Originally a comment by Me [that is, “Me” the commenter] on Gearing up.

Just some random observations: Maybe the “T” got blended with the “GLB” because some homosexual males became (for one reason or another) transwomen. The kind who would try to get picked up by straight guys, or who prostituted themselves to “straight” guys. And sometimes these straight or “straight” guys would become enraged with them and beat or kill them.

Since most women are attracted to men, and since sexual attraction isn’t a “lifestyle choice,” I know that I was perfectly able to entertain the possibility that there was a “gender” switch that these “AMAB” people had that made them at least nominally “female.” [I admit to … Read the rest

God is not optional.

Civil rights advocates are ringing alarm bells about officials distributing “In God We Trust” posters in Texas schools after a state law took effect requiring public campuses to display any donated items bearing that phrase.

“These posters demonstrate the more casual ways a state can impose religion on the public,” Sophie Ellman-Golan of Jews For Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ) told the Guardian. “Alone, they’re a basic violation of the separation of church and state. But in the broader context, it’s hard not to see them as part of the larger Christian nationalist project.”

Christian nationalist or just plain theocratic. Jews and Muslims also have a God.

While the phrase doesn’t explicitly mention any specific

Ah yes, gearing up for Pride by expressing holy hatred of radical feminists – that’s a good look.

It’s the banner on the left – “GOD HATES TERFS” – a play on the old Westboro Baptist “GOD HATES FAGS.” So amusing. “Love in all its forms” plus hatred of feminist women.

Europe’s rivers are drying up.

In places, the Loire can now be crossed on foot; France’s longest river has never flowed so slowly. The Rhine is fast becoming impassable to barge traffic. In Italy, the Po is 2 metres lower than normal, crippling crops. Serbia is dredging the Danube.

Across Europe, drought is reducing once-mighty rivers to trickles, with potentially dramatic consequences for industry, freight, energy and food production – just as supply shortages and price rises due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine bite.

Ok but it’s only industry, freight, energy and food production. Everything else is ok.

With no significant rainfall recorded for almost two months across western, central and southern Europe and none forecast

Yet another Doctor Nightmare.

Play the clip, it’s impordant.

Just keep repeating the mantras.

Repeating the mantras.

Repeating the mantras.

Repeating the mantras.

The mayor of Boston does.

Mayor Michelle Wu on Thursday reacted to the harassment and threats being leveled at Boston Children’s Hospital, attacks which the institution says began flooding in after misinformation about its transgender health program went viral. 

It’s not all misinformation though. It’s not true that toddlers are getting hysterectomies, but it is true that girls 18 and over are getting medically unnecessary hysterectomies in order to “affirm” their “genders.”

“This is medical care,” Wu said during an appearance on GBH’s “Boston Public Radio.” “This is one of the preeminent, most renowned medical institutions in the country, doing what they do best —

But it’s definitely not a social contagion at all, definitely not.

Ollie Davies was 26 years old and at the lowest ebb of his life when he made a decision to come out as a trans woman.

Estranged from his family, he was suffering depression, anxiety and behavioural problems as well as a crisis of self-identity. He existed in what felt like a dissociative state. “I felt as if I had no free will,” Mr Davies says. “I was completely nihilistic and lonely and self-­hating and had no self-esteem. I was experiencing a total loss of identity and lack of sense of self.”

Mr Davies, who was openly ­bisexual, had never questioned his gender identity as a child or young

The Guardian wonders why on earth anyone cares.

Vic Goddard, principal of Passmores secondary academy school in Essex, has no desire to get caught up in a culture war…

“Why do politicians have an opinion on my school toilets? On our uniform policy?” he said. “Sort out the rocketing electricity bills and the cost of living. Don’t get involved in small decisions you don’t add value to.”

Because “his” school toilets and uniform policy may be discriminatory against girls. That’s why.

Goddard is referring to what many schools up and down the country describe as the apparent politicisation of an increasingly incendiary issue that they are being forced to deal with on a regular basis: gender. Everything from

Yet another group that just can’t use the word in its promotions.

Those. Those what?

Those.

Yes but those what?

Those in your community!

Those what in my community??!… Read the rest

The old sexism in grammar issue is acute in languages that have gendered “a” and “the.” French for example.

A French actress is facing a torrent of online abuse for challenging a four-century-old grammatical rule that the masculine form should take precedence over the feminine.

Typhaine D, 35, has received insults and death and rape threats over her attempt to feminise a language that she says discriminates against women. “Every sentence we speak integrates the notion that women are inferior, and that creates a terrain . . . that is favourable to violence,” she said in an interview.

Even without the violence bit, it’s true and it matters.

The pre-eminence of the masculine form dates from the 17th century

So…are men in women’s toilets and changing rooms a threat or not? Do we even know?

Police in Sheffield want to speak to this man after reports of someone filming women in a changing room in Primark on The Moor. Two women reported seeing a mobile phone being used under the curtains of the cubicles on the 19th of July. The women were left shaken and distressed. pic.twitter.com/0wxQUmtZr2

— BBC Sheffield (@BBCSheffield) August 19, 2022

This isn’t a particularly rare or obscure hobby. I’ve known men who bragged about following women up stairs in order to look up their skirts.… Read the rest

Ok enough is enough.

Remember when you had @HeinzUK Baked Beans with hash browns and thought "Why not put the baked beans IN the hash browns"?

Well, coming in September…! pic.twitter.com/QP7uU9gkNp

— Iceland Foods ❄️ (@IcelandFoods) August 19, 2022

I mean, fine, you’re in a hurry, you need to eat, you grab a can of something and make do. But don’t pretend it’s The Pride of the Nation or a Delicious Treat. Canned beans in sweet sauce are emergency food, there is no time food, when all else fails food. They are not not not “good” in the normal sense of good food. Many dishes that include beans or lentils are very good, but they don’t come in cans.

Also … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Papito on Medicine is not a tool to exalt gender identity.

I guess the word “queer” never lost its original pejorative sense, because being anti-gay and being pro-queer lead to the same result, and it’s not good for gays.

Artymorty, you’re not the only gay man I have encountered who finds “queer” to be the antagonist of “gay.” My friend S. says if a fellow says he’s “queer,” he doesn’t even want to be in the same room anymore.

I really like how Inconvenient Woman unpacked even more how Queer Theory became misogynist and homophobic theory:

I think patriarchy is extremely adaptable (which is why it’s existed for thousands of years) and every time women

Adam Rappaport at CREW on Ginni Thomas:

Ginni Thomas finds herself in the news a lot these days. Controversies surrounding the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas range from her husband’s conflicts of interest to texts she sent pushing former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to overturn the 2020 presidential election to her roles in organizations involved in litigation before the Court.

What many people do not know is that Thomas currently is a federal government official herself. And that’s not a position she should have.

In May 2020, then-President Trump appointed Thomas to a five-year term on the Library of Congress Trust Fund Board. Created by statute in 1925, the Trust Fund Board oversees

Skip the beach for now.

Swimmers have been warned to stay away after sewage was discharged on beaches across England and Wales, predominantly in the south.

Pollution alerts have been issued to beachgoers by the Environment Agency, and on some beaches signs have been put up to warn people.

The environmental campaign group Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) has collected data that suggests storm sewage discharges have taken place in the waters of beaches in Cornwall, Cumbria, Devon, Essex, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Northumberland and Sussex.

Oh is that all.

Hugo Tagholm, head of Surfers Against Sewage, said: “Every year we track thousands of sewage spills at some of England and Wales’s best loved beaches. Water companies are routinely using our rivers

Interesting. A bunch of “church leaders” in Cornwall think they have a veto over public artworks.

Since its dramatic appearance in a Cornish town centre, Earth Goddess, the tallest ceramic sculpture in the UK (and possibly the world), has provoked its fair share of controversy, with unkind critics condemning it as a gaudy piece of junk more suited to the land of the Teletubbies.

But the row has taken a religious twist after a group of church leaders wrote to St Austell town council claiming it was “offensive to God” and calling for the brightly coloured 11.5-metre-tall piece to be rebranded or removed.

That seems remarkably medieval, doesn’t it? Or papal? Or Saudiish? What business is it of theirs … Read the rest

Step one: learn what “inherent” means.

The only inherent difference between trans women and cis women is that trans women were assigned male by a doctor. Trans is an adjective that describes that assignment.

— Eli Erlick (@EliErlick) August 18, 2022

Being “assigned” something is the opposite of “inherent.” Way to ruin your own punchline.

As to the substance of the first tweet – of course they’re not. Trans women are men, by definition. “Natural women” is more a song title than a meaningful claim. “Normal women” means – ??? But biological women and born women are clear enough, and obviously men are not either of those, no matter what they call themselves.

Dumb counter-factual assertions are just dumb counter-factual … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Artymorty on All aboard the gender train.

What is it with everyone suddenly deciding that the naturally diverse ways humans express “gendered” interests are suddenly not just interesting, but specifically, medically interesting? It’s weird enough that we’re all suddenly obsessed with everyone’s gender “nonconformity” when at most we should just casually acknowledge that gender expression is a thing that matters to some people more than others, that different people have different gendery tastes and that’s perfectly normal, then move on. But in this crazy time we’re in, people seem to think the only way to give “gender” the weighty aura of seriousness it supposedly deserves is to put it under a medical spotlight. How is … Read the rest

The Stranger also sneers at feminist women.

On Monday night, the Port Townsend City Council and Mayor David Faber delivered a message loud and clear: transphobia is not welcome in Port Townsend.

It isn’t a phobia for women to want to take their clothes off without male strangers present.

After a nasty instance of transphobic bullying at the Port Townsend YMCA made national headlines across conservative media, the quiet town refused to cede an inch to transphobic outrage culture. In a much-appreciated symbolic gesture, the Mayor proclaimed the town a welcoming place for transgender people and an unwelcoming place for discrimination of any kind. 

But it wasn’t transphobic bullying, and it wasn’t nasty. Women need spaces away from … Read the rest

Port Townsend’s mayor is a tad flippant about women and their rights.

Women who don’t want men in their locker rooms? Bah, evil TERFs from out of town. Mute them all.… Read the rest