GSCENE 71
DUNCAN’S
TRANS
BY DUNCAN STEWART
BY STEPH SCOTT
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
STILL FIGHTING
The last time I left the small village in Andalucia in which I spend a
couple of weeks every year, the narrow streets were full of sombrely
dressed villagers summoned by the church bell to a funeral. The dead
man had asked a friend to shoot a wild boar which was wrecking the
vegetable patch at his finca a mile south of the village. The friend
agreed, even though shooting boar was illegal at this time of year,
took up a hidden position with a view of the garden and fired when
he saw movement, fatally wounding not a boar but his friend doing
some weeding. This is a true tragedy as the hunter may go to prison
and the deceased’s invalid wife and dependant 30-year-old daughter
have lost a loving husband, father and carer.
From a personal point of view the one resolution I should make and
keep is to look after myself better, to be aware of activist burn-out
and to take steps to avoid it, but I doubt if it will last long with the
Trans Scrutiny report going before full council in January. Note to self,
avoid talking to the Argus and all other right-wing gutter press who
never let the truth get in the way of a good story!
DOMAIN
Most of us do not die as a result of mistaken identity, we are most
likely to succumb to cancer or arterial disease. Our life expectancy,
scheduled in our genes, is maximal on the day we take our first breath
and most of us steadily squander it by our careless and noxious
habits. So what should we do to get the best value from all those
pension premiums? Smoking increases your risk of dying from virtually
every cause so, if a smoker, giving it up (which is not easy) must be
your top priority. There is a lot of very effective help available
through GP surgeries and specialist clinics so don’t delay and if your
partner smokes insist they join you. There seems to be a growing
consensus that eating less red meat reduces your risk of bowel cancer
and of course too much unprotected exposure to sunlight has well
known dangers; less well known is that too little may make you more
susceptible to infection as a result of low Vitamin D levels. Life is
complicated.
Most of us, and I include myself, are overweight and unfit because we
enjoy consuming too many calories and are too lazy to take adequate
amounts of exercise; but if you can make a bit of an effort the
benefits are surprisingly protective and at no cost. Go to a gym if you
like but why not simply walk a bit further and faster every day? Make
time to get off the bus a couple of stops before your destination. We
are inundated by gorgeous recipes, offers of delicious instant food,
and alcohol is thrust at you wherever you go so achieving your ideal
weight is difficult and most diets are so boring you go back to your
old ways immediately and all that misery was for nothing.
“Achieving your ideal weight is difficult
and most diets are so boring you go
back to your old ways immediately
and all that misery was for nothing”
My advice is simply to eat smaller portions of the food you enjoy, cut
out all sugar before the onset of diabetes forces you to do so, eat less
of those fats that go hard in the fridge and have a glass of water with
every meal. First however you must buy a tape measure and get
someone to record your real girth and if you reduce this to a figure
below 40 inches for a man and below 35 inches for a woman you will
have got rid of much of the fat inside your abdomen which, unlike the
fat under your skin, messes up your metabolism and raises your
cholesterol and blood sugar levels. You might also buy and share the
use of a blood pressure machine, get the type which fits around your
upper arm.
Simple? Yes. But not easy. Dr Johnson, that masterly definer of the
meaning of words was once asked by an overweight acquaintance
“Don’t you think I look well?”, to which the great man replied “You do
indeed appear well but you look repulsive”, so there’s another reason
to follow my advice!
MATTERS
My many wishes for the new year include Pride actually asking the
communities what we want before deciding what they want to give us.
This year’s Pride was said to be a success but was full of admin
problems for community groups and actually the area outside the
fences felt quite unsafe (I witnessed two nasty fights outside and saw
the aftermath of one inside). Do we really need two days of people
getting drunk in/outside the park and as someone who lives next to
the park do I have to put up with two days of dance music booming
out? I am more of an ageing rock ‘chick’ myself!
“Report hate crimes to the police,
say no to hatred of any kind and
stand up for those who cannot do
so for themselves”
Other wishes include seeing the number of trans people killed go
down. This year we remembered the names of 265 people who were
murdered for being trans, being a friend or lover of a trans person.
This was a rise of over 25% on last year! Over 80% of those killed
were from Central & South American count ɥ