This day in Herstory: Rebecca J. Cole (March 16, 1846 – August 14, 1922) was an American physician, organization founder and social reformer. In 1867, she became the second African-American woman to become a doctor in the United States, after Rebecca Lee Crumpler three years earlier. (more)
Trans-Identified Male Charged In Murder of Colorado Springs Mother
From REDUXX (USA)
By Genevieve Gluck
March 16, 2022
A trans-identified male with a history of abusing animals has been found guilty of the April 2020 murder of his partner’s mother. Cohen Ellis “Vinn” Heath, 21, of Colorado Springs, pleaded guilty last Friday to first-degree murder in the killing of nurse Bridget Kenner, and received the mandatory term of life in prison.
Heath manipulated Kenner’s then-16-year-old daughter, Emma, into stabbing her mother to death, the court heard. The pair, who both identify as transgender, were romantically involved at the time. Emma, who identifies as a boy named “Kenny," was sentenced to 40 years in October for her role in the killing after she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. A plea bargain with 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office prosecutors required her to provide a statement regarding the circumstances of the killing.
Kenner testified in Heath’s trial, stating that Heath was responsible for planning the murder. The killing, Kenner said, was partly motivated by Heath’s intention to steal her mother's belongings before fleeing together to Texas. Prior to the murder, Kenner's mother was planning to move her to Florida. … read full article (and SUPPORT REDUXX!)
The trans fairy tale
Pink News is shamelessly exploiting the “authentic self” to sell mastectomies to young people
From The Critic (UK)
By Nicole Jones
March 16, 2022
Benjamin Cohen, CEO of Pink News, has just announced the launch of a new series on Snapchat, Pure Trans Joy, described as “dedicated to sharing stories of Trans happiness from PinkNews”. The first episode is titled “What Is Trans Surgery Like For Trans Guys?”, featuring transgender influencers making a hard sell for double masectomies. There is little information on the specifics; instead, the show obfuscates and focuses on the positive, transformative outcomes that cosmetic surgery (which will set you back a mere £6000-£7000) can have on the lives of dissatisfied young women. In the words of Mad Men’s Don Draper, “advertising is based on one thing — happiness”.
Pink News first launched on Snapchat in 2018, and in the next year it significantly increased its revenues. Ever since, Pink News has become a “Snapchat-first” publisher, with the app becoming its “primary” focus, and Cohen isn’t shy about explaining the motivations behind the move: “We want to create great content to get people into the funnel and then once they are, we want to sell them products.”
Profiles on Snapchat for businesses emphasise the platform’s younger demographic, in which 84 per cent are under the age of 34 (50 per cent of users are under 25, and 23 per cent have not yet graduated from high school), and how “Snapchatters” are 60 per cent more likely to make an impulse purchase. For Pink News, these purchases include: colourful mugs, stickers, bags, t-shirts and phone cases with gender pronouns and feel-good phrases like “gender is a social construct”, “trans women are women”, “trans men are men”, “bi people are real”; as well as gay, lesbian, bisexual, omnisexual, ace, trans, non-binary and pansexual rainbow designs. Cohen has also spoken about another Snapchat show, Retold, a proposed six-part series aimed at retelling fairytales with an LGBT twist, said to “generate interest, and new product opportunities if the characters and stories prove popular enough with Cohen hinting it may venture into print storybooks and character dolls”. … read full article
Trans gender debate: Scottish Greens' hysteria over JK Rowling is an attempt to deny her right to have an opinion – Murdo Fraser MSP
It is a truism in the art of debate that the first person who draws an analogy with Nazi Germany has usually lost the argument.
From The Scotsman (Scotland)
By Murdo Fraser
March 16, 2022
But coming up on the far side from the back to beat it by a short head is a new version from our own Scottish, or Scots Canadian, Greens: “People could die.” If someone says something you disagree with just deftly respond with “you’re putting lives at risk”.
When JK Rowling articulates her view that only women can be women, or that Fred doesn’t become Freda just because Fred says he’s now Freda, she must hear the panting in outrage of Green leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, as she heard the panting of anticipation of eager schoolchildren at one of the midnight launches of the latest volume in the Harry Potter series.
Ms Rowling’s latest concern about the Scottish Government’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill is now apparently even deadlier than her hallows. Ms Slater retorted, for she has a way with words: “The whole conversation and misrepresentation do indeed put trans lives at risk.” In other words, Ms Slater thinks that if you disagree with her, people might die.
This comes barely a week after the Cabinet minister actually in charge of this Bill, Shona Robison, introduced it to Parliament with a plea for “respectful debate”.
If Ms Slater was present in the Chamber for her colleague’s speech, she clearly wasn’t listening. Instead, she and her Green co-leader resorted to the most hysterical language in an effort to discredit those on the other side of this most heated of current debates. … read full article
The feminist campaigner telling the stories of murdered women
Feminist campaigner Shonagh Dillon has become a voice for women who have been silenced by male violence.
From Al Jazeera
By Julie Bindel
March 16, 2022
Shonagh Dillon is a woman on a very personal mission. A feminist campaigner against all forms of male violence towards women and girls, she has set up a ground-breaking organisation that puts the victims of violence first and facilitates their journey to survival.
We chat over Zoom one weekday morning, as weak sunlight streams through the large windows of her office in Portsmouth, England. Her clothes, including Dr Marten shoes in a leopard print design, mark her apart from what she calls “corporate feminists” – those women on a very high salary who, in Dillon’s words, practise “9 to 5 feminism”.
Tall and slim with long brown hair, Dillon’s facial expressions reveal how she is feeling – anger, distress, frustration, all apparent as we talk. Her speech is often quick and urgent, her manner so animated that she almost claps when she agrees with a point I make about domestic violence or rape. … read full article
Fears over ‘flawed’ NHS single-sex wards review carried out by ‘trans advocate’
LGBT adviser Dr Michael Brady told campaigners in an email that rules that allow patients to self-identify their gender would not be changed
From The Telegraph (UK)
By Hayley Dixon
March 15, 2022
The NHS review into single-sex wards is being carried out by a "trans advocate" who has said that rules that allow patients to self-identify their gender will not be changed, The Telegraph can reveal.
Dr Michael Brady, the national adviser for LGBT health at NHS England, has written to campaign groups telling them that there is “no plan to reduce existing rights of trans people”. Controversial charities Stonewall and Mermaids had contributed “very helpfully” to the process, Dr Brady told the Trans NHS Staff Network in emails seen by The Telegraph.
The review came just months after Sajid Javid asked his officials to look at the policies in the wake of a Telegraph investigation which revealed that some issued by NHS trusts said that male sex offenders who self-identify as women could be placed on female-only wards.
It has been warned that trusts are following NHS England guidance on eliminating mixed-sex wards which states that patients should be accommodated according to their presentation and “the way they dress, and the name and pronouns they currently use”. … read full article (web page archive)
Lia Thomas Saga: With NCAA Championships Now Here, Betrayal of Female Athletes Continues
From Swimming World (USA)
By John Lohn, Editor-in-Chief
March 16, 2022
Must give credit to the Ivy League. Same for the NCAA. They didn’t hide their positions. From the early days of the Lia Thomas debate, the conference and college-sports governing body made it clear they would wholly support one swimmer over hundreds of athletes. They made it clear that Thomas was a priority. They made it clear that their female athletes – specifically swimmers – were inconsequential.
The University of Pennsylvania operated in similar fashion. It has favored one individual over the team. It has simultaneously ignored and tried to silence its students. It has sent a message that women’s sports are unimportant.
Today, the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships begin in Atlanta. Thomas will not be in action on this first day of competition, where only the 200-yard medley relay and 800 freestyle relay are contested. Penn didn’t qualify to race any relays at NCAAs, so Thomas will make her debut on Thursday, during the prelims of the 500 freestyle. She is the top seed, the reigning Ivy League champion and in a competitive realm far from what she knew a few years ago, when qualifying for the NCAA Men’s Championships was – based on her skill level – far from an attainable goal.
Thomas, of course, is the transgender female who formerly competed as a three-year member of the Penn’s men’s squad. After transitioning and undergoing hormone-suppressant therapy, she joined the women’s squad at the Philadelphia school, having met antiquated NCAA guidelines that only required one year of testosterone suppression.
Debate over Thomas’ participation in women’s competition has been hot since early December, when she posted nation-leading times in the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle. Her story was highlighted, and multiple questions arose. How is it fair for a swimmer who underwent male puberty to race against biological females? Shouldn’t Thomas be given an opportunity to race? Obviously, there were differing opinions on the topic.
With the NCAA Championships now here, Thomas will be in position to excel on the national stage, while racing against biological women without similar advantages. For those women, the NCAA set up a trap door. The Ivy League and Penn, too, opted for abandonment. Maybe it was the fear of a lawsuit. Maybe it was misogyny. Regardless, by supporting Thomas, biological women were belittled. … read full article
Women’s groups claim they are being EXCLUDED from 'flawed' NHS review into mixed hospital wards as leading 'trans advocate' tells campaigners rules that allow patients to self-identify their gender will not be changed
Women's groups say they've been excluded from NHS review into mixed hospital wards
Dr Michael Brady told LGBT campaigners there's 'no plans to reduce trans rights'
He said charities Stonewall and Mermaids 'contributed very helpfully to process'
Baroness Nicholson, 80, has now called for end to the 'safeguarding disaster'
From Daily Mail (UK)
By Kaya Terry
March 16, 2022
Women's groups have claimed they have been excluded from a 'flawed' NHS review into mixed hospital wards as a leading 'trans advocate' has said the rules that allow patients to self-identify their gender will continue.
Dr Michael Brady, the national adviser for LGBT health at NHS England and who is said to be involved in the review, has reportedly written to campaign groups and told them he has 'no plans to reduce the existing rights of transgender people' during the review, which began in December.
In an email, he said the 'commitment from the team leading on the review is supporting the maintenance/strengthening of trans rights in the update'.
However NHS England deny Dr Brady's involvement and say he only 'attended engagement meetings' with women's and LGB groups and Chief Nursing Officer Ruth May is leading the process.
Dr Bradby, who is an HIV and Sexual Health consultant at Kings College Hospital in London, is alleged to have 'excluded women and LGB groups' from the review, with emergency meetings having to be set up two-weeks later.
Rhona Hotchkiss, a retired nurse and volunteer at LGB Alliance told MailOnline: 'Often when matters effect trans people, other groups are not considered. We had to contact the NHS regarding the process and subsequently had a meeting set up two-weeks later with Dr Brady. … read full article
For Women Scotland call for pause on conversion therapy ban
From Holyrood (Scotland)
by Louise Wilson
March 16, 2022
The Scottish Government should pause its plans to ban conversion therapy until there is more clarity on “best practice” for people who are questioning their gender, a women’s group has said.
For Women Scotland, in a letter to Holyrood’s equalities committee, warned a “gender affirmative” approach “may not be appropriate for most children”.
An affirmative approach supports a person to live in a gender which is different from their sex at birth.
MSPs spoke overwhelmingly in favour of a ban on conversion therapy - which seek to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity - in a debate led by the committee on Tuesday afternoon.
The government intends to bring forward legislation before the end of 2023.
In a report published earlier this year, the committee said that “affirmative therapies should be protected under any ban”. … read full article
Idaho Senate Republicans stifle bill banning gender-affirming care for trans children
From The Washington Examiner (USA)
by Asher Notheis
March 16, 2022
Idaho Senate Republicans have effectively killed a bill that would have made it illegal for parents to give their transgender child gender-affirming medical treatment.
With the GOP in control of the chamber, this signals that the Senate's State Affairs Committee will not advance HB 675 to the Senate floor for a vote, a representative with the Idaho Legislature explained to the Washington Examiner. The bill passed the Idaho House in a party-line vote last week.
In their statement, Idaho Senate Republican leaders said they oppose gender reassignment for minors but stressed that the bill would have allowed the government "to interfere in parents' medical decision-making authority for their children." The bill is "against medical advice in Idaho and is counterindicated by the Idaho Medical Association," they added.
"We believe in parents’ rights and that the best decisions regarding medical treatment options for children are made by parents, with the benefit of their physician’s advice and expertise," the senators said.
The bill "has unintended consequences" in the way it is written, added the senators, who also specified how they believe it could hurt children with highly specialized medical needs from receiving the care they need. … read full article