Tuesday, May 31, 2022
This day in Herstory: Rosa May Billinghurst, born May 31, 1875 (died 29, July 1953), was a British suffragette and women's rights activist. She was known popularly as the "cripple suffragette" as she campaigned in a tricycle. (more)
The doctors profiting from trans surgery
Selling a new body is a highly lucrative business
From UnHerd (UK)
By MIQUEL MISSÉ
June 1, 2022
I have the strangest feeling that my body has been stolen from me. When I started my transition, I was not aware of any options besides medical treatment to modify my body. Years later, I still ask myself why no one told me that I could have left my body the way it was; why no one ever explained that sexuality in that body was possible. There was no violence involved, no threats were made.
But I feel that I was robbed of the possibility to experience my body any other way. I don’t believe this is a universal truth for all trans people. It’s simply something that I feel, something that pains me. … read full article
BBC amends controversial trans story but silent on pronouns claims
From The Times (UK)
By Jake Kanter
May 31, 2022
The BBC has amended a controversial transgender story after it gave a misleading impression that lesbians were being pressured into sex with trans women.
The corporation’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) issued a roughly 4,000-word ruling on the BBC News website article, which was published last October under the headline “We’re being pressured into sex by some trans women”. … read full article
NYC public school teaches middle schoolers how to do 'drag makeup'
Despite lackluster academics, taxpayer dollars continue to be siphoned to drag queen and gender identity programs for city council members to earn political brownie points.
From The Post Millennial (USA)
By Ashley St. Clair
May 31, 2022
Drag Story Hour NYC took to Instagram to brag about teaching children at a local middle school "how to apply drag makeup." Tompkins Middle School in Manhattan offered their students up as canvases to the taxpayer-funded Drag Queen Story Hour NYC (DQSH NYC) event last week. According to DQSH NYC, the cost of their drag queen makeup tutorial is $400 an hour for public schools.
This event is one of hundreds that have been funded by the city and approved by city council to teach children about inclusion and equality. Across the city, elementary to high school children are welcomed to events hosted by drag queens and promoted by city leaders. … read full article
Social trends causing rapid growth in people identifying as LGBT, report says
From The National Desk (USA)
By ALEC SCHEMMEL
May 31, 2022
WASHINGTON (TND) — The percentage of individuals who identify as LGBT is practically doubling from generation to generation, and new findings suggest 21st-century social trends are the cause.
Illustrating this, among other evidence, is data that LGBT identification has been running at twice the rate of LGBT sexual behavior, according to a report from the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology (CSPI). … read full article
Conference on Surrogacy Confirms all my Suspicions about the Practice
Any misgivings I had about criticizing the fertility industry were felled then buried by speakers at the Surrogacy: the Harms and the Humans conference.
From 4W (USA)
By Josephine Bartosch
May 31, 2022
I had long suspected something “wasn’t quite right” about surrogacy but having never experienced so much as a maternal flutter, I didn’t feel confident to take a strong stance against it. On Saturday, any misgivings I had about criticizing the fertility industry were felled then buried by speakers at the Surrogacy: the Harms and the Humans conference. From radical lesbian feminists to conservatives and Christians, a range of passionate and committed people articulated the devastating impact of surrogacy on children, mothers, families and wider society. … read full article
'I didn't transition for an advantage, I transitioned to be my authentic self': Trans swimmer Lia Thomas shrugs off doctors who confirm she DOES have unfair physical advantage - as she reveals hopes to compete in Olympics
Thomas, 22, appeared on Good Morning America on Tuesday morning
It is her first TV interview since she stormed the female college swimming leagues in 2021
She insisted she did not transition to win more medals and said she is finally happy
Lia's place in the sport has been widely debated by trans activists and sports experts
Physiologist Ross Tucker says Thomas still has an advantage despite taking hormone suppressant therapy
The NCAA allowed Lia to compete this year as a woman but it's unclear what they will do when the next season begins in September with other girls
She has now graduated from UPenn, the college she swam for
Other pro tennis players including trans player Renee Richards and Martina Navratilova say it is unfair
From The Daily Mail (UK)
By JENNIFER SMITH
May 31, 2022
Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas said on Tuesday that she should be allowed to compete as a woman despite having a physical advantage and that she 'doesn't need permission' from anyone.
The 22-year-old broke her silence on Good Morning America on Tuesday where she also revealed hopes to compete for America in the Olympics.
It comes after a wave of doctors suggested she - and other trans female athletes - will always have an unfair advantage in some sports because they cannot undo puberty, when their biological male bodies were flooded with testosterone. … read full article
Indiana Bans Transgender Girls From Playing on Their Schools’ Girls Sports Teams
From The National Law Review (USA)
By Daniel Q. Leake II
May 31, 2022
Joining a host of states implementing laws prohibiting transgender athletes from competing in sports of their gender identity, Indiana has enacted legislation, over the governor’s veto, banning transgender girls from competing on their schools’ girls’ sports teams.
The issue of whether transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in the sport of their gender identity has been labeled as one of competitive fairness and science. This year, a transgender woman won the NCAA swimming title, becoming the first openly transgender woman to win a championship. Politicians and sports sanctioning groups have failed to address how to respectfully allow transgender athletes to compete. This issue has spilled over into the courts. … read full article
Female Inmate Reports Rape Occurred in California Women’s Prison
From REDUXX (USA)
By Anna Saltz
May 31, 2022
A female inmate at the Central California Facility for Women has come forward with a sworn declaration of having been eyewitness to the aftermath of an alleged sexual assault that took place within the institution.
Incarcerated woman Mimi Le has provided a sworn declaration to lawyers at the Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) to be included in WoLF’s case against the State of California. The evidence was given exclusively to Reduxx for review in advance of WoLF’s latest filing. … read full article
Trans-row opponents debate self-ID law at Holyrood
Activists and ministers put forward their views as gender recognition bill comes under scrutiny, writes Mike Wade
From The Times (UK)
By Mike Wade
June 1, 2022
For six years a row has raged on social media among lobbyists for and against trans rights — a row so toxic it seemed impossible for the warring parties to occupy the same building.
But they did in the Scottish parliament, where representatives from both sides were invited to make their case in turn to a committee of MSPs considering the SNP-Green administration’s bill to reform the Gender Recognition Act (GRA).
Create prisons exemption in Gender Recognition Act says women's right campaigner
From Holyrood (Scotland)
by Ruaraidh Gilmour
May 31, 2022
A women’s rights campaigner has called for the Gender Recognition Act to be reformed to exempt prisons from having to recognise the trans status of prisoners.
Lucy Hunter Blackburn of policy analysis firm MurrayBlackburnMackenzie told MSPs that prisons were currently open to the risk of a legal challenge if a trans person with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) was not being treated the same as a non-trans prisoner. … read full article
Sex realists gaining ground at Westminster
From Sex Matters (UK)
May 31, 2022
Debates on new laws in Parliament are one of the key battlefields between sex realists and sex denialists, with one side seeking clarity on sex, and the other seeking to conflate and confuse sex and gender identity. A long-term strategy of the sex-denial lobbyists has been to propose legislation seemingly on one popular topic but whose aim is to introduce concepts such as gender identity or terms such as “pregnant person” onto the statute book and associated guidelines and policies. … read full article
Language, truth and logic
Talking to Stella Creasy is never easy
From UnHerd (UK)
By Jon Pike
May 31, 2022
In an interview published in the Telegraph on Friday, Stella Creasy MP talked about feminism, transwomen, JK Rowling and a host of related matters. She said, “I am somebody who would say that a trans woman is an adult human female”. And she cited the suffragette slogan “deeds not words”. …
But I think that what Creasy is doing — whether she realises it or not — is re-engineering the concept “female”. And I think this is a mistake. … read full article
Stella Creasy’s bourgeois feminism
Criminalising catcalling won't stop men hitting their wives
From UnHerd (UK)
By Kathleen Stock
May 31, 2022
In his Dictionary of Accepted Ideas, Gustave Flaubert alphabetised some of the cliches and platitudes common among the French bourgeoisie during the 19th century. His aim, in his own words, was “the historical glorification of everything generally approved”. Under “Bandits”, he wrote: “Always Fierce.” Under “Materialism”: “Utter the word with horror, stressing each syllable.” Under “Tights”: “Sexually exciting.” And under “Woman”: “Person of sex. One of Adam’s Ribs.”
Were Flaubert to revive his Dictionary for the UK today, he might keep the bit about materialism. But presumably the “Woman” entry would now read: “Can have a penis. If one is a Labour MP, utter this sentiment with great conviction in interviews.”
Last weekend it was the turn of Stella Creasy to provide the Daily Telegraph with an easy headline, in the course of a wider interview about her work as a campaigner for women’s rights. … read full article
Tough talk, no action on trans activist policy
While ministers wriggle out of responsibility, children are suffering
From The Critic (UK)
By Josephine Bartosch
May 31, 2022
Perhaps it’s a result of too much partying, but the government appears to be having some sort of breakdown when it comes to transgender identity politics. On the one hand, ministers are talking tough about exorcising the spirit of woke from government bodies; on the other, the departments they head are busily bending policies into pretzel shapes and spaffing public money on dodgy equalities initiatives.
Take Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who last month promised a review into the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, which runs England’s only NHS child gender services (GIDS). Much to the delight of many worried parents and anguished detransitioners, he slammed GIDS as “bordering on ideological” and “failing children”. … read full article
Some Members of Trans Community Support Ricky Gervais Amid Netflix Backlash
From Newsweek (USA)
By JAMIE BURTON
May 31, 2022
Ricky Gervais' latest stand-up special on Netflix has caused a Twitter uproar after he was accused of telling "transphobic" jokes, but some member of the trans community have spoken out in support of him.
The Office co-creator's latest stand-up show, titled SuperNature, is dividing opinions online as the debate rages on as to whether the material is offensive and damaging to the trans community. He's not the first comedian to be called out for supposed "transphobic" material, after Dave Chappelle was also criticized for it in his 2021 Netflix special. … read full article
These parents didn’t embrace gender-affirming care. Texas investigated them.
From BROADVIEW with Lisa Selin Davis (USA)
By Lisa Selin Davis
Morgan had always been exceedingly bright, curious and outgoing. She was an extraordinarily hard worker and excelled at art. But in third grade, when her period arrived so early, she became anxious and withdrawn from her schoolmates. She started cutting her forearms. Her parents, who live in Spring, Texas, sent her to a small, private school and to a therapist, and she improved. She made friends. She stopped cutting. She was still navigating ADHD and social anxiety, and they suspected she was on the autism spectrum, but she was stable.
In sixth grade, she got into Discord, Reddit and TikTok. Her mental health seemed to be deteriorating again. Her friends started coming out as pansexual and trans. At age 13, Morgan announced that she, too, had gender dysphoria. She needed a new name and pronouns. Her parents took her to a gender specialist. … read full article
Our Story of Desistance
From Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT) (USA)
May 31, 2022
Today, our son is a 20-year-old sophomore at a liberal arts college. He is a walking, talking story of success, with a merit scholarship, and straight As. He speaks Japanese and has self-published two novels. He's physically and mentally healthy and self-reliant, in a loving relationship with a girlfriend, with a great friend group. He's thriving.
Except... when he comes home. Where he is so profoundly triggered by being back in his neighborhood, his house, his bedroom, that he can't sleep. Why is this? Because, sadly, he’s haunted by memories of one three-year period of his adolescence, filled with depression, anxiety and self-harm. The three years where he identified as a girl.
He had always been a special boy —a square peg, a socially awkward kid who preferred the company of adults to hanging out with his peers. He is sensitive, empathetic, mature, and intelligent, but he never quite fit in at school. … read full article