Wednesday, August 24, 2022
"Parents confused and concerned about the unprecedented rise in gender dysphoria, especially among their own children, are facing personal attacks and shame campaigns from the experts ..."
This day in Herstory: Dame Antonia Susan Duffy DBE HonFBA (née Drabble), born August 24, 1936), known professionally by her former marriage name as A. S. Byatt, is an English novelist, poet and Booker Prize winner, and won the 2017 Park Kyong-ni Prize. In 2008, The Times named her on its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. (more)
US - Radical Gender Theory Comes to the Heartland
A Missouri school district promotes the idea that “gender is a universe.”
From City Journal (USA)
By Christopher F. Rufo
August 24, 2022
Springfield Public Schools, the largest public school district in Missouri, has adopted a radical gender-theory training program that encourages teachers to believe that “gender is a universe” and to affirm sexual identities such as “non-binary,” “pansexual,” and “polyamorous.”
Last year, I reported on Springfield Public Schools’ critical race theory training program, which required teachers to locate themselves on an “oppression matrix” and watch a video of “George Floyd’s last words.” But according to new documents obtained by the Southeastern Legal Foundation as part of a civil rights lawsuit, the district’s left-wing training program was not limited to racial ideology: administrators were simultaneously promoting the principles of radical gender theory to school employees. … read full article
US - Despite ‘concerning’ transgender study, UW kept quiet because of positive coverage
From 770 KTTH (USA)
By Jason Rantz
August 23, 2022
A University of Washington study, in partnership with Seattle Children’s Hospital, claimed gender-affirming care via puberty blockers leads to positive mental health outcomes for transgender teen patients. That characterization, however, was false, forcing substantial edits to the materials used to promote the study and prompting UW to cease promoting the research.
Despite all that, the UW communications staff chose not to proactively respond to “some pretty concerning claims” about the study because it had already received glowing media coverage, according to emails exclusively obtained by the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH. … read full article
US - They Knew the Media Had the Story Wrong...and Didn't Correct It
How a flawed study became a media sensation, and why no one stopped it
From BROADVIEW with Lisa Selin Davis (USA)
By Lisa Selin Davis
August 24, 2022
In February of this year, JAMA Network Open published an article called “Mental Health Outcomes in Transgender and Nonbinary Youths Receiving Gender-Affirming Care” that claimed “receipt of gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormones, was associated with 60% lower odds of moderate or severe depression and 73% lower odds of suicidality over a 12-month follow-up.”
The University of Washington then published a press release repeating the study’s conclusion: “Those who received gender-affirming hormones or puberty blockers had 60% lower odds of depression and 73% lower odds of self-harm or suicidal thoughts.”
… read full article
US - WaPo ‘Advice’ Shames Parents Seeking Help For Their Gender-Confused Child
An entire generation of our children is being betrayed by the very institutions that are supposed to have their best interests at heart.
From The Federalist (USA)
By Casey Chalk
August 24, 2022
Parents confused and concerned about the unprecedented rise in gender dysphoria, especially among their own children, are facing personal attacks and shame campaigns from the experts who are supposed to be their allies.
Consider, for example, the mom and dad troubled by their 16-year-old daughter, who several months ago declared that she is “nonbinary.” Then two months ago, she began insisting they refer to her by a new name, and accused her own parents of “deadnaming” her by calling her by her birth name. Over that time, she shifted between four different “identities.” The distraught parents reached out to Washington Post parenting columnist Meghan Leahy for advice. … read full article
US - Trans Pedophile Still Free After Attempting to Meet Child, Baby for Sexual Abuse
From Reduxx (USA)
By Reduxx Team
August 24, 2022
Berkeley Police allowed a suspected pedophile to walk away from a sting conducted by predator hunters despite being shown evidence that he had been expressing interest in molesting multiple children, including an infant.
On August 20, anti-pedophile vigilante group Predator Poachers uploaded footage of a sting they conducted in Berkeley, California to YouTube involving a trans-identified male who had been purportedly seeking to meet a 9-year-old for the purposes of sexually abusing her. … read full article
US - Texas Chaplain Fired for Arguing against Men Competing in Women's Sports
From 4W (USA)
By Dana Vitalosova
August 24, 2022
Ordained minister Dr. Andrew K. Fox is suing City of Austin and its Fire Department Chief, alleging they violated his First Amendment right to speak freely about his religious beliefs when he was dismissed from a volunteer Fire Department Chaplain position.
The lawsuit claims Dr. Fox was fired "in retaliation for views expressed" in his blog, in particular those related to gender identity and social justice in general. … read full article
US - DeSantis-backed 'pro-parent' school board candidates rack up victories all over Florida
From Washington Examiner (USA)
By Jeremiah Poff
August 24, 2022
Twenty-five out of 30 school board candidates in Florida endorsed by state Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) either won their elections Tuesday night or advanced to a runoff.
The slate of school board candidates backed by the Republican governor prevailed in the vast majority of races, including in Miami-Dade County, where two DeSantis-backed candidates handily won their races. … read full article
Paso Robles school board president votes to protect gender-specific names: 'Nothing to do with pronouns'
The National Education Association recently proposed new language such as 'birthing parent' for 'mother'
From Fox News (USA)
By Cortney O'Brien
August 24, 2022
The Paso Robles Joint Unified School District Board in California voted to approve a resolution Tuesday night to reject any mandate that would require the district to replace "traditional gender-specific names."
"Paso Robles Joint Unified School District will not support any mandate which replaces traditional gender-specific names such as mother and father, Mr. and Mrs., ladies and gentlemen, and boys and girls," the resolution reads. … read full article
US - Maryland school district third annual “Pride Town Hall” celebrates transgenderism
From Accuracy in Academia (USA)
By Spencer Irvine
August 24, 2022
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), one of the largest public school systems in Maryland, held its third annual “Pride Town Hall” this past May and pushed transgenderism narratives because of its headline speaker.
The school district invited Gavin Grimm, a transgender activist, to give the main remarks for the town hall. Grimm was heralded by MCPS as “a nationally known advocate for transgender rights,” though the oft-used “nationally known” may be subjective phrase to drum up publicity for an invited speaker or guest. MCPS’s online description used Grimm’s preferred gender pronoun of “he” and “his.” … read full article
US - Molecular geneticist at UC Berkeley debate argues why trans women should not be treated as women
From In Entertainment (UK)
By rymeradelle
August 24, 2022
A female molecular scientist from UC Berkeley argued that trans people aren’t women and shouldn’t be treated legally as such. Citing examples of trans women being locked up in change rooms or prison cells, she said trans women were not considered women.
The geneticist argued that legally treating trans women as women, and allowing them into changing rooms and prisons, means women have put a man’s comfort ahead of their own safety – claiming that the behavior of men is inherently different than that of women. … read full article
US - Feminists Take Over SeatTERF/TERFcoma, Washington Area
Dancing is not Optional on the Women's Liberation Party Bus
From Exulansic (USA)
By Exulansic
August 22, 2022
This past weekend, I joined a group of 15 feminists with the organization Sovereign Women Speak to travel around Washington State on a party bus, getting off at several locations to have speakers’ corners, offer our non-commerical literature to interested passers-by, and at one point, march in a parade chanting, “We are adult human females. We want our sex-based rights.” … read full article
US - What We Owe Children Contemplating a Gender Transition
Hormones and surgery, affirmation as ‘trans kids’ or therapy? Experts and readers debate.
From Wall Street Journal (USA)
By Elliot Kaufman
August 23, 2022
How should we care for minors who worry that their gender identity doesn’t match their biological sex? The answer has become more contested than ever as the proportion of young people who identify as transgender or nonbinary increases in leaps and bounds. Read arguments and responses on this issue from experts, pediatricians and other Journal readers. … read full article
US - Salem on the Olympic Peninsula: Spectral Evidence in the Witch-Trial of Julie Jaman
Performative trauma, misogyny, and history
From The Distance (USA)
By Matt Osborne
August 24, 2022
Matthew Hopkins saw demons. His very first affidavit against Elizabeth Clarke attests that she summoned her “imps,” which then appeared one after another as spectral figures of two dogs, a polecat, and a tiny black incubus.
Nor was that the end of the strange sightings he reported. Walking home after this interview, Hopkins wrote that his own dog “suddenly gave a jumpe, and ran as shee had been in a full course after an Hare;”
And that when this Informant made haste to see what his Greyhound so eagerly pursued, He espied a white thing about the bignesse of a [kitten] danced about the said Greyhound and by all likelihood bit off a piece of the flesh of the shoulder of the Greyhound, for the Greyhound came shrieking and crying to this Informant with a piece of fleshe torn from her shoulder. … read full article
Canada - Actually, I was just crazy the whole time.
(And honestly, it's really hard to trust anyone after that.)
From Some Nuance, Please (Canada)
By Michelle Alleva
August 24, 2022
My sudden desire to transition in young adulthood felt like an epiphany. I came across this concept—transgenderism—which, as I heard it explained over and over, increasingly sounded like something that might apply to me. The visualization I had of the moment I made the decision (because there is a moment in time I can pinpoint) was completely cinematic in my head and has an epic soundtrack.
The part of me that likes to see the positive in everything commends my younger self’s flair for the dramatic. I want everything in my life to go like a movie. I want everyone in it to automatically know what I’m thinking and how I’m feeling, I want everything in it to go exactly how I’ve visualized it a hundred times before, and I want my story to mean something because what’s the point of suffering this life if it doesn’t mean anything. … read full article
And now a brief musical interlude …
Canada - National Post calls for reform of transgender treatments in line with UK’s new approach: Now what?
From Canadian Gender Report (Canada)
August 23, 2022
In a surprisingly direct editorial on Saturday, the National Post called for Canada to ban gender surgeries for minors and “take inspiration” from the recent reforms in Finland, Sweden and the UK to ensure Canadian gender questioning children receive appropriate and multi-disciplinary care. This significant statement by one of Canada’s leading media outlets came just weeks after the UK announced the closure of the Tavistock gender clinic for children and youth after an independent commission determined the current model was “not a safe or viable long-term option”.
We welcome the National Post’s support in calling for oversight and reform and we agree that the UK situation parallels Canada’s. …read full article
Canada - A “blueprint” for common sense in Canada’s schools
From True North (Canada)
By Sue-Ann Levy
August 24, 2022
If you’d asked Peter Wallace two months ago whether he’d ever have dreamed of running for school trustee, he would have laughed.
But after watching the number of issues with school boards emerging on social media – in particular Twitter – and the pervasiveness of “progressive” ideology in the school system, he decided to throw his hat into the ring and run for trustee on the Trillium Lakelands District School Board (TLDSB). … read full article
Canada - Seeking refuge in an idiosyncratic sexual identity
From gender:hacked by Eliza Mondegreen (Canada)
By Eliza Mondegreen
August 24, 2022
In addition to the many lesbian and gay kids getting netted by this ideology, part of what's going on here—for a certain stripe of young trans-identified boy or girl—is a deep, deep discomfort with heterosexuality and what it entails and implies.
Take this recent post on r/gaytransguys, where a young ‘gay trans guy’ (also known as a heterosexual female) denounces an ex-boyfriend for not viewing himself as a gay man dating a gay man: … read full article
UK - NHS group 'ignoring' Tavistock clinic controversy by 'promoting trans allyship'
Spending public money on forcing medics to take a stance on transgender issues is 'politicising' the health service, critics say
From The Telegraph (UK)
By Gordon Rayner
August 24, 2022
Health bosses have been accused of ignoring the lessons of the Tavistock clinic controversy by spending public money promoting “trans allyship” in the NHS.
The NHS Confederation has advertised a £20,000 contract for research that will review “the available trans inclusion resources” in the health service and will be used to update guidelines on politically correct terminology. … read full article
UK - Now you can be cancelled for criticising drag queens
The trans takeover of our universities is killing free speech.
From Spiked (UK)
By Jo Bartosch
August 24, 2022
The woke have mutilated our academic institutions. Universities have been turned into factories that produce identikit identitarian ideas. Meanwhile, free thinkers are now routinely censored by university administrators.
The latest example of this lunacy is the case of Cathy Boardman, a lecturer in cultural studies, who back in May was fired from the BIMM (British and Irish Modern Music) Institute, a music academy, after she dared to ask whether drag queens might be sexist. The premise of Boardman’s point was simple. If white people blacking up is widely understood to be racist, then why aren’t drag queens thought of as sexist for their crude, sexualised and exaggerated impersonations of women? … read full article
UK - How wokeness and political tribalism overtook religious zealotry
Two sharp Radio 4 shows hosted by Helen Lewis got to grips with growing political aggressiveness on both the Left and Right
From The Telegraph (UK)
By Gerard O’Donovan
August 24, 2022
Like the proverbial bus, you wait ages for a Helen Lewis programme to come along, then two – The Church of Social Justice and The Spark – arrive in quick succession.
Those who know Lewis from previous series of The Spark (or the excellent Great Wives, or her writing in The Atlantic or New Statesman magazines, or her occasional appearances on Have I Got News for You) will know she’s a journalist of real talent, bringing clarity, objectivity and acerbic wit to complex issues around politics, feminism and social justice. As such, it was fascinating to hear her take on a vexed aspect of contemporary politics in The Church of Social Justice (Radio 4, Sunday) – the increasing tendency of activists to attach religious levels of zealotry to political beliefs. … read full article
UK - How the police became the footsoldiers of woke
Dancing the Macarena at Pride is now all part of the job for our activist police force.
From Spiked (UK)
By Paul Embery
August 23, 2022
If the British police were a commercial organisation, trading standards would have been on to them a long time ago. It is simply impossible to believe that any business would get away with failing so monumentally to do what it is obliged to do in the service of its customers. Yet the disparity between the service taxpayers are entitled to expect from our police, and what we actually get, is so enormous that it might, in other spheres, lead to a charge of fraud by false representation. … read full article
UK - Parents opposed to teaching young children about gender identity and sex take Welsh Government to court
Parents opposed to Wales' new Relationships and Sexuality Education are seeking an injunction in the High Court
From Wales Online (UK)
By Abbie Wightwick
August 23, 2022
Parents opposed to Wales’ new Relationships and Sexuality Education starting next term have taken further High Court action to allow them to withdraw their own children from the classes. Their legal team has filed an injunction to stop their children being given RSE lessons in primary schools until a review is heard.
The new curriculum for schools in Wales, which begins in September 2022, means parents will no longer be able to remove their children from sex education classes. The Welsh Government says RSE will be age appropriate. Campaigners say it is wrong to discuss issues like gender and sexuality with the youngest children. … read full article
Scotland - Prison policy under scrutiny after rise in transgender inmates
From The Times (UK)
By Mary Wright
August 24, 2022
The transgender prison population in Scottish jails has increased by four to sixteen in the last quarter.
The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) said there were 11 trans women in custody at the end of the first quarter of this year at the end of June, and five trans men. Six trans women were accommodated in the men’s estate, with five being allowed to serve their sentences in the female estate. One trans man is housed in a men’s prison with four held in the female estate. … read full article
Scotland - SNP MP Joanna Cherry says Nicola Sturgeon gave her 'no support whatsoever' after she was sent rape threats by a party member following her outspoken gender-critical views
Joanna Cherry was bombarded by Grant Karte with 'menacing' messages in 2021
It came on day she was sacked after being 'wrongly accused' of transphobia
She said this week since then Sturgeon and Blackford have not offerred support
Karte was barred last July and placed under supervision for 15 months
From Daily Mail (UK)
By CHARLOTTE MCLAUGHLIN
August 2022
An SNP MP has revealed that she received no support from Nicola Sturgeon or Ian Blackford after a former party member sent her rape threats over her views on trans rights.
Joanna Cherry, 56, was bombarded by Grant Karte, 31, with 'a number of menacing and obscene private messages, including threats of sexual violence' after she was fired from the SNP front bench at Westminster on February 1, 2021. … read full article
Scotland - Sandyford gender clinic seeks views from aggrieved patients
Sinead Watson was contacted by the clinic after regretting her decision to have a mastectomy and take testosterone
From The Times (UK)
Helen Puttick
August 24, 2022
Scotland’s only clinic that helps people change gender has invited those who have reversed surgery because they were unhappy to explain how they feel they were failed by the service.
It has emerged that the Sandyford clinic in Glasgow has contacted aggrieved former patients after a woman who regretted undergoing surgery was approached by staff who wanted to learn from her “poor experience”. … read full article
Scotland - Supporters jump to Judy Murray's defence after scathing put down from athlete's mum
Judy Murray fans have backed her condemnation of a trans golfer competing against a woman after a mother told her to be ashamed of her views.
From Scottish Daily Express (Scotland)
By Jessica North
August 23, 2022
The mum of Scottish trans athlete competing in a women's professional golf tournament has hit out at Judy Murray, prompting fans to jump to her defence.
The mother of tennis star Andy Murray this week backed the biological women's category in sport when she branded it "wrong" and unfair that male bodied competitors could compete against women. … read full article
Germany - Transgender Adherents Missed Basic Biology Class
From Recently Heard (India)
By Rajesh Khanna
August 24, 2022
Transgender advocates who claim there are more than two sexes may have “missed” basic biology classes, a Nobel laureate has suggested.
There are only two sexes, and those who believe otherwise have “failed” basic biology courses, claimed Nobel laureate Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard.
The accomplished German scientist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1995 for her study of early embryonic development, made the comments before the country’s government pushed for legislation that would allow people over the age of 14 to changing legal gender without medical approval, a move she called “madness.” … read full article
Germany - Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard
On sex, ha ha flies! and the Großmutter of developmental biology
From BeetleBomb (UK)
By Emma Hilton
August 24, 2022
In 2022, developmental biologist and Nobel Laureate Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard gave an unequivocal interview for EMMA magazine, where she made clear that there are only two sexes, and nobody can change theirs. The interview is scathing about the state of science education on sex and gender, and, on the attempts to deconstruct sex as a material reality, she remarks that, “sex only has female or male” and that, “people have no idea about biology.”
Lots of people are displeased about this interview. You know the ones, the people who have invested large amounts of time trying to convince the rest of the world that sex is really complicated, that scientists have got it all wrong, that the categories are too strict, that it is a social construct. … read full article
France - French feminists split over help for pregnant trans men
From The Times (UK)
By Adam Sage
August 23, 2022
The French national family planning association has caused controversy with a campaign offering to help pregnant men.
Le Planning Familial has said the initiative is designed to demonstrate its willingness to support trans men who have retained female reproductive organs. Critics accused the taxpayer-funded association of trying to import British and American transgender ideologies that run counter to the French feminist tradition. … read full article
Australia - Girls' schools are for girls
From Spectator | Australia
By Edie Wyatt
August 24, 2022
When I was at University, I took old-fashioned Women’s Studies. We used to study things like the ways women become disadvantaged in society, how girls were educated and socialised, and what society needed to do for girls to give them better opportunities to thrive.
Feminists used to look at the cultural messages girls were given about themselves and their future lives and how these could limit girls’ understanding of what they could do in life. We lobbied for a change in domesticated characterisations of women in media. As a result, television shows and advertisements from the 1970s look embarrassingly sexist to today’s eyes. … read full article
Australia - #TwitterHatesWomen
#SingleSexSpaces
From Edie’s Newsletter (Australia)
By Edie Wyatt
August 24, 2022
Dear Twitter,
My name is Edie Wyatt, I am a writer and a feminist, and you just permanently banned me from your platform for the following tweet
“There is only one type of man and when they claim to be lesbians they actively engage in rape culture. That’s not cool.”
You deemed these words “hateful conduct” against a protected group. … read full article
Thanks again for great set of articles and links, particularly the archived ones 👍🙂.
Doing some spelunking I ran across this older article by "Exulansic" that y'all might be interested in:
https://americanmind.org/salvo/how-gender-atheism-saved-my-body/
Though really don't agree with her concept of gender which is, arguably, part of the problem:
"Definitions given for gender are logically incoherent, synonymous with sex, or expressive of unmeasurable and unquantifiable desires— or, usually, several at once."
Much of it is, of course, mostly incoherent twaddle - at best. But there ARE some aspects worth pursuing, notably that there ARE psychological differences - on average - between men and women that might reasonably be encompassed by the term.
Thank you for what you are doing. It must be a lot of work finding all these articles. Do not stop, we need to be informed . Boo