So now it’s your sexual preferences.

Lesbians are same sex attracted because of societal prejudices. Homosexuality more generally will existentially succumb to bisexuality.

So decree the gender overlords. The mad ruling class of gay rights. This is serious, the call is coming from within the house – the end of gay pic.twitter.com/C6CfIHXr9L

— Dennis Noel Kavanagh (@Jebadoo2) January 14, 2022

Yers it’s “rigid” to be either heterosexual or homosexual. Truly decent people are omnisexual, not that we’re judging you or anything, we’re just judging you.

Nobody should ever be pressured, but everybody should definitely be judged. Nancy Kelley is judging you.… Read the rest

I took my dog friend/client to Union Bay Natural Area this afternoon. It’s on top of what used to be a garbage dump but is now teeming with wildlife.

The trees were bare, unlike in this photo, but you can see what it’s like. On our way in I thought I saw an eagle perched up ahead then decided nah then decided oh, yes it is, and it was. Looking around, and then grooming under a wing. Cooper and I kept going after I watched the eagle for a while, and we were somewhere along this trail in the photo when I saw a couple of swans fly by, and then saw a whole group of them on the water. … Read the rest

Is it still 2015?

Let me be very clear – when I talk about making society and spaces safer for women, I mean ALL women. Big women, small women, short women, tall women, trans women.
Because trans women are women, and no amount of transphobic bile in my mentions is going to change that.

— Philip O'Connor (@philipoconnor) January 14, 2022

How original. ALL women, including men. Yes dear, we know, we’ve heard it before. We’ve replied before. It seems a bit dim to be saying that at this late date as if it were a brand new and interesting thought.

Also, big, small, short, tall, aren’t the same kind of modifier as “not.” Big and small women are of … Read the rest

Life with Lia:

The crux of the swimmers’ complaints is the biological advantage that Lia has over female teammates. The swimmers were promised competition between females, not men who want to be female. Yet, there’s also the matter of an apparently inflated ego.

“She compares herself to Jackie Robinson,” the female swimmer told me. “She said she is like the Jackie Robinson of trans sports.”

But Lia Thomas isn’t in trans sports. If he were there would be no problem. Lia Thomas has forced his way into women’s sports, thus ruining it for the women. He’s not the Jackie Robinson of trans sports, he’s the comet striking women’s sports.

“I try not to be around her because the whole

What a bizarre way to “make history.”

Munroe Bergdorf makes history as first transgender woman on Cosmopolitan UK cover https://t.co/HJwKv1LvTr

— The Independent (@Independent) January 14, 2022

… Read the rest

Accused.

Yesterday evening Professor James Treadwell, a criminologist at Staffordshire University, announced his dismay on Twitter at being accused of “transphobia”. The details are vague, even to him. He has not been presented with evidence and he doesn’t and may never know who has accused him. 

The issue is Professor Treadwell’s tweeting in favour of the right of female inmates to a single-sex prison estate. In a series of tweets on 27 December 2021, Professor Treadwell outlined his experience of the manipulative behaviour of violent sex offenders who will use loopholes to “game” the criminal justice system. He was clear that his tweets were not directed at the transgender community. He wrote:

“The idea that sex offenders are manipulative

Remember that story about the landslide last week? And that I added in a comment that one dog was killed and another was missing so probably also toast?

Well…

2400 block of Perkins Ln W: Firefighters found the dog alive and in stable condition! pic.twitter.com/ILsFbeDmrH

— Seattle Fire Dept. (@SeattleFire) January 13, 2022

… Read the rest

A breach in the defenses perhaps:

An upsurge in teenagers requesting hormones or surgeries to better align their bodies with their gender identities has ignited a debate among doctors over when to provide these treatments.

An international group of experts focused on transgender health last month released a draft of new guidelines, the gold standard of the field that informs what insurers will reimburse for care.

How about informing the well-being of the patient first?

A new chapter dedicated to adolescents says that they must undergo mental health assessments and must have questioned their gender identity for “several years” before receiving drugs or surgeries.

How about questioning the very idea of “gender identity”? How about not treating it as … Read the rest

Oath Keepers guy charged with sedition.

Stewart Rhodes, the leader and founder of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, was arrested on Thursday and charged with seditious conspiracy for organizing a wide-ranging plot to storm the Capitol last Jan. 6 and disrupt the certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s electoral victory, federal law enforcement officials said.

I think that might be a fairly serious crime.

The arrest of Mr. Rhodes was a major step forward in the sprawling investigation of the Capitol attack and the case marked the first time that prosecutors had filed charges of sedition.

…

The Oath Keepers, along with the Proud Boys, have emerged as the most prominent far-right extremists to have taken part in the

I find I have to go back to the dreadful Quisling LSE blog post by Ilaria Michelis, because there are just too many irritations and outrages to ignore.

The impact of their rhetoric and political action has been and will continue to be devastating for trans people, from the halting of reforms to the Gender Recognition Act despite public support, to ever more intense levels of transphobic violence taking place online and offline.

What is online violence? Besides an oxymoron? And note the very selective catastrophizing. Oh oh oh trans people; women, meh.

I explore the function of so-called ‘gender critical’ feminism as a reactionary response to anti-racist and decolonial campaigns…

And by “explore” she means “make up.”

In

But he identifies as royal; surely that’s all that’s required?

The Queen has removed a range of military affiliations and royal patronages held by Prince Andrew, Buckingham Palace has said. The move comes after a US judge gave the green light for her second son to face a sexual assault civil lawsuit.

Buckingham Palace said in a statement on Thursday: “With the Queen’s approval and agreement, the Duke of York’s military affiliations and royal patronages have been returned to the Queen. The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen.”

The dramatic move comes hours after more than 150 military veterans wrote to the Queen to ask

She thought of it, therefore it’s true. Boy does that make fact-checking easy!

As soon as I realised transphobic 'feminist' rhetoric in the UK flared up at the height of #BLM, I couldn't un-see the connection. Here is my blog on how 'gender critical' discourse is really an attempt to put white women back at the heart of #feminism #TransWomenAreWomen https://t.co/trVUrPTXWQ

— IlariaM (@llariaM) January 12, 2022

She couldn’t unsee “the connection” she made up in her own febrile brain. Well hey, I can play that game too. She posted this article at the height of the Ghislaine Maxwell trial, so I can’t un-see the connection. It’s right there, staring me in the face!

Shall we take a look? … Read the rest

Open Democracy adds its lashes to the dead horse.

“When the trans community is discussed in the British media, there is a particular word that crops up again and again,” said Niamh Simpson, a trans illustrator and community organiser from Oxford. “That word is ‘debate’.”

A trans illustrator? So he identifies as an illustrator but actually can’t draw a recognizable stick figure?

“Trans people cannot simply exist. We must justify our existence in the public arena – in a format that is inherently dehumanising because it assumes that a fundamental aspect of our personhood is up for discussion.”

Ha no. “Trans people can’t simply exist” because they have to be always telling us about themselves. Trans people are the … Read the rest

Loathsome man.

He’s a Republican representative from Ohio.

Exploiting of the tragedy of all people who between 1933-45 suffered, were humiliated, tortured & murdered by the totalitarian regime of Nazi Germany in a debate about vaccines & covid limitations in the time of global pandemic is a sad symptom of moral and intellectual decay.

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) January 12, 2022

… Read the rest

Linda Blade on the Lia Thomas question:

The recent editorial in Swimming World Magazine defending the right of Lia Thomas (LT) to swim as a woman deserves a response.

Allow me to begin this critique with applause for author Lucas Draper (LD). As a female athlete who self-identifies as a man, LD has chosen the ethical pathway in competing in a much more difficult field with male swimmers rather than to be competing unfairly against fellow females while doping.

Unfortunately, in the manner typical of proponents of gender ideology, LD’s editorial comments deploy escalating levels of emotional gaslighting.

Facts and arguments don’t make their case, so emotional bludgeoning is all they have. Unfortunately it works.

Fourthly, there is an

Things are not going all that well for Boris Johnson. Now that everyone has been discussing that “work party” for days he has admitted it was a booboo and “apologized” – if it can really be called apologizing when it doesn’t happen until it has been discussed into the ground and out the other side.

The prime minister says he went into the garden of Downing Street on 20 May 2020 to thank staff before going back into his office 25 minutes later.

He says in hindsight he should have sent everyone back inside.

“In hindsight” meaning “now that everybody is screaming at him and won’t shut up.”

He says he should have recognised that even if it could be

It doesn’t get much more absurd than this.

100’s of people are piling-on to my timeline in an organised attack because I said people should be housed on the prison estate on a case-by-case risk assessment basis

I have been accused of being a misogynist, in favour of rape as a form of punishment & a drug dealer

Time out

— Brian Paddick (@brianpaddick) January 12, 2022

Who is Brian Piddick? Profile: Lib Dem Spokesperson on Home Affairs in House of Lords. Ran for Mayor of London 2008 & 2012.

He’s a politician. That’s what he does. Politicians engage with lots of people; that’s what they do. It’s the nature of the work: engaging with lots of people. Yet … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Artymorty on THIS is the culture war.

Latsot, you’ve really nailed it here. It’s all about narratives now. People want a tidy story to explain things, not the complicated, underivative truth. A tidy and familiar and comforting story. This is dangerous because sometimes the truth doesn’t have a precedent to model itself on; we can’t just rely on pattern recognition and narrative familiarity to figure out what’s real and true versus what’s illusory and untrue.

It’s pattern recognition and narrative familiarity that has led everyone to treat gender identity ideology like it’s just as simple as Gay Rights 2.0. It’s also what’s behind the cringeworthy line “my truth” that I hear all the time among … Read the rest

Hottest on record:

Last year was New Zealand’s hottest year on record, according to the country’s National Institute of Water and Aeronautic Research (NIWA), and seven of the past nine years are among New Zealand’s warmest ever. The country’s steadily rising temperature brings increased risk of major floods, bushfires and storms.

And – surprise! – that’s not going to change.

The increases won’t end anytime soon without significant action on climate change, said Victoria University of Wellington’s Dr Nathanael Melia. “Every year we spin the roulette wheel of weather variability; however, like a casino, we have rigged the game, and the hothouse always wins in the end.”

…

In July 2021 heavy rain engorged the West Coast’s Buller River,

They what?

Washington state now appears to allow minors to undergo life-changing gender reassignment surgery without parental consent.

Under a new law, health insurers must cover “gender-affirming” care, including surgical treatments that were previously denied coverage. Democrats rejected a proposal to apply the new law to patients over 18 years old.

So young Billy age 13 can get his penis lopped off and present his parents with a fait accompli? Seems a bit rash.

Up until this law, gender reassignment surgery and other procedures like facial reconstruction or laser hair removal were considered cosmetic by health insurance companies. Due to its classification as cosmetic, health insurers did not usually cover the procedures, even when doctors medically recommended them.

If … Read the rest