Wednesday, April 6, 2022
This day in Herstory: Mary Leonora Carrington OBE, born April 6, 1917 (died May 25, 2011) was a British-born Mexican artist, surrealist painter, and novelist. She lived most of her adult life in Mexico City and was one of the last surviving participants in the surrealist movement of the 1930s. Carrington was also a founding member of the women's liberation movement in Mexico during the 1970s. (more)
PM says 'biological males' should not compete in female sport and venues should have women only spaces
It comes after transgender cyclist Emily Bridges was last week barred from competing in a women's event after the sport's governing body ruled she was not eligible.
From Sky News (UK)
April 6, 2022
Boris Johnson has said that "biological males should not be competing in female sporting events".
Speaking to broadcasters on a hospital visit on Wednesday, the prime minister said of his view: "It just seems to me to be sensible."
He continued: "I also happen to think that women should have spaces - whether it is in hospitals or prisons or changing rooms or wherever - which are dedicated to women." … read full article and watch interview clip
Boris Johnson: Don’t let biological males compete in women’s sport
From The Times (UK)
By Henry Zeffman
April 6, 2022
Boris Johnson has said that biological males should not be allowed to compete in women’s sport and that women should have dedicated changing rooms as he defended his decision not to ban transgender conversion therapy.
In his most extensive comments yet on transgender issues, the prime minister drew a distinction between the “utterly abhorrent” practice of gay conversion therapy and the “complexities and sensitivities” around gender identity.
Amid mounting Conservative criticism over his decision to ditch a planned ban on transgender conversion therapy, Johnson said there were “things that I think still need to be worked out” before offering his broader perspective on a series of contentious questions relating to trans people. … read full article (web page archive)
Researchers Found Puberty Blockers And Hormones Didn’t Improve Trans Kids’ Mental Health At Their Clinic. Then They Published A Study Claiming The Opposite.
A critique of Tordoff et al. (2022)
From Singal-Minded (USA)
By Jesse Singal
April 6, 2022
An article called “Mental Health Outcomes in Transgender and Nonbinary Youths Receiving Gender-Affirming Care” was published in JAMA Network Open late in February. The authors, listed as Diana M. Tordoff, Jonathon W. Wanta, Arin Collin, Cesalie Stepney, David J. Inwards-Breland, and Kym Ahrens, are mostly based at the University of Washington–Seattle or Seattle Children’s Hospital.
In their study, the researchers examined a cohort of kids who came through Seattle Children’s Gender Clinic. They simply followed the kids over time as some of them went on puberty blockers and/or hormones, administering self-report surveys tracking their mental health. There were four waves of data collection: when they first arrived at the clinic, three months later, six months later, and 12 months later.
The study was propelled into the national discourse by a big PR push on the part of UW–Seattle. It was successful — Diana Tordoff discussed her and her colleagues’ findings on Science Friday, a very popular weekly public radio science show, not long after the study was published. … read full article (and SUBSCRIBE to Singal Minded!)
Gender identity topic of discussion at West Hartford Board of Education meeting
From WFSB News (USA)
By Mike Agogliati, Patricia Del Rio and Roger Susanin
April 6, 2022
WEST HARTFORD, CT (WFSB) - A topic of discussion that has been hotly debated in school districts around the country was front and center at a Board of Education meeting in West Hartford on Tuesday night.
The topic was teaching young children about gender identity.
Parents for and against the idea gathered at the board meeting to voice opinions on its new gender literacy curriculum that was started in the fall.
The district adopted the element last year as part of its social and emotional learning program. It included a new gender literacy curriculum that focused on identity and inclusion.
It sparked a backlash from some parents who said it exposes young children to concepts like gender identity. But others said it just teaches kids to respect and understand differences.
At the board meeting in West Hartford on Tuesday, some parents argued that the ideas were too complex for young children to understand.
“No kindergarten [student] is lesbian, bisexual, gay or transgender or queer,” said Kyle Zelazny, a parent. “No kindergartener is heterosexual. They do not have the required hormonal or brain development or sexual inclination. They do not care if someone has gay or lesbian or heterosexual parents. They just want to hang out with friends, play games and sports or music.”
Others said it encroached on parents’ rights to be able to teach these ideas to kids themselves. … read full article
I was allowed to transition at 18 without question – but I regretted it
Allie had private gender therapy to become male, but transitioned back following an autism diagnosis. Here, she shares her story...
From The Telegraph (UK)
By Kim Thomas
April 6, 2022
The debate about trans identities and gender dysphoria has become very polarised – even for those of us who have lived through it.
When the Government announced this week it would not go ahead with a Bill to ban conversion therapy for trans people, my response was mixed. At 18, I’d been prescribed testosterone by a private GP so I could transition to living as a man. The GP didn’t attempt to explore the possible causes of my gender dysphoria, such as my mental health problems or my difficulties fitting in socially. But even if they had, I might have insisted on going ahead anyway. I thought I knew everything about myself – nobody could tell me what to do.
I was raised in Lancashire, in a very masculine environment. My mum used to work nights, so I was looked after by my dad. I also had two stepbrothers, eight years older. I wasn’t brought up with them, but we did socialise as I was growing up. After my parents divorced when I was 11, I spent a lot of time with my dad because my mum used to work three jobs. … read full article (web page archive)
German Declares He Is A “Lesbian Man,” Seeks to Raise Awareness for Other “Lesbian Men”
From REDUXX (USA)
By Anna Slatz
April 6, 2022
A heterosexual man in Germany has declared his sexual orientation as “lesbian” in a gushing new profile looking to raise awareness of the “rare phenomenon” of “lesbian men.”
Published today in General-Anzeiger, the article, titled “Finally, Everything Feels Right,” declares that at “age 50, Francois Etscheid realized he was a lesbian man. Until this realization, it was a rocky path full of questions and self doubt for him. Now he wants to encourage other with this story.”
The subject of the profile, Francois Etscheid, was born a male and identifies as a man attracted to women. He claims to have come to the realization he was a “lesbian” after carrying out a work assignment in a neighborhood where a lesbian couple was residing. He says the couple’s friendliness towards him, as well as their apparently peaceful lifestyle, prompted him to ask himself questions about his own sexuality.
Etscheid soon after began researching into whether or not men attracted to women could identify as lesbians. The artist claims he found a community of other men who felt similarly, and subsequently “came out” to his daughter. He says male lesbianism is “a minority within a minority.” … read full article (and SUPPORT REDUXX!)
Solidarity across difference is out. Allyship and blank checks are in.
From Writing behavior by Eliza Mondegreen (Canada)
By Eliza Mondegreen
April 6, 2022
There was a time in my life when I went to a lot of protests. It didn’t hurt that I lived just over a mile from the state capitol or that I worked in policy research and advocacy or that I was young and full of naïve hopes and that I sometimes had more time than I knew what to do with.
What I felt then—what I don’t feel anymore—is that I understood what I was protesting. Though I’ve never felt comfortable chanting slogans or repeating after anybody, I found other ways to get involved. I campaigned for local Democrats, circulated petitions, tabled at community events, testified for or against legislation, wrote talking points and newsletters, painted protest signs, staffed an abortion hotline, documented protests and sent the photos away to newspapers and magazines… I never struggled for words to describe what I supported.
A lot has changed since those days. I’ve become more cynical, surely. I’ve moved so many times over the past five years that I haven’t had a chance to put down roots. But it’s not all me. Seven or eight years ago, it was enough to agree on the particulars: stop this invasion, free that prisoner, block this bill. Clear, discrete asks, in other words.
But now I get the sense that many social movements I might once have joined expect my assent to a much broader agenda, one they’re not eager for me to understand. The objectives have gotten vaguer. Rather than protesting forever wars, activists seem to be launching them—putting nebulous concepts under relentless siege and ejecting anybody who asks for the details. If you want to pick and choose what the causes you lend your name to, your support isn’t welcome (what kind of ally picks and chooses?). You’re not supposed to say: “That’s not my problem.” Or “What does X have to do with Y?” Or “Do we have to agree on everything or can we disagree and still work together on this one thing?” Solidarity across difference is out. Allyship and blank checks are in. … read full article (and SUBSCRIBE to Writing behavior!)
A Letter to a School Administrator and Counselor from a Mom in the Trenches
From Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT) (USA)
April 6, 2022
Dear Counselor and School Administrator:
In recent conversations about gender inclusion at our school, I noticed some language around parents that troubled me, particularly the label "unsupportive" in reference to those who do not prioritize gender identity over sex or who question whether “gender" is the best label for what they see going on with their child.
What I've learned over my many years as a parent of someone in the trans identified community is that the majority of kids who are gender questioning or adopt a trans identity in adolescence have neurological differences such as autism, ADHD or OCD, and/or mental health challenges such as bipolar, depression, anxiety, and/or non-normative sexual orientations such as gay, lesbian or bisexual. Parents know this, they see this, and they may see that concretizing gender identity when a child is struggling with other issues is not appropriate. … read full article (and SUBSCRIBE to PITT!)
Labour’s contradictory policies on trans and women’s rights must be addressed
By backing both reforms to the Gender Recognition Act and single-sex spaces, the party is unable to communicate clearly to voters
From The Guardian (UK)
By Susanna Rustin
April 6, 2022
For Ruth Serwotka, the lowest point came on 13 February 2020. She was making coffee when Lisa Nandy, then a candidate for the Labour leadership, was asked on the radio about Woman’s Place UK, the grassroots campaigning organisation that Serwotka had helped found three years earlier. “She refused to say that we are not a hate group. I left the Labour party then. Up to that point I’d been determined to stay but I wasn’t prepared to be savaged and maligned any longer.”
Woman’s Place UK advocates for women’s sex-based rights, including single-sex services, and is partly responsible for turning support for these rights into a social movement. Campaigners like Serwotka believe that since the oppression of women has historically been based on sex, women’s rights must be understood as sex-based too – and I agree with them. This view places feminists like us, also known as gender-critical, in conflict with trans rights activists and their allies, who believe that gender identity and not sex determines whether they are a man or a woman. … read full article
A letter to the Fawcett Society
From Sex Matters (UK)
April 6, 2022
Dear Fawcett Society
Your response to the EHRC guide for separate and single-sex service providers is dismaying.
You say “there are occasions where services, in particular those for trauma survivors, should be able to make the decision” [to provide clear single sex services with clear rules].
Which services do you think should not be for trauma survivors?
One in five women have been sexually assaulted.
Services for trauma survivors are not just specialist services. Trauma survivors use everyday services: schools, colleges, workplaces, sports centres, pubs, clubs, restaurants.
Many women, whatever their personal history, simply prefer privacy from male colleagues, strangers and classmates when undressing, dealing with menstruation, going to the toilet, or sleeping in a dormitory or hospital ward. This is basic privacy and dignity.
Some women have particular constraints because of their religion or culture.
Older women particularly value single-sex spaces.
Having clear rules that no-one can access spaces intended for the opposite sex prevents ambiguity, hostility and opportunistic harassment – voyeurism and exposure are the two most common sexual crimes.
Women (and the staff who are responsible for managing services) should not have to guess or negotiate with males to determine which can access “female only” spaces.
You say that some of the examples that are given by the EHRC “are confusing and lack detail”. … read full article (and DONATE to Sex Matters!)
Self-ID has made a sham of census, feminist group says
From The Times (UK)
By Marc Horne
April 6, 2022
Allowing people in Scotland to self-identify their gender has turned the census into a shambles, feminist groups have claimed as it emerged that about one million households are yet to complete the national survey.
National Records of Scotland (NRS) issued a warning that those who fail to participate risk prosecution. It also said that representatives may visit homes to offer “guidance and advice” to those who have not taken part.
This year’s census includes a voluntary question about transgender status or history for those aged 16 or over. Guidelines to the question “What is your sex?” tells respondents: “If you are transgender the answer you give can be different from what is on your birth certificate.” Fair Play For Women, a campaign group which failed in a legal attempt to strip self-identification from the census, claimed the decision had undermined credibility of the census and deterred people from taking part. … read full article (web page archive)