For my part I wish John Boyne no pain, I did not leave the award to hurt him, to make him suffer. I do not know him. I’m certain the past few days have been awful for him, they’ve not been great for me either. /10
Replies
I’d simple wish him to be treated the same as he treats trans folk and those supporting trans rights. If he’s not been transphobic and abusive then he’s got no cause for concern. If he fears that means he may be treated less than fairly, well…..
aug 15, 2025, 12:31 pm • 18 0 • view
I appreciate your fairness, but truth be told, he needs to grow up and accept there are consequences for his actions and words. He is taking the bullying approach of American conservatives: publicly take a bigoted position, then start screaming for mommy when there are outcomes they don’t like.
aug 15, 2025, 12:23 pm • 31 0 • view
You are far, far more generous to him than he deserves. He's weaponising s**cide against us so he can portray trans people and anyone who supports us as abusers using "intimidation" and "bullying". All while he continues to attack us.
aug 15, 2025, 10:01 pm • 6 0 • view
Irrespective of how John feels, his words are simply not compatible with an inclusive prize that celebrates all LGBTQ+ people. Just like a racist statement would not be allowed in a prize for writers of colour, or a sexist statement tolerated for a prize for feminist writers. /11
aug 15, 2025, 10:04 am • 2,495 225 • view
Disappointed in this @theguardian.com coverage. Include the whole story.
aug 15, 2025, 11:17 am • 87 0 • view
News orgs prioritizing exclusion over ethical journalism benefits no one.
aug 15, 2025, 12:53 pm • 33 0 • view
The Guardian can't disappoint me on gender issues. It's been a transphobic, or at least transphobia-curious, institution for years.
aug 15, 2025, 3:10 pm • 3 0 • view
Very well said, Sacha and I'm so sorry for all the abuse you and others have received from the anti trans mob that infect social media. Glad to have found you on this platform 🙂
aug 15, 2025, 10:58 am • 49 0 • view
No one ever became poor from giving and sharing our post if free. This is not just some “fundraiser” it’s a cry out for support/help
aug 15, 2025, 5:21 pm • 0 0 • view
Nothing about this is pleasant, nobody is enjoying this or doing it for ‘woke points’. People have principles by which they stand, and 14 of us have decided that these no longer align with the Polari Prize. I stand by my decision, and every author that was called to make a similar choice. /12
aug 15, 2025, 10:05 am • 1,738 91 • view
Thank you for taking action to remind readers what the Polari Prize should be for. 😍 🏳️🌈 IMHO John Boyne went over the edge (of acceptability) years ago if I'm judging him by his books. 🤢
aug 15, 2025, 2:13 pm • 8 0 • view
Finally, far from least, the transgender people in this country who have been made to feel monstrous and inhuman by a constant barrage of misinformation and slander. How do they feel? It is awful that anyone feels broken by this situation, but is there space for their feelings? I fear not. /13
aug 15, 2025, 10:07 am • 2,252 179 • view
Thank you (again) for being such a great and consistent trans ally 💕
aug 15, 2025, 10:30 am • 64 1 • view
Thank you Sacha. Both of my adult children are transgender and these are terrifying times for trans people and their loved ones. John Boyne said what he said. It was a terrible thing to say. He’s a writer - he knows the effect of words. That HE is feeling their effect too is on him.
aug 15, 2025, 12:09 pm • 28 0 • view
Thank you 🏳️⚧️
aug 15, 2025, 12:12 pm • 4 0 • view
Feel pretty bad tbh. Pretty rough being othered all day every day. Gonna go buy your book about it.
aug 15, 2025, 9:38 pm • 5 0 • view
It’s very sad for everyone who’s had to withdraw from an event that’s lost its way so badly
aug 15, 2025, 12:01 pm • 6 0 • view
Much love, Sacha - you're an excellent human, a great author, an entertaining and effective educator, and I deeply appreciate your allyship. I'm so sorry that you've ended up copping so much abuse for simply refusing to join bigots.
aug 15, 2025, 11:16 am • 11 0 • view
Thank you for standing up for trans people x
aug 15, 2025, 10:13 am • 29 0 • view
Thank you for doing what's right 💜
aug 15, 2025, 10:09 am • 89 0 • view
Thank you
aug 15, 2025, 11:30 am • 6 0 • view
Thank you for your words. Polari did the ENTIRE LGBTQ+ a massive disservice by including the TERF Boyne. It made no sense. Subsequently, the mainstream media habe done the authors who withdrew a massive disservice by almost only presenting Boyne’s POV. It’s despicable.
aug 15, 2025, 10:30 am • 77 1 • view
It's makes more sense when you find out the prize is run by an LGB Alliance supporter
aug 15, 2025, 12:28 pm • 33 2 • view
LGB Alliance: Because first they came for the Transes, we said "Yeah, they're icky" and it stopped there and everyone else was fine. 🤡
aug 17, 2025, 1:16 pm • 2 0 • view
Oh, they’d like to come for the bis too, but the company LG squashed calling themselves the LG Alliance pretty sharpish
aug 27, 2025, 6:06 pm • 4 0 • view
Hasn't actually stopped them from coming for the Bi's. All the old cliches have been trotted out. They don't think Pride should be a thing but Bi people definitely shouldn't go. Nor should we pollute their sacred LG spaces with our impure, het tainted vibes. 🤬
aug 27, 2025, 6:47 pm • 3 0 • view
Heh. As a bi trans woman, I am all their nightmares combined :)
aug 29, 2025, 1:04 am • 3 0 • view
😊😊😊🎉🎉🎉
aug 29, 2025, 6:54 am • 1 0 • view
Basically they like to hate. Maybe just call themselves HATE Inc?
aug 27, 2025, 8:34 pm • 2 0 • view
Well, that's gross af, but also makes sense for how it's being portrayed now.
aug 15, 2025, 1:04 pm • 20 0 • view
LGBTQ is a community and an attack on one part of that is an attack on us all. We need to stand together on this. And so appreciate you and the other writers who are.
aug 15, 2025, 10:40 am • 27 0 • view
Thank you for this thread, for your decision and for your integrity. As a fellow writer I know you don't walk away from a prize nomination easily. The Guardian article sucks and once again, trans people and their allies are the once who suffer, not the anti-trans assholes.
aug 15, 2025, 11:57 am • 12 0 • view
A great response! Thank you for your integrity and the reminder that there is good in humanity, too. In times like these, it can be a necessary reminder.
aug 15, 2025, 3:05 pm • 5 0 • view
Thank you 🩷🩵🤍
aug 15, 2025, 11:27 am • 6 0 • view
Thank you. 🙏
aug 15, 2025, 11:46 am • 9 0 • view
Great thread. I share your frustration at the Guardian article but not surprised. UK media incapable of being genuinely ‘balanced’ on this issue. I think you & the other authors come off really well and I’m going to read your book soon as I can download kindle version - looking forward to it :)
aug 15, 2025, 10:57 am • 21 0 • view
🫂
aug 15, 2025, 11:51 am • 7 0 • view
Beautifully put Sacha. Thank you
aug 15, 2025, 10:45 am • 8 0 • view
UPDATE: 16 authors. 2/3 of all nominated authors have left. Plus two judges. An additional 2 are staying but have spoken out. This is not a few whiny babies.
aug 15, 2025, 2:17 pm • 948 70 • view
sickening the way the guardian are reporting on this
aug 15, 2025, 2:31 pm • 167 0 • view
but not surprising, really, given how they've supported & enabled transphobia. I've never been able to subscribe to them, despite a lot of great reporting in other areas, bcuz their transphobia always hits me as vile *even by US standards* for a non-right publication
aug 15, 2025, 3:49 pm • 138 1 • view
yup
aug 15, 2025, 3:49 pm • 29 0 • view
yeah i stopped reading in 2013 because of the transphobia. i haven’t started again.
aug 18, 2025, 10:32 am • 1 0 • view
Same. Until they lay off the transphobia they won't get a cent from me.
aug 16, 2025, 3:36 am • 4 0 • view
The guardian has had a long history of Transphobic bigotry & discrimination. No way is it a simply a balanced news paper that will be one day, the wrong side of history
aug 16, 2025, 3:08 pm • 5 0 • view
I took a peak at the writer's following list on Twitter. Unsurprisingly there are plenty of the usual anti-trans suspects.
aug 15, 2025, 10:03 pm • 4 0 • view
Unfortunately, they signed on to Team Transphobe and have elected themselves the paper of record for it.
aug 16, 2025, 3:49 am • 5 0 • view
They should drop him. That or cancel the event.
aug 16, 2025, 8:34 pm • 4 0 • view
I know I regularly quote the Guardian - I consider them the least corrupt of a corrupt medium, which isn't saying much - but if you're expecting redress from a newspaper, dream on. They don't do that. Meanwhile they allow 'gender critical' people to carry on like the "I have been silenced!" cartoon.
aug 16, 2025, 5:43 am • 4 0 • view
Well done for standing up for your principles!! ❤️
aug 16, 2025, 3:01 pm • 1 0 • view
Thank you
aug 16, 2025, 3:37 am • 2 0 • view
It’s always easier for bigots to demonise and not acknowledge or report why LGBTQ+ and people are withdrawing from this award or that it’s meant to be LGBT
aug 16, 2025, 7:07 pm • 3 0 • view
Why would any stay?
aug 16, 2025, 3:41 am • 3 0 • view
Well said.
aug 15, 2025, 10:59 am • 5 0 • view
I've been listening to the audiobook version of your book and it's fascinating! And the narrator is terrific. After a lifetime of feeling like an outcast, it's so empowering to learn more about how and where "my kind" fit into culture and history.
aug 24, 2025, 9:56 pm • 0 0 • view
As a Trans man, it means a lot to me that you and the others took a stand for solidarity with the whole LGBTQ+ community! It amazes me that there are gays and lesbians who have seemingly internalized this hatred and othering as if it weren't coming from the same place as what gets directed at them.
aug 24, 2025, 9:50 pm • 1 0 • view
Such an eloquent explanation of your position. Thank you for standing up for your principles and our community at a time filled with fear and anxiety. ❤️ Looking forward to reading Queer as Folklore.
aug 15, 2025, 11:05 am • 12 0 • view
Yes, thank you for standing with us and for sharing this thread as well.
aug 15, 2025, 10:47 am • 14 0 • view
Well done for taking a stand. 👏👏👏
aug 18, 2025, 12:32 pm • 1 0 • view
I'd say write exactly this in a letter to the editor, but i can guess it would never appear in the paper. Cancelled my subscription 2 years ago and almost now never refer to it if at all possible.
aug 15, 2025, 12:29 pm • 10 1 • view
Thank you for how you've responded to all of this.
aug 15, 2025, 10:46 am • 14 0 • view
It seems like the feelings of some people matter more considering how this has played out in print media. Surely expecting basic dignity and respect for all is too much to ask. The funny aspect is that he can still win, so no true harm to his prospects despite all the crocodile tears.
aug 15, 2025, 10:22 am • 26 0 • view
This is very powerful.
aug 15, 2025, 10:36 am • 13 0 • view
Total supportr to you and all the others. Bigotry is bigotry, no matter the fame.
aug 15, 2025, 1:01 pm • 8 0 • view
Solidarity. What a sensitive and nuanced statement. I hope @theguardian.com take note. But they won’t.
aug 15, 2025, 10:55 am • 13 1 • view
You're a wonderful human being Sacha. Unlike Boyne.
aug 15, 2025, 11:21 am • 8 0 • view
This is a really articulate and compassionate response to this whole debacle. I can’t imagine how difficult it’s been for you and the other authors who’ve withdrawn; but I appreciate the stand you’ve all chosen to make 💜
aug 15, 2025, 10:48 am • 13 0 • view
I'm sorry that people have been attacking you over this decision. Thank you for your considerate and principled support, in a time when it's not always the popular choice.
aug 15, 2025, 1:10 pm • 11 0 • view
Thank you so much not only for doing this, but saying all the above too; I am sure it wasn't the easiest decision in the world to withdraw, and you have been through a lot utterly undeservedly as a result, but it's entirely the right thing.
aug 15, 2025, 10:36 am • 10 0 • view
Thank you.
aug 15, 2025, 12:57 pm • 6 0 • view
Once I read some of his violent lines, I was disinclined to want to read more He gets a prize for being repugnant, surely
aug 15, 2025, 12:53 pm • 17 0 • view
Thank you for standing up for trans folk and doing the hard but necessary thing. ❤️
aug 15, 2025, 1:52 pm • 15 0 • view
I applaud your principled stance and your willingness to sacrifice for what is right. It is courageous, truly difficult, and necessary. Thank you!
aug 15, 2025, 12:39 pm • 18 0 • view
The way this has been reported is feckin disgusting. Outside of their own social media platforms I haven’t seen any of the authors except Boyne given space.
aug 15, 2025, 7:55 pm • 8 0 • view
Going to the media to sob about how he's being 'victimised' when he can do precisely what 14 others have done & leave the long list. He's putting himself through it, no-one's forcing him to.
aug 15, 2025, 10:59 am • 34 0 • view
but have u considered: he want prize
aug 18, 2025, 10:33 am • 0 0 • view
The prize is meant to be inclusive, his opinions are not in the spirit of the prize, he should face/expect backlash 🤷♂️
aug 15, 2025, 11:01 am • 22 0 • view
It's like standing in the sun & complaining you're getting sunburnt when there's a parasol right there. You can go stand under it at any time. Any time.
aug 15, 2025, 11:02 am • 19 0 • view
You did the right thing. This is a LGBTQ award list and should celebrate all LGBTQA people. Mr Boyne has made his feelings about my trans friends very clear. He is supported by authors and journalists who share those views and they are entitled to do so. But not on this shortlist.
aug 16, 2025, 7:09 pm • 6 0 • view
that’s okay, I do
aug 15, 2025, 4:49 pm • 1 0 • view