This day in history: Madeleine Albright took office as the 64th U.S. Secretary of State on January 23, 1997. She became the first female U.S. Secretary of State and the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government at the time of her appointment. … read more
More than half of trans inmates have been convicted of a sexual offence
MORE than half of legally male prisoners who identify as women have been convicted of a sexual offence, new data has revealed.
From The Express (UK)
By JAYMI MCCANN
January 23, 2022
Of the 146 such prisoners in jails across England and Wales, 87 were originally found guilty of a sex crime.
The figures only include people who were born male but identify as female. Those with gender recognition certificates are not included.
Victoria Atkins, Minister of State for the Ministry of Justice, said: "These figures do not include transgender prisoners with gender recognition certificates.
"Information on these individuals will be published early this year." … read full article
Athletes are pushing back against permitting trans competitors like Lia Thomas. What’s fair?
From The Toronto Star (Canada)
By Rosie DiManno
January 23, 2022
When Lia Thomas won the 1,650-yard freestyle swimming event in Akron last month, she finished 38 seconds faster than her nearest opponent.
She also beat the 500-yard freestyle field by 14 seconds.
Those are astonishing statistics. They’re also an abomination for women’s sports.
The 22-year-old transgender athlete is competing in her first season as a female. Thomas had previously competed for two seasons as a male for the University of Pennsylvania. Then she underwent more than two years of hormone therapy and joined the women’s team, where she is crushing Ivy League and NCAA records.
It is not pretty. More crucially, it is not fair. … read full article
Safety in genders
Tasmania has banned gay spaces for discriminating against “gender identity”
From The Critic (UK)
By Edie Wyatt
January 23, 2022
In Tasmania, sex is no longer a protected characteristic. Equity Tasmania have ruled that a meeting of exclusively same sex attracted people is discrimination against “gender identity and intersex variations of sex characteristics”. The Anti-Discrimination Commissioner of Tasmania, Sarah Bolt, has said that she cannot even understand how it is possible for lesbians to determine another person’s biological sex “without intrusive questioning”. One wonders how women and homosexuals ever managed to become targets of violence, when determining a person’s sex is such a complex and intrusive procedure. … read full article
Gary Powell: “Was it our own internalised homophobia that allowed the gender lobby to hijack our gay rights movement? As though that’s all we are worth?”
From Lesbian and Gay News (UK)
By Gary Powell
January 23, 2022
This was once a brave and principled movement, and it should be encouraging young lesbian and gay people not to use transgender identification as a fake short-cut to putative heterosexuality. Claiming to be a transgender boy when you are a lesbian girl is, for many vulnerable and insecure young people caught up in Internet grooming and social contagion, too tempting a springboard from homophobic disparagement and marginalisation to high and powerful transgender peer status. … read full article
Critiquing transgender theology: A review of Janice Raymond’s ‘Doublethink’ by Robert Jensen, Emeritus Professor of Journalism at the University of Texas
From Lesbian and Gay News (UK)
By Robert Jensen
January 23, 2022
There’s a sad irony at the heart of Janice Raymond’s new book on transgenderism and feminism. After decades of research and activism, she is uniquely qualified to contribute to the polarized debate over these issues. But because she has long been demonized by the transgender movement, her insights on sex and gender will be overlooked by many.
Doublethink: A Feminist Challenge to Transgenderism explains why the radical feminist analysis that Raymond articulates so clearly is not a threat to trans-identified people but rather an alternative to the liberal precepts of the transgender movement, which are biologically incoherent and anti-feminist. Raymond shows that we can critique the ideology of the transgender movement without ignoring the suffering of people with gender dysphoria. We can affirm the rights of girls and women while rejecting discrimination against trans-identified people. … read full article