All entries by this author

Nuanced

Sep 13th, 2023 5:38 am | By

Christ on a bike. Hi, parents, here’s how to help your children do whatever they want all the time, without asking any tiresome outdated parentish questions. It’s from the BBC, too, so it must be sensible and official and not harmful at all in any way.

An A-Z of LGBTQ+ language for speaking to your child

If your child opens up to you about their sexuality or gender identity, it’s likely to be a really significant time for both them and you.

The language around sexuality and gender has changed over time and your child may be using terms that you might not fully understand.

You are the one who doesn’t understand, here: you, the adult, are lost and … Read the rest



Guest post: Always just a single tweet away

Sep 12th, 2023 4:24 pm | By

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on We must do MORE.

For the govt to provide targeted funding for research & innovation in gender-affirming surgeries & other areas of gender-affirming care that would benefit from more scientific knowledge, with funding conditional on info sharing around practices developed & their outcomes.

Be careful what you wish for. Look how this turned out for caloric, phlogiston, N-rays and the the ether.

8. To amend section 268(3) of the Criminal Code to restrict cosmetic surgeries on intersex children until they are old enough to consent.

Ah, looking for a loophole via the plight for people with DSDs (NOT “intersex”) in order to cut up “trans” kids, are we?

For

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The sort of history we feel part of

Sep 12th, 2023 3:55 pm | By

Helen Joyce on that meeting in Manchester and what happened afterward.

The event was a follow-up to the Sex Matters board meeting, which we held in late June, in a lovely private room that the museum hires out. I wrote about what happened afterwards in issue 53—in brief, after an online mini-whingefest from about three-and-a-half people, the museum abjectly apologised for renting us a room. It put out a statement in which it begged to be given time to rebuild the trust of the “wider LGBTQI+ community and all people who face marginalisation” and promised to “learn from” its terrible error in accommodating an organisation that does not “share its values”, an error it promised never to repeat.

Hey I … Read the rest



We must do MORE

Sep 12th, 2023 11:27 am | By

Laurel Collins is an NDP MP for Victoria. She has a long bonkers thread on Twitter listing all the things we must do to rescue trans people from the edge of a cliff over a pool of sharks. I’ll just quote it because too much Twitter is too much.

The rising hate directed at trans people is terrifying, and Conservative leaders are stoking this hate with dangerous discriminatory policies. We need to better support trans & gender-diverse people. [trans flag trans flag]

Here are 29 concrete things we’re fighting for:

29 Concrete Steps: 1 on supporting organizations 2 to 8 on gender-affirming healthcare 9 to 13 on hate & violence 14 to 16 on identity documents 17 to 19 on

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Anything to make it women’s fault

Sep 12th, 2023 10:04 am | By

Billy Bragg is even more disgusting than I realized.

No. Wrong. Patriarchy does not “pose a threat” to trans women the same way it poses a threat to women. Trans women may well be subject to bullying from men, but that’s not the same as the relegation to second class status that women are subject to from birth.

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Melting

Sep 12th, 2023 9:17 am | By

The glaciers are melting.

Once, there were 29. Now at least one is gone, maybe three. Those that remain are almost half the size they used to be.

Mount Rainier is losing its glaciers. That is all the more striking as it is the most glacier-covered mountain in the contiguous United States.

It doesn’t look as if it’s losing its glaciers from down here in Seattle. It still looks like a giant ice cream cone. But appearances can deceive.

Mountain glaciers are vanishing as the burning of fossil fuels heats up Earth’s atmosphere. According to the World Glacier Monitoring Service, total glacier area has shrunk steadily in the last half-century; some of the steepest declines have been in the 

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Alone with one

Sep 12th, 2023 8:38 am | By

This stands for so much – what they get wrong, how very wrong they get it, how obvious it is why they get it so wrong.

https://twitter.com/KatyMontgomerie/status/1701584143794999765

If you, a woman, saw a man you thought was pretending to be a woman, you’d feel powerful and superior.

That is so fucking stupid it takes my breath away. A lone woman doesn’t ever feel “powerful and superior” in the presence of a random man displaying weird behavior. She might feel morally or intellectually superior, but physically she would feel anything but. I can tell you what she would feel: she would feel afraid. Physically afraid.

Montgomerie doesn’t know that because he is a random man displaying weird behavior.… Read the rest



Sauce for the gander

Sep 12th, 2023 8:17 am | By

The rules: We can say whatever we like; you are a fucking sociopath if you say whatever we don’t like. Got that?

First:

That’s fine. Fine fine fine. It’s fine for Dorian Lynskey to call Helen Joyce “a startlingly cruel and hateful person.”

Other people however…

https://twitter.com/Dorianlynskey/status/1701607871937749486

How dare Rachel say he isn’t too keen on strong, outspoken women.… Read the rest



Show her the knives

Sep 12th, 2023 7:49 am | By

What a nauseating display.

Filed under “Transgender News”:

Labour councillor Alison Thomson of Brighton & Hove City Council apologises for engaging with transphobic posts on social media

Brighton & Hove City Council councillor Alison Thomson, of Brighton & Hove Labour Party, has apologised for engaging with transphobic posts on social media, as reported by Scene magazine. The Labour councillor was slammed by community groups for reposting or liking a series of tweets supporting the anti-trans TERF movement, which is spearheaded by controversial figures such as JK Rowling and Julie Bindel

Millions of womenphobic “posts on social media” appear every day without any male reporters getting all breathless about it, let alone openly fantasizing about women getting … Read the rest



Guest post: The scars have not healed

Sep 12th, 2023 6:40 am | By

Originally a comment by Mike Haubrich on Detrimental clothes.

It sounds like the scars of Japanese occupation have not healed for members of the older generations. It was a brutal occupation targeting the civilian population with rape and murder. Here’s an article aobut it,  and the disastrous role that Chiang Kai-Shek played in losing the second Sino-Japanese war of the 20th century.

During the eight years of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45), China suffered continual crushing and humiliating defeats at the hands of Japan and was subject to a devastating, brutal occupation of much of the nation. Japanese behaviour in the conflict was the principal factor which distinguished the occupation from other wars of recent memory. Not since medieval

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Chart success suckaaaaaaz

Sep 11th, 2023 6:12 pm | By

Ahahahahahaha so there shitheads!

Roisin Murphy’s new album set for chart success after puberty blocker comments

Nyah nyah.

Roisin Murphy will claim the second spot on the UK albums chart for her new album Hit Parade, released after the Irish singer-songwriter became embroiled in controversy.

The former Moloko frontwoman, 50, was forced [bullied] to apologise last month after facing criticism for comments that appeared to condemn the use of puberty blockers by transgender children.

There’s no such thing as “transgender children.” There are only children who have been misled by a stupid fad.

According to Planned Parenthood, these are medical treatments that can be used to “help your body better reflect” your gender identity.

What’s Planned Parenthood got do … Read the rest



No gender for murder victims

Sep 11th, 2023 11:16 am | By

Bad bad bad bad move.

Law enforcement in the US city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will no longer report the biological sex of crime victims, a decision made after “discussions the department had with members of the LGBTQ+ community.”

Wisconsin has the nation’s 8th highest rate of domestic violence homicides (wherein women are killed by men), which have skyrocketed by 300% over the past decade.

“Every four and a half

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Even more bizarre people

Sep 11th, 2023 10:37 am | By

It’s kind of amusing to read about Tucker Carlson’s relegation to being just another talker. Last April

Fox News, after settling a defamation lawsuit for $787m, gave Carlson the boot.

The move was as unexpected as it was sudden, and left viewers and pundits wondering what Carlson, who had used his position to push far-right conspiracy theories and elevate rightwing figures, would do next.

So far, the answer has been: use a new Twitter show to push even more conspiracy theories and give a platform to even more bizarre people, which culminated with a new low this week, as Carlson revived a debunked claim that Barack Obama smoked crack and had sex with a man many years ago.

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Detrimental clothes

Sep 11th, 2023 9:34 am | By

Dress normal god damn it!

In the 1980s, people in China could land themselves in trouble with the government for their fashion choices.

Flared pants and bluejeans were considered “weird attire.” Some government buildings barred men with long hair and women wearing makeup and jewelry. Patrols organized by factories and schools cut flared pants and long hair with scissors.

I kind of know the feeling. I’m extremely judgmental, and

[by the way I’m so judgmental that I’m annoyed that “judgmental” isn’t spelled “judgemental” because ffs people without the e the g is pronounced as in gun or gone or gulp]

because I’m very judgey I often do have a censorious opinion about what other people are wearing. Yoga pants for … Read the rest



Definition

Sep 11th, 2023 8:36 am | By

Women=fascist scum. Not just terfs, but women in general, women as such. We’re all fascist scum.

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Try Newark next time

Sep 11th, 2023 8:31 am | By

I’ve seldom read anything more wounding. A Guardian autobiographical tale of a UK teenager who longed to go west:

I applied to US colleges I had heard of in films. I studied SAT books and got a good enough score to attempt the admissions process. Things started to happen. I bunked off sixth form to attend interviews. In films these are huge moments of plot development…

The campus was eerily pristine; if there was a leaf on the ground it would be swept up almost immediately. No wonder, because the campus was literally a film set. This was where Buffy the Vampire Slayer went to college and Elle Woods checked into Harvard in Legally Blonde. Hip-hop dancers had dance-offs

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There are no limits

Sep 11th, 2023 7:59 am | By

Paul Murphy is TD for Dublin South West. TD=Teachta Dála, a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament). 

He did this today.

https://twitter.com/paulmurphy_TD/status/1701223966977728518

A legislator put a target on a reporter’s child on social media.… Read the rest



From one emperor to another

Sep 10th, 2023 5:26 pm | By

Whoopsie, the Pope let the mask slip.

The Vatican sought to defend Pope Francis on Tuesday after he sparked fury in Ukraine by praising Russia’s imperial rulers — a history President Vladimir Putin has invoked to justify his ongoing war.

The Kremlin delighted in the controversy, which stemmed from comments the pontiff made to a group of young Russian Catholics urging them to see themselves as the heirs of a “great” empire.

No no no, Mister Pontiff, that’s the part you’re not supposed to say out loud. You’re not supposed to admit it’s about power and domination. Big big no-no.

“Don’t forget your heritage. You are the descendants of great Russia: the great Russia of saints, rulers, the

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Insufferable Willoughby

Sep 10th, 2023 4:48 pm | By
Insufferable Willoughby

Still doing it, is he? Guy who likes to tweet enhanced photos of his 58-year-old male self, calling women frumps and old relics? Guy who has been around for 58 years and still hasn’t caught on that playground-bullying isn’t a good look on an adult?

Pakistan Willoughby says:

The entirety of the Helen Joyce ‘Gender Critical’ movement meeting in a Manchester museum for old relics today. Wow. Around 1,000 cis women outside, standing WITH the trans community, opposing GC bigotry and hate. Terf now stands for Trans Exclusionary Radical Frump.

With photo of actual women rather than the pretend kind.

H/t Rob for the link after Willz tried to hide.… Read the rest



Vatican vanity

Sep 10th, 2023 11:03 am | By

Hmmm.

Beatification for Polish family murdered for sheltering Jews

A beatification Mass service has been held in Poland for a Catholic family murdered by Nazis for hiding Jews during World War Two. Poland’s president and more than 30,000 pilgrims attended the outdoor service, led by Pope Francis’ envoy. This was the first time an entire family has been beatified, a great honour and a step towards sainthood.

They were executed in 1944 with the Jews they sheltered in south-eastern Poland, after they were betrayed.

That’s all very nice but the BBC fails to murmur so much as a word about the Catholic church’s relationship to Nazism and Anti-Semitism. The Catholic church was not a beacon of resistance to Nazism in … Read the rest