Same thing, Willoughby says. A gay man on a men’s hospital ward is the same thing as a man on a women’s hospital ward. The same thing.

Well, look at that. All you “No LGB without the T” gay guys, you enjoy the rampant old school homophobia of your new masters, because you’ll be seeing a lot more of it as blokes like this lose influence. Me, I’ll stand with Wes on this. pic.twitter.com/NU00zmf4UE

— Dennis Noel Kavanagh (@Jebadoo2) April 30, 2024

… Read the rest

I pointed out yesterday that calling a man who threatened to kill Rosie Duffield and JK Rowling a “troll” is offensively trivializing. I see I’m not the only one who thinks so.

I hadn't realised this news had reached the press. I think @RosieDuffield1 will agree with me that using the word 'troll' to describe men who make explicit death threats against women minimises both the offence and the effect on the recipients.https://t.co/HjrYP26Oyp

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 29, 2024

You’re god damn right it does.… Read the rest

A tap on the knuckles for Trump:

Donald Trump has made his contempt for the court clear throughout his criminal trial in Manhattan, and now a judge has made it official. Juan Merchan ruled today that the former president had violated a gag order designed to protect the integrity of the trial and fined him $9,000.

Might as well fine him 25 cents. 9k is lunch money to him.

Merchan found that nine violations alleged by prosecutors were clear violations, but deemed a tenth too ambiguous to warrant punishment. He declined to levy the most serious punishment available to him—namely, tossing Trump in jail—but also had scathing words for Trump’s excuses for violating the order.

Would a less notorious … Read the rest

Some mysterious force is preventing me from posting this directly via Nina’s tweet but haha I can do it via this one so nyah, Mysterious Force.

It’s brilliant indeed.

This Video is Not Mine
It is the brilliant creation of Nina Paley @ninapaley, capturing what is at the heart of the conflict in Palestine/Israel, war in general, human nature.

You might say this video slays… pic.twitter.com/W9TOe5cDpq

— Scott Graham (@MacGraeme42) October 12, 2023

… Read the rest

The CBC frowns on all this medical questioning of puberty blockers and the like.

Last month, the Cass Review findings led to a ban on the prescription of puberty-suppressing hormones except for youth enrolled in clinical research.

That’s a move away from the standard of care supported by many international medical bodies, including the Canadian Pediatric Society (CPS), the American Academy of Pediatrics and World Professional Association for Transgender Health. Though several European countries including Sweden have also restricted access to puberty blockers and other medical treatments for youth.

Could that be because “many international medical bodies” lost their goddam minds?

The report cites a systematic review of evidence, commissioned as part of the Cass Review, which found “a

So you’re not allowed to threaten to kill people?

A troll who threatened to kill JK Rowling “with a big hammer” has been warned he faces jail.

Glenn Mullen, 31, sent audio messages in Scottish Gaelic to the Harry Potter author on X/Twitter in January 2023. He said: “I’m going to kill JK Rowling with a big hammer. JK Rowling is very horrible and I hate her so much.”

In a message to Labour MP Rosie Duffield, also opposed to trans reforms, he said: “I’m going to kill Rosie Duffield with a big gun. I hate her so much.”

Mullen, of Manchester, admitted two charges of sending a communication conveying a threatening message.

But the Sun calls him “a troll” … Read the rest

Humza Yousaf has resigned.

In an emotional speech on Monday, Yousaf said it had been an “honor” to lead the SNP in government. But his time in power was rocky and his short tenure has harmed his party’s standing even further after a brutal year for the group.

…

[H]e never enjoyed the levels of popularity with voters that Sturgeon once did, and frequently found himself caught between the liberal tendencies of his Green allies and parts of his party on one side, and the more socially conservative members of the SNP on the other.

An especially controversial expansion of Scotland’s hate crime legislation, which expanded protections for transgender people, was hailed by LGBTQ+ groups but attacked by critics as a

Good to know.

This is a huge deal. Exemplary damages are very rare in the employment tribunal. Theyre used to signal extreme disapproval of egregious behaviour, in this case by Social Work England, the regulator. Whoever gave SWE legal advice that didn't consist of "you've massively screwed… https://t.co/AfUwjL6Wol

— Helen Joyce (@HJoyceGender) April 28, 2024

This is a huge deal. Exemplary damages are very rare in the employment tribunal. Theyre used to signal extreme disapproval of egregious behaviour, in this case by Social Work England, the regulator. Whoever gave SWE legal advice that didn’t consist of “you’ve massively screwed up, apologise immediately, offer a decent settlement and undertake to get proper training in belief discrimination” really doesn’t deserve to get

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Different complex views.

“But it didn’t take me long to realise that it was a common cause – that the fascists are after anyone who is different, any minority. But you need those experiences to discover that solidarity.”

But Billy, you don’t find solidarity with absolutely every “different” minority, do you? You don’t accept them all. Murders, arsonists, and rapists are all “different,” and all (thankfully) minorities. So are fascists themselves. I daresay that some of them would claim to be unjustly persecuted. Do you find common cause with them? How is it that you choose the “worthy” minorities whose struggles you support?

…Bragg suggested he was embarrassed to have

A win!

A social worker who was suspended over her gender critical views has been awarded almost £58,000 in damages from Westminster city council and Social Work England.

In what lawyers described as an unprecedented move by a court to award exemplary damages against a regulator, an employment tribunal called for both the council and the watchdog to train their staff in the principles of freedom of speech.

Legal Feminist has details:

The Legal Feminists are not aware of any other case in which exemplary damages have been awarded against a regulator.

— Legal Feminist (@legalfeminist) April 28, 2024

The people who rabidly defend trans ideology are peculiarly horrible to people who disobey their orders.

Both respondents must also

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Result.

Last year a report by the think tank Policy Exchange said NHS trusts were compromising women’s rights by providing same-sex intimate care based not on their biological sex but their self-declared gender identity.

I’m not sure this is the original wording but if “sex” and “gender” are supposed to be different (as genderists are wont to tell us – when it suits them) “same-sex intimate care” could never have been based on “their self-declared gender identity.” It was only the opportunistic conflation of the two that permitted them to do this. The deliberate, ideologically driven suppression of the basic fact that humans can’t change sex is what let them … Read the rest

Tim Adams chats with Billy Bragg for The Observer:

He smiles. “One thing was I had never met an out gay man until then. I’m sure I had met gay men in Barking but none of them were out. And then on stage Tom Robinson starting up with (Sing If You’re) Glad to Be Gay and all around me these blokes started kissing each other. I thought: ‘Fucking hell, what’s this?’ But it didn’t take me long to realise that it was a common cause – that the fascists are after anyone who is different, any minority. But you need those experiences to discover that solidarity.”

It’s a memory of that moment, I think, that has prompted his partisan

JKR taking NO prisoners today.

This comment by @billybragg perfectly sums up what left wing women have taken from left wing men over the last few years. The problem isn’t whether Julie Bindel and I are correct on the issues, but that certain right-wingers agree with us.

If you’ve spent any time at all on the… pic.twitter.com/4Xhcu2n0Cv

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 28, 2024

If you’ve spent any time at all on the left of politics, you’re familiar with the progressive male class warrior, usually middle-class himself, whose interest in women’s issues begins and ends with sex work, stripping and abortions. He might claim to be a feminist ally and mutter vaguely about ‘equality’ if the need arises, but when

So you’re saying trans ideology is a religion. We agree! It’s a religion, not a politics, and sure as hell not a progressive or egalitarian or liberationist movement.

Fred and his chums have lawst the plot. pic.twitter.com/MLMtDqDcVR

— Binky (@TheOnlyGuru) April 28, 2024

… Read the rest

Karens are complaining about being murdered yet again:

Rallies have taken place across Australia in response to a wave of recent violence against women. Demonstrators want gender-based violence to be declared a national emergency and stricter laws put in place to stop it. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the issue was a national crisis. In Australia, a woman has been killed on average every four days so far this year.

…

Speaking at a march in the capital Canberra attended by thousands of protesters, Mr Albanese admitted the government at all levels needed to do better.

“We need to change culture, the attitudes, the legal system and the approach by all governments,” he said. “We need to make sure

Finalleeeeeeeeeeeee

The NHS is to crack down on transgender ideology in hospitals, with terms like “chestfeeding” set to be banned.

Victoria Atkins, the Health Secretary, will this week announce a series of changes to the NHS constitution which sets out patients’ rights. Referring to “people who have ovaries” rather than “women” will also be prohibited under plans to ensure hospitals use clear language based on biological sex.

The new constitution will ban transgender women from being treated on single-sex female hospital wards to ensure women and girls receive “privacy and protection” in hospitals. Patients will also be given the right to request that intimate care is carried out by someone of the same biological sex.

It’s about god … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Artymorty on And what about toast, and earthworms?

I’ve seen this a lot, the condensing of all ostensibly progressive causes into a great, faceless ideological black hole. The logical endpoint of the moral-bidding-war meltdown that is “wokeness” is that it becomes a singularity: to those inside, it’s a realm of infinte virtue. To everyone else it looks literally pointless. “Woke,” both the word and the movement, always had not-so-subtle transcendental, spiritual connotations: a shade adjacent to nirvana.

The city-funded community centre at the heart of Toronto’s gay village provides a great example. About 20 years ago they put up a mural on the side of the building which loomed over the heart of the neighbourhood. … Read the rest

One question (of many):

It was the third argument before the Court in three months related to Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn his loss of the 2020 Presidential election. This one (Trump v. U.S.) was about his claim that Smith’s prosecution of him for election interference (U.S. v. Trump) must be dismissed because a former President is immune from criminal liability for any official acts he undertook in office. 

In what way is it an “official act” for a president to interfere in an election? Especially to interfere in an election in which he is one of the candidates? What’s “official” about that?

Michael Dreeben, arguing for the government, said, “The Framers knew too well the dangers of a king

Whither “woke”?

So where does all of this leave woke itself, or the broader push for social, racial and environmental justice that has been growing roughly ever since the death of Michael Brown in 2014 sparked the Black Lives Matter movement? What happens now to the idea of being more open to sometimes uncomfortable challenge from minority perspectives that were previously suppressed: of saving the planet; uncovering forgotten histories; inclusivity at work; “be kind”? That isn’t dead. If anything, it’s quietly going mainstream.

Wut?

Social justice is not the same thing as “environmental justice” and climate change isn’t fundamentally political. What to do about it is politicized (but shouldn’t be), but the change itself is not responsive to whether we … Read the rest

Is there any room at all to say that Brynn Tannehill at The New Republic is exaggerating?

When Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked Donald Trump’s lawyer, “If the president decides that his rival is a corrupt person, and he orders the military or orders someone to assassinate him, is that within his official acts for which he can get immunity?”, he replied, “It would depend on the hypothetical, but we can see that would well be an official act.” 

Based on that one line of questioning, Trump’s argument should be going down in flames 9-0. A democracy cannot survive when its supreme leader can arbitrarily decide that it’s in the nation’s best interest to rub out his opponents, and then leave