The Johns Hopkins definition of lesbian is doing the rounds.

A masterpiece @JohnsHopkins clap………….clap………clap……

Compare & contrast. https://t.co/XSfdCt1nBb

— James Dreyfus (@DreyfusJames) June 12, 2023

https://twitter.com/SoniaRGallego/status/1668236564080590848 https://twitter.com/hatpinwoman/status/1668212741067137028

I really think Johns Hopkins ought to explain, as well as delete and start over. I really think anyone in a position to promulgate the claim that women are non-men while men get to go on being men ought to explain the reasons for spreading such a blatant shameless in your face insult to women.… Read the rest

Humanists UK are going with “men are women if they say they are.” Women are going with “Goodbye Humanists UK.”

I've resigned today as a Patron of @Humanists_UK. I've campaigned for women's rights all my life & I can't support an organisation that opposes the EHRC's advice that the government should consider clarifying the 2010 Equality Act to protect women @SexMattersOrg @HayteratLords

— Joan Smith (@polblonde) June 12, 2023

Sex Matters explains.

The @Humanists_UK are lobbying against women's rights and freedom of speech.

They say there is no definition of sex in law, and no need for one.

Thankyou Baroness Hayter and Joan Smith for taking a stand and resigning @HayteratLords @polblonde https://t.co/sdLLeS3E5Q pic.twitter.com/QE1BgjgDrT

— Sex Matters (@SexMattersOrg) June

… Read the rest

Mark Joseph Stern at Slate takes a very grim view of the Judge Cannon situation.

Cannon’s total lack of principle, combined with her evident incapacity to experience shame, renders her a uniquely favorable jurist for the former president. Indeed, if she maintains her grasp on this case, it is nearly impossible to envision Smith securing a conviction in her courtroom.

Cannon, a Trump appointee, gained notoriety while presiding over Trump’s attempt to halt the classified documents investigation in 2022. Following the search of Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s lawyers filed a complaint alleging that the search was illegitimate and unconstitutional; they demanded the appointment of a special master and, in the meantime, a freeze on prosecutors’ review of seized materials. In a

… Read the rest

But don’t worry, climate change is just a lefty plot to make people get rid of their SUVs, it’s not a real thing. Not real not real not real.

Tens of thousands of fish washed ashore along the gulf coast of Texas starting on Friday after being starved of oxygen in warm water, officials said.

Park officials for Brazoria County said that a cleanup effort was underway but thousands more fish were expected to wash ashore.

That’s ok. We can just print new fish.

Katie St. Clair, the sea life facility manager at Texas A&M University at Galveston, said that the warming of gulf coast waters through climate change could have contributed to the fish kill.

“As we

… Read the rest

Just try harder grrrlzzzz

https://twitter.com/i_heart__bikes/status/1667989526692892672… Read the rest

No no no no no you stupid goons, you still don’t get it – we’re happy for you to play all-trans sports. Delighted. Go for it! It’s the playing “one man in the women’s sport” that we object to.

Pink News headline:

Historic all-trans rugby match sends a ‘big f*** you’ to transphobes

No, Pinky, it really doesn’t. Quite the opposite. All-trans sport is perfectly fine and doesn’t trouble us in the least. It’s the stealing women’s sports we object to. I think we’ve been very clear on this point.… Read the rest

Ken White on the unwinnable case scenario:

Yesterday, on our Emergent Situation Episode of Serious Trouble, Josh and I sparred a bit over the moral and political philosophy of Jack Smith’s decision to prosecute. I pointed out that the somewhat predictable assignment of the case to Judge Aileen Cannon — who proved herself to be an arguably lawless Trump partisan when she entertained his attempts to derail his own investigation — will make it extraordinarily difficult to convict him. If Judge Cannon presides over the case she can derail the prosecution in myriad ways, some of them unreviewable, if she wants to. Moreover, there’s reason to doubt that a Florida jury will convict Trump. Finally, and perhaps

… Read the rest

Hmmm.

A lawyer speaks:

You know what I don’t have? Female clients assaulted in women’s institutions by women with penises. Nada. Not a single one. What I do have are trans women who can’t get women’s clothing, trans women who are told that wigs and makeup present a security risk, (4/x)

— Amy Matychuk (@amymatychuk) June 10, 2023

You know who the vulnerable parties are? Trans women living their gender in male institutions, which means being assaulted, being jeered at and asked to show their tits by staff and inmates alike. Trans women who are too afraid to be out while in custody. (6/x)

— Amy Matychuk (@amymatychuk) June 10, 2023

“And when they finally have the genitalia they want?” … Read the rest

Trump isn’t the only one.

Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been arrested in connection with the ongoing investigation into the funding and finances of the SNP. Police confirmed a 52-year-old woman was taken into custody as a suspect and is being questioned by detectives.

It follows the arrest and release of her husband, ex-SNP chief executive Peter Murrell in April. A spokesman for Ms Sturgeon confirmed she was cooperating with the investigation.

She probably won’t have to spend time in a cell, but if she does, I wonder if she’ll urge the screws to put her in with a trans laydee.… Read the rest

Sonia Sodha writes:

Patients are supposed to be at the heart of everything the NHS does. This is considered such an important principle that, a decade ago, the fledgling NHS constitution was rewritten after the mid-Staffs scandal, in which so many patients died, to make clear it should frame every aspect of NHS work.

You’d think that would be self-evident. What else would be at the heart of health care?

Yet, last week, the NHS Confederation, the membership body for NHS providers, published guidance that appears to cut this ethos adrift. [Its stated objectives are incredibly important: supporting trans staff by helping healthcare leaders to understand their needs and address any workplace discrimination they may face.] But it also

… Read the rest

Grey Slavery is back in the news gossip.

I’m ready to disclose the details of the prior restraint of my research. The culprit is University College London, whose lawyers instructed the executive editor of their online journal THINK PIECES to pull my essay. The essay is linked here.https://t.co/H0BYUfY3kj

— Prof. Grace Lavery (@graceelavery) June 9, 2023

He adds several hundred tweets, which are too boring to read, let alone share. He’s enjoying the attention a lot.

H/t Mostly Cloudy… Read the rest

The Times says Aileen Cannon won’t be recused.

The news of Judge Cannon’s assignment raised eyebrows because of her role in an earlier lawsuit filed by Mr. Trump challenging the F.B.I.’s search of his Florida club and estate, Mar-a-Lago. In issuing a series of rulings favorable to him, Judge Cannon, a Trump appointee, effectively disrupted the investigation until a conservative appeals court ruled she never had legitimate legal authority to intervene.

In other words she’s the last person who should be filling this slot.

There are all kinds of reasons other judges couldn’t be assigned to the case. It’s almost as if there are too many reasons. Assigning a judge who has already tried to protect Trump from the … Read the rest

Trump is displaying his usual taste and wit.

Donald Trump vowed Saturday to continue running for president even if he were to be convicted as part of the 37-count federal felony indictment that was issued against him this week.

“I’ll never leave,” Trump said in an interview aboard his plane. “Look, if I would have left, I would have left prior to the original race in 2016. That was a rough one. In theory that was not doable.”

Translation: He’ll continue to barge ahead because he’s a deranged narcissist.

While Trump said campaign fundraising had skyrocketed since the indictment was issued, he conceded it was an unwelcome development.

“Nobody wants to be indicted,” said Trump. “I don’t care that

… Read the rest

The BBC reminds us that Trump is charged not just with taking all those documents he had no right to take, but also with lying and obstruction in order to hang on to them.

Mr Trump has been charged with 37 counts of unauthorised possession of classified material, obstruction of justice, concealing documents, and making false statements to law enforcement.

…

Republicans, including some of Mr Trump’s presidential rivals, rushed to his defence on Thursday as news of the indictment first broke.

While they may still take issue with what they view as a politically motivated prosecution, they may find it more difficult to explain why Mr Trump held onto such sensitive national security after leaving the White House.

Where … Read the rest

The Guardian is still resorting to the gender uncritical framing.

Oxford University’s new professor of LGBTQ+ history has accused the government of “fanning a culture war” over freedom of speech, insisting it is alive and well in higher education.

Is there such a thing as LGBTQ+ history? I suppose you can lump two or more unrelated things together and then do history of both of them, but is that a genre of history or just a random list?

Matt Cook, who was this week named as the first Jonathan Cooper chair of the history of sexualities, a newly created post at Mansfield College, was speaking only days after the appointment of the government’s first “free speech tsar” for

… Read the rest

Jolyon Maugham urging more more more puberty blockers.

https://twitter.com/stueymaco/status/1667567398432514049

Updating to add – the replies to Maugham’s tweet are almost all in dissent. That’s encouraging.… Read the rest

Trump’s incredulity:

In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Mr Trump said he had been summoned to appear on Tuesday afternoon at a federal court in Miami, Florida, where the charges against him will be read.

“I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former president of the United States,” Mr Trump wrote.

That’s another symptom of his profound stupidity. He thought he could get away with anything because of his sacred status. Of course, he wouldn’t have said the same thing about Obama.

Prosecutors had also presented evidence in court in Washington DC, but a decision to file the indictment in southern Florida instead may offer some consolation for the Trump team.

… Read the rest

Golly, I wasn’t expecting that while cruising for Trump news – the four children lost in the Amazon have all been found alive.

[Colombian] President Gustavo Petro said finding the group was a “magical day”, adding: “They were alone, they themselves achieved an example of total survival which will remain in history.”

The children belong to the Huitoto indigenous group. Mr Petro shared a photograph of several members of the military and Indigenous community caring for the siblings, who had been missing for 40 days. One of the rescuers held a bottle up to the mouth of the smallest child, while another fed one of the other children from a mug with a spoon.

NBC News

Updating to add:… Read the rest

This has to stop. It’s journalistic malpractice that is a massive danger to women.

https://twitter.com/wundt_vil/status/1667305603616628737

A more accurate headline and less of a threat to women. It’s not women who are running around threatening to kill people, and news media have to stop saying it is.

The man who threatened Kellie-Jay Keen:

https://twitter.com/wundt_vil/status/1667436308711497728… Read the rest

https://twitter.com/petestrzok/status/1667228760603602945

Wow. Just wow. https://t.co/qrYWz9JSZn pic.twitter.com/HstQTjdOlV

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) June 9, 2023

UNSEALED INDICTMENT: The indictment starts with the stunning revelation Trump showed classified information to people not entitled to view it (and he was not entitled to possess it) pic.twitter.com/ySW67GdhGl

— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) June 9, 2023

Trump's contempt for United States national security, captured in a single photograph: pic.twitter.com/j9GY2ttwFC

— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) June 9, 2023

… Read the rest