This day in Herstory: On March 11, 2006, Michelle Bachelet was inaugurated as the first female president of Chile. She is the first woman to hold the Chilean presidency and the first elected female leader in South America. She has also served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights since 2018. She served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and 2014 to 2018 for the Socialist Party of Chile. After leaving the presidency in 2010, she was appointed the first executive director of the newly created United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. In December 2013, Bachelet was reelected with over 62% of the vote, bettering the 54% she obtained in 2006. She was the first President of Chile to be reelected since 1932.
Bachelet, a physician who has studied military strategy at university level, was Health Minister and Defense Minister under her predecessor, Ricardo Lagos. She is a separated mother of three and describes herself as an agnostic. She speaks English fluently, as well as some German, French, and Portuguese. (more)
Scotland is still hunting witches
Nicola Sturgeon should apologise to the ‘TERFs’ her party is demonising.
From Spiked (UK)
By Emma Webb
March 11, 2022
Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, surpassed satire this week, by using a speech on International Women’s Day to formally apologise to women accused of witchcraft.
Posthumously making amends to those convicted and executed under Scotland’s Witchcraft Act of 1563, Sturgeon usefully clarified: ‘Those women who met this fate were not “witches”. They were people. And they were overwhelmingly women.’
While witch-burning is thankfully a thing of the distant past, a very modern form of witch-hunting is taking place today in Scotland and Britain more widely. But sadly, Sturgeon’s empathy does not extend to those people – mainly women – who are routinely demonised simply because they are concerned about protecting their sex-based rights from erasure.
Of particular concern is Scotland’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill. This bill essentially allows for gender self-identification in Scotland. It eliminates any need for someone wanting to change gender to undergo medical and psychiatric assessments. And it reduces the time a person is required to live as their ‘acquired’ gender, from two years to three months. … read full article
UK: Trans-Identified Male Charged With Assault, Exposing Penis
From REDUXX (USA)
By Anna Slatz
March 11, 2022
A man has been handed a suspended prison sentence after parading down a Staffordshire street with his penis exposed, and assaulting multiple people.
Shaye Sims, a male who identifies as a woman, was arrested June 18 of last year after a short spree of public indecency and assault. The 31-year-old was asked to leave a local pub after breaking COVID-19 policies, but didn't do so quietly.
According to the Daily Record, Sims threw his glassware across the establishment, spat in the landlord's face multiple times, and physically assaulted the security staff. After being ejected, Sims kicked at the bar's door until it was almost unhinged.
After being turned out to the street, Sims removed his underwear and lifted up his dress to expose his genitals as he walked in plain sight of many people. Sims was arrested after a brief pursuit by police in which he was tracked by CCTV operators.
… read full article (and SUPPORT REDUXX!)
The problem with the UK’s transgender clinic
From The Spectator (UK)
By James Kirkup
March 11, 2022
This is not a good time to be a girl. Research from Steer Education last month showed that far too many girls are sad and anxious and concealing their troubles from others.
In 2019, the Lancet published research showing girls’ rates of self-harm had tripled since 2000. Other studies show girls are much more likely to be depressed or anxious than boys.
This might surprise. Aren’t today’s girls growing up in an age of equality, inheritors of girl power? They’re more likely than boys to go to university. They have better economic prospects than any generation of females that went before them. Empowered female role models are more visible than ever before, in culture, sport, media, science, business, even politics.
Yet at the same time, girls are growing up in the digital age, where images of what women and girls can (or perhaps should, depending on your view) be are everywhere. From the earliest age, many of those images are strongly sex-based, assigning roles and characteristics to girls because they are girls. You can tell a story here that starts with pink unicorns for toddlers and ends with Instagram and YouTube influencers who can make millions selling an image of apparently perfect, glossy femininity.
Does that culture contribute to that epidemic of mental health problems for girls? It’s notable that the Steer Education research found ‘unhealthy perfectionism’ is a key driver of girls’ distress: many feel under crushing pressure to be the perfect girl or woman. But this is still just speculation. I don’t know what’s causing mental health problems among girls. I don’t think the evidence is clear. We don’t yet have a good explanation. … read full article
But 'sex work is work'
Bring your own meaning, as long as you agree.
From Writing Behavior (Canada)
By Eliza Mondegreen
March 11, 2022
I’m still struck by the slipperiness and utter substancelessness of “sex work is work,” which is so often passed around in repeat-after-me tones.
It’s impossible to pin that assertion down, to fix its meaning so it can be evaluated, rather than just chanted mindlessly. Bring your own meaning, as long as you agree.
“Sex work is work” serves whatever purpose the moment or the speaker requires. One moment it’s an engine of normalization and expansion of the sex trade ("Sex work is work... have a lotta fun"). But ask uncomfortable questions (about supply and demand and trafficking, about mortality rates, about the inequality between the sexes and between rich and poor that is the global sex trade's rotten, racing heart) and “sex work is work” can just as suddenly shrink to a statement of near-nothingness: how could you possibly object to recognizing that there's work involved in sex work? Of course there’s work involved in sex work. This is just about workers’ rights. Never mind that it's specifically about the 'rights' of ‘workers’ to sell or be sold, so that they can be bought. … read full article (and SUBSCRIBE to Writing Behavior!)
What IS the point of women in Parliament if they're too scared to say what a woman is? As two Labour female frontbenchers fail to answer the most fundamental question, JENNI MURRAY suggests they read the history of the suffrage movement
From Daily Mail (UK)
By Jenni Murray
March 10, 2022
For 33 years, I presented a programme called Woman's Hour. The last words I spoke as I closed my final performance were these: 'There's no such thing as a stereotypical woman, but there is one thing we all share — our sex.'
I never doubted for a second that the word woman can only be applied to someone born female, as biologically determined by the XX chromosome.
The biology that runs throughout the system of the girl and the woman cannot be changed, so a woman is an adult human female, a girl is a young human female and that is that.
Why then do female politicians, who owe their place in the corridors of power thanks to the efforts of thousands of women who campaigned for their rights, appear unable to define what and who they are?
On International Women's Day this week, Labour's Shadow Minister for Women Anneliese Dodds found herself struggling to answer the question 'What is a woman?' Its meaning, she said, depends on the context.
No, it doesn't, Anneliese. Its meaning is perfectly clear. … read full article
Trans-Identified Male Arrested for Hammer Attack on Asian Man
From REDUXX (USA)
By Genevieve Gluck
March 11, 2022
A man suspected of launching a brutal, unprovoked attack on an Asian man on a New York subway platform has now been arrested for the heinous crime.
On March 9, New York Police Department arrested Christian Jeffers, 48, and charged him with assault, aggravated harassment and menacing — all with hate crime designations — and criminal possession of a weapon, according to authorities. Jeffers is male but identifies as a woman.
Jeffers was caught on camera Tuesday night in a wig and purple lipstick attacking an Asian man with a hammer on a subway platform in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. He was arrested less than 24 hours later on Wednesday, March 9. Prior to this incident, Jeffers had 47 previous convictions dating back to 2007.
Jeffers was released from prison last summer after serving nearly six years on a second-degree robbery conviction. Just over a week later, he was again detained for petit larceny, according to the New York Post.
Other prior charges include prostitution, grand larceny, and public lewdness.
“I want to get him locked up because he was pretty aggressive,” the victim of the hammer attack said, speaking to the New York Post. … read full article (and SUPPORT REDUXX!)
Tavistock gender clinic not safe for children, report finds
England’s only specialist service for young people who identify as transgender is criticised in an NHS report
From The Times (UK)
By Lucy Bannerman
March 10, 2022
The Tavistock clinic faces a complete overhaul after a review found that its gender identity services are “not a safe or viable long-term option” for children and young people.
The report has been hailed as a victory for whistleblowers who warned that the gender identity development service (GIDS) clinic in north London was operating outside of typical NHS safeguarding and clinical standards.
Dr Hilary Cass, a retired paediatrician, was commissioned by NHS England to investigate services at the clinic, which has been sending children as young as ten for experimental hormone treatment.
The clinic, run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, is England’s only specialist service for children and young people who identify as transgender.
It has been overwhelmed by a sudden increase in referrals from across the country, particularly among young girls who are distressed about their gender and youngsters on the autism spectrum. … read full article (archived webpage)
I am an Observer
From Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT) (USA)
March 11, 2022
As a mother of a 15-year-old girl who has for the most part desisted from the trans identity she held over the last year and a half, I do not rest easy, not for one minute of one day. I am the lead of a local groups of parents of Rapid Onset Dysphoric Kids and two days ago FIVE new families joined. That is a record no one will celebrate. That means that five more kids may be harmed by the medical community and may hopefully join the ranks of those whose name is verboten in WPATH, gender clinics, main stream media, TV and therapists’ offices—desisters and detransitioners.
I am an Observer. I am a Watcher. I am a Cataloger. Who am I watching you ask? I am watching the growing number of detransitioners and desisters. I am reading about their anger, their strength, their compassion for each other, their wisdom, their regret, their resilience, their warnings, their confusion and their hope for a better future.
As Detransition Awareness Day approaches - March 12, 2022 - here are some of the musings of the unsung heroes and survivors of the gender ideology from various sites:
“[F]un fact, my surgeon said i was the youngest patient [15] he had EVER operated on. the surgery was extremely painful with some complications. my chest is maimed with heavy scarring (not helped by the fact that in the weeks/months post op i was too depressed and in pain to take proper care of the incision sites so the scars are worse than they were supposed to be) and i have nerve damage and pain, or sometimes weird tingling sensations (??) to this day, if my chest isn’t completely numb which it is most of the time. also, i HATE the way it looks. now that i am flat chested i can pass as male and i realize i don’t actually like presenting as male that much. i miss being feminine . . . from the second i woke up in the operating room i knew it was a mistake. i had no idea how painful it would be, physically and emotionally, and i had expected some sense of like… joy? euphoria? that i would finally be in the right body. . ., but i didn’t expect it to be pure misery either. … read full article (and SUBSCRIBE to PITT!)
#DetransAwarenessDay
Tickets are available at €25 each. Please note: FREE TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE for desisters, detransitioners, and anyone in financial difficulties. Rather than buying a ticket using the button below, please get in touch via info@genspect.org.
CLICK HERE TO BOOK YOUR TICKET!
Biological-sex campaigner Katherine Deves’ bid for key seat
A mother who has campaigned for stricter definitions of biological sex in sports has put forward a nomination to take on a high-profile independent.
From news.com.au (Australia)
By Ashleigh Gleeson (@ashleighgleeson)
March 11, 2022
An outspoken campaigner for transgender people to be banned from female sport has submitted a nomination to the NSW Liberal Party to run against independent Zali Steggall in the federal seat of Warringah.
Lawyer Katherine Deves put forward her nomination on Thursday evening just hours after the NSW state executive passed a motion to reopen nominations in the seat, which has been plagued by factional infighting that’s part of a broader internal party row.
In her submission, the co-founder of Save Women’s Sport lobby group asked to be granted an exemption as she did not meet the requirement of having a continuous six-month financial Liberal membership.
“I am a Warringah local resident with strong intracommunity connection and support for my candidacy,” she wrote.
She also pointed out that the only two other people to have signalled their intention to nominate were men.
“The Liberal Party has set a target for the proportion of candidates who shall be female to be 50 per cent,” she said.
“The party cannot realistically expect to achieve this constitutional target if it does not make allowance for the reasons why women may not be able to maintain continuous membership and involvement.” … read full article
Doctors treating gender dysphoria feel ‘pressured to adopt unquestioning approach’
Medics feel unable to query young patients’ choices, even when this is at odds with their clinical assessment and diagnosis
From The Telegraph (UK)
March 10, 2022
Doctors feel “pressured to adopt an unquestioning approach” when treating children with gender dysphoria, an independent review has found.
The Cass Review is an independent report being led by Dr Hilary Cass, a consultant paediatrician and former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
It was commissioned by NHS England and NHS Improvement to make recommendations on the services provided to children and young people exploring their gender identity.
There is currently just one specialist service providing gender identity services for children and young people: the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.
In recent years, GIDS has experienced a significant increase in referrals which has contributed to long waiting lists and mounting concern about how the NHS should most appropriately assess, diagnose and care for these children and young people.
On Thursday, an interim report was published and found that while the staff working within the specialist service “demonstrate a high level of commitment” to their patients, “the waiting list pressure and lack of consensus development on the clinical approach” - combined with “criticism of the service” - have resulted in rapid turnover of staff as well as “inadequate capacity” to deal with increasing workloads.
It continued: “Our initial work has indicated that many professionals working at primary and secondary level feel that they have the transferable skills and the commitment to offer more robust support to this group of children and young people, but are nervous about doing so, partly because of the lack of formal clinical guidance, and partly due to the broader societal context.” … read full article (archived web page)
Judge issues temporary injunction barring Texas from investigating pediatric gender-affirming care as 'child abuse'
From CNN (USA)
By Andy Rose, Rosa Flores, Rosalina Nieves and Ray Sanchez, CNN
March 11, 2022
(CNN) A judge in Texas blocked the state from enforcing Gov. Greg Abbott's order to investigate gender-affirming care of minors as "child abuse."
"The court finds sufficient cause to enter a temporary injunction," Judge Amy Clark Meachum, in Travis County, said Friday evening.
The judge said Abbott's order was "beyond the scope of his authority and unconstitutional," and said the parents of a transgender child and a psychologist who filed suit against the governor were likely to succeed at trial, which is set for July.
In late February, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton declared gender-affirming surgical procedures in children and prescribing drugs that affect puberty to be considered "child abuse." In response to Paxton's legal opinion, the governor directed the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) "to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of any reported instances of these abusive procedures in the State of Texas." … read full article