1./ Happy 101st birthday to one of the great Scottish poets of the 20th Century, Edwin Morgan; who died in 2010. He often hinted at his sexuality as in the lovely 'Strawberries' 👇but only came out in 1990. In 1995 he gifted a poem to Glasgow's new Lesbian and Gay Centre.
2./ It was a cheeky tribute to all things gay:-
"Come all ye persons of goodwill,
from Newton Mearns to Maryhill,
Rattle the chains and launch the boat
And get it properly afloat.
I bash this poem against the bow,
Name it GGLC and endow
Its future cruise with benedictions..."
3./ The University has the manuscript and this essay points out he speculated on who might visit the centre including the "Straightest of straights, bentest of bents, Carbolic scrub, Armani scents, Doc Martens girls, minikilt boys, buyers of exotic toys."👇…versityofglasgowlibrary.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/lgb…
4./ His wiki entry now claims he wrote the poem for Glasgow's LGBT Centre. Of course it does! Should we change the rhythm of his poem too?🤪
"For this is where we all can meet
Down by the river in Dixon Street,
And the Broomielaw rolls on to the sea
With the happy cargo of GGLC." Image
5./ It would be unfair on Morgan to suggest his work was as insubstantial as that little Lesbian and Gay Centre ditty. It can land a real emotional punch as in this look back at his own life and 70 years of geopolitics and the city he loved, Glasgow. 👇scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/seven-dec…
6./ Morgan wrote in English but his translations of Mayakovsky into Scots have a fierce swagger which we can only wish he'd developed more:
"Twal-dizzen-sun-pooer gloamin-bang,
July ablow the wheels o simmer,
the lift skimmerin
the het day lang—
and on his hoalidays the rhymer."
7./ William Logan argues his Scots becomes totally anemic when turned into standard English like this: "Dusk’s a twelve-dozen-sun-powered explosion, July beneath the wheels of summer, the sky shimmering the long hot day; and on his vacation the poet."👇 newcriterion.com/issues/2018/6/…
8./ Enjoy your birthday Mr Morgan wherever you are. The GLG Centre is long gone but let's be thankful for small mercies: you were never asked to write a poem for an LGBTQi2AA+ Centre. They wouldn't have liked your cheeky jokes. They much prefer misery and moping nowadays.

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More from @TwisterFilm

28 Apr
1./ Maya Forstater's case is all about the defence of FACTS so I was intrigued to see @SkyNews put trans activist @BobbityP up against @MForstater. Bobbi says Maya's tweets were deeply offensive and deny "hormonal development in the brain".🤦‍♂️So what is Bobbi's record on FACTS?
2./ When @Commonswomequ dared even to consult women's organisations like @Womans_Place_UK on GRA Reform ,Bobbi compared it to consulting with the KKK on racism. Bobbi said she had no faith in the process which is surprising since Bobbi has achieved so much in such a short time. Image
3./ A top BP exec, Bobbi's won a slew of awards since transitioning in 2017; including Nestle's 2020 LGBT Award as a Diversity Hero. Bobbi's living proof corporate capitalism embraces gender identity ideology and intends to impose it from the top down.👇
Read 7 tweets
27 Apr
1./ True or False? Time to check another claim by John Nicolson MP. You'll know John has a tendency to fantasise. Imagine my surprise when his campaign to be Rector of Glasgow University claimed, as a student on the Students' Council, he'd set up a Sexual Harassment Committee.👇
2./ By the way, his suggestion of an e-learning course (a 'moodle') for Freshers is a great idea. But something jarred. Was John REALLY the driving force for the committee as implied? I checked with friends from Yooni days and their memories were different. As in VERY different.
3./ They claimed the Committee was the idea of women in response to a decidedly dodgy atmosphere on a very conservative campus in which the old Men's Union, the notoriously sexist University Union, regularly showed porn and organised strip shows. John happened to be on its Board.
Read 12 tweets
24 Apr
1./ Do Scotland's self-appointed LGBTQ+ warriors actually give a damn about homophobia? They bang on about @ALLIANCELGB but spend next to no time speaking out about a real issue closer to home: a billionaire homophobe's cult on a Scottish island. 👇mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/news/india/bab…
2./ In 2009 a couple who made millions from care homes in Scotland "donated" the island of Little Cumbrae off the Ayrshire coast to Baba Ramdev, an Indian yogi who claims to cure homosexuality. Yes ACTUAL conversion therapy, and not the made up stuff.👇rediff.com/news/slide-sho…
3./ According to Ramdev, a big supporter of the equally awful Narendra Modi, homosexuality is an addiction. He claims to cure it with intense yoga, and ayurvedic medicine (ie quack potions) ...all set in a residential conversion camp, sorry ashram. 👇deccanchronicle.com/131211/news-cu…
Read 14 tweets
23 Apr
1./ A thread on why science denial really matters. India is a tragic lesson in how denying facts will always prove deadly; in the end. Here's how Modi's life-long love affair with irrational extremism is at the root of the country's spiralling death toll.👇dw.com/en/why-are-cov…
2./ Modi's image in the West as a modernising leader has always seemed bizarre given the allegations of his involvement in the murder of Muslims during inter-communal riots. As BJP governor of Gujarat state he did nothing to halt the violence.👇nytimes.com/2012/02/16/wor…
3./ But Modi's party has an even darker legacy; emerging out of the paramilitary RSS founded in the 1920s in imitation of Mussolini's fascists. The party's openly racist ideology, Hindutva, has changed little since then. Gandhi was shot by an RSS member.👇theguardian.com/world/2020/feb…
Read 23 tweets
20 Apr
1./ Your daily reminder the gender identity movement is full of fantasists and doesn't give a fig about the truth. @naomirwolf has been talking cobblers for years. Every time you think she can't get more bonkers she promptly does. Her latest fruitcakery tho takes some beating.👇
2./ In between other anti-vaxx baloney she now claims vaccination may trigger unusual bleeding in women nearby. It's lunacy. Yet when she slammed @ALLIANCELGB and UK feminists she was lauded by Pink News, Nicolson, Blunt and the rest of the gender Adams Family as an authority. 👇
3./ Here's Tatchell, celebrating Naomi's intervention. Hilariously, he cites the claims of Professor Wolf of the University of Totally Made-Up BS that the defence of single sex spaces is FACTUALLY baseless. As if Naomi has more than a passing acquaintance with...the FACTUAL.👇
Read 16 tweets
19 Apr
1./ I see @MrJohnNicolson is the comedy gift that never stops giving. As the wee hours approached last night he scrolled through my timeline, as he often does, to pick on anyone who agreed with one of my threads including a psychiatrist; whom he proceeded to troll. 👇
2./ Do "you currently work for the NHS or are licensed to practise?", old pompous chops enquires, with the hint of a threat that comes from him being an MP. Turns out Mr Curtis just happens to be Honorary Professor at the Centre for Psychiatry at Queen Mary University. Whoops.😂
3./ I suppose it's the fact checking we've come to expect from ol' Johnioh. Remember when he spread a big fat conspiracy theory about a certain gay group somehow organising a global attempt to err...swing the SNP's Executive elections?🙄👇
Read 6 tweets

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