There’s a Woman’s Place UK event in Bristol this evening; it just got started a few minutes ago.

Some people want to keep women out of Bristol.

Climate justice = trans rights!
Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs) are not welcome in our city. Up for standing against them? Meet outside the Wills Memorial Building at 6pm today (Tues 3rd).

Note that this is not an XR event. pic.twitter.com/PS9U3ygOqL

— Extinction Rebellion Bristol (@XRBristol) May 3, 2022

Do gender critical women ever say things like “trans people are not welcome in our city”? I don’t think so. It sounds threatening as well as hostile and rude and unjust. We don’t think we own particular cities and get to keep other people … Read the rest

From The Atlantic in 2011:

In an interview with California Lawyer magazine, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia seemed to suggest that the Constitution does not protect women from gender-based discrimination. “Certainly the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn’t. Nobody ever thought that that’s what it meant. Nobody ever voted for that,” said the famously conservative justice, adding, “If the current society wants to outlaw discrimination by sex, hey we have things called legislatures, and they enact things called laws.”

What does the 14th Amendment say?

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the

Moira Donegan doesn’t mince words.

The draft opinion, authored by Samuel Alito, the most rabidly hateful member of the court’s arch-conservative wing, will upend 50 years of precedent and undo a landmark ruling that has profoundly shaped legal doctrine, popular conceptions of the law, and millions of American lives. It will make women prisoners to their own bodies, and to men’s ideas of what those bodies must mean. It will make our country weaker, crueler, stupider and less vibrant.

We’re all prisoners to of in our own bodies, of course, but unwanted pregnancy is a particularly intrusive and disruptive demonstration of that imprisonment.

In a way, the leaked opinion didn’t tell us anything we did not already know: these are

What next? The Post says likely a push for a nationwide ban on abortion.

Leading antiabortion groups and their allies in Congress have been meeting behind the scenes to plan a national strategy that would kick in if the Supreme Court rolls back abortion rights this summer, including a push for a strict nationwide ban on the procedure if Republicans retake power in Washington.

…

A group of Republican senators has discussed at multiple meetings the possibility of banning abortion at around six weeks, said Sen. James Lankford (Okla.), who was in attendance and said he would support the legislation.

…

One top advocate, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the antiabortion group Susan B. Anthony List, has spoken privately with

Guy takes it upon himself to try to change the subject from abortion rights to The One Important Subject.

Wake-up time!

Those wanting to reverse women’s right to abortion are the same people who promote & support anti-trans views, who are against every kind of diversity whether ethnic, religious, sexual or gender.

We need to stand together, all of us. https://t.co/qNa9TkmJwr

— Brian Paddick (@brianpaddick) May 3, 2022

This is about women, and our right to decide whether or not to gestate an infant. Just that, nothing else. It doesn’t need to be about anything else; it’s massively important all by itself.

But clearly way too many people think otherwise. Apparently women are the trivial sex, the silly sex, the … Read the rest

Some thoughts.

Not surprising. But still outrageous.

This decision is a direct assault on the dignity, rights, & lives of women, not to mention decades of settled law. It will kill and subjugate women even as a vast majority of Americans think abortion should be legal. What an utter disgrace. https://t.co/TNo1IX3Tl4

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 3, 2022

It's alarming how a handful of individuals – majoritively men – can simply override the fundamental right of women's bodily autonomy.

Reproductive rights underpin ALL woman’s rights. This very serious threat against #RoeVsWade is an outrage. https://t.co/tqzfBeYm7w

— Women's Equality Party (@WEP_UK) May 3, 2022

If you refuse to use the word woman when discussing what is happening in the US right

Politico reports:

The Supreme Court has voted to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, according to an initial draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito circulated inside the court and obtained by POLITICO.

The draft opinion is a full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights and a subsequent 1992 decision – Planned Parenthood v. Casey – that largely maintained the right. “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito writes.

“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” he writes in the document, labeled as the “Opinion of the Court.” “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s

From a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Average maximum temperatures.

Dr Forrest said Mr Malinauskas had “experienced the incredible power of zero emission green hydrogen when he drove FFI’s huge haul truck, seeing with his own eyes, how a massive 6mhigh mining truck can operate without using a polluting fuel like diesel”.

Perhaps his irony metre is broken, as the reduced pollution from a hydrogen-powered truck is more than outweighed by the coal in each load it carries.

How much of the process that mkes the hydrogen that goes into the truck is “zero emission?” If it’s only the bit that gets burned in the vehicle that’s “green,” then that’s not quite the solution it claims to … Read the rest

Wait wait wait – Mhairi Hunter tripped herself up with this one.

See it? Of course you do. Why does no adult really need to ask what a woman is? Because we already know, right? That has to be what she means?

But what do we already know? That women are adult human females – the sex that isn’t male, just as men are the sex that isn’t female.

But Mhairi Hunter’s whole thing is that we don’t know that, that in fact that is wrong and evil.

So, what the hell is she talking about?

The wheels really are falling off this rusty wagon.… Read the rest

As hundreds of gigantic cruise ships belch their way around the planet, people in India struggle to survive a heat wave.

Thousands of Indians have turned to umbrellas, fruits and swimming pools as they try to cope with a brutal heatwave that has hit the country.

Average maximum temperatures in March and April in northern and central India were the highest since the country’s weather office started keeping records 122 years ago.

The heat has sparked an increase in demand for electricity, leading to outages in many states and fears of a coal shortage.

That’s the Catch 22. When it gets hotter we use more power to cool ourselves, so it gets even hotter. Repeat until only the reptiles … Read the rest

Let’s look at some cruise industry stats (presented by someone who seems to think the cruise industry is an excellent thing):

In 2019, the global cruise industry welcomed 29.7 million passengers, created jobs for 1.8 million people around the world and contributed over $154 billion to the global economy. 

And added huge amounts of carbon to the atmosphere. Yay.

Cruising was suspended worldwide in mid-March 2020. July 2020 saw a resumption of sailing in parts of Europe, Asia and the South Pacific with around 200 cruises departing in the second half of the year.

In 2021, the cruise industry bounced back further, welcoming almost 13.9 million passengers worldwide. However, this is still only 46% of the passengers that cruised in

It’s always surprising and alarming to see academics this pugnaciously dogmatic in enforcing belief in absurd fictions. The belief itself is ridiculous, like believing in flying elephants or talking snakes, and the rudeness and contempt with which the belief is asserted is unbecoming to anyone and appalling in an academic.

I see the trans exclusive radical fascists are at it again, and there’s always a lawyer waiting in the wings to enable them. https://t.co/RjjfKJkzur

— Yvette Russell (@yvetterusse11) May 2, 2022

“Fascists.” Because we understand that men are not women.

And she can’t defend her claim.

I’ve muted the replies so you’re all pissing into the wind! Trans solidarity forever! And solidarity with rape crisis centres having to direct precious

Charming.

NEBRASKA CITY, Neb. — Former president Donald Trump is making a closing pitch for a Republican gubernatorial candidate who has been accused of sexually assaulting multiple women, stepping deeper into a primary that has divided Republicans in this staunchly conservative state.

When in doubt, always go for the rapey guy. Rapey guys gotta stick together.

Trump appeared at a Sunday afternoon rally in Greenwood with Charles Herbster, a businessman who has advised the former president on agricultural policy and has donated to his campaigns. The visit comes after a recent Nebraska Examiner report in which eight women, including a state senator speaking on the record, accused Herbster of touching them inappropriately. Last week, another one of the eight

I hate the ACLU more than ever.

Women in prison forced to live with men at the behest of the ACLU.

On April 13, NJ News reported that at least two women became impregnated by men incarcerated in Edna Mahan Correctional Facility, the only female-only prison in the state of New Jersey. The men were placed there because they claimed to have a female gender identity.

I have a billionaire identity; can I be housed in a mansion?

The story was quickly picked up by several mainstream media outlets around the world. The Daily Mail reported that American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), once a respected human rights advocacy group, “managed” to house at least 27 people at the women’s

Wales Online tries to monster a woman for not believing trans ideology:

A Cardiff Labour council candidate has come under fire after voicing her views on gender identity. Sue Lent, a Labour council candidate for Plasnewydd, posted to her public Facebook page suggesting that trans people are “brainwashed.”

And? Does Wales Online think all this transing just happened spontaneously? Nothing to do with social influence at all?

When questioned about her comments and views, Ms Lent told WalesOnline she found the topic of trans children “difficult” and said that people experiencing gender dysphoria “need counselling”, despite NHS Wales stating that they support the banning of therapy to change somebody’s gender and sexuality.

And? Are people not allowed to disagree with … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Stay away from the Tavistock.

How many children escape the vortex of unquestioning, unanimous, compulsory ‘affirmation’ at Tavistock?

Letting desistance run its course would cut down on the number of those children going on to “transition.” Desistance and detransition together present a huge challenge to the concept of “transness” as a thing. Referring to children being treated as “dysphoric” rather than “trans” decouples the child from the putative diagnosis. It also removes the instrumentalized power of the concept of “trans kids” which is thrown about so much by activists. Refusing or failing to see discomfort with “identity” as a phase or surmountable difficulty rather than a final, inevitable destination, immediately … Read the rest

I should have posted this first thing.

Thank you for your messages of love & support. I've recovered & am home.

A special thank you to everyone within the NHS for taking such good care of me, from the ambulance crew that got me to hospital quickly, to the nurses, doctors, care staff & cleaners. You guys are amazing.

— Allison Bailey (@BluskyeAllison) May 1, 2022

… Read the rest

Mermaids is telling men to call the police if they’re not allowed into women’s spaces.

Transgender women should call 999 if they feel unsafe through a request to leave a women-only lavatory, Britain’s largest child transgender charity has said.

Men don’t feel “unsafe” in women’s toilets. That’s not a thing. Women feel unsafe with men there, but men don’t. See: human anatomy, passim.

The EHRC ruled last month that trans women, who are born as males, can be excluded from female-only spaces if there is a legitimate reason such as protecting privacy and dignity.

Well we can’t have that, can we. We are mermaids, with tails instead of genitals, so we get to defy the rules and … Read the rest

First world problems…

Lately, I’ve been embroiled in what feels like constant conversations about pronouns. The wrong ones. The right ones. The preferred ones. Hint: That third category is defunct.

Of course, by “wrong” he doesn’t mean the kind of wrong where you’re learning the language and make mistakes sometimes, he means the kind of wrong where you forget or refuse to memorize anyone’s specialty pronouns.

As a nonbinary trans person who uses they/them/theirs pronouns as my terms of address, I suppose I should be celebrating this influx of discourse on the proper usage of pronouns. Truthfully, I’m exhausted.

That is, as a presumptuous narcissist he’s exhausted from trying to force people to use specialty pronouns for special … Read the rest

Natalya Lusty (a cultural studies academic) reviews Laurie Penny’s new book in the Sydney Morning Herald:

Disappointingly, we never get a clear sense of why “fascism” is the best term to describe the enemy of feminism’s protracted and diffuse battles. In spite of this incoherency, the stark choice presented at the beginning of the book is between feminism and fascism. There are no shades of grey.

Many of the topics Penny covers (heterosexual love, consent, unpaid domestic labour, reproductive rights, extreme misogyny, male abuse of power and privilege) are critical if not new issues but their intractability warrants renewed attention if not outrage. But fused with anecdotes (many about Penny’s or their friend’s own experiences of bad sex and relationships)