Another Guardian piece today from the same reporter, Robyn Vinter:

Trans children in England worse off now than four years ago, says psychologist

As if it’s just settled fact that there are “trans children.”

Transgender children are being left in a “far worse position” than before the Cass report, with a service that is “going backwards instead of forwards”, according to a psychologist who has set up a private gender service.

Dr Aiden Kelly, a clinical psychologist specialising in gender who was part of the team at the Tavistock and Portman NHS mental health trust’s gender identity development services (Gids), said he was “very, very worried” about the NHS’s ability to deliver a suitable gender service based on the findings

… Read the rest

The Guardian is distraught.

While the Cass report’s 400 pages will be pored over and debated, one thing is certain – young trans people face an anxious future.

Because of the report’s 400 pages? So without the Cass report young trans people would have faced a happy calm confident future? Because pretending to be the opposite sex and trying to force the world to pretend along with you is such an easy simple fun way to live?

The mother of a 17-year-old trans girl who was a patient at the now-shut Gender Identity Development Service (Gids) at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust said she had initially welcomed Cass’s inquiry, but had been left “disappointed”.

She had believed

… Read the rest

Mermaids says what now?

Mermaids CEO Lauren Stoner responds to #CassReview:

“We’re not medical experts, we don’t advocate for any [medical] pathway.” pic.twitter.com/wIaATGJHwk

— John James (@JohnJamesNI) April 10, 2024

Really? Gosh, I could have sworn…

Absolute, total, shameless lies. Your ex-CEO referred children to the Tavistock gender clinic. Mermaids has repeatedly claimed puberty blockers are reversible, sent out breast binders to girls as young as thirteen and insisted publicly that unless children are affirmed in their… https://t.co/LViY2GJ1Zb

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 11, 2024

Absolute, total, shameless lies. Your ex-CEO referred children to the Tavistock gender clinic. Mermaids has repeatedly claimed puberty blockers are reversible, sent out breast binders to girls as young as thirteen and insisted publicly

… Read the rest

The Guardian sees fit to publish this brainless glurge from a Trans ActivIst:

Based on the coverage in the UK’s rightwing media, where equality for trans people is most loudly and regularly opposed, you might have been convinced that Hilary Cass agrees with them and them alone…

There’s brainless and then there’s lying. Nobody opposes “equality for trans people.” That’s a ridiculous claim. Trans ideology has nothing to do with equality.

Cass criticises the lack of broader mental health care provision, including treatment for eating disorders. The community agrees, as would anyone who knows the first thing about NHS mental health provision. Cass cites the lack of autism awareness and assessment. Again, the community – well aware and unafraid

… Read the rest

Having enough.

Health Secretary Victoria Atkins says she has had “enough” of a “culture of secrecy and ideology” around gender care for children. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, she criticised NHS England practitioners, in response to a landmark review into gender care practices.

It is a very weird culture for a medical issue. We’ve been saying that all along. It’s more like a religion than it is like normal medical practice. There are taboos, heretics, inquisitions, expulsions, lies, bullying, slogans, blasphemy laws – none of which you want in a medical issue.

The Cass review said children had been “let down” by a lack of research on the use of puberty blockers. It called for gender services to match

… Read the rest

Favorite headline of the hour:

… Read the rest

Honestly, of all the times for a power outage to force me to take a day off, did it really have to be the day when everyone was talking about the Cass review? How can I possibly catch up?

I can’t, so I’ll just go with what I find amusing or absurd or both.

Like a pronouns fool getting told she’s a pronouns fool.

NO ONE can tell me this ISN’T the rictus grin of a cult member. Through that fixed ‘smile’ & ‘friendly demeanour’ is a bubbling river of rage. You can actually pinpoint the moments the mask slips off completely.

Fascinating. https://t.co/bMvXOOjnQK

— James Dreyfus (@DreyfusJames) April 10, 2024

“I’m not a single woman though, I’m a very … Read the rest

Sorry! The power went out. Blammo at 5:45 a.m. It’s now 8:45 p.m. – the power blinked back on about 5 minutes ago. Whew. It was getting grim – the light fading, no ability to warm up food, freezing cold. I went out for a little walk, to have something to do and to see if I could sense any progress. There were a lot of City Light trucks lined up and several guys in a hole in the sidewalk – more guys than you would think would fit. I did a broad loop and on the homeward stretch there were four people playing fiddle music on a porch – playing it really well. Cheered me up a good deal. … Read the rest

Ahhhhhhhhh that makes all the difference.

https://twitter.com/DesmondInSSF/status/1777814697229881854

That’s fine then. That’s how it works. He doesn’t use the term “nigger” on all Black people, just the ones who do something he dislikes. That’s absolutely fine, and very fair and helpful and above all progressive.

What does Desmond in San Francisco say to women who say something he dislikes?

This:

https://twitter.com/IanGee2023/status/1777765526002962848

The glorious future looks brighter with every day, wouldn’t you agree?… Read the rest

Scottish DARVO:

A senior SNP politician has accused JK Rowling of wasting police time and attacking Scottish “societal values” by testing new hate crime laws.

Rowling is wasting police time? I’d say it’s the SNP lawmakers who are wasting police time.

Karen Adam, who is convener of Holyrood’s equalities committee, launched a thinly veiled attack on the Harry Potter author in a defence of Humza Yousaf’s controversial legislation, which she hailed as an “incredible example of our commitment to justice”.

It’s incredible all right, but not as an example of any kind of commitment to justice.

On the first day that the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act came into force, Rowling deliberately “misgendered” a series

… Read the rest

More on Tickle v Giggle:

The case is the first time alleged gender identity discrimination has been heard by the federal court and goes to the heart of how gender identity – and being a woman – is interpreted.

I can remember when being a woman – the brute fact part of it – didn’t require interpretation. A tree is a tree, a bird is a bird, a woman is a woman. What follows from that is infinitely discussable, but the mere word, not so much.

On Tuesday, federal court justice Robert Bromwich heard Tickle has lived as woman since 2017, has a birth certificate stating that her gender is female, had gender affirmation surgery and “feels in her

… Read the rest

Making it look a little too easy there, Sport. People are bound to get suspicious.

https://twitter.com/redlettergay/status/1777247276764660175

Random person says “I was beaten up” and shares random photo. Is the photo of the person who claims to have been beaten up? I see no reason to think so. I see no reason to believe what random person says, either. I don’t even believe random person is in Coventry! When I get skeptical I don’t mess around.

And then the instant follow-up with “Here’s where to send me money” doesn’t make it more believable. It provides a motive, you see – a motive beyond mere attention-seeking. If people are gullible, why not slap random photos of bruised faces up on Twitter and … Read the rest

Climate change is a human rights issue (as well as an issue under other headings).

A group of older Swiss women have won the first ever climate case victory in the European Court of Human Rights. The women, mostly in their 70s, said that their age and gender made them particularly vulnerable to the effects of heatwaves linked to climate change. The court said Switzerland’s efforts to meet its emission reduction targets had been woefully inadequate.

…

The ruling is binding and can trickle down to influence the law in 46 countries in Europe including the UK.

The Court ruled that Switzerland had “failed to comply with its duties under the Convention concerning climate change” and that it had violated

… Read the rest

Can it get any more maddeningly idiotic?

Females-only app that banned trans woman says it was creating a ‘safe space’

Lawyers for trans woman Roxanne Tickle have argued she is a woman and was discriminated against when she was banned from using a female-only app.

Then lawyers for trans woman Roxanne Tickle are talking deranged nonsense. Women are women; trans women are men. That’s what “trans” means. It means fake, pretend, fantasy, delusion. A person’s sex is not something that can be switched via argument or declaration or assertion or claim or announcement.

There are two separate problems here and in all these conflicts. One is the desirability or otherwise of pretending that people are the other sex, and forcing … Read the rest

The Guardian reports via the Associated Press:

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, which oversees smaller US colleges, announced a policy Monday that essentially bans transgender athletes from women’s sports.

The NAIA’s council of presidents approved the policy in a 20-0 vote on Monday, according to CBS Sports. The NAIA, which oversees about 83,000 athletes at schools across the US, is believed to be the first college sports organization to take such a step.

According to the transgender participation policy, all athletes may participate in NAIA-sponsored male sports. In contrast, only athletes whose biological sex is female and have not begun hormone therapy will be allowed participate in women’s sports. A student who has begun hormone therapy may participate

… Read the rest

The Scottish Feminist Network speaks up:

We did not hold homophobic signs or make offensive demands, or use abusive terms. 2/ pic.twitter.com/Od0E5NMOBc

— Scottish Feminist Network (@Scot_Feminists) April 7, 2024

Women met, they wore t-shirts and merkins and hats, they used their customary humour – not threats – to express their rights, their concerns about children and vulnerable adults. 4/ pic.twitter.com/MVzkrsuGuj

— Scottish Feminist Network (@Scot_Feminists) April 7, 2024

… Read the rest

From The Scottish Daily Express:

Police chiefs are facing an angry backlash over their handling of a women’s free speech rally on Saturday, which saw feminists and trans protesters clash, it can be revealed. Up to 1000 gender critical women and trans activists faced off in Edinburgh during outspoken women’s rights campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen’s Let Women Speak rally, the first major test of Scotland’s controversial new hate crime laws.

To put it more bluntly, feminist women held a free speech rally and trans “activists” did their best to drown it out.

While Ms Keen publicly thanked Police Scotland “for keeping women safe at the event”, many among her supporters were left angry and frustrated. Several complained about being “corralled”

… Read the rest

Agent-free passive voice and periphrasis dialed up to 1000:

H/t Sackbut… Read the rest

We’re not going to get any eclipse fun here in Seattle, because it’s all clouds up there. Nothing will change. It won’t even get darker.

But while we’re on the subject – this is a puzzle that doesn’t get discussed enough – how utterly bizarre is it that from here on this planet, the moon, which is practically next door, and the sun, which is way the fuck out there, ARE THE SAME SIZE???

I mean what are the odds? Eh? You wouldn’t place a bet on them. And yet there it is: from here, the moon can neatly block the sun such that only the corona is visible.

It’s downright creepy, is what it is.… Read the rest

Someone called Wren Sanders wrote a deferential piece on Judith Butler. Before we read it let’s find out who Wren Sanders is.

Wren Sanders (she/they) is an award-winning journalist and the editor of Them’s Community Section. Since joining the site in 2019, she has explored subjects such as Arca’s divine mutations, the case against LGBTQ+ military inclusion, and the power of trans monstrosity. As an editor, she is drawn to stories of resilience and insurgent joy, critiques of contemporary culture and politics, and visions of more livable worlds.

Is insurgent joy like trans joy, or is it a different kind of joy altogether? How do they both relate to intersectional joy? I’ll put research on … Read the rest