This day in Herstory: Lydia Maria Child, born February 11, 1802 (died October 20, 1880), was an American abolitionist, women's rights activist, Native American rights activist, novelist, journalist, and opponent of American expansionism.
Her journals, both fiction and domestic manuals, reached wide audiences from the 1820s through the 1850s. At times she shocked her audience as she tried to take on issues of both male dominance and white supremacy in some of her stories. (more)
Prostasia Forced Academic Journal to Delete Critical Research
From REDUXX (USA)
By Anna Slatz
Feb 11, 2022
A Professor who criticised Prostasia had his research article on the activist organization erased after they allegedly bullied the publishing journal into deleting his work.
Dr. Alaric Naudé, a Professor focused on the social sciences and linguistics at Suwon University in South Korea, had his research on Prostasia removed from The British Journal of Sociology and History just 24 hours after it was first published on February 9.
When Dr. Naudé inquired with the Journal on the reason why, he was told Prostasia had contacted them and demanded its removal on the grounds that the group claimed it was defamatory.
The article, titled A Case Study via Sociolinguistic Analysis of [a] Covert Pro-Pedophilia Organization Registered as a Child Protection Charity, focused on how Prostasia claims to be for child protection but builds a narrative framing pedophiles as victims of "an oppressive social structure." … read full article (and please support REDUXX on Patreon!)
Signs for hope in protecting women's sports
From The Washington Examiner (USA)
By Debra Soh
Feb 11, 2022
Despite being only a month into 2022, the debate around transgender female athletes remains fiery.
Most recently, South Dakota became the 10th state to enforce legislation prioritizing the importance of biological sex. Gov. Kristi Noem signed Senate Bill 46 to "protect fairness in women’s sports." The law will come into effect on July 1 and requires school sports to be classified as either female, male, or mixed. Only female athletes, based on their biological sex, not gender identity, may participate in sports designated for women and girls.
For years, this completely reasonable requirement has been blasted as transphobic and discriminatory. In response to Noem’s signing, a predictable backlash argued the legislation is harmful to "transgender youth."
But activists can only grasp at straws. Anyone who is skeptical as to why these mandates are necessary needs only glance at collegiate swimming to see how categorization based on gender self-identification has invited a catastrophe. After months of outrage, the dismissal of female swimmers' concerns, and allegations that collusion offered the illusion of a level playing field, one organization, USA Swimming, has taken a stand. … read full article
New Canadian Law Could Send Parents to Jail for Not Affirming Gender Identity
From The Daily Signal (USA)
By Virginia Allen, @Virginia_Allen5
Feb 11, 2022
It’s a conversation many have had at least once in their life. A friend or family member shares that he or she is struggling with same-sex attraction.
No doubt there are countless opinions on the most loving way to respond in these moments, but a new law in Canada mandates the response to be given. Affirm the same-sex attraction—or risk jail time.
Yes, Canada’s “conversion therapy” ban requires parents, pastors, counselors, friends, and others to affirm a person’s gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation, or face jail or prison time. … read full article
Tony Blair: ‘Voters don’t want a situation where women can’t talk about being women’
It’s been 15 years since the former PM left office but he is still a polarising figure. So what does he think about the trans debate, today’s Downing Street culture, the current Labour leader — and his own legacy?
From The Times (UK)
By Alice Thomson
Feb 11, 2022
Should I call you Sir Anthony? Tony Blair laughs. …
The former prime minister’s voice is immediately recognisable, …. Those were simpler times, when all the nation was worried about was the millennium bug, Cherie’s contraception and whether Blair would be changing the new baby’s nappies. There was no 9/11, no Iraq war, no Brexit and no pandemic. …
But this is a different era, he concedes, with new problems. When he was leader, there were no arguments about sex and gender, trans rights and toppling statues. Starmer will have to go into battle over the culture wars, he says. “The polls might say voters don’t care but if you dig a little deeper, what they are really saying is we don’t like all this stuff that is being shoved at us.”
I assume he is going to cite the third way again, but Blair comes down firmly on the side of the author JK Rowling. “They [voters] don’t want a situation where women can’t talk about being women. I have this conversation quite often with Labour people and I know their inclination is to walk round this issue, but I am telling you to go right into it and resolve it in a way that makes it absolutely clear where you stand. That is how to shut down the Tories on it.”
He is risking the ire of the trans lobby now. “Of course, we shouldn’t be transphobic and we should have equal rights for trans people. But equal rights doesn’t mean you can’t use the phrase ‘pregnant woman’. If you went to Sedgefield and had that conservation, they would think you were bonkers.” … read full article (share token)
Living in a woman’s body: I was mutilated – and I swore I would stop this happening to another girl
I was told I was a coward if I resisted female genital mutilation. For decades since then, I have worked, and risked everything, to protect other girls
From The Guardian (UK)
By Agnes Pareyio
Agnes Pareyio is an activist for One Billion Rising and V-Day, the founder of the Tasaru Ntomonok Initiative and V-Day Safe Houses for the Girls. She is the head of the Anti-FGM Board in Kenya and is running for the Kenyan parliament.
Feb 11, 2022
I was 14 when my mother and grandmother announced that I was going to have my clitoris, my labia majora and my labia minora cut out. They said that if I resisted I was a coward. In my culture, the worst thing you can be called is a coward.
I was never naive. I grew up as a Maasai girl in Kenya in the 60s and 70s. At some point in my childhood, I became aware that there was a rite of passage into womanhood. I was to have my vulva mutilated by an elderly woman using a blunt instrument. But I was also part of the first generation of Maasai girls to be sent to school, where I met girls from communities who didn’t practise female genital mutilation (FGM). I learned from them that you can grow to be an adult with your vulva intact. That was what I wanted.
I went back to my family and explained I would not be mutilated. My father sided with me: he said it was not necessary. But the village taunted me and said they did not know what to call me if I was not cut: “Would we call you a girl or a woman? Do you want to remain a child all your life? Whom will you marry?” … read full article
Rosie Duffield ‘tempted to quit Labour’ over lack of support on trans stance
From The Times (UK)
Feb 11, 2022
A Labour MP has said she found it “tempting” to defect to the Conservative Party over disagreements about transgender rights.
Rosie Duffield, the MP for Canterbury since 2017, said there was not a “huge difference” between Sir Keir Starmer and Jeremy Corbyn in supporting her during disputes with local activists on the issue.
Last year Duffield said she felt unable to attend Labour’s annual conference after she was made to feel unwelcome because of her views on trans women. Duffield, who denies being transphobic, believes there should be protected spaces that are not open to those born male. … read full article (share token)
Missouri Joins Tidal Wave of States Trying to Protect Minors From Gender Transition. Here's How You Can Help
From CNS News (USA)
By Chantel Hoyt
Feb 11, 2022
State Rep. Suzie Pollock of Missouri's 123rd district has just introduced H.B. 2649, the Missouri Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act, to protect minors from harmful physiological gender transition procedures. Missouri is the fifth state to introduce a SAFE Act this year.
Pollock joined "Washington Watch" to discuss the purpose of the bill.
"It makes it illegal to practice giving children cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, or any kind of surgery" that alter their young bodies for life, she noted. "I really want to get that in law and protect children because who knows where things can progress to and what they'll be trying next." … read full article
Swedish school is ordered to pay student £12,000 compensation after teacher refused to use gender-neutral pronoun for them
A school in central Sweden has paid a non-binary student £12,000 in damages
A teacher refused to refer to the student using the gender-neutral pronoun 'hen'
The wrong pronoun was used to refer to the pupil for at least one full school term
The Equality Ombudsman ruled the student had been subject to discrimination
From The Daily Mail (UK)
By Kate Dennett
Feb 11, 2022
A Swedish school has been ordered to pay a non-binary student £12,000 in compensation after a teacher refused to refer to them using gender-neutral pronouns.
The teacher said she could not use the gender-neutral pronoun 'hen', prompting the student's guardians to tell the headteacher about the teacher's refusal and the pupil's gender identity.
Despite the headteacher of the school in central Sweden promising to speak with the teacher, the student was referred to with the wrong pronouns for at least one school term, The Local reported. … read full article
Deep partisan divide on whether greater acceptance of transgender people is good for society
From The Pew Research Center (USA)
By Anna Brown
Feb 11, 2022
At a time when a rising share of U.S. adults say they know someone who is transgender, there is no public consensus on whether greater social acceptance of transgender people is good or bad for society, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted last July.
The question was asked as part of a broader survey that asked about the public’s views on a wide range of social and political issues, including whether different societal trends in the U.S. are generally good or bad for society.
About four-in-ten U.S. adults (38%) say that greater acceptance of people who are transgender is generally good for our society, while 32% say it is bad and 29% say it is neither good nor bad. There is a stark difference between Republicans and Democrats on this topic, and views also vary among some key demographic groups, including groups within each party. … read full article