Sunday, June 12, 2022
This day in Herstory: Annelies Marie Frank, born June 12, 1929 (died circa March 12, 1945) was a German-Dutch diarist of Jewish heritage. One of the most-discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust, she gained fame posthumously with the 1947 publication of The Diary of a Young Girl, in which she documents her life in hiding from 1942 to 1944, during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. It is one of the world's best-known books and has been the basis for several plays and films. (more)
The science behind gender ideology is bunk
From Washington Examiner (USA)
June 12, 2022
By KAYLEE MCGHEE WHITE
Like so many toxic movements, gender ideology relies on fear to control people. Its activists have convinced our institutions that anything but full-blown acceptance of transgenderism will lead to a number of adverse effects, including increased suicide rates among children and young adults who weren’t “affirmed.”
This is how they’re able to justify giving puberty blockers to children and performing irreversible “gender reassignment” procedures on adolescents who are too young to know any better. They claim such experimental treatments are the only way to save a gender-confused teenager’s life, and they can cite several scientific studies that seemingly support their case. ... read full article
Cracking the 'false' consensus
Florida mounts the most significant challenge yet to under-age gender transition
From Gender Clinic News (Australia)
By Bernard Lane
June 12, 2022
Health professionals, activists and journalists are relying on the facade of “eminence-based medicine” to justify medicalised gender change for minors, thereby obscuring from the public the very weak evidence base for these risky, irreversible treatments.
That is the allegation by the American state of Florida, where health authorities have made the first government challenge to the authority of medical societies, particularly the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), responsible for transgender youth treatment guidelines and policy statements. … read full article
Longer treatment with puberty-delaying medication in transgender youth leads to lower bone mineral density
From Medical Xpress (USA)
by The Endocrine Society
June 12, 2022
A longer duration of treatment with puberty-delaying medications among transgender youth is associated with lower bone mineral density, according to a new study that will be presented Sunday at ENDO 2022, the Endocrine Society's annual meeting in Atlanta, Ga.
The Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guidelines recommend treatment with gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists, or puberty-delaying medication, starting at the onset of puberty for eligible transgender or gender-diverse youth. ... read full article
Pennsylvania mothers file lawsuit to stop transgender lessons at elementary school
The lawsuit seeks a court order to stop the gender-related instruction or offer parents the chance to excuse their children from it
From Fox News (USA)
By Jon Brown
June 12, 2022
Three Pennsylvania parents filed a federal lawsuit last week alleging that their children's first-grade teacher violated district policy, state law and the Constitution by teaching children about gender dysphoria and transgender transitioning.
The suit, filed by mothers Carmilla Tatel, Stacy Dunn and Gretchen Melton against the Mount Lebanon School District, seeks a court order to stop the gender-related instruction at Jefferson Elementary School in Pittsburgh, or else provide parents the option to opt their children out of it. … read full article
Are the kids alright?
Adults shouldn't capitulate to teen ideology
From UnHerd (UK)
By Hadley Freeman
June 13, 2022
A few months after I had my twins, I heard a phrase that, I was promised, would change the lives of me and my children, and only for the better: “baby-led.” I was complaining to a friend about my difficulties with the babies’ napping schedules, and my fears that I would be breast-feeding 24 hours a day for the rest of my life.
“You should do the baby-led approach,” my friend said. … read full article
Over $200K being spent on drag queen shows at NYC schools, records show
From New York Post (USA)
By Mary Kay Linge and Jon Levine
June 11, 2022
New York is showering taxpayer funds on a group that sends drag queens into city schools — often without parental knowledge or consent — even as parents in other states protest increasingly aggressive efforts to expose kids to gender-bending performers.
Last month alone, Drag Story Hour NYC — a nonprofit whose outrageously cross-dressed performers interact with kids as young as 3 — earned $46,000 from city contracts for appearances at public schools, street festivals, and libraries, city records show. ... read full article
Montana zoo faces backlash for Pride Month drag queen story hour
ZooMontana is set to hold a "Drag Queen Story Hour" on June 22 in honor of Pride Month. The event, which is being met with backlash from the local community, is being held in collaboration with 406 Pride.
From The Post Millennial (USA)
By Joshua Young
June 12, 2022
A zoo in Billings, Montana is committed to presenting a "Drag Queen Story Hour" on June 22 despite backlash, saying they're going to "move forward with this harmless and fun reading event that is held throughout the country."
According to KTVQ, ZooMontana is set to hold a "Drag Queen Story Hour" on June 22 in honor of Pride Month. The event, which is being met with backlash from the local community, is being held in collaboration with 406 Pride. … read full article
Staff with trans fears over toilets ‘require training’
From The Times (UK)
By Brian Mahon
June 12, 2022
The business representative group Ibec has told its members that employees who raise concerns about bathroom etiquette for trans colleagues should undergo training, and that it is not “appropriate” to ask trans workers to use disabled or gender-neutral toilets.
Ibec has published new guidelines for firms to help them deal with trans-related issues in the workplace. The question of assigning bathrooms should be “handled with sensitivity”, they say. … read full article
Musk notes 'dichotomy' in pro-transgender talking points
From Washington Examiner (USA)
By Heather Hamilton
June 12, 2022
Tesla CEO Elon Musk suggested claims underlining transgender ideology are inconsistent.
“We are simultaneously being told that gender differences do not exist and that genders are so profoundly different that irreversible surgery is the only option,” Musk tweeted Saturday, adding that “perhaps someone wiser than me can explain this dichotomy.”
The billionaire took to Twitter to push back against criticism of Matt Walsh’s What is a Woman? documentary, which was released earlier this month. ... read full article
On the Blowback to "What is a Woman?" and the Difference Between Debate and Bigotry
As short a response as I could manage, to a lot of criticism
From TK News by Matt Taibbi
By Matt Taibbi
June 10, 2022
After publishing a review of Matt Walsh’s What is a Woman? this week, the expected avalanche of blowback from activists and even a few friends did arrive. Most went straight to the word “bigot,” while others decried “platforming a fascist.”
Let me explain my thoughts on this subject, since some seem to feel that laughing when a professor is caught calling “truth” transphobic is equivalent to supporting genocide. … read full article (please note: this article is behind a paywall, but Taibbi is offering a free 7-day trial option, which would allow you to read it)
The NHS’s disturbing trans guidance for children
From The Spectator (UK)
By Debbie Hayton
June 12, 2022
Sajid Javid spoke some sense earlier this week when he said that the word ‘woman’ should not be removed from NHS ovarian cancer guidance. The Health Secretary was responding to the revelations that the NHS website had been stripping the word ‘woman’ from its advice pages. But fine words are only a start. The Health Secretary needs to get a grip on an NHS website that seems in thrall to magical thinking on sex and gender.
The problem is wider than he might realise. Quite apart from the row over the advice to women seeking advice on cervical cancer and ovarian cancer, the NHS is currently hosting a page entitled, ‘Think your child might be trans or non-binary?’ The page contains very worrying guidance for parents concerned that their children might be ‘confused about their gender’. ... read full article
‘I don’t call pupils girls because there are too many gender options’, says headteacher
Liz Laybourn, who leads a single-sex private school, says she also thinks twice about using the word 'daughters' in letters to parents
From The Telegraph (UK)
By Berny Torre
June 12, 2022
A headteacher at a private single-sex school has said she no longer calls her pupils "girls" because there are so many gender options available.
Liz Laybourn, the head of Burgess Hill Girls near Haywards Heath, West Sussex, said the changing times have made her think twice about saying "daughters" when writing to parents. ... read full article
Pull chain on unisex school loos, say activists
From The Times (UK)
John Boothman
June 12, 2022
Gender-neutral lavatories in Scottish schools breach equality law, according to a leading QC, amid claims that female pupils have been harassed and intimidated in unisex facilities.
Several councils have introduced an open-plan design to help tackle vandalism and bullying. These can also easily be designated as gender-neutral, which the Scottish government has encouraged to help trans students feel more comfortable in schools.
However, For Women Scotland (FWS), a campaign group for women’s rights, has written to Scotland’s 32 councils arguing that they must provide separate facilities for male and female pupils under the Equality Act. ... read full article
Edinburgh author JK Rowling pops in on book group that 'share her gender views'
The Harry Potter author promised to attend JKR's Barmy Book Army after the woman behind it, book club organiser Woman for Women, revealed she'd walked out on her own reading club.
From Edinburgh Live (Scotland)
By Rory Cassidy
June 12, 2022
Controversial Edinburgh author JK Rowling popped in on a Scottish book group after finding out they shared her views on gender.
The Harry Potter author has split opinion after comments she made in early June 2020 about the transgender community.
Her stance has caused fans and stars like Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and Eddie Redmayne to speak out against her. ... read full article
Why women are right to defend their Terf
From The Times (UK)
By Brenda Power
June 13, 2022
The invitation was mysteriously vague: would I be interested in attending an event that may or may not be happening, but would certainly include food? They had me at food, so I asked for more details. It’d be something like the event JK Rowling organised recently in London, came the reply. No need then for further explanation of the cloak-and-dagger tactics, and I was definitely in.
Since she queried the use of the term “people who menstruate” in preference to “women”, the Harry Potter author has been deemed transphobic — literally meaning a form of mental illness causing an irrational fear or hatred of trans people. She has also been subjected to abuse, death threats and attempts to erase her from the franchise she created. … read full article
She Wrote a Dystopian Novel. What Happened Next Was Pretty Dystopian.
From The New York Times (USA)
By Pamela Paul
June 12, 2022
Imagine a world in which all the men disappear from the planet in a single moment: Planes they were piloting are left unmanned (literally), their female passengers abandoned in midair; men in bed with their girlfriends mysteriously vanish; boys in the playground dematerialize before their mothers’ eyes. The girls and women left behind are given no apparent reason for the sudden absence of half the world’s population.
Now imagine another world — one in which an author proudly announces her forthcoming novel only to be attacked online for its fantastical premise. Months before the book comes out, it is described on Goodreads as a “transphobic, racist, ableist, misogynist nightmare of a book.” ... read full article
Why the woke can’t stand meritocracy
There is no one trustafarians hate more than working-class people done good.
From Spiked (UK)
By Julie Burchill
June 12, 2022
Watching last weekend’s royal command performance, I was struck by how it’s now completely accepted that any decent person of every political persuasion supports the monarchy. The dictionary defines ‘Mom and apple pie’ as ‘a core principle, value, belief, characteristic, aspect, etc, of the United States of America or its citizens. Sometimes used sarcastically or ironically.’ We have instead ‘Ma’am and humble pie’. I’m not sure it’s an improvement, surveying the cultural cringe it entails.
Of course, politicians will creep to the crown; they know the top job will mean meetings with the monarch. There’s a touch of childish baiting Labour does to the Tories when the issue arises, along the lines of ‘Ooo, Mr Wilson was the queen’s favourite prime minister – she didn’t like your Mrs Thatcher much!’. ... read full article
LA Pride performer offers 'lube' to children
"Happy Pride. We have bandanas and lube," the drag queen said, as children in attendance watched the float go by.
From The Post Millennial (USA)
By Katie Daviscourt
June 12, 2022
In the latest shocking displays from "Pride Month" events, a drag queen offered lube to a crowd full of children attending the Pride Parade in Los Angeles on Sunday.
The drag queen, who was dressed in an eccentric costume consisting of rainbow feathers and a tight bodysuit, stood on top of a giant eggplant emoji and offered the sexual lubricant to the crowd, according to a video captured by Turning Point USA contributor Drew Hernandez. ... read full article
Test for press freedom as verdict due in Arron Banks libel case against Carole Cadwalladr
Judgment in the action against the Observer and Guardian’s Carole Cadwalladr will have huge implications for UK journalists
From The Guardian (UK)
By Mark Townsend
June 12, 2022
The highly anticipated judgment in the libel action brought by multimillionaire Brexit backer Arron Banks against the Observer and Guardian journalist Carole Cadwalladr will be handed down this week. The landmark verdict will potentially have huge ramifications for press freedom and investigative reporting.
Mrs Justice Steyn will deliver her judgment by email on Monday morning. The decision will be the culmination of an often rancorous three-year legal battle and could send a chilling effect throughout British journalism. … read full article
Are you an extremist?
Liberals have become too scared of conflict
From UnHerd (UK)
By TERRY EAGLETON
June 13, 2022
Someone once came up to me at a party and said “Hello, I’m John Smith, I’m a vulgar Marxist”. I’m still waiting for someone to step up and introduce themselves as an extremist. People don’t do this, of course, any more than they go around calling themselves Fatty or Bumface. Extremists are always other people. I myself stand in the centre, a paragon of moderate, judicious judgement, while on the fringes of my vision I can detect a number of freaks and fanatics ready to create havoc. … read full article