk, say UK experts www.theguardian.com/education/20...
theguardian.com
Cutting language courses puts social mobility at risk, say UK experts
Exclusive: University moves and falling exam entries fuel concerns about opportunities for working-class pupils
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Uri Horesh @urihoresh.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter c.org/VPG8ysBcFn
c.org
Sign the Petition
Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter
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Reposted by Tom Smith 🏳️‍🌈
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
How higher education is vandalised in the UK. Here is our last published annual report (www.exeter.ac.uk/v8media/univ...) containing info about "a year of continued financial stability with operating cash generation of £48m and an increase in cash of £11m to end the year with balance of £211m."
Performance
We are pleased to report a year of continued financial stability with operating cash generation
(EBITDA) of £48m and an increase in cash of £11m to end the year with balances of £211m. This surplus of income over expenditure, despite the challenging environment, is the result of significant hard work across the University following another challenging international recruitment round and continued economic pressures. Total income increased by 2% to £681m through growth in research grants and contracts income (+£8m, 6%), capital grants (+£3m) and donations (+£4m) bolstered by strong commercial income performance.
Tuition fee income maintained the historic high of £350m achieved in the prior year. The University saw continued strong interest from Home Undergraduate (UG Home) and Postgraduate students, but this was offset by contractions in Undergraduate and Postgraduate International.
These contractions were compounded by increased levels of scholarships, resulting in international fee income seeing a 2% year on year reduction to £135m, representing 38% of teaching income and 20% of total University income.
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Alice Christensen @alicerc.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Please sign - Exeter colleagues need our support: c.org/pvDPwTNwts
c.org
Sign the Petition
Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter
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Reposted by Tom Smith 🏳️‍🌈
Dr. T. Flo (Trying to get back on two feet in 2026) @tnflorvil.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
It is 2026, and people still think Saidiya Hartman and Natalie Zemon Davis invented historical information in their works. I am by no means an expert on critical fabulation, but it is not a practice about making up historical information.
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Stephan Ehrig @herrehrig.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Please to announce that our little German Streaming TV volume is now available in paperback! @chewschaper.bsky.social @elizabethward.bsky.social @tomsmithgerman.bsky.social @espinoza.bsky.social @bennickl.bsky.social
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Tom Smith 🏳️‍🌈 @tomsmithgerman.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Let's be clear. What's happening in So'ton is being driven and funded by the global far right online. Brits talking about "DEI", an American term - there's a common UK equivalent but they don't know it. Shows they've no clue about the real situation and are being fed by far right media abroad.
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Modern Languages at St Andrews @sta-modlangs.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Our final AUSTRO PASS screening, Far From Being Lipizzans (2025), explores questions of identity, belonging, & the social boundaries behind a sense of “we”. Drawing on director Olga Kosanović’s personal experience, the film offers a thoughtful reflection on citizenship and inclusion. Don’t miss it!
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Stephan Ehrig @herrehrig.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
And here we go again - please consider signing! c.org/7ntNZsBZ8N
c.org
Sign the Petition
Open Letter to University of Aberdeen Court
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German Screen Studies Network @g-s-s-n.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Full details of the UK screening tour of Das Deutsche Volk now on our website
germanscreenstudies.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk
UK screening tour of prize-winning German documentary Das deutsche Volk [The German People] – German Screen Studies Network
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Tom Smith 🏳️‍🌈 @tomsmithgerman.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Celebrating voting with some rainbow sparkle cake. #VoteQueer #ScottishElections2026
Strangely small-looking hand (bad perspective!) dropping a postal ballot in a red postbox with Leith Walk tenements in the background.Slice of pink and yellow marble cake with rainbow sprinkles, cappuccino and glass of water on a white table top.
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German Screen Studies Network @g-s-s-n.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
The University of St. Andrews' OeAD-Lektorin, Verena Latschbacher, is organising a wonderful showcase of Austrian cinema! A particular highlight of the showcase will be the Scottish premiere of Ruth Beckermann’s Favoriten! All screenings are generously supported by the Austrian Cultural Forum.
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Tom Smith 🏳️‍🌈 @tomsmithgerman.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
#ErinnerungsWeltmeister
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Dr Anna Hájková @ankahajkova.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Today is workshop on Queer Central Europe organized by European History Research Centre/yours truly. Opened by @schuneke.bsky.social keynote on queer women in Nazi Germany
Sam Huneke speaking
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UCFL - University Council For Languages @ucflangs.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
And another petition, sadly 😪 You might be aware that the Department of Languages & Intercultural Studies (LINCS) at Heriot-Watt University is under threat. More information and to sign the petition: heriotwatt.web.ucu.org.uk/2026/02/05/s...
heriotwatt.web.ucu.org.uk
Save LINCS petition
To Principal Richard Williams, the University Executive and Court The Department of Languages & Intercultural Studies (LINCS) at Heriot-Watt University is under threat to lose a third of its staff, f...
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Tom Smith 🏳️‍🌈 @tomsmithgerman.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Book sale klaxon 🚨 Including my own book, but lots of other great titles in their film paperbacks @berghahnbooks.bsky.social
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Tom Smith 🏳️‍🌈 @tomsmithgerman.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
This is very very well written and meticulously researched. Well worth reading (and available open access).
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Jürgen Zimmerer @juergenzimmerer.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
It's out!🍾 I am delighted to announce the publication of our "Germany's History Wars. Contesting Memory and Identity Today" It is Open Access! 👇 You can download it here for free. www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
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Tom Smith 🏳️‍🌈 @tomsmithgerman.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
Interesting reporting on the damage the Republicans are wreaking in my own home turf in Trump country. The piece for the most part surprisingly humane (if you get past sneering descriptions by East Coast journalist who obviously didn't see the beauty of the place..) www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
politico.com
Electricity prices jump after Trump rejects disaster aid for Michigan utilities
The president denied the state’s request for federal aid to rebuild power lines after a fierce ice storm last March, a move that could force thousands of rural electricity customers to pay the entire ...
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Reposted by Tom Smith 🏳️‍🌈
NSU-Watch @nsuwatch.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
Wir gedenken heute Bahide Arslan, Yeliz Arslan und Ayşe Yılmaz. Sie wurden vor 33 Jahren, in der Nacht vom 22. auf den 23. November 1992, bei den rassistischen Brandanschlägen von #Mölln ermordet. Weitere Mitglieder der Familie wurden zum Teil schwer verletzt. #KeinVergessen
Sharepic: Schwarzer Hintergrund, ein schwarz-weißes Bild vom Gedenken an die rassistischen Brandanschläge von Mölln 1992. Text:  Wir gedenken  Bahide Arslan, Yeliz Arslan und Ayşe Yılmaz.
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Tom Smith 🏳️‍🌈 @tomsmithgerman.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Germany never even made it as far as "bad apples" theories, so dunno why I bother, but this is wild: "Diese Erklärung hinterfragt allerdings nicht, inwieweit Strukturen und der Corpsgeist in Polizei, Bundeswehr und anderen staatlichen Behörden rechte Einstellungen begünstigen" 👀
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Association of German Studies in Great Britain and Ireland @ags-gbi.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
In response to recent news of the University of Nottingham's devastating plan to cut modern languages degrees, the AGS President (@pdavies.bsky.social) has sent a joint letter of protest to the UoN VC and the Chair of University Council on behalf of the AGS, W+IGS and the GLA. Link to the letter 👇
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Dr Corinne Painter @corinnepainter.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
"Nottingham and Leicester are taking a swing at language departments. But those proposing closures have taken their eye off the ball" Languages graduates are in high demand and have a lot to offer the economy and society www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/late...
timeshighereducation.com
The latest threat to UK modern languages is yet another faux pas
Nottingham and Leicester are taking a swing at language departments. But those proposing closures have taken their eye off the ball, say four linguists
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Polly McMichael @pollymcmichael.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
Modern Languages students at the University of Nottingham have started a petition to save languages degrees. Please sign and share www.change.org/p/stop-the-r...
change.org
Sign the Petition
Stop the removal of Modern Languages courses at the University of Nottingham!
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UCU Scotland @ucuscotland.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Busy @ducuuo.bsky.social picket lines on day two of their week long strike to save jobs and oppose compulsory redundancies #SaveHE #SaveDundeeUni #NoCompulsoryRedundancies
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Modern Languages at St Andrews @sta-modlangs.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
Read about the traditional ‘Altar de muertos’ in the foyer of Buchanan Building, commemorating the Day of the Dead, largely celebrated in Spanish-speaking countries, especially in Mexico, 2 Nov. The Altar will be displayed from until 5 Nov: www.st-andrews.ac.uk/modern-langu...
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History Workshop @historyworkshop.org.uk · 23/10/2025
May Ayim was key to the Black German civil rights movement. But what about her creative, feminist anti-racist work across Europe? How did this exemplify 'cosmopolitanism from below'? Prof. Tiffany N. Florvil on Ayim's life and vision: 🧵5/5 www.historyworkshop.org.uk/feminism/may...
historyworkshop.org.uk
May Ayim’s Cosmopolitanism from Below in Europe
May Ayim was key to the Black German civil rights movement in the 1980s and 1990s. But how did her work across borders exemplify cosmopolitanism from below? Tiffany N. Florvil explores the life and ne...
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Ms. Otoo @sharondoduaotoo.bsky.social · 19/10/2025
"Für Jüdinnen und Juden kann es aus der Geschichte nur eine Lehre geben: Die Einteilung in jene, die aus dem #Stadtbild entfernt gehören, und in jene, die in das Stadtbild passen und deshalb verschont bleiben, ist nicht hinnehmbar" ~ Sasha Marianna Salzmann @taz.de
taz.de
Au­to­r*in zur Stadtbild-Debatte: Der böse Traum vom gereinigten Deutschland
Woran will Bundeskanzler Merz eigentlich das irregulär Migrantische erkennen? Seine Äußerungen zum deutschen Stadtbild sind menschenverachtend.
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Katie Sutton @katielmsutton.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
@brangwenstone.bsky.social and I are giving a talk next week in the Aus German Studies seminar online at 3.30pm AEDT - "Bad Feelings to Utopian Promises: Non-Binary Dissociative Poetics in Strubel’s Blaue Frau and Salzmann’s Außer sich" - trans studies/German lit, DM for a zoom link
Image of author Antje Rávik Strubel and the abstract pink cover their 2021 novel "Blaue Frau" (Blue Woman)Image of author Sascha Salzmann and their 2017 novel "Ausser sich" (Outside/Beside oneself)
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Association of German Studies in Great Britain and Ireland @ags-gbi.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
Happy to announce that a recording of the "President's Guest" event at the AGS 2025 conference in Oxford last month is now available to stream on the AGS website. The event saw writer, academic, artist & activist Prof Natasha A. Kelly in conversation with Dr Kirstin Gwyer. Link below👇
Photo of Prof Natasha Kelly
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Bernhard Gissibl @bgissibl.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Gunzert House, Bismarck Rock, Old Boma, Lugalo, Serengeti & Co.: Ein dekolonialer Reiseführer für Tanzania - dreisprachig, fundiert recherchiert und von Amani Abeid großartig illustriert! Als kostenfreier pdf-Download hier: decolonial-travel-guide-tanzania.com
decolonial-travel-guide-tanzania.com
Decolonial Travel Guide Tanzania
Willkommen zu deiner dekolonialen Lernreise durch Tansania / Karibu safari yako ya kujifunza ya decolonial
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Tom Smith 🏳️‍🌈 @tomsmithgerman.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
In case anyone with a UK passport is watching Farage thinking "what he's saying won't apply to me", pay attention to what the far right is proposing in Germany, because where do you think British fascists are getting their ideas from?
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Tom Smith 🏳️‍🌈 @tomsmithgerman.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
This is a brilliant exhibition of some amazing contemporary art inspired by Lafcadio Hearn - and if you haven't explored Ushaw College (I hadn't) it's a very cool site. Lots of good Victoriana. Congrats to Fraser (@durhamimh.bsky.social), Claire, Steven, Kieran and the Kwaidan exhibition team!
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Tom Smith 🏳️‍🌈 @tomsmithgerman.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
I have had both colleagues and students dismiss my work as my "hobby and interest". To translate for anyone for whom it isn't obvious: it's because I'm queer and my research is queer. And that is called homophobia. I've said it before but it's been a while: Fuck UUK.
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Tom Smith 🏳️‍🌈 @tomsmithgerman.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
Went to the launch of Kwaidan, an exhibition of prints by Irish and Japanese artists inspired by Lafcadio Hearn's ghost stories. Curated by Claire Marsland at Ushaw College, brought to Durham by Fraser Riddell @durham-university.bsky.social and conceived by Stephen Lawlor and Kieran Owens.
Room with vaulted Victorian wood ceiling with a brown display case in the foreground with the Kwaidan exhibition title image and Ushaw College logo, filled with books. In the distance, blue display boards are showing a series of prints and paintings stretching back into the long gallery.
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Leila Essa @leilaessai.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
A genuine joy to share our shortlist for the Kurt-Tucholsky-Preis 2025. Congratulations to Maryam Aras, Christiane Frohmann, Miedya Mahmod, Manja Präkels, and Ruth-Maria Thomas! tucholsky-gesellschaft.de/kurt-tuchols...
Screenshot: „Die Jury für den Kurt-Tucholsky-Preis 2025 hat die eingegangenen Vorschläge gesichtet und sich auf folgende alphabetisch geordnete Shortlist für die Preisvergabe
2025 verständigt:
• Aras, Maryam (Infos z.B. hier).
• Frohmann, Christiane (Infos z.B. hier)
• Mahmod, Miedya (Infos z.B. hier)
• Präkels, Manja (Infos z.B. hier)
• Thomas, Ruth-Maria (Infos z.B. hier)“
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Ms. Otoo @sharondoduaotoo.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
#Berlin Wir feiern trotzdem! 🥳 Morgen (Samstag, 23.08) ab 14:00Uhr am Hausvogteiplatz Kommt zahlreich! 🫶🏾 #AntonWilhelmAmoStraße #Amofest
rbb24.de
Umbenennung der Mohrenstraße vorerst gestoppt
Am Samstag sollte die Mohrenstraße offiziell in Anton-Wilhelm-Amo-Straße umbenannt werden. Nun hat das Berliner Verwaltungsgericht dem Eilantrag einer Bürgerinitiative stattgegeben. Die Umbenennung is...
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Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland - ISD Berlin @isdberlin.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
Die ersten Schilder hängen schon….
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Tom Smith 🏳️‍🌈 @tomsmithgerman.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
V late bc summer, but am excited my article "Desire, Sex and Surveillance" is out in the fab volume Socialist Subjectivities @uofmpress.bsky.social. It's a queer methods piece from my archival work on East German queer soldiers in the Stasi files. Open access: press.umich.edu/Books/S/Soci...
First page of my chapter with title Desire, Sex and Surveillance: Queer Methods and the Stasi's Files on the East German Military by Tom Smith. Opening paragraph reads: Researching East Germany’s armed forces, I often encounter reminders of how queerness can be overlooked in memories around straight-centered institutions, when people remain incredulous or advise that “back then it 
wasn’t an issue.” Josie McLellan has also commented on straight East German interviewees’ lack of awareness about queer compatriots. As decades of scholarship have shown, however, queerness was widely discussed and negotiated by queer and straight people throughout the lifetime of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Straight people spent time and effort developing policies and processes within the state’s institutions to understand, limit, and regulate queer sexuality, although archives often say more about what institutions failed to know. Queer East Germans were active participants in socialist institutions, shaping them in small, everyday ways. They may even have intended for traces of queerness to recede from view. As José Esteban Muñoz reminds us, the ephemeral nature of queer evidence has often had a protective function. Against the backdrop of the GDR’s heterosexual norms around how lives unfold, queer methods allow insights into traces of intimacy and community in official documents, showing soldiers developing queer East German subjectivities and life trajectories through their military service.Cover of Socialist Subjectivities: Queering East Germany under Honecker. White and green lettering on black background. Editors Scott Harrison, Jeff Hayton and Katharine White. Picture showing glass window reflecting Berlin architecture while someone on a ladder mounts advertising for the 40-year anniversary of the GDR on the window.Contents page with intro by Scott Harrison, Jeff Hayton and Katharine White. Articles listed by Mary Fulbrook, Markus Wahl, Katharine White, Tom Smith, Catrina de Rivera, Kyrill Kunakhovich, Scott Harrison, Larissa R. Stiglich (continued in next image)Second half of contents page listing articles by Mor Geller, Briana J. Smith, Jeff Hayton, Julia E. Ault, Timothy Scott Brown and an epilogue by Eli Rubin.
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Tom Smith 🏳️‍🌈 @tomsmithgerman.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Solidarity with trans friends and colleagues around today's ruling. This judicial activism has ignored the principal function of laws in Scotland and England created to protect minorities. A real blow to human rights in the UK and we now have to push the government to legislate better. 🏳️‍⚧️
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Die Linke @die-linke.de · 23/02/2025
Wir sind drin! Die Linke wird in der kommenden Legislaturperiode wieder in Fraktionsstärke im Bundestag vertreten sein! Wir danken euch für euer Vertrauen, eure Stimmen und das unglaubliche Engagement in den letzten Wochen!
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Ben Miller @benwritesthings.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
A coalition between CDU and AFD is an extreme, undesired event even for CDU voters. 81% of CDU voters, above the overall 70% of voters, are opposed to seeing the AFD take any form of state power. It is important to remember that.
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