Saturday, May 28, 2022
This day in Herstory: Gladys Maria Knight, born May 28, 1944, known as the "Empress of Soul", is an American singer, songwriter, actress, businesswoman, and author. A seven-time Grammy Award-winner,[3] Knight is known for the hits she recorded during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s with her group The Pips, which also included her brother Merald "Bubba" Knight and cousins William Guest and Edward Patten. (more)
LGBT Network Head Says Bill Maher Should Be Canceled Following His Latest Remarks Questioning Increase In Children Identifying As Transgender
From The Daily Wire (USA)
By Katie Jerkovich
May 27, 2022
The head of the LGBT network, David Kilmnick, said Bill Maher should be canceled following his latest remarks on his show questioning the increase in young people identifying as transgender, calling his comments “harmful, homophobic” and more.
In an article featured in Advocate magazine under the headline, “Bill Maher Has Gone Too Far With Anti-LGBTQ+ Comments,” Kilmnick said Maher’s HBO show, “Real Time With Bill Maher,” needs to be canceled after his “vitriolic commentary.”
… read full article
Ricky Gervais is guilty of blasphemy
He has mocked identity politics – the god of our times
From The Spectator (UK)
By Brendan O’Neill
May 27, 2022
I have long thought that if Life of Brian came out today, it wouldn’t be Christians kicking up a fuss about it — it would be trans activists.
When Monty Python’s classic tale of a man mistaken for a Messiah came to cinemas in 1979, people of faith weren’t happy. They saw it as taking the mick out of Christ and they aired their displeasure noisily. Nuns in New York picketed cinemas. In Ireland the film was banned for eight years.
In 2022 I reckon it would be a very different story. It wouldn’t be Monty Python’s ribbing of the gospels that would outrage the chattering classes — it would be their mockery of trans people. … read full article
America might finally be waking up to ‘wokeness’
The taboo around challenging "wokeness" appears to be eroding as folks like Bill Maher, Elon Musk, James Carville and Dave Chappelle now question extreme political correctness.
From The New York Post (USA)
By David Kaufman
May 28, 2022
Is the world finally waking up to wokeness? It certainly seems that way. Or at least many are beginning to open their eyes.
The idea of wokeness began with noble intentions — to raise public consciousness about the enduring impact of racism, sexism and inequality. But, emboldened by the rise of the #MeToo and BLM movements, it quickly evolved into a severe form of political correctness, forced upon the public, with little tolerance for argument or debate. … read full article
New hate strategy 'could criminalise comics like Ricky Gervais': Home Office draws up plans to encourage more people to complain to police over anti-trans hate crimes
New strategy aims to 'increase the reporting of all forms of hate crime'
Free-speech campaigners fear the new drive could see comedians criminalised
The proposals would see 'perpetrators' accused of 'non-crime hate incidents'
From The Daily Mail (UK)
By GLEN OWEN and GEORGIA EDKINS
May 28, 2022
Plans to encourage more people to complain to police about anti-trans hate crimes could criminalise comedians such as Ricky Gervais, campaigners have warned.
The Home Office is in the process of drawing up a new hate crimes strategy that aims to 'increase the reporting of all forms of hate crime', including those relating to gender identity.
Those in favour of the proposals, which would see 'perpetrators' accused of 'non-crime hate incidents', hope people will feel better protected from harm. … read full article
Allison Bailey tribunal against Stonewall captivates the Bar
From The Times (UK)
By Jonathan Ames
May 28, 2022
London lawyers have been transfixed this spring by a humble employment tribunal — one that goes to the heart of both the trans debate and the ethics of the legal profession.
Garden Court, one of the country’s most prominent chambers of human rights and civil liberties barristers, is in a bitter battle over allegations involving transphobia and claims that it was in the pocket of Stonewall, the UK’s leading LGBT rights organisation. … read full article
Fairfax, Va. Parents Rally Against Policy Punishing Their Middle-Schoolers For Calling Boys Boys And Girls Girls
‘Our enthusiasm for the First Amendment will not wane; we will not stop paying attention,’ said mom Stephanie Lundquist-Arora.
From The Federalist (USA)
By OLIVIA HAJICEK
May 28, 2022
Parents rallied outside of Luther Jackson Middle School in Fairfax, Va., on Thursday in opposition to a proposed policy change that would increase penalties on fourth- through sixth-graders for “misgendering” or “deadnaming” people — for example, addressing a boy as “he” even though he calls himself a female, or calling “transgender or gender-expansive” people by a name other than their chosen name.
The Fairfax County School Board was initially scheduled to consider this change to the Student Rights and Responsibilities guide at their meeting that evening, but they rescheduled discussion of the topic to June 16. … read full article
Cops Probe After Middle School Librarian Allegedly Says Students Are ‘Sex Workers’ To Justify Pro-Prostitution Book
From The Daily Wire (USA)
By Luke Rosiak
May 28, 2022
Police in Northern Virginia are investigating after a middle school librarian allegedly defended a pro-prostitution book by saying it belonged in the library because many of the school’s 11- to 13-year old students are sex workers, The Daily Wire has learned.
A shocked Loudoun County teacher went to the police after the librarian, Stefany Guido, allegedly made the comment to her. The teacher had asked Guido about a book a parent had flagged on Twitter called “Seeing Gender,” which included a chapter titled “‘Sex Work’ Is Not a Bad Term.” The Daily Wire is withholding the name of the teacher, who as a “mandatory reporter” felt compelled to tell police that students in her charge could be in danger. … read full article
Gender pronouns: Children 'being coerced into thinking a certain way' says Debbie Hayton
From The Global Herald (UK)
May 28, 2022
GBNews published this video item, entitled “Gender pronouns: Children ‘being coerced into thinking a certain way’ says Debbie Hayton.”
Maya Forstater: Warning on ‘quickie’ gender recognition certificates in Scotland
From The Times (UK)
By Jason Allardyce
May 29, 2022
Maya Forstater, the women’s rights campaigner, has warned that Scottish government plans for “quickie” gender recognition certificates will attract “legislative tourists”.
As ministers prepare to press ahead with a law change to let people as young as 16 officially change their gender within a matter of months of applying, the executive director of Sex Matters suggested it could draw people from other parts of the UK.
Draft legislation does not impose a requirement on how long people must have lived in Scotland to qualify to change gender under the reform, stating only that it can apply to people who are “ordinarily resident” in Scotland or born in Scotland. … read full article
The ‘transgender’ experiment is the biggest child abuse scandal of our lifetimes
Canadian advocate Chris Elston reveals shocking facts about the impacts of the transgender movement on children, including that puberty blockers were used in the past to chemically castrate pedophiles.
From Lifesite News (USA)
By Jonathon Van Maren
May 27, 2022
Over the past several months, stories from the U.S., Canada, and across Europe have indicated a growing awareness that the transgender experiment we are currently conducting on hundreds of thousands of children is having a permanent impact on their lives.
In Canada, with the exception of journalists such as Barbara Kay (National Post) and Jonathan Kay (Quillette), it has been left to the alternative media and a handful of activists to raise the alarm, with the mainstream media almost completely ignoring the subject. Meanwhile, so many children in Canada are identifying as “transgender” that a new directive from the Children’s Hospital in London, Ontario, advises general practitioners to take matters into their own hands. … read full article
‘Transgender’ Serial Killer Who Hates Women Will Soon be Eligible for Parole Paul (alias Paula) Denyer Crime Story
From Women Are Human (Canada)
By Diana Shaw
May 28, 2022
AU — Anakie, Victoria. Thirty years ago, a killer held a suburban town in the grip of terror for seven weeks of summer, causing real estate values to plunge and locals to take cover indoors at night. The inmate, who is serving a life sentence for a series of stalking murders targeting women because “I hate them,” will soon have a chance at parole.
Paul Charles Denyer, the third of six children, was born in Sydney, Australia in 1972 to working class British immigrants, and began openly identifying as a woman named Paula in 2021. … read full article
Teaching is being hollowed out by the trans wars
From LETTERS@SUNDAY-TIMES.CO.UK
Sunday May 29 2022
We know that the story of the teacher who felt forced to leave their school because of gender identity policies is not uncommon (News, last week). We hear from teachers who take early retirement or leave teaching because they feel they are being compelled to lie to children.
School policies under which a girl is “affirmed” as a boy and socially transitioned, often behind parents’ backs, are an example of ideology overriding reality in the most harmful way for children. The Cass review of the Tavistock clinic, in its interim report, flagged up social transition as an active intervention that may have significant psychological effects on the child. Teachers are not qualified to make this decision.
- Stephanie Davies-Arai, director, Transgender Trend
Explaining XXY: What it's like to be born male with an extra X chromosome
Aotearoa has just 93 known cases of men with XXY chromosomes, but it’s likely there are many more who don’t know they are affected. Melanie Earley reports.
From Stuff (New Zealand)
Melanie Earley
May 29 2022
Mike Coker wasn’t expecting to be told he couldn’t have kids.
He was in his 20s when he and his wife decided to start a family – they sought medical assistance when they were unable to conceive naturally.
“The doctor told me I was an XXY male and that if my wife and I wanted to ever have children we’d need to find a donor,” Coker says. … read full article
New York offers driver's licenses with "X" gender marker
From Fox 5 New York (USA)
By AP Reporter
May 28, 2022
ALBANY, N.Y. - New York state is now offering driver’s licenses with an "X" gender identity marker, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday.
The "X" option for licenses, learner's permits and non-driver identification cards is being implemented in conjunction with a state law approved last June. Proponents of the change had argued that limiting gender identity on licenses to either male or female discriminated against nonbinary New Yorkers. … read full article
Louise Perry: the feminist telling women to switch off porn and get married
She’s a women’s studies graduate and left-wing columnist who believes a third of men would consider rape. So why is she telling women to practise chastity and self-control?
From The Sunday Times (UK)
By Laura Hackett
May 28, 2022
The sexual revolution of the 1960s has long been seen as bringing liberation for women. Suddenly they could prioritise careers over a family, choose who they wanted to sleep with — and when, if ever, they had children. Perhaps most of all, it made sex fun.
Louise Perry doesn’t see it that way. In her book The Case Against the Sexual Revolution she sets out to convince young women that these freedoms have hidden costs, and that they should recover the almost extinct values of chastity, dignity and self-control.
Her mission is to make women — and men — “happier and saner people”. To do this she believes we need to reject our hook-up culture, which normalises sleeping with a new person every week, stop watching porn and choking each other in bed, quit pretending that prostitution is a job like any other, and re-establish marriage as a serious, lifelong commitment. … read full article
Ed. Note: This article was published a couple months ago, but we didn’t include it when it appeared in the first quarterly issue of The Skeptic and it’s definitely worth reading.
Trans Matters:
An Overview of the Debate, Research, and Policies
From The Skeptic Magazine (USA)
By LISA SELIN DAVIS
March 2022 (Current Issue: v. 27 #1)
Among the most contentious topics in America today is that of kids who identify as transgender: how to understand them, treat them, and make policy based on them. The number of kids with gender dysphoria (GD)—marked distress at an incongruence between gender identity and biological sex—has risen exponentially in the past decade.1 So has the demand for what have come to be known as “gender-affirming” medical interventions: puberty blockers, often followed by cross-sex hormones and sometimes “gender-affirming” surgeries, including the irreversible “top surgery” (in one study, a 13-year-old received a double mastectomy for gender dysphoria2) and sometimes “bottom surgery” such as vaginoplasty. … read full article
The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh To Premiere ‘What Is A Woman?’ Documentary In Online Watch Party
From The Daily Wire (USA)
By Daily Wire
May 27, 2022
It started with what seemed like a fairly simple query: What is a woman?
The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh soon learned that it was one of the most controversial and vexing questions one can ask in the Western world today — and one not even a future U.S. Supreme Court justice can answer. On June 1, at 8 p.m. ET, The Daily Wire will premiere Walsh’s explosive new documentary, “What Is A Woman?” in which he talks to ordinary citizens, medical professionals, and even African tribesmen in an effort to get answers to a question that has leftists triggered. … read full article