Monday, May 2, 2022
Monday, May 2, 2022
This day in Herstory: Willemijn Posthumus-van der Goot, born May 2, 1897 (died January 16, 1989), who occasionally wrote under the pen-name Peggy Vlug) was a Dutch economist, feminist and radio broadcaster. As the first woman to attain a doctorate in economics in The Netherlands, her work focused on the impact of working women on the economy. Recognizing that there were few sources, she joined with other feminists to create the International Archives for the Women's Movement in 1935. Writing reports on women's work, she refuted government claims that women working outside the home was of no benefit. (more)
Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows
"We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled," Justice Alito writes in an initial majority draft circulated inside the court.
From Politico (USA)
By JOSH GERSTEIN and ALEXANDER WARD
May 2, 2022
The Supreme Court has voted to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, according to an initial draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito circulated inside the court and obtained by POLITICO.
The draft opinion is a full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights and a subsequent 1992 decision – Planned Parenthood v. Casey – that largely maintained the right. “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito writes. … read full article
Employer challenge to transgender-care mandates gets federal court hearing
Attorney hopeful directives will be quashed for religious employers
From The Washington Times (USA)
By Mark A. Kellner
May 2, 2022
Opponents of the Biden administration’s mandates requiring religious employers to provide health care coverage for “gender transition surgeries, procedures, counseling, and treatments” had their day in court Monday as a federal judge heard arguments in a suit calling for an end to such mandates.
The Christian Employers Alliance, which represents for-profit and nonprofit employers, sued the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over the mandates, claiming the panel misinterprets and improperly enforces provisions against sex discrimination in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to require such coverage.
The action also contends that enforcement of a similar rule by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would compel religious health-care providers to “perform or facilitate or promote” transition-related procedures and surgeries that violate the employers’ beliefs. … read full article
NHS accused of favouring men changing gender over women with medical needs for breast surgery
Report says NHS has 'facilitated greater access' to surgery for gender dysphoria patients whilst services are cut for women in pain
From The Telegraph (UK)
By Hayley Dixon
May 1, 2022
The NHS has been accused of looking more favourably on men wishing to change gender over women with medical conditions when funding breast surgery.
As services across the country are cut for women suffering painful medical conditions, there has been an increase in the number of surgeries provided to those wishing to undergo gender reassignment. … read full article
The 'drag kids' trend is a trainwreck about to happen
From Washington Examiner (USA)
By Debra Soh
May 2, 2022
Last week, it was announced that Discovery Plus will be launching a new show called Generation Drag, centered on the stories of five teenagers and their families as they prepare for a performance in Denver, Colorado, celebrating "teen queens, kings, and non-binary performers ages 8 to 18." In the trailer (embedded at the bottom of this article), we see the kids primping and posing in brightly colored wigs, skimpy outfits, and winged eyeliner.
I’m all for supporting childrens' self-expression and letting them experiment with different outfits and outlandish makeup. I certainly made some questionable decisions in my youth. And as someone who spent many of my formative years in drag clubs, I am fully on board with adults doing as they wish. But the trendiness of drag culture today is yet another way in which gender ideology and the transitioning of gay children are being glorified as forward-thinking. Some boys will naturally gravitate toward the campy caricature of femininity because they are gender-nonconforming (this is likely due to their being exposed to lower levels of testosterone in the prenatal environment). … read full article
Defining what a woman is would harm trans people, says Nicola Sturgeon
First Minister refuses to offer her own definition, claiming it would oversimplify gender debate and cause suffering
From The Telegraph (UK)
By Daniel Sanderson
May 2, 2022
Nicola Sturgeon has provoked backlash from feminist groups after she refused to define the word “woman”, claiming that doing so would harm transgender people.
The First Minister has become the latest politician to express reluctance to explain what she believes a woman to be, arguing that to “oversimplify” the debate around trans rights would cause suffering to a vulnerable group.
Some trans activists argue that a transgender woman is literally a woman, regardless of their biological sex. … read full article
Alex Massie: Sturgeon is all wrong about women’s rights
The first minister is displaying mindless ignorance or knowing ignorance. Neither is good
From The Times (UK)
By Alex Massie
May 2, 2022
What is a woman? I know that a woman is an adult female human but according to Nicola Sturgeon it is impossible to answer that question without descending to a level of debate that is “about simplified and lurid headlines”. So she refuses to answer the question and, once more, it is evident that she considers these questions so impertinent they should not even be asked.
Her government’s position is very simple and genuinely lurid. Anyone who says they are a woman is in fact a woman and her government intends to legislate to make this self-declaration of identity a legal reality. … read full article
How to make girls disappear
From Writing behavior by Eliza Mondegreen (Canada)
By Eliza Mondegreen
May 2, 2022
There's a fascinating dynamic where any question about why females are so overrepresented among youth seeking transition gets turned from “what’s going on with [girls]?” to “never mind the [girls]—what about the missing [boys]?”
Spun this way, the very fact that so many girls feel comfortable to come out as transgender means girls are doing OK, unlike those boys who must be hiding in closets all across the Western world:
"One speculation about the sudden increase in birth-assigned females suggests that it may be easier, or more acceptable, for birth-assigned females to present themselves in their preferred gender than it is for birth-assigned males…”
The discussion—GIDS’ Polly Carmichael is a co-author—trails off with a mealy-mouthed acknowledgement that, “[w]hatever the reasons, the evident over-representation of birth-assigned females does raise some important questions about what it means to be male or female in current society.” … read full article
Sex and ROGD
From Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT) (USA)
May 2, 2022
How many ROGD female teens have ever experienced orgasm? I don’t know the answer, of course, but I do know that, despite being in her late teens, my own trans-identifying kid has never even kissed anyone, boy or girl. She mistrusts her body, likely because she hasn’t yet become acquainted with it. Yet she’s suddenly sure that she wants to undergo radical sex change surgery, which, along with a host of other irreversible somatic changes wrought by cross-sex hormones, will destroy her chances of ever experiencing sexual fulfillment, whilst massively reducing the dating pool of potential partners of either sex. … read full article
NI Greens declare: ‘Children of any age should be allowed to switch gender’
The Green Party has released what it calls a “Queer Greens manifesto” calling for children of any age to be permitted to alter their gender.
From Belfast News Letter (Northern Ireland)
By Adam Kula
May 2, 2022
The Queer Greens are a group within the wider Green Party, and its seven page manifesto sits alongside transgender policies contained in its existing 40-page general manifesto.
Among the demands in the “queer” manifesto are these:
l “Increase participation and representation of LGBTQ+ people in sports and leisure activities, ensuring that appropriate training and resources are available” … read full article
Single Sex Spaces For Survivors are Under Attack
From REDUXX (USA)
By Sarah Summers
May 2, 2022
Like all too many women, I am a survivor of sexual violence.
As a child, I was tricked by a family friend into performing sex acts on him. I was trusting and naïve. At the time, I didn’t even know what sex was let alone sexual abuse. It was only when I reached adulthood that I realized I’d been taken advantage of.
Then, in my early twenties, I was persuaded to take drugs by a man I considered a friend, Joe. I lost consciousness that night, and I woke up the following day, naked and plagued with patchy recollections of Joe having sex with me while hitting me in the face. Since that night, seeing him or even hearing his name triggers a panic attack in me. It took me years to admit to myself that I hadn’t consented to Joe’s assault. That what I’d experienced was rape. … read full article
Women Allowed Topless In Pools In Germany For Gender Equality
From Forbes (USA)
By Cecilia Rodriguez
May 2, 2022
The city of Göttingen in Lower Saxony, central Germany, will be the first in the country to allow the practice of female topless swimming in its indoor and outdoor pools, thanks to a measure aimed at increasing gender equality.
The initiative permitting swimmers to bathe 'oben-ohne' (topless) took effect on May 1 as a test limited to weekends and set to expire at the end of August. … read full article
Boys identifying as girls put into female dorms at summer camp set up by David Cameron
National Citizen Service facility accused of putting young people at risk as parents reveal concerns to The Telegraph
From The Telegraph (UK)
By Hayley Dixon
May 2, 2022
A summer camp started by David Cameron is placing teenage boys who self-identify as girls into female-only dorms, The Telegraph can reveal.
The National Citizen Service (NCS), largely funded by the Government, has been accused of putting young people at risk by allowing them to choose which dorms, toilets and showers they want to use.
Parents on Monday night questioned whether those signing their 16- and 17-year-olds up for the two-week activity project were aware that the dorms were mixed-sex.
One mother who raised concerns about the policy was told by a local provider that if girls were uncomfortable with a boy in their bedroom, they needed “to be educated to respect the identity of the male person”, it is alleged. … read full article
Kay Ivey campaign releases new ad highlighting recent laws fighting transgenderism
From Alabama Today (USA)
By Beth Cann
May 2, 2022
The campaign for Gov. Kay Ivey recently released a new campaign ad. The 30-second ad shows Ivey touting her efforts to ban transgender care for minors, arguing that gender is a matter of biology, not identity.
Ivey states in the ad, “Some things are just facts: Summer is hot, the ocean is big, and gender is a question of biology, not identity.”
A voice-over adds, “That’s why Ivey banned transgender youth sports, banned left-wing sexual propaganda from our schools, and made it a felony for transgender surgery on children in Alabama.” … read full article
Parents have had enough of trans ideology in schools
Republicans like Ron DeSantis are picking up support from parents across the political spectrum.
From Spiked (UK)
By NANCY MCDERMOTT
May 2, 2022
The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, signed a bill stripping Disney of its special tax status last month. This revoked an agreement that allowed Disney to effectively self-govern the land occupied by its theme parks and resorts. The move came after Disney’s chief executive issued a statement calling Florida’s new Parents Rights in Education Bill ‘a challenge to basic human rights’. Disney vowed to devote its resources to overturning the law and opposing similar bills in other states.
Parents across the country are deeply concerned about the presence of transgender ideas in schools. What initially seemed like an innocent attempt to encourage kids to cast off old-fashioned ideas about femininity and masculinity, and to be more tolerant of their gender-nonconforming peers, has now morphed into an ideology in which biological sex is not real and gender is everything. … read full article
Florida mom filing suit after child transitioned at school without her consent: 'Happening all over' US
January Littlejohn is suing her daughter's school after it held secret gender talks without parental knowledge or consent
From Fox News (USA)
By Bailee Hill
May 2, 2022
A Florida mother is filing suit and issuing a stark warning to parents nationwide after her transgender child transitioned at school without her consent.
Florida mom and mental health professional January Littlejohn and her attorney Vernadette Broyles discussed the lawsuit and why she is "outraged" over the incident.
"This is happening all over the nation," Littlejohn warned on "Fox & Friends First" on Monday. "This same protocol is in place in many, many schools across districts everywhere, and even the guides being used to dictate these transgender support plans that cut parents out even have the same language." … read full article
Elon Musk Tweeted My Cartoon
Commentators on the left set about debunking my ‘lived experience’ with charts and abstractions.
From Wall Street Journal (USA)
By Colin Wright
May 2, 2022
I was out for a walk last Thursday when Elon Musk tweeted a political cartoon that I created in August 2021. It received hundreds of thousands of retweets and more than 1.5 million likes. The stick figure in the middle depicts me, a center-left liberal in 2008, and how the ground had shifted under my feet by 2012 and 2021.
At the outset, I stand happily beside “my fellow liberal,” who is slightly to my left. In 2012 he sprints to the left, dragging out the left end of the political spectrum along and pulling the political “center” closer to me. By 2021 my fellow liberal is a “woke ‘progressive,’” so far to the left that I’m now right of center, even though I haven’t moved. … read full article
Anatomy Texts Prove Women Exist
From Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights (USA)
By Bill
May 2, 2022
Catholic League president Bill Donohue settles the argument over whether women exist:
Women exist. It’s true. The controversy is over. Anatomy texts settle the issue.
“Can you provide a definition for the word ‘woman’?” This question was asked of Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during the confirmation hearings. She could not. “I’m not a biologist,” she said. … read full article