Thursday, March 24, 2022
This day in Herstory: March 24, 1921, the 1921 Women's Olympiad Olympiades Féminines and Jeux Olympiques Féminins began in Monte Carlo. It was the first international women's sports event, a 5-day multi-sport event organised by Alice Milliat and held on 24–31 March 1921 in Monte Carlo at the International Sporting Club of Monaco. The tournament was formally called 1er Meeting International d'Education Physique Féminine de Sports Athlétiques. It was the first of three Women's Olympiads or "Monte Carlo Games" held annually at the venue, and the forerunner of the quadrennial Women's World Games, organised in 1922–34 by the International Women's Sports Federation founded by Milliat later in 1921. (more)
Maya’s day in court
The feminist fix: If you’re bullied in the workplace gather an army and fight back
From The Critic (UK)
By Julie Bindel
March 24, 2022
“Maya’s day in court” is the latest article in Julie Bindel’s online column for The Critic, “The feminist fix”, which explores feminism’s answer to today’s challenges. The previous article, on how young trans people are being pushed into prostitution, can be read here.
Since 2004, when trans activists first tried to cancel me, I have wondered what it would be like to engage with them under the normal rules of public debate. The whole LGBTQQIA2Spirit+ Rainbow Community has been drip fed no debate by Stonewall for years, making this very unlikely to happen, but still I would have fantasies about a group of us, five on each side, being locked in a building and getting so bored with the lack of Netflix or booze that we decided to go there, to have the arguments, to lay our viewpoints bare. It would be filmed of course, and subsequently leaked to the world.
It was telling and hilarious in equal measure
This kept me going during the bleak years where barely anyone spoke out about the danger of transwomen invading single sex spaces. But now, despite the odds, my wish has come true, and no need for false imprisonment or kidnapping either. The debate, much to the chagrin of the blue fringe brigade, has been aired during a three-week employment tribunal and the Emperor is buck naked, his lady dick waving for all to see. Even the cute pink and blue trans flag can’t cover his humiliation.
In October 2018 Maya Forstater was employed as a consultant by the US-based non-profit Centre for Global Development (CGD). Some staff in the Washington DC office raised internal concerns about a number of her tweets, which they claimed were “transphobic.” An internal investigation followed, and weeks later, her contract as a consultant at CGD was ended, and subsequently, an offer to continue as a visiting fellow was withdrawn. … read full article (and SUPPORT The Critic!)
Cows and cowards
I like cows better.
From Riding Shotgun (New Zealand)
By Rachel Stewart
March 24, 2022
Not much and a whole heap has happened since I wrote my last missive exactly one year ago today.
For me, long languorous lockdowns were punctuated by the odd high drama. Let me explain. We need to go back a couple of years for some context.
In 2019 I was contacted by the producer/director of a forthcoming documentary about New Zealand’s dairy industry. She asked if I’d be willing to be interviewed for it, and after general to-ing and fro-ing, we finally managed to get together in Auckland.
For those who may be unaware, I made my name as a columnist by questioning the logic and power of the dairy industry - given the environmental damage being wrought on the country, and particularly on our waterways.
My voice was especially wanted by the documentary makers (they said) because it was coming from a strong background of both dairy farming and agri-politics - I was the president of Whanganui Federated Farmers from 1999 - 2003. In other words, an insider’s voice. … read full article (and SUBSCRIBE to Riding Shotgun!)
Have we reached peak trans?
The troubling impact of gender policies can no longer be ignored
From UnHerd (UK)
By Andrew Doyle (@andrewdoyle_com)
March 24, 2022
Is it really too much to ask those who struggle to define the word “woman” to refrain from running for public office? Ketanji Brown Jackson, Joe’s Biden’s nominee for the Supreme Court, was asked to provide the dreaded definition during her confirmation hearing on Tuesday. “No I can’t,” she replied. “I’m not a biologist.”
Jackson hadn’t been asked to explain how blood is deoxygenated, or to offer an intricate overview of the molecular mechanisms by which protein function is regulated in cells. The question “what is a woman?” is hardly the riddle of the sphinx; a reasonably intelligent six-year-old would be able to give an adequate answer.
Increasingly, the question has become seen as a “gotcha”, but it is a useful gauge of the extent to which figures in authority have been ideologically captured. How can we possibly trust politicians if they cannot acknowledge the most basic realities of human biology? While most voters have a limited understanding of various key political issues, we can all see that a failure to define “woman” is either delusional or dishonest, neither of which are qualities we seek in our elected representatives.
For a long time, most people have been unwilling to express what they know to be true for fear of being monstered as a “transphobe” or, even more absurdly, as a “fascist”. But we appear to have reached a turning point. Today, the term “peaked” is used to describe the moment when an individual realises that he or she has been blindly following the dogma of trans activism at the expense of the truth. To reach this point is an inevitability for the intellectually curious, given that gender identity ideology will always dissolve upon scrutiny. … read full article (and SUBSCRIBE to UnHerd!)
Stop saying, ‘Where are the feminists?’
From Spectator | Australia
By Edie Wyatt
March 24, 2022
While Lia Thomas was showing us how gender identity ideology destroys women’s sport at the NCAA swimming championships, a group of dissident women were busy in the stands.
During the meet, Beth Stelzer from Save Women’s Sports can be seen hanging a banner over the NCAA sign. The banner reads, ‘Save Women’s Sport’s, Woman = Adult Human Female.’
Kellie-Jay Keen from Standing for Women, is in the stands calling out, ‘He’s a man!’ In a video that went viral. Keen is challenged by a man insisting that she can’t say that Thomas is a man because she is not a biologist, she reverts, ‘I am not a vet, but I know what a dog is.’
The committed group of women, who have long been engaged in a determined fight against the erasure of women with gender identity ideology, are putting their own money into activism and court cases against massive government and capital-backed organisations. Not just in activism and legal challenges, but in the perfection of arguments of persuasion, of constant online debates, and in writing and talking to largely clueless politicians of all persuasions. … read full article
Crying wolf
From Writing Behavior (Canada)
By Eliza Mondegreen
March 24, 2022
Aha, here's a real-life attempt to implement that Transgender Law Center playbook tying gender identity to race so you can smear political opponents as "racists" ("transphobes" sadly having lost its sting from overuse...).
You can find all the usual misdirection with some fun twists. If you believe the Transgender Law Center and Washington Post contributor Zein Murib, it all boils down to this: recognizing sex is racist somehow (just trust us).
The lobbying guide argues that advocates "can and should connect justice for transgender people to issues of racial and economic justice." Frankly, the only 'connection' is a parasitic one. Trans rights benefit from being linked to the struggles for racial and economic justice. But what about the reverse? What do racial and economic justice have to do with the trans movement? How do people marginalized by race and class benefit from the trans movement's specious analogies and shameless piggybacking? … read full article (and SUBSCRIBE to Writing Behavior!)
My interview with Stephen Nolan
I finally get a chance to lay out my position
From The Glinner Update (UK)
Stephen Nolan interviewing Graham Linehan
March 24, 2022
Survey Says: Schools Need to Stay out of Children's Identities
From Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT) (USA)
March 24, 2022
I am the mother of a 13 year old ROGD daughter and recently I received a disturbing survey from our public school district.
A little background: our school district has a statistically impossible number of LGBTQ youth, with a heavy focus on the “T”. There are also kids, 12 and 13 year olds in “polyamorous” relationships. From what I hear, our school is not unusual in this regard, as these identities have been rapidly capturing the imagination of our youth.
So back to the survey…Amidst the expected questions for such a questionnaire, in one section I was asked to select the items from the “Strategic Plan” that I felt were accurate for our school district. On this list of items, one item stood out: “Curriculum and teaching practices are updated and reflect current best practices in identity-development and recognition”. … read full article (and SUBSCRIBE to PITT!)
‘It’s not transphobic, it’s common sense’: Caitlyn Jenner says Lia Thomas is not the ‘rightful winner’ of the NCAA championships and the title belongs to Emma Weyant
Former Olympic decathlete Caitlyn Jenner refused to recognize Thomas' victory
She tweeted last night that second-place Emma Weyant was the real winner
Thomas, who previously competed for three years as a male collegiate swimmer, stormed to victory in the women's NCAA championships last week
Thomas, 22, beat Weyant - an Olympic silver medalist - by more than 1.5 seconds
Florida governor Ron DeSantis also declared University of Virginia swimmer and Florida native Weyant, 20, the 'rightful winner' of competition
DeSantis said in a proclamation on Tuesday that the NCAA was putting 'ideology over biology' and that he would not stand for it
From Daily Mail (UK)
By Alyssa Guzman and David Averre
March 24, 2022
Former Olympic decathlete and gold medal-winner Caitlyn Jenner declared that transgender swimmer Lia Thomas was not the rightful winner of the women's NCAA Championships, instead naming second place Emma Weyant as the true victor.
Thomas, who competed for three years as a male collegiate swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania before beginning hormone therapy in 2019, stormed to the 500-yard freestyle title on Thursday with a time of 4:33:24 - more than a second-and-a-half ahead of Weyant.
Jenner last night said that recognizing University of Virginia swimmer and Olympian Weyant, 20, as the true winner was just 'common sense', after previously hitting out at the NCAA's decision to let Thomas, 22, compete against biological females.
Replying to a tweet from Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who also refused to acknowledge Thomas' victory, Jenner declared: '[Emma] is the rightful winner!
'It’s not transphobic or anti-trans, it’s COMMON SENSE!'
Earlier this month, Jenner also said its 'just not fair' to allow biological boys to compete in women's sports.
Jenner, who came out as a trans woman in 2015 and was previously named Bruce, won a gold medal and set a world record in the men's decathlon at the 1976 Olympic Games. … read full article
Opinion: The key question raised by Lia Thomas’s swimming success: What is the purpose of women’s sports?
From The Washington Post (USA)
By Megan McArdle
March 23, 2022
“Grossly unfair,” say the parents of college swimmers who have been competing against trans athlete Lia Thomas, who won the 500-yard freestyle at last weekend’s NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships.
“Women deserve fairness without caveat,” the parents wrote in an open letter, “and they should not be asked to shoulder the mental health of others at their own expense. A male body cannot become a female body. A woman is not a disadvantaged man.”
Many of Thomas’s teammates at the University of Pennsylvania agree. “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,” they wrote, in an earlier letter.
“No, it wasn’t fair,” agreed Caitlyn Jenner, who won the 1976 men’s Olympic decathlon before transitioning four decades later, “it’s not a fair fight.” … read full article
Human-rights campaigners call for new statutory guidance on single-sex services
From Sex Matters (UK)
March 24, 2022
Over the past week the Women’s Aid Federation and the Women’s Resource Centre have released strong statements defending single-sex services. They follow the example of nia, which was the first women’s refuge provider to openly and proudly defend single-sex services. Sex Matters supports and applauds the leadership taken by the CEOs and trustees of these women’s charities to stand up for their missions. It shouldn’t have to take this much courage.
What is needed is clear statutory guidance from the EHRC which clarifies what “single-sex” services mean, and how the law supports them.
Today we are publishing an open letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Women and Equalities Minister Liz Truss, signed by women’s sector leaders, equality lawyers, academics and activists calling on the government to support the EHRC to do its job and produce new, clear statutory guidance on single-sex and separate-sex services.
We are concerned by the letter of 18th February from the Minister for Women and Equalities, Liz Truss, to the Chair of the EHRC, Kishwer Falkner, which was leaked to the “i” newspaper. The Minister directs the commission to produce guidance that is “aligned with the Code”, rather than with the Equality Act 2010, and appears to suggest that the government would not support the EHRC in laying any amendment to the Code before Parliament.
This undermines the EHRC’s independence. Guidance issued by EHRC should be grounded in statute and case law, and not influenced by political expediency or pressure from interest groups.
Signatories include Ian Acheson, Former Chief Operating Officer of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Nimco Ali OBE, Joanna Cherry QC MP, Frances Crook OBE, Karen Ingala Smith, Chief Executive of the Nia Project, Vivienne Hayes, CEO of the Women’s Resources Centre, Pragna Patel, co-founder of Southall Black Sisters, and Robert Wintemute, Professor of Human Rights Law at King’s College London.
The letter calls on the Minister to make it clear that the Government does not seek to constrain the EHRC in pursuing its mandate. The Government must commit to considering any amendments to the Codes of Practice that the EHRC proposes, following a proper process of publication and consultation on its new guidance.
Download the full text of the open letter