Sunday, June 26, 2022
This day in Herstory: Pearl Sydenstricker Buck, born June 26, 1892 (died March 6, 1973), also known by her Chinese name Sai Zhenzhu was an American writer and novelist. She is best known for The Good Earth which was the best-selling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, Buck won the Nobel Prize in Literature "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China" and for her "masterpieces”, two memoir-biographies of her missionary parents. She was the first American woman to win that prize. (more)
UK - Boris Johnson: Only a man is born with a penis
From The Times (UK)
By Henry Zeffman
June 27, 2022
A woman cannot be born with a penis, Boris Johnson said last night, adding that there were “particular problems” around “issues of gender”, but he said it was important to be “as understanding of everybody else as possible”.
Asked whether a woman could be born with a penis, Johnson replied: “Not without being a man”.
Pressed on whether this meant that he thought there was a difference between being a woman and a transgender woman, Johnson replied: “Yes. Look it’s very, very important that as a society we should be as understanding of everybody else as possible. I’ve always stood for that. ... read full article
US - Women must be allowed to defend abortion as a sex-based right
For generations, US liberals relied on the Roe v Wade ruling to support sex-based rights. Last week’s reversal shows how misguided they were
From The Guardian (UK)
By Sonia Sodha
June 26, 2022
To mark the supreme court judgment that guaranteed American women a right to abortion in 1973, the feminist magazine Ms. published a graphic photo of a dead 27-year-old woman kneeling over, surrounded by bloody towels. Her name was Gerri Santoro and she died alone in a motel room during a botched abortion in 1964, a mother to two young daughters who had left her violently abusive husband.
That is the image the United States will today again have to confront as a result of the anticipated decision of the supreme court to overturn that federal guarantor of abortion rights, Roe v Wade. It leaves abortion rights to the states, meaning abortion is now illegal or soon-to-be illegal in 22 states in all or most circumstances, including, in some states, in cases of rape. … read full article
Ireland - Government to begin research into how to provide gender recognition for transgender children under 16
Research follows on from review of Gender Recognition Act 2015
From The Irish Times (Ireland)
By Conor Gallagher
June 26, 2022
The Government is to begin research into how gender recognition should be provided for transgender children under the age of 16.
The 2015 Gender Recognition Act allowed adult trans people to self-declare their own gender identity and be legally recognised. A more onerous process was introduced for 16- and 17-years-olds which requires parental consent.
Following a review of the Act in 2018, it was recommended that mechanisms be put in place to address trans children aged under 16. The programme for government in 2020 committed to researching the issue. … read full article
UK - Purity Spirals, Political Alliances, and Movement Building
From Jane Clare Jones (UK)
By Jane Clare Jones
June 26, 2022
I know I said I was going for a while, and I will be going for a while, but I said that before the news broke from the US. And it is both horrifying, and horribly clarifying.
There has over the last week been another painful eruption of a rift that has been erupting intermittently for the last four years. This rift is not, for me, a personal or individual matter. My concerns are not about personalities or power or recognition, or trying to shore up the power of a group of ‘elite’ women against the voices of ‘ordinary’ women. … ... read full article
UK - Nottingham City Council listens to activists, not women
They banned me from speaking at a public venue
From The Post by UnHerd (UK)
By Julie Bindel
June 26, 2022
When I was asked by a local activist to come to Nottingham and give a talk on male violence towards women and how to end it, I jumped at the chance. The talk would be at the Aspley Library, a much-needed resource in a predominantly working-class area of the city.
The library is under threat of closure, which, the organisers tell me, is the reason she decided to host a series of events in the building. It would bring people to the library and encourage those in the area to use it more. … read full article
UK - Why I'm suing the council that tried to bully me into silence: As feminist campaigner JULIE BINDEL is banned from giving a talk at a local library because of her trans views, her very robust response
From Daily Mail (UK)
By JULIE BINDEL
June 26, 2022
Nottingham’s city councillors don’t realise what they have done. By illegally banning me from giving a talk at one of their libraries, they have started a fight I doubt they can win.
My planned talk was cancelled on the ludicrous grounds that my views on transgender rights are ‘at odds’ with civic policy. Without speaking to me, or bothering to discover what I actually believe, the council decided to deny me the right to speak on their premises.
So I am going to sue them. On behalf of every woman who is being told to shut up and stay quiet, during the worst misogynist backlash I have witnessed in my lifetime, I’m taking the council to court. ... read full article
UK - Parents’ battle to see ‘secret’ lessons on white privilege
Shocked at what their daughter’s school was saying about gender and race, a couple are demanding the right to see teaching plans
From The Times (UK)
By Sian Griffiths
June 26, 2022
The parents of a teenager who is quitting a school that teaches topics such as white privilege and being gender queer are seeking the right to see “secret” lessons.
The girl’s mother, Clare Page, said there were few problems when her daughter started in year 7 at Haberdashers’ Hatcham College in southeast London, which is rated “good” by Ofsted.
In the past three years, however, she and her husband have complained several times about lessons on race, sex and gender, fearing that children are being “indoctrinated” and white pupils have been made to feel they are “privileged” simply because of their skin colour. ... read full article
Canada - What nobody told me about transition, but should have
From True North (Canada)
By Aaron Kimberly
June 26, 2022
Aaron Kimberly is a transsexual man and a mental health nurse who’s worked with gender dysphoric youth. He co-founded the Gender Dysphoria Alliance, which seeks to facilitate a more evidence-based, less ideological conversation about gender dysphoria.
The following op-ed is based on Aaron’s own lived experiences and some of the theories discussed were developed based on his experience working as a mental health nurse and as a transexual man. ... read full article
New Zealand - Transgender conference organisers defend right to proceed
From Stuff (New Zealand)
June 26, 2022
The organisers of a conference on the “impacts of transgender ideology” have defended their right to go ahead with the event.
The conference, due to take place in August in Nelson, has been criticised by professionals working with takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ youth.
In a statement provided to Stuff and published on Facebook, conference organisers Child & Adolescent Therapists Association (CATA) said the conference aimed to “provide accurate information based on science and evidence”. ... read full article
Australia - Controversial failed Liberal candidate Katherine Deves 'quits Twitter' after mockingly writing women should be referred to 'womb-havers' or 'birthing bodies' after US abortion ruling
Katherine Deves deleted her Twitter account after another controversial tweet
She questioned in a post if women should be 'womb-havers' or 'birthing bodies'
The rejected Liberal candidate was lambasted by users for the divisive post
Her tweet was in response to a post from Patricia Karvelas about Roe v Wade
From Daily Mail (UK)
By JESSE HYLAND
June 26, 2022
Rejected Liberal candidate Katherine Deves deleted her Twitter account once again after posting another controversial tweet about transgender women.
Ms. Deves, who was defeated in the seat of Warringah by independent Zali Steggall in last month's federal election, appeared to sarcastically question whether women should be referred to as 'womb-havers', 'people-with-vaginas' or 'birthing bodies'.
Her post was in response to a tweet from ABC radio host Patricia Karvelas about the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade on Friday. ... read full article
UK - Trans man going to Turkey for breast removal as surgery there is over half the price
Josh Dayus has not received any treatment via the NHS, having been on the NHS waiting list to go to a gender identity clinic since 2018
From Bristol Live (UK)
By Estel Farell Roig
June 26, 2022
A young trans man will be going to Turkey to have both breasts removed as the surgery there is less than half the price what it is in the UK.
Josh Dayus has not received any treatment via the NHS, having been on the NHS waiting list to go to a gender identity clinic since 2018. Mr Dayus said that he was diagnosed with gender dysphoria privately and started paying for testosterone last year, which costs him £60 a month. ... read full article
UK - The PR attempt to separate JK Rowling from Harry Potter and why it's important
From Original 106 fm (UK)
By Amy Hitchcock, arts and entertainment editor
June 26th, 2022
Cast your mind back 25 years. Hanson's MMMbop was number one, Titanic topped the box office, and Tony Blair had just been elected PM.
But perhaps more culturally significant than all three 90s moments is the first 500 copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone being published at the end of June 1997.
It would become the third best-selling novel of all time, establishing JK Rowling as one of the world's most loved and best-selling authors; a towering figure in the arts.
But the prolific author's legacy now seems destined to be defined by the culture war sparked by her position on women's rights and gender. … read full article
UK - BBC is STILL 'in thrall of trans lobby': Insider claims staff are being told to declare pronouns in training sessions by same group behind controversial 'Genderbread person graphic'... after broadcaster cut ties with Stonewall
BBC staff have been told there are more than 150 genders in training session
Corporation organised seminars by trans lobby group Global Butterflies
The group is behind the disputed 'Genderbread person' graphic
BBC staff also told they should declare their pronouns on email signoffs
From Daily Mail (UK)
By JACK WRIGHT and JAMES ROBINSON
June 26, 2022
BBC staff have been told there are more than 150 genders and urged to develop their 'trans brand' by declaring their pronouns on email signoffs, whistleblowers have revealed.
Emails were sent to radio producers and programme editors urging them to attend training seminars by Global Butterflies, a transgender lobby group behind the disputed 'Genderbread person' graphic, that the BBC organised last summer and autumn.
The BBC quit the controversial diversity scheme run by LGBT charity Stonewall last November - but whistleblowers believe that 'Stonewall injected the ideology into the BBC and it's still circulating'. ... read full article
US - The Time Has Come for a New Gay Liberation Movement
“I have flown the Gilbert Baker Rainbow Flag during Pride for more than 25 years, but this year I stopped.”
From The Velvet Chronicle (USA)
By Fred Sargeant
June 26, 2022
On June 19, in 2019, I joined several dignitaries in Paris — Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Flavio Rando of the Lesbian Herstory Archive and Gay Liberation Front (GLF), and a relative of Harvey Milk — to dedicate two plaques. One commemorating the Stonewall Riots — Place des Émeutes de Stonewall — and another for the Rainbow Flag created by American artist and gay rights activist, Gilbert Baker.
I was in Paris, at the 2019 OUT d’Or of the Association des Journalists LGBTQI, to receive acknowledgement for my role in the Stonewall riots and in the creation of Pride. There were a series of events and gatherings there that led to me discovering that while I was enjoying decades of quiet retirement in rural Vermont, the gay world and the history of Stonewall and Pride had undergone a radically dishonest reformation of the story and the facts. ... read full article
US - Parents Face Even More Than the Destruction of Their Daughters’ Sports As Title IX Turns 50
From Townhall (USA)
By Sharon Supp
June 26, 2022
Title IX was a landmark piece of legislation to advance equality for women and girls. Now, having arrived at the law’s 50th anniversary, President Joe Biden plans to eliminate fair competition for women in sports. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Reinterpreting “sex” to encompass “gender identity” will not just affect sports, locker rooms, and bathrooms, it could also mean that schools will facilitate a child’s transition to a different gender identity behind his or her parents’ backs. Schools have already deceived some parents. This egregious misuse of executive power could have far-reaching and tragic implications. ... read full article