Thursday, May 19, 2022
This day in Herstory: Lorraine Vivian Hansberry, born May 19, 1930 (died January 12, 1965), was a playwright and writer. She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway. Her best known work, the play A Raisin in the Sun, highlights the lives of Black Americans living under racial segregation in Chicago. At the age of 29, she won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award — making her the first African-American dramatist, the fifth woman, and the youngest playwright to do so. (more)
Gender Ideology’s True Believers
I spent 25 years in a cultish political sect. Trans activists are giving me déjà vu.
From Quillette (Australia)
I know a fair bit about cults. When I was 19, I joined a small, insular, high-control Trotskyist organization, defying dear friends who told me it was a cult. I was so sure they were wrong … I stayed in the group for over 25 years. During that time I fought for many false and dangerous views, and helped spread antisemitism and misogyny. I also enjoyed the most transcendent sense of purpose, belonging, and love I have ever known.
A cult can make you feel wonderful. It feels like the family you choose for yourself, the refuge that allows you to survive a soul-crushingly lonely world. It sweeps you up in an embrace so all-encompassing that nothing and no one else matters, and the outside effectively ceases to exist. … read full article
Dem witness tells House committee men can get pregnant, have abortions
'I believe that everyone can identify for themselves,' Aimee Arrambide tells House Judiciary Committee
From Fox News (USA)
By Jessica Chasmar
May 18, 2022
A Democrat witness testifying before the House Judiciary Committee on abortion rights Thursday declared that men can get pregnant and have abortions.
Aimee Arrambide, the executive director of the abortion rights nonprofit Avow Texas, was asked by Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., to define what "a woman is," to which she responded, "I believe that everyone can identify for themselves." … read full article
Doctor prescribed sex change drugs via private 'online GenderGp clinic' to seven transgender patients - including a child, just NINE, and a teen who later took their own life - without 'proper tests or consent'
A retired consultant handed out sex-change treatments to seven young patients
Dr Michael Webberley prescribed puberty blockers and hormones via GenderGP
Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) found dozens of charges proved
'My heart and soul goes out to my husband,' said his wife Dr Helen Webberley
From The Daily Mail (UK)
By STEWART CARR
May 19, 2022
A retired consultant physician wrongly prescribed sex-change treatments to seven transgender patients - one who was aged just nine and another a teenager who took their own life few months later.
Dr Michael Webberley provided puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones via GenderGP, an online gender clinic which he ran with his GP wife Dr Helen Webberley.
A Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) panel found a number of charges proved against him after he was accused of failing to provide good clinical care to seven patients between February 2017 and June 2019. … read full article
Trans Pharmacology Guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services Raises More Questions Than It Answers
From Newsweek (USA)
By DAVID GORTLER
May 19, 2022
Last month, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Population Affairs (HHS/OPA) issued a "guidance document" called Gender Affirming Care in Young People. The document claims to outline an established standard of care on how to proceed with social, pharmacological and surgical "affirmation" of children and adolescents who identify as transgender. …
Observant scientists and clinicians will notice the document is most remarkable for what it doesn't say.
As a pharmacologist, pharmacist and research scientist who has dedicated his life to drug safety, drug development and evidence-based clinical and non-clinical science and medicine, I have some important questions—starting with who the authors of this document are, and what academic credentials they have. … read full article
Child-led gender guideline up for major revision
The first treatment guideline for gender dysphoric youth has been caught up in controversy
From Gender Clinic News (Australia)
By Bernard Lane
May 20, 2022
A contentious transgender treatment guideline specific to children and adolescents is to undergo a major revision amid growing international concern about the known and unknown risks of medicalised gender change for minors.
The project to update the 2018 guideline, issued by Australia’s biggest children’s hospital gender clinic, is expected to be discussed on Saturday, May 21, at the Darwin conference of the Australian Professional Association for Transgender Health (AusPATH).
In June 2018, the Lancet journal praised the new Australian guideline, noting it had broken from previous guidelines by endorsing “child-led” social transition before puberty, and advising individualised treatment rather than strict minimum ages for irreversible cross-sex hormones. … read full article
Signs of Hope in Australia?
From Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT) (USA)
May 19, 2022
The situation in Australia, with regard to gender ideology, is grim. Until recently there has been virtually no discussion or public dissent. The “trans kids” narrative has been uniformly celebrated by the media, schools, governments and organisations. I often sadly think of Australia (and our cousins in New Zealand), as being “the Canada of the southern hemisphere”. Tragic and disturbing stories of the effects on young people as a result of this are beginning to emerge. For example, the story of Jude’s daughter can be listened to here, or read here and here.
The only meaningful dissent in the mainstream press has been from the brave journalist Bernard Lane, who had his wings clipped by a complaint to Australia’s captured press regulatory body the Australian Press Council, following a complaint from a gender clinician. … read full article
Male Murder Suspect Transferred to Women’s Prison
From REDUXX (USA)
By Genevieve Gluck
May 19, 2022
A man facing murder charges abruptly declared he was transgender, and was subsequently moved to a women’s facility. Alex Ray Scott, 26, is currently awaiting trial for the killing of Kenneth Savinski, 64, whom Scott allegedly met on a dating app. …
Scott was initially booked as a male on the charges of murder, grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. But New York Department of Corrections records now list Scott as “female” ….
In addition to the charges related to Savinski’s murder, Scott was previously arrested in his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, in October 2018 on three counts of lewd molestation of a child. … read full article
Meet Skipping Stone, the trans youth organization hosting sex work peer groups
From Gender Dissent (Canada)
by Eva Kurilova
May 19, 2022
On February 8th of this year, Calgary-based youth charity Skipping Stone held its first Trans Sex Work Peer Group. … How did a registered charity that started as a youth scholarship foundation come to partner with an adult “sex worker” support group?
Skipping Stone describes itself as a “judgement-free space for anyone who identifies as trans, transgender, non-binary, or gender diverse, as well as those questioning, exploring or looking to affirming their gender identity or expression.” …
Skipping Stone was originally set up as a scholarship foundation in 2016. It provides a $2,500 scholarship to Grade 12 students in Calgary who are members or allies of the “transgender and gender diverse communities.” … Skippingstone.ca greets visitors with a picture of a child and proudly proclaims that the organization works with “kiddos as young as 6 or 7.” … read full article
ACLU Claims Denying Male Sex Offenders Transfer to Women’s Prisons is “Discriminatory”
From REDUXX (USA)
By Anna Slatz
May 19, 2022
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a brief in a support of dismissing a lawsuit seeking to halt the transfer of male inmates to women’s prisons. In the brief, the ACLU claims that denying male sex offenders transfer to women’s prisons is “discriminatory” and “unconstitutional.”
The lawsuit was brought against the state of California in 2021 after the Women’s Liberation front (WoLF) began representing four female inmates currently incarcerated in the state who had experienced violations of their rights at the hands of male inmates who had been transferred. …
But a legal brief filed by the ACLU on May 16 now reveals part of its key argument against WoLF’s lawsuit includes a wild assertion that trans-identified male offenders should not be denied transfer under any circumstances related to their criminal history — including if they are sex offenders. … read full article
A new and poorly understood group of gender-questioning youth are overwhelming the system. We need to pause and accept that we may be in UNCHARTED territory, writes clinical psychologist and transgender woman DR. ERICA ANDERSON
From The Daily Mail (UK)
By DR. ERICA ANDERSON
May 18, 2022
Dr. Erica Anderson is a clinical psychologist with 30 years of experience and a former board member of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). Her private practice has specialized in treating transgender and gender-questioning youth.
H.H.S. Assistant Secretary for Health, Admiral Rachel Levine raised eyebrows last month by declaring that 'no argument' exists among medical professionals who care for adolescents 'regarding the value and the importance of gender-affirming care.'
That's just not true. … read full article
Living vicariously through "trans kids"
From Writing behavior by Eliza Mondegreen (Canada)
By Eliza Mondegreen
May 19, 2022
Heather Brunskell-Evans described ‘trans children’ as “necessary victims” of transgender ideology, shoring up the identity claims of adults and easing the path to social acceptance and policy change by taking the focus off of sexual motivations for transition.
But there’s more to it than that: believing in ‘trans kids’ and advocating for early education about gender identity and ever-earlier medical interventions serve subtler and deeper purposes, too.
When someone transitions as an adult, they have a strong interest in framing that decision as part of a coherent life story. That means going back and reinterpreting the past through the lens of their trans identity, so that a reimagined childhood suddenly bristles with unheeded signs. … read full article
NHS bosses have quietly removed word 'WOMEN' on advice pages about ovarian and womb cancer
The NHS has removed terms like women from three of its cancer landing pages
These are the pages for ovarian cancer, womb cancer and for cervix cancer
Collectively these cancers kill about 7,500 British women every year on average
Health experts say omitting female language risks missing the target audience
NHS says it is committed to making pages as 'helpful' to whoever needs them
From The Daily Mail (UK)
By JOHN ELY
May 19, 2022
Official NHS advice about ovarian, womb and cervix cancers have quietly removed the word 'women' from their webpages, MailOnline can reveal.
The term was missing from the landing pages of three sections explaining cancers only found in biological women.
It comes amid ongoing concerns about trans-inclusive language in NHS guidance, with services currently in a 'woke' storm about de-gendering language surrounding women and pregnancy by erasing terms like breastfeeding. … read full article
Nadhim Zahawi backs schoolgirl forced out after trans row
From The Times (UK)
By James Beal
May 19 2022
The education secretary has criticised a school after a pupil who had argued that sex was determined by biology was apparently hounded out.
Nadhim Zahawi called the incident “hugely concerning” and “unacceptable” after The Times revealed that the 18-year-old pupil had been forced to leave the school after expressing her views. She had challenged the views of a visiting speaker, who had come to talk about transphobia. …
He said: “Schools have a responsibility to protect that student, that child when she talks about sex, you know, sex and the biology is indisputable. … read full article
The Times view on a girl bullied for questioning trans views: Unkind Conduct
JK Rowling is right to defend the pupil
From The Times (UK)
The Times Leading Articles
May 18, 2022
Any fair person would agree that it is important to “be kind” to transsexuals and to those, especially youngsters, grappling with gender identity. Equally, it is reasonable to expect kindness to be shown to those who disagree with the propositions that such identity is an entirely social construct and that there is no such thing as biological sex. Foremost among critics of these propositions in recent years is the author JK Rowling. Her robust interventions in this area are viewed by many as simple common sense, and by others as “transphobic” aggression. A minority of activists have abused Ms Rowling in an appalling sectarian fashion.
Such attacks are now extending beyond those confident enough and powerful enough to look after themselves. This week we reported the case of a sixth-form schoolgirl who queried the view, put forward by a visiting speaker, that biological sex does not exist. The girl was subjected to a mass tirade from her fellow pupils. … read full article
Why can’t the Left take a joke?
Trenchant ridicule can be constructive
From UnHerd (UK)
By Kathleen Stock
May 19, 2022
Chris Rock was in London last week with his new show, observing — not inaccurately — that many people are very afraid of offending others these days. Presumably some comedians are even more afraid now, having seeing Will Smith slap Rock at the Oscars in March; the sheer visibility of this event is likely to have dragged the assault of comedians further into the realm of possibility than it was before. …
But even where the po-faced stop short of lamping the smart-arsed, it’s widely noted that there’s a growing societal intolerance towards offensive comedy. Discussion of this in the media tends to assume a predictable form. First, someone well-known for being funny — Maureen Lipman, or John Cleese, or Dawn French — will say that wokeism is stifling comedic impulses by making comedians (and managers, and booking agents) afraid of backlash. Editors will then scramble to find someone authoritative to say there’s no evidence of this. … read full article
Nothing Unites Different Marginalized Groups: Exposing the Intersectional Hoax
From Newsweek (USA)
By WILFRED REILLY, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, KENTUCKY STATE UNIVERSITY
May 18, 2022
If you live in a major American city, you've probably seen the "Progress Pride flag." To the left of the rainbow that has historically represented the fight for gay rights, activists recently added arrow-shaped bars in black, brown, white, pink and blue to represent the "intersectional" movement that brings under one umbrella the cause of gays, African-Americans, Hispanics and the transgender community. Intersectionality was initially a legal concept introduced by Kimberle Crenshaw ….
But these days it's used by the activist Left to represent the view that all forms of "oppression" and group conflict are linked—and are invariably the fault of bespoke suit-wearing straight white men or "white supremacy," in short.
But this view is wholly unsupported by the data. Not only do many "intersectional" Americans out-earn white men, but Black and Hispanic Americans often score as more homophobic than white Americans in polls, and some of the most contested terrain in modern discourse can be found between trans activists and gender critical lesbians.
In other words, the modern intersectional argument is so facially false that it borders on the nonsensical. … read full article
Read the troubling story of how trans activists 'groomed' girl, 17, before she was helped to transition into a man after a ONE-HOUR 'gender clinic' consultation... and at 21 she wants to be FEMALE again
Tanya became transgender at the age of 18 after consulting a gender clinic
She checked herself into a mental hospital three years later amid suicide fears
After years of hormone treatment, Tanya now struggles to be the girl she was
Tanya's mum says she was 'groomed and kidnapped' by transgender community
Transgender activists urged Tanya to ditch her parents, helped pay for surgery
Tanya deeply regrets decision after being 'manipulated' by trans community
From The Daily Mail (UK)
By CINDY LEVER
May 19, 2022
A troubled teenage girl who was provided drugs to transition into a man after an hour-long consultation at a 'gender clinic' is now fighting to reclaim her adult life as a woman.
Tanya, not her real name, changed genders at the age of 18 while dealing with bi-polar, autism, anxiety and depression.
Now aged 21, the still young woman struggles with suicidal thoughts every day as she works to reverse the transition process. … read full article
My summary of key points in Allison Bailey’s witness statement in her Employment Tribunal case v Stonewall and Garden Court Chambers
From improveifoa (UK)
By pjlee01
May 15, 2022
Allison Bailey is a black lesbian barrister who is currently suing Stonewall and her chambers, Garden Court Chambers (GCC), alleging that they discriminated against her because of her gender critical views.
She has overcome significant adversity and had built up an excellent reputation for her criminal law work until the current dispute with Stonewall and GCC put her career on hold. …
Here is my summary of what appear to me to be the key points, with a focus on Garden Court Chambers’ role. … read full article