Tuesday, May 10, 2022
This day in Herstory: Tonita Peña, born May 10, 1893 (died September 9, 1949). She was born as Quah Ah (meaning white coral beads) but also used the name Tonita Vigil Peña and María Antonia Tonita Peña. Peña was a renowned Pueblo artist, specializing in pen and ink on paper embellished with watercolor. She was a well-known and influential Native American artist and art teacher of the early 1920s and 1930s. (more)
Maya Forstater: What is a woman?
From Personnel Today (UK)
By Maya Forstater
May 10, 2022
As the debate around transgender rights reaches new heights, Personnel Today invited two commentators to tackle a defining question of our time – what is a woman? Here, Maya Forstater, co-founder of campaign group Sex Matters and appellant in the landmark legal ruling last summer, provides her answer and what it means for employers.
The question “What is a woman?” has become an obstacle course for politicians. Keir Starmer stumbled, Rishi Sunak deferred. Anneliese Dodds said it depends on the context.
The answer should be straightforward, but politicians are deft at avoiding questions and terrified of being accused of “transphobia”. … read full article
Paedophile jailed after trying to groom children on social media
Rachel Fenton of Manchester, who was living as a man when arrested, pleaded guilty to 21 offences
From The Guardian (UK)
By Helen Pidd
May 10, 2022
A paedophile has been jailed for 10 years after using social media to groom children.
Rachel Fenton, who police said was known as Richard Fenton when arrested and charged, pleaded guilty to 21 child sexual abuse offences and a drug offence and was sent to a male prison.
The Guardian understands Fenton was living as a man when arrested in November 2020 and was later charged under that name.
But during the sentencing hearing on Monday, Manchester Minshull Street crown court heard Fenton had changed their name and was in the process of transitioning to become a woman. … read full article
Lesbian barrister Allison Bailey claims employer 'crushed' her spirit
She also claims she lost income due to her chambers' involvement with a Stonewall scheme which she has said was 'discriminatory'
From The Telegraph (UK)
By Gabriella Swerling
May 10, 2022
A lesbian barrister with "gender-critical" views has accused her employer of trying to "crush her spirit" and withholding work from her.
Allison Bailey has launched discrimination action against Garden Court Chambers (GCC) as well as the LGBT+ charity, Stonewall, which GCC had been working with.
In 2019, Ms Bailey founded the LGB Alliance, a group which argues there is a conflict between the rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual people, and transgender people - and opposes many Stonewall policies. … read full article
Dear Chase Strangio...
From Writing behavior by Eliza Mondegreen (Canada)
By Eliza Mondegreen
May 10, 2022
I wouldn’t normally waste my time responding to Chase Strangio—one of Twitter’s most shameless traffickers in dishonest hyperbole and outright bullshit—except that this bizarro line of thinking—if we can call it thinking—is rife among woke progressives and represents a fundamental misunderstanding between trans-Kool-Aid chuggers like Chase and gender-critical feminists like me.
So let’s talk about pretending: who is being asked to pretend, about what, and why? And where does all this pretending lead? … read full article
Ed. note: Bazelon does not mention trans issues or the ACLU’s Chase Strangio, but does say “the ACLU has expanded its services—and filled its coffers—as it takes partisan stances or embraces dubious causes.” This critique of the ACLU is sorely needed, and we hope to see more honesty on this topic from the Atlantic.
The ACLU Has Lost Its Way
The organization now seems largely unable or unwilling to uphold its core values.
From The Atlantic (USA)
By Lara Bazelon
May 10, 2022
About the author: Lara Bazelon is a professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, where she directs the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Law and Racial Justice Clinics.
The lurid spectacle that is Johnny Depp’s $50 million defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard hasn’t just tarnished his star and hers with allegations that he beat her and violated her with a bottle or that she severed part of his finger and emptied her bowels in the marital bed. (Both deny wrongdoing, and Heard has countersued for $100 million.) Amid this grotesquerie, it might be possible to overlook the bizarre involvement of the ACLU. But the civil-rights organization’s cringeworthy role deserves closer scrutiny because of its centrality to the case, and because it exemplifies the degree to which the ACLU has lost its way in recent years. … read full article
Police: Trans-Identifying Male Commited Suicide After Murdering Girlfriend, Own Twin
Ruby Taverner Crime Story
From Women Are Human (Canada)
By Diana Shaw
May 10, 2022
US — Oakland County, Michigan. A 22-year-old double-murder suspect previously declared “armed and dangerous” by police has been found dead in a wooded area.
Ruby Taverner, a male previously named Martin, was on the lam at the time of his death.
Described in police alerts to the public as “a thin, white woman with purple hair” standing “at 5 feet 2 inches tall and weight 115 pounds,” Mr Taverner was the sole suspect in the double homicide of his transgender-identifying girlfriend and of his own twin brother, which took place on Sunday.
Oakland County deputies responding to a 3:20 AM report of gunshots at 5901 Dixie Highway had discovered two bodies. … read full article
"Ireland has had self ID for years, and there haven't been any problems"
The horror story of Barbie Kardashian is just beginning for female prisoners in Ireland.
From The Glinner Update (UK)
By ripx4nutmeg
May 10, 2022
When promoting the absurd concept of organising our societies along the principle of self ID, which states a man legally becomes a woman the moment he says he is one, its proponents claim that of the few countries - most notably Ireland - that have introduced it, none have seen any problems as a result.
This is an argument cited by trans activist professionals, trans organisations, celebrities and is even used in the introduction to self ID on Wikipedia. … read full article
Trans-Identified Male Charged on 13 Counts of Sexual Abuse of Children
From REDUXX (USA)
By Genevieve Gluck
May 10, 2022
A trans-identified male who pleaded not guilty to attempted child sexual abuse in March is facing additional charges.
Jude ‘Babs’ Longmire, 41, of Billings, Montana, pleaded not guilty last Friday in Yellowstone County District Court to sexual abuse of children, attempted sexual abuse of children, and 11 alternative counts of sexual abuse of children.
On March 15, Longmire was arrested for having been in contact with someone online who he had believed was trafficking a 12-year-old girl for sexual abuse. Longmire attempted to schedule a meeting with the child. Court documents state that during this exchange, Longmire shared a video of a man raping a child. … read full article
UK: Woman Removed from Public Electoral Event Still Trying to Get Justice
A Muslim woman was removed from a pro-equality online hustings in 2021 for asking about sex-based rights.
From 4W (USA)
By Andreia Nobre
May 10, 2022
A Muslim black woman, Samira, was removed from an online hustings - meeting with election candidates to debate policies and to answer questions from the audience.
The public April 23, 2021 meeting was organized online due to Covid restrictions in partnership with several partners, according to WEN (Women’s Equality Network Wales), which was one of the hosts.
When posing her question during the meeting, Samira said that she is a FGM survivor and a Muslim concerned about the Welsh Government support for self-id “without any consideration for Muslim women and victims of sex based violence.” After inquiring what support was being provided to protect women’s sex based rights, Samira was “immediately” removed from the online event. … read full article
What science tells us about transgender women athletes
From The Australian
By Emma Hilton
May 9, 2022
Transgender participation in elite sports has critical dimensions of fairness (including safety) and inclusion which inevitably conflict. Science informs the first and should guide communal attitudes and values for the second.
Ultimately, the community must arrive at solutions that account for the conflict between fairness and inclusion, especially within elite sports.
Our aim here is to outline the scientific facts of this area. … read full article
Unmade Memories
A mother's sadness & unconditional love for her gender confused son
From Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT) (USA)
May 10, 2022
Helping you pick out a tux for Homecoming. Coaching you on asking someone to go to the dance with you. Teaching you how to drive. Helping you to dream and plan which college you will be attending in just a few years. These are the sorts of decisions I thought I would be helping you with as you entered your first year of high school.
These are the questions your friends are working through. I see my friends sharing photos on social media of their boys—your friends, who you have gone to school with for years. These kids are attending dances; they are going to school events, and participating in clubs and hobbies. … read full article
Too much caring, not enough sharing
From Kathleen Stock (UK)
By Kathleen Stock
May 10, 2022
Well before they ever came for me, I got a relatively early look at the phenomenon of students protesting about speech, quite by chance. In April 2017 I was in California to give a talk at wealthy liberal arts college Claremont McKenna. Student guests were to observe a strict dress code, and would enjoy a three-course dinner, after which they would be required to remain upright and vaguely sentient during the talk by me. Arriving at the building with my young family who were travelling with me, we were greeted with the incongruous sight of two policemen slouching at the entrance, guns prominently to the fore of their belts, vetting the preppily-dressed people trooping in to hear me discuss burning issues in the philosophy of fiction and imagination. … read full article
Kansas teacher suspended for not using trans pronouns secures temporary court order
From The Christian Post (USA)
By Michael Gryboski
May 10, 2022
A federal judge has granted a temporary order in the case of a Kansas teacher suing her school district over policies requiring teachers to use the preferred names and pronouns of trans-identified students and hide those preferences from parents.
U.S. District Judge Holly Teeter partially granted a preliminary injunction on behalf of Fort Riley Middle School teacher Pamela Ricard preventing Geary County Schools Unified School District 475 from disciplining her for referring to a student’s preferred name and pronouns in her communications with a trans-identified student’s parents "within the regular course of her duties." … read full article
Prime Minister Scott Morrison stands by Katherine Deves after Liberal candidate says she still believes trans youth are 'mutilated'
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has defended his hand-picked candidate for Warringah after she reasserted that transgender people were "mutilated" by medically transitioning.
From ABC News (Australia)
By Jake Evans and Nour Haydar
May 10, 2022
Key points:
Katherine Deves has walked back her apology for controversial comments about trans people
The Prime Minister says he continues to support Ms Deves over the "troubling" issue
Trans rights groups say Mr Morrison's comments were wrong and harmful
Mr Morrison again refused to criticise Katherine Deves, saying the issue she was raising was "concerning" and "troubling".
"What we're talking about here is gender reversal surgery for young adolescents... we can't pretend this type of surgery is a minor procedure," Mr Morrison said. … read full article