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The trans woman’s efforts to appear feminine

From the Times:

“In public, at least, her supporters claimed victory. Sandie Peggie had, after all, been found to have been harassed by her employer, NHS Fife, in four different ways. But the veteran nurse’s win was a relatively narrow one. It was far from the slamdunk gender-critical campaigners had hoped for and had, in truth, expected after their landmark Supreme Court win in April.

“A load of sexist shite,” was how one leading activist privately described the 312-page ruling. “I didn’t think the judge would fall for his [Beth Upton’s] schtick. I was wrong.”

It means an employment tribunal which has divided opinion for the best part of a year is unlikely to be the end of the

… Read the rest

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The trans woman’s efforts to appear feminine
By Ophelia Benson, December 8, 2025

From the Times:

“In public, at least, her supporters claimed victory. Sandie Peggie had, after all, been found to have been harassed by her employer, NHS Fife, in four different ways. But the veteran nurse’s win was a relatively narrow one. It was far from the slamdunk gender-critical campaigners had hoped for and had, in truth, expected after their landmark Supreme Court win in April.

“A load of sexist shite,” was how one leading activist privately described the 312-page ruling. “I didn’t think the judge would fall for his [Beth Upton’s] schtick. I was wrong.”

It means an employment tribunal which has divided opinion for the best part of a year is unlikely to be the end of the

… Read the rest

Archives
Bad Moves
Articles
Flashback
In Focus
Latest News
Letters
Notes and Comment Blog

The trans woman’s efforts to appear feminine 

From the Times:

“In public, at least, her supporters claimed victory. Sandie Peggie had, after all, been found to have been harassed by her employer, NHS Fife, in four different ways. But the veteran nurse’s win was a relatively narrow one. It was far from the slamdunk gender-critical campaigners had hoped for and had, in truth, expected after their landmark Supreme Court win in April.

“A load of sexist shite,” was how one leading activist privately described the 312-page ruling. “I didn’t think the judge would fall for his [Beth Upton’s] schtick. I was wrong.”

It means an employment tribunal which has divided opinion for the best part of a year is unlikely to be the end of the

… Read the rest
Way too partial part two 

The BBC is so shitty on this subject.

The campaign group Sex Matters, which backed Sandie Peggie in the case, said it was very disappointed in the approach taken by the tribunal.

Maya Forstater, the organisation’s CEO, said it should have provided employers with clarity regarding single-sex spaces and that should have meant giving them the confidence to refuse to let trans women use those spaces. She added: “It is a travesty that a woman can be judged as having expressed herself in the wrong way when she objects to finding a man in the women’s changing room.”

Ms Forstater said there was an “urgent” need for the Health and Safety Executive to provide clear guidance to employers regarding

… Read the rest
Way too partial 

Partial victory for nurse in NHS trans changing room row

A nurse who objected to sharing a female changing room with a transgender doctor has won a claim for harassment against NHS Fife but other allegations of discrimination and victimisation were dismissed.

…

An employment tribunal judgement outlined four ways in which NHS Fife harassed Ms Peggie but dismissed the other allegations against the health board and all claims against Dr Upton. Ms Peggie welcomed the decision and said the past two years had been “agonising”, while NHS Fife said it would take time to work through the details.

…

In a written judgement on Monday, the tribunal found that NHS Fife had harassed Ms Peggie in a number of

… Read the rest
A prior name 

Trump and his goons are wrong about almost everything, but not about Admiral Levine.

As you walk down a particular hallway on the seventh floor of the Humphrey Building in Washington, D.C., you’ll find a line of photographic portraits of all the people from years past who have led the Public Health Corps at the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

Only one of those portraits is of a transgender person: Adm. Rachel Levine, who served for four years as President Biden’s assistant secretary for health. She was the first transgender person to win Senate confirmation, and her portrait has been displayed in the hallway since soon after she was confirmed in 2021. 

They say “the first transgender … Read the rest

Regular service returns Regular service returns 

Hiya!

It’s just that the connection stopped working. Maybe the whales get in the way somehow.

On the other hand here’s the beach I walked to at sunset yesterday:

Today Seattle is under an atmospheric river. It is WET out there. … Read the rest

Next up: Fifa Compassion Prize 

Is this a joke?

President Trump wins inaugural Fifa Peace Prize

The guy who kills civilians in lifeboats wins a peace prize? The guy who responds to protests by sending soldiers to terrorize the protesters? The guy who is helping Putin gobble up Ukraine? The guy who cheers on violence provided it’s his team perpetrating it?

Trump is not a good symbol of peace or peace seeking or peacemaking.

Trump received the inaugural Fifa Peace Prize before the draw for the 2026 Fifa World Cup.

The award has been introduced this year by Fifa president Gianni Infantino, designated for a person who has “taken exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace” and “united people across the world”.

Description does not match … Read the rest

Cetacean bulletin 

Just so you don’t think I’m ignoring you – I’m at my employer’s other place, on the Monterey Peninsula, doing strenuous employee activity like taking a puppy out for walks. The internet connection is slow as frozen molasses in Greenland, so posting may be a bit sparse for a couple more days.

This morning while puppy was sleeping off the first morning walk I zoomed off to Asilomar State Beach, and there staring out at the ocean I saw little white puffs in the distance so I looked harder and you know what, I think they were whales blowing. I’ve never seen THAT before. I watched and watched, and there were a couple that just had to be that, so … Read the rest

The ornate 90,000 square feet 

More on the ballroom saga – or should that be the ballsroom saga?

Trump has hired a new architect to oversee the construction of a vast ballroom at the White House, officials said.

Following reports that Trump had clashed with the previous architect, James McCrery, over the size and scope of the addition, the White House said architects Shalom Baranes Associates will take over the project. Mr McCrery will remain as a consultant.

Ah the size and scope. Do they think it’s too small and modest? Do they think it ought to be huger and more self-aggrandizing?

According to US media, Mr McCrery was concerned the ornate 90,000 sq ft (8,360 sq m) project would overshadow the rest of the

… Read the rest
Outgrow the dolls 

When in doubt, punish the nearest women. Don’t ask any questions about who did what to whom, just punish the nearest women. It saves time in the end.

Bristol city council has banned two gender-critical women from stepping foot in City Hall after they asked Green Party councillors if the Supreme Court judgment on trans identity was “offensive or transphobic”.

The council alleged the questioning of the two councillors in the public lobby after a heated council meeting last month, in which Green councillors staged walkouts and held trans rights placards, was carried out “in a way that they found intimidating”.

Did they though? Or did they just say they found it intimidating?

Men don’t usually find women talking … Read the rest

Volunteer journalist 

Trans journalist: not a real journalist.

He writes things. Nobody pays him to do so. He’s not a journalist.… Read the rest

Hear that lonesome whippoorwill 

Ah the good old days.

President Donald Trump uploaded a series of wistful posts on Thursday evening that included photos of a younger Trump standing next to celebrities, civil rights leaders, musicians and artists during “the good old days,” some of whom he said no longer want to spend time with him.

Well, Don, think about why that might be.

I can just tell you why: it’s because you’re a bad man who does bad things. It’s also because you’re not a good (or wise or amusing) man who does good (or wise or amusing) things. Sensible people don’t want to spend time with you because you do harm and because you’re not quality company.

Breaking from his line

… Read the rest
Meanings 

Hmmm.

One of the arguments defense officials have been quietly pushing in response to heavy criticism of the killing of the two survivors in a second strike on 2 September, is that they were legitimate targets because they appeared to be radioing for help or backup.

But Tom Cotton of Arkansas, the GOP chair of the Senate intelligence committee, admitted to CNN this morning that he didn’t see evidence of the men on the boat trying to use a radio to call for help.

He went on to defend the second strike, saying:

They were clearly not incapacitated. They were not distressed.

They were trying to get the boat back up and to continue their mission of spreading these

… Read the rest
Meet the medbeds 

Jill Lepore has a good essay in the New Yorker on living in trumpworld.

Peer into the dark. Earlier this fall, Trump reposted on Truth Social a four-minute news clip generated by A.I. The clip purported to be a segment from Lara Trump’s Fox News show, reporting on Trump’s announcement of the launch of “medbeds . . . designed to restore every citizen to full health and strength” at special hospitals about to open all over the country. Medbeds, which can cure all ailments and reverse aging, appear regularly in science fiction. (Think of the “biobeds” in the “Star Trek” sick bay.) They began featuring in online conspiracy theories in the early twenty-twenties; QAnoners claim that medbeds exist, and have existed for

… Read the rest
A male soccer player is a male soccer player 

Ugh.

… Read the rest

Ephemera 

This is indeed magic.

https://twitter.com/babybeginner/status/1996482641122730467… Read the rest
Booted 

OJ is very sarcastic about women’s rights.

Boys booted out of Girlguiding – I’m not seeing the problem. Girlguiding is for girls. There are organizations for children and adolescents of both sexes, and there are organizations for one or the other sex. That’s ok; we can do that.

We probably ought to do that. It’s just a fact that humans are sexually dimorphic and that … Read the rest

The right to silence 

She “thinks” in slogans and blurts.

Ooooh deep – until you think about it for one second. What are trans rights? Kindly spell them out.

Is there a “right” to change sex? No, just as there is no “right” to fly like a bird or live underwater or run faster than a cheetah. It’s absurd to blather about rights to do the impossible.

Trans people have human rights. Nobody says they don’t. Trans people don’t have a right to force us all to agree with their fictions. It’s pretty simple.… Read the rest

Guest post: The women’s branch 

Originally a comment by maddog on Utmost regret and sadness.

Never mind that WI can celebrate and fawn over the completely ignored part of the “transgender communinny,” the transgender people who are actually women, i.e., the “trans men.”

They wail and gnash their teeth about how tragic and unfair it is to make them exclude “trans women,” who are men, and pretend that the new landscape forces them to discriminate against the “trans communinny,” as if there weren’t an existing component of the “trans communinny” who actually belong in the Women’s Institute: the women who so deeply feel the oppression of women that they seek to escape it by pretending to be men.

The Women’s Institute can be incloosive … Read the rest

What a difference these spaces make to girls What a difference these spaces make to girls 

Ashley Louise James is resigning as Girlguiding ambassador.

Yes, these spaces make a difference to girls. What about these spaces makes a difference to girls? The fact that they don’t include boys. Boys can bully or intimidate or out-compete girls in ways that are generally out of reach to girls. That means girls need to be away from boys at times in order to do their best work.

The fact that boys are every bit as bright, joyful and deserving as any other child is beside the point. The point is that boys are not every bit as strong as girls: they are stronger.

It’s not entirely true that boys who claim to be trans girls, and their families, … Read the rest

Little girls love to 

Thank heaven for little girls, yeah?

… Read the rest