The misogyny gets more blatant by the day.

🧵1 / “No TERFs! No JK Rowling!” These words are part of a pre-recorded ‘welcome’ message played during the show GROOVE, funded by The Arts Council England and The National Lottery Community Fund

Why are @ace_london and @TNLComFund supporting misogyny in theatre? pic.twitter.com/h2i7OkQdF0

— MrMenno Appreciation Society (@GayGenderPirate) October 4, 2022

3 / This thread will (1) look at wider context of this misogynistic messaging, and (2) give an account of MrMenno, a gay man, protesting this language during the Saturday matinee performance on 01.10.22 pic.twitter.com/BNqYc3AqmS

— MrMenno Appreciation Society (@GayGenderPirate) October 4, 2022

It’s a very long thread so I’ll quote some of it, to speed things up.

“Wider context: women … Read the rest

Meet “belief perseverance”:

Even now, when it is revealed that one of Mermaids’s trustees is an apologist for paedophilia, many of its supporters are doubling down.

This is what is known as “belief perseverance”.

[2/9]

— Andrew Doyle (@andrewdoyle_com) October 5, 2022

There is a lot at stake for those who have cheered on the Tavistock Clinic and groups like Mermaids. Many of the cheerleaders have encouraged the transitioning of children, sometimes their own.

Many of these kids will have been autistic, or will have grown up to be gay.

[4/9]

— Andrew Doyle (@andrewdoyle_com) October 5, 2022

Have any of the politicians who called for a ban on “trans conversion therapy” conceded that they had been hoodwinked by linguistic

Benjamin Cohen of Pink News is trying to salvage what he can, and it’s not going all that well.

Mermaids told @PinkNews that the conference Breslow spoke at “is completely at odds with our values”. Adding: “Safeguarding is of the utmost importance to Mermaids and the safety of the young people we support is our highest priority” (2/3)

— Benjamin Cohen (@benjamincohen) October 4, 2022

Well of course Mermaids said that, but it isn’t true. “Safety” isn’t helping children ruin their bodies in pursuit of a trendy illusion.

People are falsely claiming that Jacob Breslow reported for @PinkNews. He didn’t. We published a guest article by him via @pointfoundation at which he was a scholar in 2007. This was

I think truth is a defense in libel cases, no? Trump is suing CNN for “libeling” him by reporting on him.

Donald Trump has sued cable TV network CNN, claiming defamation and seeking punitive damages of $475m, according to a Florida court filing on Monday.

The US cable news station has attempted to smear the former US president “with a series of ever-more scandalous, false, and defamatory labels of ‘racist,’ ‘Russian lackey,’ ‘insurrectionist,’ and ultimately ‘Hitler’,” Trump’s lawyers claimed. The lawsuit has been filed in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.

I don’t think those claims will be very hard to defend as true. If CNN said he actually is Hitler that could be an issue, but I’m betting they compared… Read the rest

Victoria Smith in The Critic:

Much is made of Mermaids’ promotion of puberty blockers, which halt children’s physical growth. In many ways I am far more concerned about the emotional stunting. The #NoDebate, #ProtectTransKids message refuses to acknowledge that our identities are shaped through constant negotiation with others. 

By telling children that anyone who does not see them as they see themselves is a threat, Mermaids is preventing the development of mature individuals — adults who understand that we are all defined in the context of our relationships with others, including those with whom we may not always agree. 

Exactly. It’s the worship of The Self that is so stifling and damaging.… Read the rest

Trump didn’t study for the exam, in fact he has no idea what the course even is.

He starts with saying he likes Liz Truss, then moves swiftly into claiming he and King Choss are close friends.

Trump said that King Charles would be “different now” and would do “very well” in his new role.

“I know him very well, quite well. And I spent a lot of time when I was over there as president with him. And with his wife [who] was absolutely lovely, by the way, and we had a good time together,” he said.

No he didn’t. He was there for a couple of days and he of course didn’t spend “a lot of time” … Read the rest

Deep thought.

Yes you do.

Yes, you do. In some circumstances you most definitely do. Not all, but some.

It might make you uncomfortable to have a stranger come into your house uninvited and settle down in your living room, even if that stranger never harmed anything or shouted at you or stole one of the lamps. You do have a right not to be made uncomfortable that way.

The toilets situation is not exactly like that, but it’s not radically different, either.… Read the rest

No.

University of Idaho – “You can’t discuss abortion”

Ron DeSantis – “You can’t say gay”

Maya Forstater – “You can’t change pronouns”

See the pattern here?https://t.co/RRK2hIkQft

— Billy Bragg (@billybragg) October 4, 2022

No. There’s no pattern to see. … Read the rest

The BBC works hard to minimize it:

A trustee of the charity Mermaids has resigned after reports he spoke at a conference organised by a group that promotes support for paedophiles.

Dr Jacob Breslow quit the transgender children’s charity after the Times revealed he had attended the B4U-ACT conference in 2011, as a PhD student.

B4U-ACT calls for paedophiles to have the right to live “in truth and dignity”.

Do the children get to live in truth and dignity?

B4U-ACT’s website says it holds workshops and gives presentations about the needs and rights of people “with an attraction to children and adolescents”, and runs support groups for both them and their friends and family members.

“An attraction to” is … Read the rest

If we’d been…

If I'd been arguing for the destigmatisation of paedophilia ten years ago, had never recanted those views and then wheedled my way onto the board of a charity for vulnerable kids, then damn right I should be fired. https://t.co/eiFhQDFR60

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 4, 2022

Also…

And the book with a chapter called Desiring the Child was published in May last year

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) October 4, 2022

“Desiring the Child”…and stalking the child, getting the child alone, putting the child on your lap, putting your hand in the child’s pants, putting the child’s hand on your penis…the possibilities are endless.… Read the rest

Graham has an encyclopedic post on the former Mermaids trustee which includes this fascinating item:

LSE's "I hold a knife to your throat" guy was a student of Jacob Breslow, who was recently given a platform by Cambridge Uni to hold an anti-TERF online event.

Besides "anti-terfing," Breslow also holds highly problematic views on children and sex. https://t.co/IjkeCHMtZL

— 4W (@4WPub) January 27, 2022

I wonder if this will be the end of the road for the fishy ones.… Read the rest

“Gender research” scholar resigns from Mermaids under a garish cloud:

A trustee of the transgender charity Mermaids resigned last night after it emerged that he had spoken at a conference hosted by an organisation that promotes services to paedophiles.

Aka child rapists.

Dr Jacob Breslow was a graduate student in gender research at the London School of Economics when he gave a presentation at an event for the US-based B4U-ACT in 2011.

Breslow’s presentation appeared to be a critique of how paedophiles were understood.

You mean as child rapists?

He’s now an assistant professor of gender and sexuality at LSE. He became a trustee of Mermaids in July.

After The Times approached Mermaids about Breslow’s talk, he tendered his resignation

Originally a comment by iknklast on A protean concept.

DiAngelo is following the pattern of other consultants. In corporations, and in academia, it has been a pattern for a long time to hire consultants who tell people if they are unhappy, it’s because they “let” themselves be. Not making enough to buy food for your family? Just think positively! It isn’t the fault of the boss, or the system, but you for finding that problematic.

Bosses ate it up, and hired these consultants to come tell their employees what was wrong with them – the employees, I mean. Wage too low? Don’t ask for a raise, that’s complaining. Figure out why you think it’s too low, and realize it … Read the rest

Hari Kunzru wrote a brilliant piece on “whiteness” for the New York Review of Books a couple of years ago.

One idea inherited from 1960s radicalism is that of “white privilege,” a protean concept that has found its way into conversations about political power, material prosperity, social status, and even cognition. Invoking whiteness can stand in for older leftist ideas about class and power, or it can be a way of modifying those ideas. Whiteness can name a specifically American caste system—a historical product of plantation slavery—or a set of unexamined beliefs about a person’s own centrality, neutrality, authority, and objectivity. It can also take on a transhistorical, even transcendental quality, naming something more like a spiritual condition, a

A funny item in Pink News last January:

Trans Joy: 23 trans and non-binary people share what’s making them feel hopeful for 2022

Anonymous, Brighton: “In 2021, I and my Sussex Uni peers kicked up enough fuss about TERFism in academia to get the whole nation talking, and I couldn’t be more proud of Brighton’s trans community.

“We’ve started a long-overdue conversation about humanity and dignity that I want to continue throughout 2022 and beyond.”

So much dignity and humanity!… Read the rest

Sorry for late appearance! Internet problems again. I’ll be scarce for a couple of days.

Update: Just one day as it turns out. I’m ba-ack!… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Rob on Not needed on voyage.

I’m not a fan of constitutional monarchies, but I’m not convinced that democracies that place significant power in the hands of presidents or similar posts have covered themselves with glory either. Ceremonial presidencies seem just as pointless as a constitutional monarch, although I guess it’s less likely to become hereditary.

Getting to my rambling point, if Charles is ‘just another guy’ then why shouldn’t he have and express a view? If he’s technically head of state, then why shouldn’t he display leadership – even if we feel distaste for why he’s head of state? The point in this specific case is that now he’s head of state he’s by … Read the rest

Mermaids instructs children on how to change their names. Obviously this is something some random goons on the internet should be doing rather than children’s parents. This is serious business, way too serious for parental units.

 What obligation does my school or workplace have if I change my name?

Changing a name is almost always a momentous moment for trans and non-binary people and it is becoming more and more common for trans people want to change their first name during childhood and adolescence. The changing of a name is often an indicator that an individual is taking steps to, or proposing to move towards presenting as their true gender identity. 

Sic. Mistakes theirs, not mine.

Any request

The government has told King Choss it doesn’t need his help at the environment summit.

I’ll say right up front I’m not consistent on this point. I think Choss has no standing to say anything on any subject, other than the ordinary human one. On the other hand turning the climate ship around is more important than keeping the monarchy in check. I think both that Choss should keep his opinions to himself because he has an arbitrary megaphone via birth, and that Choss should be allowed to warn about climate change because he has an arbitrary megaphone via birth.

Before his accession to the throne last month, the King – then the Prince of Wales – had indicated he