Saturday, April 2, 2022
This day in Herstory: Emmylou Harris, born April 2, 1947, is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. She has released dozens of albums and singles over the course of her career and has won 14 Grammys, the Polar Music Prize, and numerous other honors, including induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 2018, she was presented the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. (more)
J.K. Rowling Backs Warning Against Immediately Affirming Gender Dysphoria
From Newsweek (USA)
BY FATMA KHALED
April 2, 2022
Author J.K. Rowling on Friday backed a warning made by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Dr. David Bell against gender dysphoria, which he said needed careful exploration.
"History will judge whether Dr David Bell was a hateful transphobe or trying to alert people to a medical scandal, but he's far from the only health professional raising these concerns (and I have the letters and emails to prove it.)," Rowling said as she tweeted a clip of Bell's interview on BBC News that was posted by a former BBC journalist.
Bell, who is a former staff governor at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, was speaking about children who suffer from gender dysphoria. There has been a "great pressure to affirm these children as being trans" without having "appropriate exploration," according to Bell. … read full article
From Twitter
By J. K. Rowling
April 2, 2022
Me: shares video of experienced psychiatrist who turned whistleblower, expressing his deep concern at high numbers of autistic children and children with internalised homophobia presenting at gender clinics.
Them:
If you want to hear Dr David Bell speak at length, I highly recommend Episode 5 of this excellent podcast by @StephenNolan and David Thompson @dt_ni
BBC Radio Ulster - Nolan Investigates, Episode 5 - A gender clinic insider speaks out
Dr David Bell speaks about his experience of the UK's leading gender clinic.
'We are not afraid to be called women': Gender-critical activists chant 'respect my sex if you want my X' in London protest as they urge politicians to protect single sex services and spaces
Protest led by three main groups- Sex Matters, Women's Rights Network and Women Uniting
Activists said single-sex spaces which should exclude transgender women include sports competitions, toilets and some hospital wards
Said their movement is growing 'exponentially' but has remained largely online until now
Marched from statue of Emmeline Pankhurst to Milicent Fawcett sculpture in Parliament Square
Campaigners chanted their slogan 'Respect my sex if my want my x' on the protest
From Daily Mail (UK)
By OLIVIA DEVEREUX-EVANS
April 2, 2022
Gender-critical activists today gathered in London to protest as they urged politicians to protect single-sex services and spaces.
Around 100 protesters wearing the purple, white and green of the suffragettes launched their new movement.
The protest was led by three main groups called Sex Matters, Women's Rights Network and Women Uniting.
Campaigners said that their movement is growing 'exponentially' but has remained largely underground and online until now.
Protesters marched from the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst in Victoria Tower Gardens to a sculpture of Milicent Fawcett in Parliament Square.
They chanted the slogan of their campaign 'Respect my sex if you want my X' which refers to drawing an X in the polling booth.
Tax expert Maya Forstater, who lost her job over her tweets about transgender people, was representing the group Sex Matters. … read full article
GPs will be paid for trans hormone prescriptions
From The Times (UK)
By Kat Lay
April 2, 2022
Family doctors are to be paid for prescribing hormones to transgender patients, in the first scheme of its kind in the UK.
Under the programme, which was launched yesterday, GPs in Sussex will get £178 a year for every adult to whom they prescribe “cross sex hormone therapy”. They will also be able to claim an extra £91 a year for providing an annual health check to a transgender, non-binary or intersex (TNBI) patient.
The scheme, which also requires staff to take training in transgender healthcare, is aimed at reducing the high rates of long-term physical and mental health problems in TNBI patients and improve their low levels of satisfaction with NHS care. Trans rights campaigners welcomed the programme. Patients referred to gender identity clinics (GICs) face waits of years, after referrals soared 240 per cent in five years.
The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust in northwest London is offering first appointments to people who were referred in December 2017.
Concerns were raised, however, that medicines could be provided without appropriate psychological support for patients and add to pressure on GPs. … read full article (web page archive)
Daily Mail EXCLUSIVE: Trans rights extremists destroyed my career, friendships and marriage — but I will never give in: Raw with hurt and anger, Graham Linehan, the genius behind Father Ted reveals the price he has paid for defending women
From Daily Mail (UK)
By REBECCA HARDY
April 1, 2022
Multi-BAFTA-winning writer Graham Linehan can barely hold himself together. He tells me he hardly slept last night.
There are times he has 'howled in pain' and times he has 'raged'.
Mostly, though, the genius behind the comedy series Father Ted and The IT Crowd is, he says, 'befuddled'.
For Graham, a vocal defender of women's rights, has lost everything he holds dear in life because he dared to challenge a 'subculture' of trans activists over the 'insane' (his word) belief that a person with a penis can be a woman.
He began to share his views with his 800,000 Twitter followers five years ago and the fury of the Left rained down on him.
Today his marriage is over, his once glittering career has been laid low and he is, as he says, 'thoroughly cancelled'. … read full article
The Women’s Bill of Rights has been a long time coming
From The Washington Examiner (USA)
BY HADLEY HEATH MANNING
April 2, 2022
You could be forgiven for thinking that our recent social, political, and legal fascination with the definition of the word "woman" was due to a male-bodied athlete, Lia Thomas, smashing women’s swimming records in the Ivy League and NCAA championships. But you’d be wrong.
The debate about sex differences has been simmering for decades now, between those who believe men and women are interchangeable and those like me who understand that they are not.
The former camp has long argued that women cannot reach full equality with men until all legal and social distinctions between the sexes are obliterated. Those in the latter camp know that these distinctions accord with scientific realities and are necessary for both men and women to thrive. That’s why we are advocating a Women’s Bill of Rights, which would preserve biological sex as a distinct legal category. … read full article
Swimmer Who Tied With Lia Thomas Slams Officials
A Kentucky swimmer who tied with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas has slammed officials after she wasn't given a trophy.
From UNILAD (UK)
By CAMERON FREW
April 2, 2022
Thomas has been the subject of controversy in recent months. Three years prior to transitioning, she competed on the men's swimming team, but she's since joined the University of Pennsylvania’s women's team, with her dominance sparking debate about eligibility.
Explaining why she competes in women's sports, she said: "I am not a man. I'm a woman – so I belong on the women's team."
Riley Gaines tied with Thomas for fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle NCAA swimming championships.
Speaking with Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn on her podcast Unmuted with Marsha, Gaines said: "I touched the wall and saw there was a five by my name indicating that I got fifth… I also looked up, and I saw the number five by Lia's name and so, in that moment, I realised we tied. … read full article
Athletes fear track and field could soon be embroiled into the transgender debate after controversy surrounding cyclist Emily Bridges as one star admits: 'It's a situation that could happen in any sport'
Athletics stars believe track and field could enter the transgender debate
It comes after Emily Bridges was banned from National Omnium Championships
There was also furore over Lia Thomas competing in US college swimming
One British star fears it is 'a challenge that could happen in athletics'
From Mail Online (UK)
By RIATH AL-SAMARRAI
April 2, 2022
Concerns are growing among leading athletes that track and field could soon become embroiled in the transgender debate.
On the back of the furore around Lia Thomas in US college swimming and the controversy surrounding British cyclist Emily Bridges, both of which followed Laurel Hubbard's participation for New Zealand in the weightlifting at Tokyo 2020, athletics stars fear their sport will eventually enter a similar storm.
A current British international athlete, who has won medals at global level, told The Mail on Sunday: 'I think it's a situation that could happen in any sport, and it is a challenge that could happen in athletics. Just as it's happened in swimming and cycling and weightlifting.' … read full article
Making misogyny a hate crime misses the point
Women need better application of the law, not new legislation from posturing MPs
From The Critic (UK)
By Josephine Bartosch
April 2, 2022
When Stella Creasy MP stood up in parliament last week and made the case for adding “misogyny” to the statute, many were left wondering which group of people it is she believes to be victims of misogyny. This is because, despite wielding her baby in parliament to highlight discrimination against mothers and making earnest entreaties to her fellow politicians to take violence against women seriously, the Walthamstow MP refuses to accept the definition of “women” as “adult human females”. Nor does the Fawcett Society, which has long supported her drive to make misogyny a hate crime. Both have abandoned biology in favour of the ideological line touted by Stonewall and its allies — that being a woman or man is a matter of identity.
Creasy first raised the issue of making misogyny a hate crime in 2018, which resulted in a consultation by the Law Commission. Since then, proposals to write misogyny into legislation have been floated at various points through the chambers of Westminster, only to be roundly rejected. In December, the Law Commission released its report which concluded that crimes such as domestic abuse and sexual violence are “already difficult to prosecute, and adding an extra layer of proof and complexity could worsen this”. … read full article
Gender Ideologues’ Alarming Campaign to Get Kids While They’re Young
From Quillette (Australia)
By Bernard Lane
March 29, 2022
In the debate about the wisdom of medicalised gender change for the young, there is a common refrain meant to expose the moral panic and ignorance of sceptics. No young person, we are told, gets any medical intervention before puberty. This may be true, but it obscures the more telling fact that very young children at school are exposed to influences that may put them on a one-way path to lifelong medicalisation.
In a Canadian primary school, a six-year-old girl was reportedly upset and puzzled after her teacher showed the class a YouTube video entitled He, She, and They?!?—Gender: Queer Kid Stuff #2. The video stated that “some people aren’t boys or girls.” Another day, the teacher asked the children to place themselves on a gender-spectrum diagram. The six-year-old put herself at the “girl” end of the spectrum, only to be told by the teacher that “girls are not real, and boys are not real.”
The girl’s family say school authorities refused to take any action over these lessons, which were given in 2018. Although the family moved the daughter to another school, they say the disorienting effect of having her foundational identity as a girl undermined has been “severe and long-lasting.” A human-rights complaint brought on the girl’s behalf finally reached a full tribunal hearing this month. … read full article
DAN HODGES: Keir Starmer is doomed if he listens to woke advisers over legions of women voters
From Daily Mail (UK)
By DAN HODGES
April 2, 2022
Last week Keir Starmer was asked a simple question. 'Can a woman have a penis?' interviewer Nick Ferrari enquired on LBC radio. This is what followed.
Starmer: 'Uh, Nick, I'm not… uh… I… I don't think we can conduct this debate with… you know…'
Ferrari: '… sorry, have I offended you?'
Starmer: 'No, no, no, it's just… no, no, I just…'
Ferrari: '... a woman can have a penis?'
Starmer: 'I don't think that… um… discussing this issue in this way helps anyone in the long run.'
Finally, Starmer retreated to the safety of the usual boilerplate: discussions on legal reform, a vague commitment to the protection of women, and an even vaguer condemnation of 'intolerance' by people unnamed. But by then the damage was done.
'He's made a lot of the backbenchers angry,' one Labour MP told me. 'The women in the party aren't happy. He's not consulting with them on this. He's got all these young blokes from London in his office, advising him. And it's also rubbish politics. People in the Red Wall aren't going to buy this.'
Actually, Starmer's stammering equivocation might be taken as a sign of progress. Last September he was willing to condemn unreservedly anyone who asserted only women can have a cervix. … read full article
Moms fight for female athletes amid Lia Thomas controversy
From New York Post (USA)
By Dana Kennedy
April 2, 2022
Don’t call them transphobic.
An underground network of mothers of female athletes is marshaling forces after transgender swimmer Lia Thomas joined the women’s swim team at the University of Pennsylvania last fall and started beating her teammates. In March, Thomas became the first openly-transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship when she came first in the women’s 500-yard freestyle event.
The group doesn’t have a formal name yet but many members spoke to The Post about how angry and upset they are to see their daughters lose out to a person who was born male.
“My daughter swam against Lia at Yale this year and it was just a miserable experience all around,” one mother told The Post. “We are literally bending over for male privilege. It’s humiliating.”
Most of the mothers spoke on condition of anonymity because they say they’ve been accused of hate speech and transphobia — although many identify as liberal Democrats. They say it’s unfair to label them as bigots, insisting they’re focused on ensuring that their daughters compete on a level playing field as more transgender girls enter sports with what they say is an unfair physical advantage. Many have been inspired by an emotional video titled “Report from a mother of a swimmer” which has more than 32,000 views on Youtube. … read full article
The Times view on the trans debate: Back to Basics
The conversation has become fatally mired in victimhood culture, political cowardice and a failure to safeguard gay and women’s rights
From The Times (UK)
April 1, 2022
he government’s dithering over whether to ban conversion therapy has left policy on this sensitive issue in utter confusion. A double U-turn saw the prime minister at first cast aside a pledge that he would outlaw attempts to change people’s sexual orientation, before reinstating the commitment with measures to ensure it would not affect counselling offered to those suffering from body dysmorphia who want to transition to the opposite sex.
Lobby groups on all sides shrilly condemn discrimination. Mr Johnson had previously described all conversion therapy as “abhorrent”. However, feminists fear that women’s rights are now in jeopardy. And the general public is bemused by arguments that seem as obscure as they are virulent. It is time common sense was brought to the trans debate. It has become heated, emotional and often irrational. Fatally entwined with “woke” culture, it is a vehicle for would-be activists to promote themselves as the vanguard of social change, while caring more for their profiles than social harmony. The cult of victimhood has become ever more totalitarian, brooking no contrary views and forcing the “cancellation” of those, such as JK Rowling, arguing for the immutability of biological sex. … read full article (web page archive)
Amateur women and girls across Britain are 'quitting sport' after facing male-bodied opponents, claim campaigners
There is already controversy over 'trans' sportswomen competing in elite female competitions
Fair Play For Women has established that it is also affecting grassroots and amateur sport, with many participants feeling pressured to remain silent
Dossier compiled by FPFW includes testimony from female hockey player in an amateur London league who walked off the pitch when given task of marking a transgender opponent
From Daily Mail (UK)
By SANCHEZ MANNING
April 2, 2022
Women and girls across Britain are dropping out of recreational sport because they are being pressured to compete against transgender women who are biologically male, according to a leading campaign group for female sports.
There is already controversy over 'trans' sportswomen competing in elite female competitions.
But Fair Play For Women has established that it is also affecting grassroots and amateur sport, with many participants feeling pressured to remain silent.
Last night Fiona McAnena, director of sport campaigns at FPFW, which has lobbied to keep women's sports single- sex, warned: 'If you think this is a very small problem, think again.
'This issue is hitting women's sport right across the UK, and sadly it is pushing some women to completely drop out. … read full article
'We will not simply stand back as our words to describe ourselves and our bodies are erased': Labour MP Rosie Duffield's pledge as she backs campaign to protect sex-based rights
Labour MP Rosie Duffield is backing a sex-based rights local election campaign
The campaign will grill local election candidates on their definition of 'woman'
Duffield has said she wants transgender women barred from single-sex spaces
She said words to describe women's bodies are being erased by trans movement
Senior Labour figures have stumbled on question: 'Does a woman have a penis?'
From Daily Mail (UK)
By DANIEL MARTIN
April 2, 2022
Labour MP Rosie Duffield last night threw her weight behind a major campaign to urge the public to grill local election candidates on their definition of the word woman.
Women's rights groups have banded together to call on voters to question politicians over their views on the contentious topics of sex and gender identity.
Now Miss Duffield, who has been accused of transphobia over her views including that transgender women should not be able to access single-sex spaces such as domestic violence refuges and prisons, welcomed the campaign, which uses the slogan 'Respect my Sex if you want my X'.
She said women will not stand back 'as our words to describe ourselves and our bodies are erased'.
The MP, who has previously said only women have a cervix, added: 'I think this group of women speak for many when they say that a clear biological definition of the sexes is important, partly in order to maintain vital single sex services.
… read full article
How Florida’s Newly Enacted ‘Parental Rights in Education’ Law Actually Protects Gay Students
From Quillette (Australia)
By Leor Sapir
April 1, 2022
The White House has denounced a new Florida law as “cruel” and “harmful.” In an interview with CNN, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gay cabinet member in American history, agreed that the law is “dangerous.” His husband Chasten, a best-selling author, was even more emphatic, declaring that “this will kill kids.”
The law in question does not lower the driving age to 12, permit teenagers to own guns, or eliminate funding for research on pediatric cancers. Instead, Florida’s newly enacted Parental Rights in Education law requires that “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade three, or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
Another provision dictates that schools “may not discourage or prohibit parental notification of and involvement in critical decisions affecting a student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being.” This latter provision has not attracted nearly as much attention (or criticism) as the former. But as discussed below, it will likely have a bigger impact on students—and a highly beneficial one.
Notwithstanding the legislation’s official title, media outlets, advocacy groups, corporate officials, and Democrats have taken to denouncing it as the “Don’t Say Gay” law. That framing is disingenuous and cynical.
Context is crucial here. In the early 2010s, American policymakers at both the state and federal level began putting pressure on school districts to defer to students’ gender self-identification—i.e., their declared status as boys or girls. The official rationale for these efforts, as articulated in bureaucratic guidelines and court rulings, was centred on mental health. … read full article