Arwa Mahdawi says it’s not a time to Calm Down Dear.

On the same day that prominent columnists were telling people to calm down – and less than 48 hours after the leaked supreme court opinion – Republicans in Louisiana advanced a bill that would redefine personhood to begin at the moment of fertilization and make abortion a crime of murder. Yes, you read that right: the moment of fertilization. I’m sure the people involved in drafting this law have no idea about how reproduction actually works (they like controlling female bodies, not learning about them), but between one-third and one-half of all fertilized eggs never fully implant. Which means someone in Louisiana needs to arrest God

It doesn’t say the girls are trans.

A teacher has been arrested after allegedly sexually assaulting four girls.

The 28-year-old suspect, who works at a school in Birmingham, is also accused of sending indecent images of himself.

I take it he’s not trans and the girls are also not trans?

I wonder if he’s transitioning right this minute, and will be informing the police of his new reality with the swiftness of thought.

In a statement, the police said: “We’re investigating sexual assault accusations against a teacher at a Birmingham school.

“It’s alleged the 28-year-old man assaulted four different girls and sent indecent images of himself.

“He was initially arrested on 9 May on suspicion of sexual assault and

Man brags about inserting himself into an abortion rights protest.

He shouldn’t be “really proud” of that. He should be really ashamed of it. He doesn’t need abortion rights, he’s not a woman, the war on abortion rights isn’t a war on him, he should sit down and be quiet.… Read the rest

He’s right you know.

It is, literally (all too literally), the kind of language that aspiring or existing fascist strongmen use to incite violence against The Chosen Enemy. It’s not just rude or over the top or “extreme,” it’s intended to provoke hatred then rage then violence.

This is @EliseStefanik bio pick from the @NEDemocracy. She is on the Board. This is their Mission Statement. The Board should REMOVE this person immediately. “PEDO GRIFTER” The NED should do that or CLOSE DOWN. Harvard’s Stefanik makes it the NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR CYNICISM pic.twitter.com/i4yCzD4Eq1

— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) May 14, 2022

“Pedo grifters.” That’s getting into blood libel territory.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Equally valid.

What follows is likely old hat to many here, but it’s something I’ve come to realize, partly in the course of writing this very comment. It might be completely off-base, but still, I’ll run it up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes.

Tatchell is being surprisingly candid, and perhaps unconciously so. First, he’s distinguishing between biological women (in reality, the only kind there is) and socially constructed “women” who do not share the biological characteristics of actual women. The claim of “both” being “equally valid” depends on the admitted existence of actual, biological women. The putative “equal validity” of “socially constucted women” (i.e. TiMs) has nothing to … Read the rest

Julie Bindel had a very horrible time at York University last week.

It was a sign of the times that the group that invited me to give a talk on feminism at York was the university’s Free Speech Society. It was scheduled for February but trouble immediately materialised and both the feminist and the LGBTQ societies got it cancelled. But my hosts did not back down and, pledging to guarantee the safety of both students and speaker, rescheduled the talk. It happened last week, in an atmosphere I found both deeply disturbing and profoundly distressing. 

…

I heard the noise before I saw the crowd. ‘Bindel, out!’ ‘Not welcome on our campus,’ ‘Decrim(inalise) sex work now’ and the like. I

All very normal, very healthy, nothing to worry about.

The White House, House Dems, & usual pedo grifters are so out of touch with the American people that rather than present ANY PLAN or urgency to address the nationwide baby formula crisis, they double down on sending pallets of formula to the southern border. Joe Biden has NO PLAN

— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) May 13, 2022

Why did we elect those pedo grifters, anyway? I forget.

The Republican Party is the party of parents, babies, grandparents, families, and patriotic Americans.

Today’s Democrat Party is the party of Socialists, illegals, criminals, Communist Truth Ministers, & media stenographers.

This is why there will be a #RedTsunami in November.

— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik)

Fresh Air on Tucker Carlson part 2.

DAVIES: One of the things you hear a lot on his show is him looking into the camera, as he does in his opening monologues, and speaks to his audience and says, they don’t like you. They don’t care about you. They want to control your lives. Who’s the they?

CONFESSORE: In Carlson’s telling, in his narrative, they is the ruling class. And the ruling class is pretty much anybody he wants it to be. It’s people who actually are in charge and have power and are elected to office – presidents, vice presidents, people in Congress. It’s pro athletes. It’s Chelsea Clinton. It’s comedians who make jokes about America. It’s pretty

Fresh Air did a conversation about Tucker Carlson of Fox “News” yesterday.

If you follow cable TV at all, you probably know that Fox News host Tucker Carlson is one of the most influential commentators in conservative media and one of the most provocative. He’s known for praising authoritarian leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and warning his viewers about the dangers of foreign immigrants and elites who want to control their lives. Our guest, New York Times reporter Nicholas Confessore, recently wrote a series of articles about Carlson drawing on an analysis of more than 1,100 episodes of his show, “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” conducted by Confessore and a team of Times reporters as well

The GB News piece behind Tatchell’s “there are two kinds of women” tweet:

Speaking on GB News, Mr Tatchell said: “What I do say is that I think the fuss about the definition protects us from the dignity, rights, welfare and safeguarding of all women, including trans women.”

I think he meant “prevents us from protecting” rather than “protects us from” – that’s just the fumble of commenting live, which is natural. But the claim is idiotic even if we correct the wording. How can we protect the rights of people we can’t define correctly? Suppose we want to campaign to protect the human rights of Uighurs – they certainly need it. Suppose we want to do that and … Read the rest

Tatchell preaches the gospel.

There are two different kinds of women. There is a woman defined by biological sex & a woman defined by gender identity. Both are equally valid. All women, including trans women, suffer from misogyny, discrimination, hate crime & rape. Unite! WATCH https://t.co/d7ITUAlG8i

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) May 13, 2022

No there aren’t. Not in that sense.

It depends on what you mean by “kinds,” for a start. There are millions of “kinds” of women in the sense of human variety, but in the ridiculous sense Tatchell is using, there aren’t. He might as well say there are two different kinds of house, one a building made of wood or bricks or stone for humans to live … Read the rest

Chase goes after infants, privileged little shits that they are.

Also seems like an important moment to revisit how problematic the “breast is best” discourse is and how for so many people because of time, bodily capacity and other factors breastfeeding is impossible.

— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) May 12, 2022

What is that “discourse”?

Nobody blames women who can’t breastfeed for whatever reason (including personal choice).

That you are willing to tear down such a positive health message for your own ideological goals is utterly appalling.

— Emma Hilton (@FondOfBeetles) May 12, 2022

Remember that? Boycott Nestlé? Because it markets formula as better than breast milk, thus promoting malnutrition and starvation in poor countries where most people can’t afford to … Read the rest

But this is a very healthy, reasonable, compassionate movement.

Definitely. If you grew up with a violent father – if you were groped or raped by a man in childhood or adolescence – if you were raped in high school or at university – if you’ve been mocked and bullied by men at parties or in bars or on trains or on the street – or anything else along those lines – suck it up, bitch, we’re going to be in all your spaces whether you like it or not. No locks on the door for you, slut.… Read the rest

This is just maddening. White House Roundtable With Lesbian Leaders – and of course you know what’s coming next.

Yesterday [April 26], in celebration of Lesbian Day of Visibility, the White House hosted a roundtable conversation with trailblazing lesbian and LGBTQI+ senior leaders from the White House and the broader Biden-Harris Administration.

So make that with “trailblazing” men bullying their way into lesbians’ day of visibility, just as they bullied their way into Michfest and then pushed all the women out. Lesbian is one thing and T and Q and I and + are other things. Lesbian Day of Visibility should be for lesbians, not men playing games.

The roundtable included lesbian and queer advocates ,community leaders, leaders across

Eliza Mondegreen has a brilliant piece on Chase Strangio at The Glinner Update:

We’re supposed to pretend everything we know about sex is wrong: that legislatures never knew just who they targeted when they denied women the vote. That pimps and johns never knew whose bodies they sold. That the reproductive potential of child brides is pure guesswork. That the burdens of human reproduction settle, if not evenly, then at least mysteriously across the population.

Can be interesting as a thought experiment. As an alternative reality, it’s a train crash. The tottering of Roe makes that all too obvious.

We can argue about whether it makes sense to reorganize society on the basis of individuals’ personal identification with gender

Men telling women what they will allow us to think. Quite the spectacle.

I have no problem if you wish to have that as a belief, provided you don't act it out by denying trans women access to women's facilities.
"Trans women are not women but are entitled to be treated as women" is not an unreasonable position.

— Craig Murray (@CraigMurrayOrg) May 12, 2022

That “provided.” He’ll allow it, provided we do what he tells us. He’ll allow us to be aware of reality, provided we obey him. All we have to do is ignore everything we know about men’s physical advantages over women and what some men do with those physical advantages.

Also in what world is anyone… Read the rest

Hmm. Who is inciting violence here?

Emergency protest against a transphobic gathering hosted by Posie Parker.

Sunday 15th May
St Peter's Square 12pm

(edited due to typo, whoops!) pic.twitter.com/0rwcXvQXBe

— Manchester Trans Rise Up (@manc_up) May 11, 2022

… Read the rest

A graduate student in philosophy has solved the problem of unfairness to women in sport:

The desire for a protected female sports category is a reasonable one. How could it not be? Males have an unfair physical advantage over females in sports, and we should want everyone – not just men and boys – to have inspiring athletes they can look up to and emulate.

But what follows from here? Should all trans women athletes be banned from female sports because of what their birth certificates say, as Florida’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act entails? I don’t think so.

Why not? He doesn’t say. Trans women are men, so why shouldn’t they be “banned from” (that is, simply by … Read the rest

Lara Bazelon in the Atlantic on the ACLU’s lurch into the void:

[I]n 2018, following the ACLU’s successful litigation to obtain a permit for white supremacists to march in Charlottesville, Virginia, which ended in death and disaster, the ACLU issued new guidelines. Citing concerns about “limited resources” and “the potential effect on marginalized groups,” the organization cautioned its lawyers to take special care when considering whether to represent groups whose “values are contrary to our values.”

Like feminist women for instance. They prefer women who are actually men, or who identify as men.

By “our values,” the ACLU was referring to the progressive causes it has championed with fervor and great fundraising success since the election of

Some replies to the ACLU’s calculated insult to women yesterday:

Abortion bans disproportionately harm:
▪️ Black, Indigenous & other people of color
▪️ the LGBTQ community
▪️ immigrants
▪️ young people
▪️ those working to make ends meet
▪️ people with disabilities

Protecting abortion access is an urgent matter of racial and economic justice.

— ACLU (@ACLU) May 11, 2022

“You may as well just say you hate women at this point and that you are actively working to erase women as a political class. It would be way more honest.”

“Way of disappearing the one, coherent group of people that are solely affected by it: women and girls, female people. Patriarchy has always tried to separate women from one … Read the rest