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Image / Self / Real-life Stories

Transgender pride flag. Getty Images

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Soula Emmanuel: The internet wrecked the world and saved my life


Available On Premium
by Soula Emmanuel
09.02.21

Read time: 7 mins

"It is hard to be entirely fearful of the future when there is no comparative comfort to be found in history." Trans writer Soula Emmanuel writes about their experience of becoming "ammunition in a culture war".

Is it blasphemous to compare oneself to the Virgin Mary? Probably, but here goes nothing. In the summer of 1985, as Ireland endured another year of mass emigration and spittle-flecked wrangling about divorce, it was reported that people throughout the country were spotting statues of Mary moving spontaneously, most notably in Ballinspittle, Co. Cork. You probably know this already, even if, like me, you weren’t around for it – memorably, they matched it up with...

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