This sensible and discerning fella at the blog Learning From Dogs got permission from Free Inquiry to republish my think-piece in the current issue titled Cruising Over the Edge.
The fine editors at FI found the perfect photo to illustrate it. [Updating: but this illustration isn’t that one.]
… Read the restIt’s not fake. Just so you know.
“Veronica Ivy” enters the race. Burnaby Velodrome.
Here's some new footage of Veronica Ivy / Rachel McKinnon getting ready for a women's cycling race earlier this year pic.twitter.com/yQN7NIBTL1
— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) April 13, 2022
Updating to add, h/t Dave Ricks:
https://twitter.com/amy_goblok/status/1506866659717369858… Read the restOh really.
The source is Private Eye News, she says in a followup tweet.
https://twitter.com/VictoriaPeckham/status/1514169122027884544The Guardian kept it secret. So interesting.… Read the rest
No, that’s wrong.
https://twitter.com/IndiaWilloughby/status/1513864178133569543No, feminists are not “whipping up fear about ‘manly’ looking folk in toilets.” We’re defending our right to have some spaces away from men, toilets being one such space. Not ‘manly’ looking folk, but men. It’s not about the appearance, it’s about the reality. Has Willoughby never heard the old saw that Appearances Can Be Deceiving? More seriously, is he genuinely unaware that such a distinction exists?
He keeps reminding us that some men are good at appearing like women. We know. It’s unfortunate that some men are able to use that talent to gain the trust of women in order to rape or kill them, or both. Willoughby however seems to be arguing that … Read the rest
Mmmmmm point missed.
That is strange, because having traveled "the world over" very extensively, I can tell you that VAST numbers of women live on annual incomes less than the cost of the phones on that table,
and never get to have fun in chic spaces quaffing expensive wines. https://t.co/SYlXXynSkp— Craig Murray (@CraigMurrayOrg) April 11, 2022
Craig Murray is a historian and human rights activist and a former ambassador – yet he gets such a clear statement so thoroughly wrong. It’s not about the restaurant or the wines or the phones. It’s about the solidarity among women.
Weird of him to decide to sneer at Onjali Rauf, too.… Read the rest
James Beal sounds as if he’d have liked to be there.
Over bottles of wine at an Italian restaurant, they put their arms around each other and hugged like old friends.
But the Sunday lunch in west London was in fact the first time JK Rowling had met Maya Forstater, whose legal battle has had a profound effect on them both.
Friendships can form in advance of [and even without] meeting though. They can, and they make first meetings much easier than the cold open kind.
Rowling organised the lunch, at The River Café, Hammersmith, for campaigners, including the Labour MP Rosie Duffield and the philosopher Kathleen Stock, who have been targeted by the trans lobby.
As have … Read the rest
NPR has a “book review” that in a surprise twist turns out to be a polemic attacking feminist women.
In an apocalypse where a virus turns anyone with enough testosterone into a feral, cannibalistic beast, who survives?
In Gretchen Felker-Martin’s electric debut novel Manhunt, the book’s nightmare world is populated with everyone left –
That’s a confusing half-sentence. I guess it means the survivors are the ones who populate the nightmare world, unless it means everyone left wing. Anyway…
the book’s nightmare world is populated with everyone left — mostly cisgender women, but there are also plenty of non-binary people, transgender men, and transgender women.
Oh, that kind of nightmare world – where we no longer have women and men, … Read the rest
The Conservative MP Crispin Blunt has resigned as chair of the LGBTQ+ parliamentary group and withdrawn comments that a fellow MP found guilty of sexual assault was a victim of a “miscarriage of justice”.
After an outcry from MPs across the political spectrum, Blunt deleted the tweet defending convicted MP Imran Ahmad Khan and removed the comment from his website after an intervention from Tory whips overnight.
I’m picturing them taking turns to scold him all night long. No sleep for him!
His retraction tweet says, idiotically:
I am sorry that my defence of him has been a cause of significant upset and concern not least to victims of sexual offences.
Like saying “I’m sorry … Read the rest
Now there’s a headline:
Crispin Blunt’s defence of sex offender MP revives stench of impunity
… Read the restThe attempt by Crispin Blunt to taint a court’s verdict of sexual assault against the former Tory MP Imran Ahmad Khan will put the apparent culture of impunity at the Palace of Westminster in the spotlight again.
While the #MeToo scandal led to major reforms to try to protect staff members and parliamentary aides from bullying and abuse, there have been multiple attempts over the past few years to cast aspersions on those seeking justice.
Three Conservative MPs in recent years have been found by courts to have committed sexual assault or rape, two of them with character references provided by fellow Conservatives. Throughout the
Back atcha, “sister.”
https://twitter.com/alisonphipps/status/1513487278710181896… Read the restCrispin Blunt’s statement on a colleague convicted of sexually assaulting a minor has angered a lot of MPs (including Joanna Cherry).
… Read the restThe Tory MP Crispin Blunt is facing calls to quit as chair of a Parliamentary Group on LGBT+ rights after he defended a colleague found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.
Mr Blunt, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Global LGBT+ Rights, made a public intervention on Monday after Conservative MP Imran Ahmad Khan was found guilty of sexual assault.
Khan, who has been expelled from the Conservative Party, continues to deny wrongdoing and does not intend to stand down as an MP but is likely to face removal from office after he is sentenced.
In
Remember Crispin Blunt MP? I wrote about him last August, in a post about the pressure being put on Lisa Townsend, Surrey’s Police and Crime Commissioner, who was being accused of “transphobia” for saying men shouldn’t be in women’s prisons. A Surrey news outlet reported:
Marc Jones, chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), came to her defence, saying: “Some services quite simply can’t function in a gender neutral way”, which Reigate MP Crispin Blunt said was an “evidence-free panicked response”.
… Read the restWe don’t. But too much more of this exaggerated and evidence free panicked response and we will do even more harm to trans and gender fluid people whose challenges the rest of us are
Oh really.
As of today, we have become aware that the charitable status of the organisation is being questioned. In line with our usual practice where a grantee is under investigation or review this grant is suspended.
(2/2)
— The London Community Foundation (@London_cf) April 11, 2022
Can’t have LGB without the T. Not allowed.… Read the rest
More from Willoughby.
https://twitter.com/IndiaWilloughby/status/1513281198860259330 https://twitter.com/KarenPheiffer/status/1513497029527453696Whilst it is unpleasant for women to be stalked and derided for their appearance whilst at a female lunch ,it does serve a valuable purpose of shining some sunlight on the pure misogyny of India Willoughby .
— kate commonsense (@KateCommonsense) April 11, 2022
https://twitter.com/debateisokay/status/1513293079737999364
And there is a difference between the two. Imagine!… Read the rest
Dominic Lawson in the Mail part 2:
…the Today programme interviewed Veronica Ivy, born male, but who as Rachel McKinnon (I know, it’s confusing) became the first transgender world track cycling champion in 2018, at an event for women in the 35 to 44 age bracket.
Wait a second, let’s talk about why it’s confusing. It’s confusing because Rhys McKinnon changed his first name to Rachel because he Became a Woomonn, but then he changed the whole thing to Veronica Ivy because ?????? I don’t think he ever said why – it appears to be just another bit of attention-getting weirdness.
… Read the restArmed with the knowledge that peer-reviewed scientific papers demonstrate that, even after the testosterone reduction sporting bodies have demanded
Dominic Lawson writes (in the Daily Mail, usual apologies apply) about not getting abuse for writing about the mismatch between trans demands and women’s rights:
As it turned out, I encountered no abuse at all, just a lot of mail from female readers of this newspaper to the effect that they were delighted I was speaking up for them.
Yet I am sure that if I were a woman and had written such a column in the issue of April 8, 2019, I would indeed have been monstered on social media, especially Twitter.
Look at what has happened to J.K. Rowling, who has endured death threats and the foulest of personal abuse after she defended Maya Forstater.
And what happened … Read the rest
India Willoughby doesn’t get it.
https://twitter.com/JessDeWahls/status/1513487468586323973… Read the restAnd there’s more. Lots more.
Two ex-single mums now united for women’s rights ❤️ @RosieDuffield1 #RespectMySex pic.twitter.com/9iSXPifHa2
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 11, 2022
Thank you @jk_rowling for a fantastic day. pic.twitter.com/PYJkfMe549
— Allison Bailey (@BluskyeAllison) April 10, 2022
I had the best day yesterday. Thank you @jk_rowling for bringing together so many of the women who’ve helped sustain each other through difficult times. #SisterhoodIsPowerful. #WomenWontWheesht pic.twitter.com/1xfT9lvbNd
— Joanna Cherry KC (@joannaccherry) April 11, 2022
It was a memorable lunch yesterday with @jk_rowling snd some but by no means all of the wonderful women standing up against the new misogyny pic.twitter.com/BsbwaY0quw
— Helen Joyce (@HJoyceGender) April 11, 2022
… Read the rest. @jk_rowling has been such a source of strength
Not jealous, no no, not at all.
Such an honour to be with all these women! Thanks @BluskyeAllison for the picture!!! @jk_rowling pic.twitter.com/IUUfjw0jk0
— GetTheLOutUK (@GetTheLOutUK) April 10, 2022
