Sunday, October 30, 2022
"Why is a mental health epidemic not being addressed with mental health treatment to get at the root causes for why female adolescents like me want to reject their bodies?"
This day in Herstory: Grace Slick, born Grace Barnett Wing on October 30, 1939, is an American singer-songwriter, artist, and painter. Slick was a key figure in San Francisco's early psychedelic music scene in the mid-1960s. With a music career spanning four decades, she first performed with The Great Society, but is best known for her work with Jefferson Airplane and the subsequent successor bands Jefferson Starship and Starship. Slick and Jefferson Airplane first achieved fame with their 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow, which included the top-ten Billboard hits "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love". Slick was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 as a member of Jefferson Airplane. (more)
Ed. Note [revised]: When I first read this news coverage from NBC News, I was very pleasantly surprised to find relatively unbiased reporting, which presents two perspectives in a relatively balanced fashion. And I was even more pleased when I mistakenly thought it ended with a powerful quote from Chloe Cole (included here).
But I was mistaken. The article didn’t end there. In fact, it went on to distort the picture in the same way that the US mainstream media has been doing for years. I apologize to all readers for my error and unfounded hopeful reading. Clearly, we still have a very long way to go.
US - Florida medical board votes to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors
The Florida Board of Medicine voted to start drafting a rule that will ban puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries for trans youths under 18.
From NBC News (USA)
By Jo Yurcaba
October 29, 2022
After five hours of tense testimony and protests, the Florida Board of Medicine voted Friday to start drafting a rule that would bar all minors in the state from receiving puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgeries as treatment for gender dysphoria.
Florida’s medical board is the first in the country to pursue such a rule, but Florida is among a wave of states where officials have attempted to restrict gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. …
After expert testimony, the board began the public comment period, which was scheduled to last two hours, according to multiple attendees. …
Chloe Cole, who described herself as an 18-year-old detransitioned female from California, said she began transitioning at 12 and received a double mastectomy at 15. At 16, she said, she realized she regretted her transition.
“All the talk about mental health, self-perception, pronouns and ideology leads me to the question, why is a mental health epidemic not being addressed with mental health treatment to get at the root causes for why female adolescents like me want to reject their bodies?” Cole said. … read full article
US - 'My breasts were beautiful and now they have been incinerated': Florida Board of Medicine hears former transsexuals' regrets, drafts mutilation ban
From Blaze Media (USA)
By Joseph MacKinnon
October 29, 2022
Mutilated and forever scarred, one woman told members of a medical panel on Friday that if she is still able to have children, she will never be able to breastfeed them. Two years after being mutilated by surgeons whom she claimed were really just "activists" in smocks, Chloe Cole's chest remains bandaged, her nipples bleeding interminably.
Amidst jeers from transsexual activists, Chloe Cole joined other victims of so-called "gender-affirming treatment" in Orlando to tell the Florida Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine Joint Rules/Legislative Committee why children and adolescents should be protected from sterilizing puberty blockers and genital mutilation. … read full article
US - Women Assaulted In Tacoma While Protesting Against Gender Ideology
From Reduxx (Canada)
By Reduxx Team
October 29, 2022
Women peacefully demonstrating against gender ideology were physically attacked by trans activists on Wednesday in Tacoma, Washington, during a planned counter-protest that has resulted in one woman sustaining a severely injured hand.
A group of women assembled on Wednesday at Tacoma’s Tollefson Plaza to publicly express their concerns about gender ideology and its impact on women and children. The demonstration was one of several that had been organized as part of a tour featuring UK-based women’s rights campaigner, Kellie-Jay Keen. Keen is known for having founded Standing for Women to raise awareness of issues surrounding sex self-identification policies. … read full article
US - I Am Karen, Hear Me Roar: In Which I Am Not Allowed To Speak At 'Let Women Speak'
A Tacoma free speech event
From The Distance (USA)
By Elizabeth Hummel
October 30, 2022
I wasn’t going to go. I’d been sick all week with a painful gut issue. But I woke up feeling much better and with a title for a piece of writing in my head. “I Am Karen, Hear Me Roar.” The day before was Helen Reddy’s birthday, so maybe she had something to do with it in the dream terrain. I got up and wrote it with Morning Brain, and then I realized I had to go, and that I wanted to read my piece. I put on my “Adult Human Female” definition of Woman t-shirt and zipped up my coat with the "Heretic" patch on the front. Took a deep breath, put on my shades and walked with my friends into the plaza, noting a row of antifa-looking men in black on the steps above us, waiting for us.
There were only 30 of us, so I was glad to be another body lending strength, bearing witness. One powerful speaker was a young and disabled bisexual woman who spoke through tears and with shaking hands of the damage the gender cult had done to her. Another woman who spoke was lunged at by a man in black, his attack blocked by one of the women. … read full article
US - Why I Keep Getting Mistaken for a Conservative
The Left no longer tolerates dissent
From National Review (USA)
By Kat Rosenfield
October 27, 2022
One of my longtime survival strategies as a career freelance writer is a policy of saying yes to everything. This includes paid work, of course, but it also includes lunch invitations, since the only thing I love more than writing is eating. (These are also, incidentally, the only two things in the world that I am any good at.) My policy goes like this: If you invite me to lunch, I will come. Embedded in my policy is a second, equally important policy of asking no further questions about the purpose of the lunch, lest I accidentally trigger a series of events leading to the withdrawal of the invitation, which would be tragic. … read full article
Scotland - Is gender bill revolt the beginning of the end for Sturgeon?
From Reaction (UK)
By Jenny Hjul
October 29, 2022
The revolt in the SNP over Scotland’s controversial Gender Recognition Reform Bill is a first in that a minister has resigned on a matter of principle, but it is not the first time the issue has caused splits in the party.
The Scottish Nationalist MP Joanna Cherry, a vocal advocate of women’s rights, was sacked from her front bench job as justice spokesman early last year after she opposed her party’s plans, which will enable people as young as 16 to change their gender without a medical diagnosis. … read full article
Scotland - Woman trouble is all of Sturgeon’s own making
Dismissing the real concerns of the gender bill’s critics will backfire
From The Sunday Times (UK)
By Gillian Bowditch
October 30, 2022
You would never have guessed from her appearance at the Women’s Enterprise Scotland Awards on Thursday night that Nicola Sturgeon has been having woman trouble. The first minister was on fine form, telling Scotland’s top female entrepreneurs that they were “visible role models” who are “collectively helping . . . to consign Scotland’s persistent gender gap in enterprise to history”.
Yet earlier in the day, she had suffered the biggest rebellion of her premiership over the thorny issue of transgender rights. Ash Regan, the community safety minister, resigned, saying she could not support “any legislation that may have negative implications for the safety and dignity of women and girls”. Nine MSPs defied the whip during the vote on the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill. … read full article
US - Tavistock whistleblower says SNP 'only listened to trans activists groups' over Gender Reform Bill
Dr David Bell accused the Scottish government of ignoring concerns raised by psychiatrists, clinicians and campaigners about the proposals
From The Telegraph (UK)
By Max Stephens
October 28, 2022
A Tavistock whistleblower has accused Nicola Sturgeon's government "of only listening to trans activist groups" when drawing up its controversial gender reform plans.
Dr David Bell, a former governor at the gender identity NHS trust, warned the proposals, which have now entered the second round of debate in Holyrood, will have a "very serious impact" on young people.
The Gender Reform Recognition Bill, if passed, would allow children as young as 16 to apply to legally change their identity without a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
Dr Bell said the Bill is following an ideologically driven "activist agenda" and is "reneging on its duty of care to young people". … read full article
Scotland - ‘Loophole’ allows hundreds of sex offenders to assume new identities
From The Times (UK)
By John Boothman
October 29, 2022
Convicted sex offenders have notified Scottish police of a change of name 521 times in the past three years. Under current laws, a new identity is allowed despite concern that some predators hide their pasts to strike again.
A freedom of Information request by the Scottish Conservatives found that there were 161 notifications in 2019-20, 162 in 2020-21 — and a record 198 in 2021-22. The party highlighted the case of Jason Graham who raped and murdered Esther Brown, 67, in Glasgow in May last year. He was said to be using the name Jason Evans after serving a prison sentence for raping a retired nurse in 2012. … read full article
Scotland - ‘More trans people will move to liberal Scotland’
From The Sunday Times (UK)
By Katie Tarrant
October 29, 2022
Transgender people are expected to settle in Scotland in greater numbers after MSPs voted in favour of reforming the Gender Recognition Act.
Jane Fae, a campaigner and director of TransActual, said Scotland was now on a list of “preferred destinations” for trans people who want to move, along with Portugal, Canada and New Zealand.
“The open-minded approach of the Scottish government is in sharp contrast to the viciousness of the UK government rhetoric and actions in respect of the trans community,” she said. … read full article
Scotland - Legal change could make Scotland a trans haven
From The Sunday Times (UK)
By Katie Tarrant
October 30, 2022
The day after Boris Johnson was elected prime minister, Dee Fairchild and her transgender partner, Becky, decided they would move to Scotland.
“We didn’t like the way England was headed, and Scotland seemed so much more liberal,” said Fairchild, 57. “We’ve been able to say to friends who feel frightened that it’s not a fantasy, there’s less harassment up here. So far we’ve helped six people make the move.”
Fairchild and her partner are not alone, as campaigners predict an increasing number of trans people could cross the border after MSPs voted in favour of reforming Scotland’s Gender Recognition Act (GRA). … read full article
UK - Now is no time for complacency. We're still facing defeat in the woke war
Yes, there have been some promising signs, but there is a very long way to go in the battle for common sense
From The Telegraph (UK)
By Zoe Strimpel
October 29, 2022
I have always been excessively bothered by certain kinds of noise while trying to sleep. Snoring of any volume is intolerable to me, as are erratically noisy plumbing, footsteps, music, voices, and zooming motor vehicles.
Complaining once to a friend after a night from hell, she told me the Jewish folk tale of a man who goes to the rabbi to complain about the cacophonous noise of living with his wife, children and grandparents, which is about to send him over the brink.
To his horror, the rabbi tells him to bring in his farm animals too: first the chickens, then the goats followed by the sheep. The noise goes from bad to worse, and finally, when the rabbi tells the man to evict the animals, he is profoundly grateful for the relative peace and quiet. … read full article
UK - Child Rapist Deemed “Too Dangerous” For Women’s Prison
From Reduxx (Canada)
By Anna Slatz
October 30, 2022
A transgender child rapist is being kept in segregation in a male prison after officials determined he was “too dangerous” to be sent to a women’s institution despite his legal gender change.
Marcia Walker, born Mark Walker, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the 2003 rape of two young girls — one of whom was just 4 years old at the time. In addition to the assaults, he was also convicted on multiple counts related to the creation and distribution of child sexual abuse images. … read full article
US - Governed, Not Ruled: The Need for School Choice
From Public Discourse (USA)
By R.J. SNELL
October 28, 2022
In a republic such as ours, the people grant certain prerogatives to the state, for the government exists by the consent of the people. The people do not beg for privileges and rights from the state. Parents have by nature, by justice, the right to educate their children. The state does not have a similar right to educate children; instead, parents permit the state to educate children.
Last week, at a meeting of the Lawrence Township Board of Education, at which parents voiced reasonable concerns about the district’s curriculum and policies regarding transgenderism, an attorney representing the school board haughtily pronounced that parents have no right “to dictate what their children are taught” but only “ to determine where they attend.” He noted the district was bound to follow New Jersey law regarding educational standards, and that “if you choose to have your child attend elsewhere, that’s your right. That’s your right as a parent.”
I live in Lawrence Township. I pay taxes in Lawrence Township—and if you don’t know about New Jersey taxes, let me assure you they are memorable. Equally memorable, to me at least, is the idea that an attorney for a democratically elected representative body, presumably compensated with tax revenue, has the chutzpah to lecture the residents he is supposed to serve about their parental rights. And if they don’t like it, they’re free to leave. That’s some brass, Mr. Comegno. … read full article
UK - A Lewd Public Stunt Is ‘Peak Trans’
From National Review (USA)
By Madeliene Kearns
October 30, 2022
Revealing your penis to unsuspecting members of the public is usually considered a criminal offense. But if you identify as transgender, then apparently, it can be perfectly wonderful.
Jordan Gray, a singer and comedian from England, appeared recently on a mainstream comedy show on Britain’s Channel 4, performing a song about how he is a “perfect woman” on account of the fact that his “tits will never shrink,” he can “f*** like a mother f***er,” is “guaranteed” to ejaculate, and does “anal by default.” He finished this charming performance by stripping naked and playing a few notes on the keyboard with his penis. … read full article
UK - Rival writers’ camps in free speech showdown
‘Debate is an imperialist capitalist white supremacist cis heteropatriarchal technique,’ says a novelist nominated for the Society of Authors committee. Other writers are not amused
From The Sunday Times (UK)
By Rosamund Urwin
October 30, 2022
When Joanne Harris’s most famous novel, Chocolat, was published in 1999 and swiftly turned into a film, she joined an elite group of authors who have sold more than a million copies of a single book in the UK. Now she has found herself in a freedom of speech war with two of the others: Sir Philip Pullman and JK Rowling.
On Thursday there will be a showdown between the Pullman and Harris camps. Harris, 58, is chairwoman of the management committee of the Society of Authors (SoA) — the trade union for writers, set up in 1884. Pullman, 76, is its former president, having resigned from the post in March. However, his friends say that he was effectively “ousted” because of a lack of support from the society during a row about a controversial memoir, and that his treatment has been “abominable”. One has likened it to the behaviour of the Magisterium in Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy.
… read full article