Thursday, February 3, 2022
Current news and opinion from a Gender Critical perspective
This day in Herstory: On February 3, 1995, Astronaut Eileen Collins became the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle as mission STS-63 launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (more)
Eileen Marie Collins (born November 19, 1956) is a retired NASA astronaut and United States Air Force colonel. A former military instructor and test pilot, Collins was the first female pilot and first female commander of a Space Shuttle.[1] She was awarded several medals for her work. Colonel Collins has logged 38 days 8 hours and 20 minutes in outer space. Collins retired on May 1, 2006, to pursue private interests, including service as a board member of USAA. (more)
BREAKING: Washington Bill Would Cover Up How Many Men Are Housed in Women’s Prisons
URGENT CALL TO ACTION FOR WASHINGTON STATE RESIDENTS
HB1956 would cover up important information about trans-identified men housed in Washington women’s prisons. Fill out the form below to urge Washington lawmakers to vote NO.
From WoLF (USA)
By WoLF Staff
February 3, 2022
In April of last year, the ACLU sued to prevent a private citizen from accessing public records that would prove that men were being housed in Washington women’s prisons based on their self-declared “gender identity.” The private citizen, Andrea Kelly, had requested documents pertaining to the number of inmates transferred from a men’s facility to a women’s facility, without any personally identifiable information. WoLF represented Ms. Kelly’s interests in this matter.
These requests were a result of whistle-blower reports from local radio station KIRO-FM about a male sex offender who had raped a disabled female inmate upon being transferred. The ACLU of Washington and Disability Rights Washington filed a lawsuit to prevent this information from being released to her or any member of the public. It is unclear why a disability rights group was seeking to protect a rapist instead of a disabled rape victim.
The judge, in this case, denied Ms. Kelly’s motion to intervene, but not before Ms. Kelly received critical information from the Department of Corrections as part of the DOC’s court filings in this lawsuit, which corroborated the initial whistleblower’s report.
The responsive documents also revealed that the total number of male persons who identify as female, non-binary, or any other gender identity that were housed in a women’s facility at the time of the case was seven. The DOC records also confirmed that there were prison infraction records and PREA (Prison Rape Elimination Act) records against several men housed in women’s prisons, including 309 pages of infraction records for a particular male inmate.
Read More About ACLU v. Jane Doe
Last month, the Washington House introduced HB1956, which prohibits the following information about inmates to be released to the public: “transgender, intersex, nonbinary, or gender nonconforming status; sexual orientation; genital anatomy; or gender-affirming care or accommodations other than an incarcerated individual's preferred name, pronouns, and gender marker.”
If this bill passes, the public will no longer be able to find out how many men are housed in women’s prisons in Washington, how many of these men still have their penises, and whether they are committing violent acts against the women they are locked up with.
Ethan Frenchman, staff attorney at Disability Rights Washington, testified in support of HB1956 and referred to WoLF in his testimony as an “anti-trans hate group” when discussing Ms. Kelly’s public records request last year. This is disheartening, but unsurprising, given their efforts to protect male rapists at the expense of their female victims.
HB1956 is supported by the ACLU of Washington, the Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence, Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates - Washington, Washington Black Lives Matter Alliance, and several dozen other organizations and individuals.
WoLF is fighting on the front lines to keep men out of women’s prisons, but our ability to do so is significantly hindered when this information is kept from the public.
TAKE ACTION! VOTE NO TO HB1956!
Are you a Washington resident interested in submitting written or virtual oral testimony in opposition to this dangerous bill? Send an email to volunteer@womensliberationfront.org to be notified of upcoming testimony opportunities. We will support you throughout the process.
… read the article and send a letter to the WA State Legislature and Governor
Elite Gay Men & the Destruction of Women’s Role in Sexual Ethics & Human Reproduction
From The 11th Hour Blog (USA)
By Jennifer Bilek
February 3, 2022
Peter Tatchell, a renowned gay LGBTQI+ activist based in the UK, gave a TEDx Talk in 2015, in which he suggested that the broad social acceptance of gay culture within Western societies is paving the way for greater diversity in sexual expression and that this will constitute more enlightened societies. Drawing on the work of 1950s sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, Tatchell stated that the categories gay and straight are not watertight, that bisexuality is growing in popularity, and that sexual expression is becoming more fluid, existing on a continuum with gay on one end and straight on the other. Those in the growing middle are expressing an amalgam of different sexual desires and attractions (and, let’s be clear, fetishes that are based on disconnection, objectification of others, and compulsion).
In his talk, Tatchell outlined a path in which strict cultural attitudes that dictate what he calls “straight supremacy” will be eroded, and in its place will be more crossover between heterosexuality and homosexuality. He implies that most heterosexuals repress their feelings of same-sex attraction. When cultural standards, which he sees as established by “moralists,” are loosened, this will create a less homophobic society that will uproot the need for anyone to assert their LGBT identity. The heteronormativity Tatchell so despises is the default sexual expression because it is the evolutionary path of our species reproduction.
Other wealthy gay men are in the process of using powerful organizations that evolved once the AIDS epidemic was quelled in the USA, to deconstruct sexual dimorphism under a banner of human rights, within the same organizations they have built to protect their rights to be same-sex attracted.
Jon Stryker, founder of Arcus Foundation, and his husband, Slobodan Randjelović; Tim Gill of the Gill Foundation; Fabrice Houdart, head of Out Leadership; Todd Sears, founder of Out Leadership; and Mark S. Bonham of the Bonham Centre for Sexuality Studies in Toronto, Canada, are all extremely wealthy gay men institutionalizing gender identity ideology globally with the addition of Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (T+) to the LGB acronym within their LGBT non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The T+ is a trojan horse being used to dismantle sexual dimorphism, which Tatchell comes right out and calls “straight supremacy.”
Though this might seem at cross purposes to their own sexual orientations, what is at root is the same efforts to control women’s biology, to profit from women’s biology, and to upend women’s ability to prevent sexual access to children, that other misogynistic men have engaged in for eons. The wealth these men have amassed insulate them and grant them a sense of entitlement to all they desire. Being gay, women are not terribly significant to their lives, which makes them more dangerous than their misogynistic straight counterparts. There need be no pretense of care for women.
In Peter Tatchell's TEDX Talk, and in previous public statements, he seems to support sex between grown men and boys. This is a controversy that has followed him like a plague throughout his career. During his talk, he mentions that this is perfectly natural behavior within some Aboriginal tribes while remarking on the coming freedoms available to us all when “straight supremacy” is abolished (He later notes on his website that he unequivocally does not support pedophilia). … read full article
Sixteen Penn swimmers say transgender teammate Lia Thomas should not be allowed to compete
From The Washington Post (USA)
By Matt Bonesteel
February 3, 2022
Sixteen members of the University of Pennsylvania women’s swimming team sent a letter to school and Ivy League officials Thursday asking that they not take legal action challenging the NCAA’s recently updated transgender policy. That updated directive has the potential to prevent Penn swimmer Lia Thomas from competing at next month’s NCAA championships, and the letter indicates the 16 other swimmers believe their teammate should be sidelined.
Thomas, a transgender woman who swims for the Quakers women’s team, competed for the Penn men’s team for three seasons. After undergoing more than two years of hormone replacement therapy as part of her transition, she has posted the fastest times of any female college swimmer in two events this season. The letter from Thomas’s teammates raised the question of fairness and said she was taking “competitive opportunities” away from them — namely spots in the Ivy League championship meet, where schools can only send about half of their rosters to compete.
“We fully support Lia Thomas in her decision to affirm her gender identity and to transition from a man to a woman. Lia has every right to live her life authentically,” the letter read. “However, we also recognize that when it comes to sports competition, that the biology of sex is a separate issue from someone’s gender identity. Biologically, Lia holds an unfair advantage over competition in the women’s category, as evidenced by her rankings that have bounced from #462 as a male to #1 as a female. If she were to be eligible to compete against us, she could now break Penn, Ivy, and NCAA Women’s Swimming records; feats she could never have done as a male athlete.”
Thomas’s teammates did not identify themselves in the letter. It was sent by Nancy Hogshead-Makar, a 1984 Olympic swimming gold medalist, lawyer and chief executive of Champion Women, a women’s sports advocacy organization. She said in a telephone interview that she sent the letter on the swimmers’ behalf so they could avoid retaliation; in the letter, the swimmers claim they were told “we would be removed from the team or that we would never get a job offer” if they spoke out against Thomas’s inclusion in women’s competition. … read full article
Transgender Rapist Groomed Child Days After Release from Prison
From REDUXX (USA)
By Reduxx Staff
February 3, 2022
A transgender predator has been sentenced to 100 months in prison after sexually texting a child with mental health issues just days after being released from prison for committing his second rape.
Joshua Bate, a biological male who identifies as a woman, was sentenced on Wednesday of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, the Daily Mail reports.
According to the prosecutor, Bate had travelled to Durham, UK to stay with a friend. Children were present on the premises, and Bate began to play with a young girl who is reported to have mental health concerns. Bate took the girl's number, and later that night while the rest of the house was asleep, began to text the girl sexual comments.
Amongst other sexual comments, Bate asked her if she wanted to "spoon" with him, and told her to keep their conversation private. But the girl, who was under the age of 13, told a trusted adult who promptly called the police.
During the police interview, Bate admitted to officers he was sexually attracted to children "of both sexes."
When the incident occurred, Bate had just been released from prison after serving time for a 2020 sexual assault of a schoolgirl on a bus. Prior to that, he had been in jail for raping a woman in 2015. … read full article
Biden Restores Trans Self-Identification Federal Prison Policies
From REDUXX (USA)
By Genevieve Gluck
February 3, 2022
The Biden administration has restored Obama-era guidelines surrounding the housing of transgender inmates in federal prisons based on self-identification.
On January 13, the Bureau of Prisons re-issued its Transgender Offender Manual, which includes guidelines previously scrubbed by the Trump administration with respect to gender self-identification for federal inmates. Under Trump, housing based on biological sex alone was taken into consideration for offender housing, but the new policies re-invoke Obama-era guidelines which make a transgender inmate's "personal safety" a priority.
The guidelines also state that ‘misgendering’ is expressly forbidden, and that taxpayers must subsidize cosmetic surgeries, sex hormones, and brassieres for men who claim to identify as transgender.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) issued the new guidelines with the intention of ensuring that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) “properly identifies, tracks, and provides services to the transgender population.”
The manual conflates biological sex with gender stereotypes and defines ‘gender’ as “ a construct used to classify a person as male, female, both, or neither. Gender encompasses aspects of social identity, psychological identity, and human behavior.”
It also defines sexual orientation in a manner which erases the defining aspect of biological sex, stating, “Sexual orientation [is] the direction of one’s sexual interest towards members of the same, opposite, or both genders,” and, confusingly adds, “Sexual orientation and gender identity are not related.”
“Deliberately and repeatedly mis-gendering an inmate is not permitted,” the document warns. … read full article
Social Transition: A Terrible Idea
From The 21st Century Salon (USA)
By The 21st Century Salonnière
February 3, 2022
Parents tend to go along with the prevailing customs of their time and place. The social pressure to conform is enormous, whether or not we experience it as social pressure, exactly. If parents don’t conform in certain ways, we’re considered outliers, weirdos, or worst of all, bad parents. …
The point is: It’s not the case that every change in parenting trends is an advancement or improvement on what earlier generations did. Sometimes what we do is better than in the past, and sometimes what we do is worse. Parents make a lot of choices on autopilot, depending on what “everyone else is doing.”
Social transition is a great example of a modern-day parental choice made on autopilot. And it’s a terrible idea.
Self-Expression versus Social Transition
Social transition can best be described as “self-expression, plus.”
Everyone understands the self-expression piece. Certain kids are very gender nonconforming. The classic example is the tomboy who hates to wear dresses, wears short hair, prefers to play with boys, and adopts a more masculine or neutral nickname—think of Nancy’s friend “George” from the Nancy Drew books.
The “plus” part—the thing that makes social transition different from what we used to do—is that now, everyone treats these kids as if they were really the opposite sex. We call a masculine-presenting girl “he” and everyone in their lives—friends, family, teachers, coaches—pretends the child is really the opposite sex.
This is easy to do with a pre-pubertal, or barely pubertal, child. Kids all look alike. Stick a dinosaur T-shirt and a short haircut on a little girl, and she looks just like a boy. Let a boy grow his hair long and wear a dress, and he looks just like a girl.
Pre-pubertal children can easily pass as the other sex. But what happens when the child starts to develop secondary sex characteristics, after years of pretending to be the opposite sex—after years of everyone playing along and maintaining the fiction?
A whole lot of emotional distress happens, that’s what—much more emotional distress than if their parents and communities had used those years teaching the kids that they can express themselves however they like, they can be accepted and loved for exactly who they are, but they have a certain type of body that will develop a certain way. Your sex, height, eye color, skin tone—these are just reality.
As Dr Bernadette Wren, head of clinical psychology at the Tavistock and Portland Trust (home of the UK’s only gender clinic for children) has said,
“We have never recommended complete social transitioning but it has become a really popular thing and many advocacy groups really promote it. We take the long view because our concern has been that what might work to lower anxiety in a younger child may become the thing that is problematic when they get older. It can become harder for children as they move into adolescence….
“We think that is setting up problems for later.” … read full article
Iowa girls are relying on Athletic Union to preserve girls’ sports
The 800-meter time that made me a national champion and state record holder was bettered by 85 Iowa boys at a single meet.
From Des Moines Register (USA)
By Ainsley Erzen, Guest columnist
February 3, 2022
An open letter to the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union from one of the state’s top female high school track and soccer athletes:
To the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union,
My name is Ainsley Erzen, and I’m writing to you concerning comments in the Cedar Rapids Gazette that the union needs guidance regarding transgender athletes in sports.
This summer, I won the girls 800-meter high school national championship in track, and broke the Iowa state record. It was such an honor to represent my state as the first Iowa female high school runner to win a national track title, and so humbling to have my name listed among such talented women as Shelby Houlihan and Joy Ripslinger. I believe this is a prime example of some of my most core beliefs: that if you work hard and put your faith in the Lord, He can, and will, accomplish things within you that you could never even dream of on your own.
That being said, my time of 2:06.52, the time that made me the fastest Iowa high school female 800 runner of all time, the time that earned me the title of national champion, was easily beat by 85 high school boys at the 2021 Iowa high school state track meet alone. Eighty-five. Just in our small state of Iowa. The results of the 2021 Drake Relays proved to be no different, as the last male runner came through the line in a time of 2:03. That same year, a time of 2:13 was enough to make me the 800-meter Drake champion. The slowest boy was easily 10 seconds faster than the first-place girl. But I don't need to explain this to you. Iowa track officials already know there are huge biological differences between boys and girls. Why else would the 2021 girls blue standard (the automatic qualifying time for the Drake Relays) have been 2:16, while the boys was set 20 seconds faster, at 1:56? … read full article