Joan McAlpine at Holyrood:

Evidence from the employment tribunal involving Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre stirred some distressing memories. A service designed to help traumatised women appears to have forgotten its core purpose.

In a constructive dismissal case, Roz Adams, a counsellor, said she was told that revealing the biological sex of support workers was transphobic – even if it was done to reassure a rape survivor that she’d be talking to another female. 

Transphobic how? I suppose because doing so reminds people that there is such a thing as biological sex and that women often need to know which is which for our own safety.

But so does Mridul Wadhwa really expect the entire world to pretend there’s no … Read the rest

Nightmare, I think you’ll find.

https://twitter.com/SuttonUtdWomen/status/1751666367093178833… Read the rest

Diva magazine gloats that Starmer is going to demolish all women’s rights:

Keir Starmer promised that a Labour Government would bring about major improvements to LGBTQIA rights at home and abroad in his speech at the LGBT+ Labour event in Parliament this evening (29 January). 

Can’t be done. Some of the claimed “rights” in that grab-bag cancel each other out. Lesbians’ right to say no to men, for example.

From modernising the Gender Recognition Act to banning so-called conversion “therapy”, the leader of the Labour Party drew on the Party’s long history with LGBTQIA rights to solidify his commitment to change. 

What long history? There hasn’t been any long history of LGBTQIA rights, because the ever-expanding forced teaming is a … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Way too offspring-focused.

These offspring-focused risk-avoidance strategies are….

If someone else had written this, it would be considered satire. It’s certainly ludicrous when you translate it into other scenarios:

”These safe-landing focused risk-avoidance strategies are…not without potentially-harmful consequences for people who believe they are pilots.”

”These not-sinking focused risk-avoidance strategies are…not without potentially-harmful consequences for people who believe they are pilots.”

”These no-meltdown focused risk-avoidance strategies are…not without potentially-harmful consequences for people who believe they are nuclear power-plant engineers.”

Let’s look at this load of shite a little more closely.

These approaches reinscribe binarized notions of sex…

Well, sex isn’t “binarized”, it is binary. Its binary nature isn’t a “notion.” … Read the rest

Stephen Whittle really is an awful shit.

interesting takes on my comment re @sexmatters complaining LGBTQ+ flags intimidate them.

Helen Joyce, employed by Sex Matters, suggest a need to eliminate Trans people.

The LGBTQ+ community has never suggested eliminating anyone.

Pride flags are not like Nazi Swastikas pic.twitter.com/35eeAlYwQV

— Prof. Stephen Whittle OBE, PhD, DLaws, FAcSS, (@stephenwhittle) January 29, 2024

We’re supposed to think Helen Joyce is calling for trans people to be genocided, which of course is ludicrous. Telling people they hold a mistaken belief is not calling for them to be killed off.

Whittle in April last year:

Oh, we’re retweeting all right, Stephen Whittle. We’re retweeting to @gmpolice, because incitement to mob violence and assault of

… Read the rest

Oh gawd. A new pit of hell opens.

This is absolutely shocking. Not only did the @CPSUK meet with Mermaids and Stonewall prior to their consultation proposing to water down sex by deception prosecutions, they then tried to conceal that fact.

This is very serious.

Complete institutional capture of rape policy. https://t.co/iJu2TdzIve

— Dennis Noel Kavanagh (@Jebadoo2) January 29, 2024

They WHAT?????????

Don’t tell me, let me point out how obvious it is – they changed the rules to benefit men who call themselves women, at the expense of women, and they did their best to conceal the fact that they did so.

Useful background:

https://twitter.com/thespiralquirk/status/1701903048518365262

And finally the CPS itself September 2022:

The CPS is conducting a public consultation

… Read the rest

This is why the “LGBTQ+” label is so useful to the trans-enforcers: because it enables them to pretend that not believing trans ideology=hatred of lesbians and gay men.

I think spending the majority of her time campaigning against LGBTQ+ inclusion is pretty homophobic.

— Thomas Willett (@ThomasWillett9) January 29, 2024

Like that. Of course Maya isn’t doing any such thing, and he knows she isn’t, but he gets to pretend she is by using that stupid catch-all label. The T is nothing to do with the LG; the T is often the enemy of the LG.

One little letter forced into the initials that used to name lesbian and gay liberation now means we can’t ever separate the two because … Read the rest

Sex Matters writes to Network Rail about that 5 Guys display:

pic.twitter.com/4AXh6L8OiB

— Sex Matters (@SexMattersOrg) January 28, 2024

I didn’t know that Network Rail has a policy of no political advertising at its stations. What the HELL do they call that photo then? Five men and zero women standing in front of a giant phallus advertising trans ideology and various “queer” flags is not political advertising???

That Shane Andrews fella though – his account has vanished. Did he jump or was he pushed? … Read the rest

Daily Mail (sorry) reports:

Pregnant transmen shouldn’t be pressured to stop taking testosterone despite the risks it poses to babies, researchers have controversially claimed in a Government-funded study.

Current maternity care guidance for transmen — biological women who identify as the opposite gender — recommends they stop hormone treatment in pregnancy. The NHS warns it could ‘affect the baby’s development’, with some studies linking exposure to the male sex hormone in the womb to genital abnormalities. 

Testosterone is listed as a ‘category X’ substance in pregnancy in the US because of the dangers it poses to a foetus. But a panel of experts, including three from Britain, said the current advice centres too heavily on preventing babies from developing

… Read the rest

The Open University says sorry.

Professor Tim Blackman, Vice-Chancellor of The Open University responds to the ruling:

This judgment made for difficult reading for all of us. In several areas we fell very short. We apologise unreservedly to Professor Phoenix for the hurt and distress this has caused.

This is not The Open University we want to be.

The University has supported and continues to support the work of the Gender Critical Research Network (GCRN) as part of the many important research activities that take place  at the OU. But our understanding of academic freedom and freedom of speech at the time meant we did not intervene about the open letter, statements and social media posts that followed the

… Read the rest

The phobias are proliferating. Don’t be a proproliferator.

https://twitter.com/UTOTALBELLEND/status/1751570317674238445… Read the rest

Ok cool the next big thing is to stick Dennis rolling his eyes on all the absurdities. Hours of fun for the whole family.

https://twitter.com/EvadneDr/status/1751627377551999072 https://twitter.com/iseult/status/1751574124269343052 https://twitter.com/theneonrequiem/status/1751471144345989245… Read the rest

Lesbians but not THOSE lesbians.

Autogynephiles invade a lesbian conference… pic.twitter.com/Cnc9G3HuCz

— Jonny Bell (@Jonnywsbell) January 27, 2024

The conference was more than a year ago but still…this is interesting. The group or organization is called Lesbians Who Tech & Allies, and (of course) the people doing all the talking are not the lesbians but the “allies” aka appropriators.

About Lesbians Who Tech & Allies:

LESBIANS WHO TECH & ALLIES IS A COMMUNITY OF LGBTQ WOMEN, NON-BINARY AND TRANS INDIVIDUALS IN AND AROUND TECH (AND THE PEOPLE WHO SUPPORT THEM).

What are “LGBTQ women”? They can’t be G surely, nor can they be T. Why call them “LGBTQ women” at all, why not just stick with lesbians? Why start … Read the rest

Gwyneth Rees at the Telegraph talks to Jo Phoenix:

She explains how the gender critical research network, which launched in June 2021 with just a handful of people, initially had the backing of OU. Prof Phoenix and her fellow lead, Prof Jon Pike, promoted it with a podcast and interest poured in from academics across the world. It was, she says, one of the proudest moments of her life

But then, less than 24 hours after its launch, trans activists got wind of the project and the “onslaught began”. She admits now that she was terribly naive: “I thought I was protected because I was a senior professor.”

I don’t call that naïve. The level of bullying … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Freeminder on 24% more energy efficient than required.

For a ship this big, I’d expect to see a fuel usage of 200 metric tonnes per day as a minimum. Constantly running generators, for propulsion and electricity needs, would take some serious usage. Wonder how much generating ‘reserve’ capacity the ship has, if maxed out with crew and passengers?

And when does the cruise ship market say “That’s big enough” and “We have enough”? One of these things arriving in a small harbour would feel like an invasion. My other concerns are safety (what if this one sinks or is ablaze, can they evacuate in time?) and security (potentially 9,950 people on board makes it a … Read the rest

The Beeb answers some of those questions.

The 365m-long (1,197 ft) Icon of the Seas has 20 decks, and can house a maximum of 7,600 passengers on board. It is owned by Royal Caribbean Group. The vessel is going on a seven-day island-hopping voyage in the tropics.

But environmentalists warn that the liquefied natural gas-powered ship will leak harmful methane into the air. “It’s a step in the wrong direction,” Bryan Comer, director of the Marine Programme at the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency. “We would estimate that using LNG as a marine fuel emits over 120% more life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions than marine gas oil,” he said.

Yebbut all … Read the rest

Ah yes, very good, the world melts and fries and burns thanks to global warming so the thing to do is keep building bigger cruise ships.

The world’s largest cruise ship is set to begin its maiden voyage Saturday as it gets underway from the Port of Miami.

Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, which runs nearly 1,200 feet from bow to stern, is leaving South Florida for its first seven-day island-hopping voyage through the tropics.

Great. Fabulous. It’s definitely worth speeding up warming that little bit for the sake of taking tourists “island-hopping” for a week.

“Icon of the Seas is the culmination of more than 50 years of dreaming, innovating and living our mission – to deliver

… Read the rest

Law boffins say Trump’s showy rudeness in court probably influenced the jury to give him a sharp shock.

A federal jury saddled former President Donald Trump with a hefty $83.3 million decision in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation trial against him on Friday, closing the curtain on a raucous week-and-a-half of acrimonious legal proceedings.

The jury deliberated for under three hours before delivering their verdict, which included $18.8 million in compensatory damages and $65 million in punitive damages for Carroll.

The significant sum comes after Trump displayed a brazen lack of legal decorum throughout the duration of the trial, repeatedly railing against Carroll online and going head-to-head with US District Judge Lewis Kaplan during his much-anticipated but ultimately brief testimony.

Dialing … Read the rest

Et tu National Secular Society?

Interesting edit there… pic.twitter.com/SfTRW0Vqwg

— Ben Cooper (@bencooper) January 27, 2024

Seriously? All Lives Matter on Holocaust Memorial Day?

The name “Holocaust” is specific to the genocide of six million Jews.

It’s not a good look to hide the genocide of six million Jews on Holocaust Memorial Day.

https://twitter.com/Susanshox/status/1751197368114950203

How dare you edit this to eliminate the word Jewish. Why did you erase the Jews? You are reprehensible. Here: original version: pic.twitter.com/XvryJPXVo7

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) January 27, 2024

… Read the rest

88 million bucks.

A jury awarded $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll on Friday in a stinging and expensive rebuke to former President Donald Trump for his continued social media attacks against the longtime advice columnist over her claims that he sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store.

The award, when coupled with a $5 million sexual assault and defamation verdict last year from another jury in a case brought by Carroll, raised to $88.3 million what Trump must pay her. Protesting vigorously, he said he would appeal.

“Vigorously” is one word for it. I can think of others.

Carroll’s attorneys had requested $24 million in compensatory damages and “an unusually high punitive award.” The jury awarded $18.3

… Read the rest