Judith Wright tells us:

My local Labour party voted through a motion for the online women’s conference which took place at the end of June. The motion (that I drafted) asked Labour to re-endorse its manifesto commitment to sex-based rights. It also called on Party leaders to condemn the abuse received by women. It stated that the misogyny that women face for speaking out  “would not be tolerated were it directed at a person/people with any other protected characteristic.”

Predictably, our perfectly reasonable motion was rejected by the conference arrangements committee because they claimed “it diminish(es) the experiences” of these other groups of people.

Meaning…what? That it diminishes those experiences because in fact women’s experiences of abuse really are… Read the rest

Biden seems to have overpromised to European allies.

President Joe Biden told key allies in June that he would maintain enough of a security presence in Afghanistan to ensure they could continue to operate in the capital following the main U.S. withdrawal, a vow made before the Taliban’s rapid final push across the country, according to a British diplomatic memo seen by Bloomberg. 

Biden promised U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other leaders at the Group of Seven summit in Cornwall, England, that “critical U.S. enablers” would remain in place to keep Kabul safe following the drawdown of NATO forces, the note said. British officials determined the U.S. would provide enough personnel to ensure that the U.K. embassy in Kabul

… Read the rest

Trans dogma as professional requirement:

[A] social worker who was critical of aspects of transgender ideology has been sanctioned by Social Work England (SWE), the regulatory body for social workers. In July this year, a female social worker was given a one-year ‘warning order’, following a complaint from a member of the public that she ‘used social media unethically’. Case examiners at SWE agreed that she made a number of posts on Facebook that were ‘discriminatory in nature’. According to the disciplinary report, she shared links ‘to fundraising pages for people and / or organisations which appear to hold and / or have publicised discriminatory views’. She also ‘shared and signed petitions that pursue a discriminatory goal’. Because of

… Read the rest

Chapter 572 of the Infantilization Chronicles:

Romeo and Juliet audiences have been given an entire page of warnings about suicide, fake blood and stage fighting for a new prodution at Shakespeare’s Globe.

Oh gosh, really? Suicide? Fighting? I had no idea, I thought it was about a couple of kittens who find a ball of yarn and hilarity ensues.

The double suicide of the star-crossed lovers has been deemed a mental health issue in a guide reminding viewers that the actors playing Romeo and Juliet do not really die at the end of the play.

They don’t??? Who knew?

This “sensitivity” is all the more bizarre given the movies and tv shows and video games everyone is steeped … Read the rest

Dennis Kavanagh has some questions.

1/ We need some transparency from transparency outfit @GoodLawProject as to why they're attacking LGBA now – I've asked these questions on their thread so I'm expecting a block but feel free to ask them yourselves.

— Dennis Noel Kavanagh (@Jebadoo2) August 20, 2021

3/ Will you be publishing Counsel's advice on the merits (how likely you are to win) of you appeal LGBA fundraiser so your contributors know the chance of success? Will you commit to doing this?

— Dennis Noel Kavanagh (@Jebadoo2) August 20, 2021

7/ At 11.3 in your grounds you say a same sex attraction charity is contrary to public policy and equality legislation. How do you possibly square that with

… Read the rest

Labour Women’s Declaration addresses Sadiq Khan:

Sadiq – “Do you support the single-sex exceptions in the 2010 Equality Act or do you wish to repeal them?” This is the question which Joan Smith asked you in private letters last year, but you failed to respond, in spite of her position as the independent Chair of your VAWG Board, in which role she was charged with leading independent scrutiny of your performance towards ending VAWG.

We are now publishing our own letters to you so that it cannot be said that you were not aware of our safeguarding concerns. As Labour Peer Philip Hunt warned in July 2020 “When the eventual public enquiry happens, as inevitably it will, there will

… Read the rest

Even with Trump gone, they still flop around in the sewer.

Dr Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to US president Joe Biden, has been labelled a “snivelling little twit” by a Republican congressman. Matt Gaetz, who represents Florida, made the remarks during an America First rally in Iowa on Thursday. During his speech, Gaetz told the crowd. “Speaking of government bureaucrats, I have heard enough of that snivelling little twit, Dr Anthony Fauci.”

Gaetz is the latest Republican to take aim at Fauci, after Representative Madison Cawthorn said last month that the doctor would be ‘prosecuted’ if the GOP takes control of the House in the midterms next year.

Because…? He’s doing his best to deal with a viral … Read the rest

Joan Smith wonders aloud why Sadiq Khan’s office fired her:

Back in 2013, when Boris Johnson was Mayor of London, I was surprised to get a message from City Hall. One of Johnson’s deputies, Stephen Greenhalgh, wanted to know if I would be willing to join him as Co-Chair of the Mayor’s Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Board — the body that draws up policy to tackle domestic and sexual violence in London. Johnson and Greenhalgh wanted to bring in an independent expert and decided to invite me on the advice of a number of women’s organisations.

I jumped at the chance, even though I am a member of the Labour party, and we worked amicably together for

… Read the rest

Sarkie.

We are sure the evidence for this large-scale restructuring and the underlying rationale will soon be forthcoming. Such a major operation was no doubt recorded in minutes of the relevant meeting that must be easy to retrieve. https://t.co/zo3BzBPIet

— Bev Jackson (@BevJacksonAuth) August 19, 2021

The thing about this is that the “all of our boards are being restructured” retort is completely worthless, because what does restructuring have to do with getting rid of a well known highly informed UNPAID expert on violence against women? Restructure to your hearts’ content, fine, but don’t throw out your genius unpaid experts! Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel, instead!

Which, of course, hints that “restructuring” isn’t really the reason … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Sastra on The toxic meaning attached to “woman.”

I’ve come to the conclusion that the Sloppy Analogy is one of the major players in turning otherwise reasonable people unreasonable. I’ve long noticed this when it comes to religion and believing in God. A direct examination of the god concept requires too much light on a blurry idea based primarily on emotion. Enter then the popular apologetic of Sloppy Analogies.

“Remember how your mother would put something out for you to find and do something she wanted? God works like that. Think of your mother. God is like that. Think of your mother in another room so you can’t see her. Now you’re starting to understand. God’s … Read the rest

Joan Smith on erasing women:

The Labour MP Rosie Duffield has been relentlessly bullied for liking a tweet that queried the language of an American cancer charity which referred to women as “cervix-havers”, but she is absolutely right. Cancer prevention is about identifying a possibly fatal disease, not affirming someone’s gender identity. If a charity wants to add that women who identify as men should also get checks, that’s absolutely fine. But replacing “woman” with a clumsy neologism risks failing to reach natal females who aren’t familiar with their bodies and don’t know they have a cervix. Nor have I seen equivalent demands to erase the word “men” from medical advice. “Men, we are with you,” begins a message

… Read the rest

People really should stop saying this. They’d be better off just drooling.

“It is wrong for the governor to force caring, experienced, and dedicated educators to get a vaccination, or have their jobs, livelihoods, and dreams ripped away from them,” said Rep. Alex Ybarra, R-Quincy, in a statement. “It was my choice to get vaccinated. That’s the way it should be — a personal health-care choice.”

Of course that’s not the way it should be, and of course it’s not simply a personal health-care choice. It’s not simply a personal vehicular choice to drive 90 miles an hour down a residential street, it’s not a personal business choice to sell contaminated food, it’s not a personal marketing choice to … Read the rest

It certainly does.

This letter in The National hits many nails squarely on the head: pic.twitter.com/d7y4BAFdHz

— The Crossgate Centre #SupportsAlexSalmond (@CrossgateCentre) August 19, 2021

… Read the rest

Amnesty Ireland is getting a pasting.

Hear women. See women. Let women lead.

Women's rights are human rights. pic.twitter.com/I0DfG7G5By

— Amnesty Ireland (@AmnestyIreland) August 18, 2021

Women’s rights are human rights? Is that so?

“Do not ignore women. Do not silence women”.

Why then did Amnesty Ireland co-sign a letter calling on media and politicians to stop providing “legitimate representation” for people with “bigoted beliefs” – by which they meant feminists who believe sex is a binary?

Hypocrites.

— Bea Jaspert (@hogotheforsaken) August 19, 2021

Hypocrites. Not “menstruating people” then? You’ve been very unclear about what a woman is – until the Taliban rode into town. But THEY know what a woman is and how to oppress her.

— James

… Read the rest

Ayaan Hirsi Ali bonfires the vanities:

We’ve become so focused on microaggressions in America that we have lost sight of the macroaggressions happening to women around the world.

In my latest book, Prey, I argue that the modern-day feminist movement in the West does not take seriously the concerns of women in working-class communities, many of whom have immigrant backgrounds, and who face a steady rise of sexual harassment and assault on the streets of their own neighbourhoods.

In today’s perverse American culture, however, more attention is devoted to the use of preferred gender pronouns than to the plight of women whose most basic rights — to education, personal autonomy, the right to be present in a public

… Read the rest

This took my breath away.

https://twitter.com/Lachlan_Edi/status/1428474930400841733 https://twitter.com/Lachlan_Edi/status/1428474934179901448 https://twitter.com/Lachlan_Edi/status/1428475149301473291

I know the feeling well. Women talking about women’s issues are constantly interrupted and told to talk about trans issues instead, and now this. I’m feckin fuming too, basically all the time.… Read the rest

Scotland’s LGBT community is frightened by the current anti-trans obsession screams the headline on a story by Josh Mennie.

I NEVER picked a “side” – I was born this way. Common decency would argue that a group of people put into the continuous, never-ending, daily cycle of defending their existence should not be simply classed as a “side”. For many of us, this “side” was never a choice. However, undermining LGBT+ rights and inclusion – the other side in the so-called debate – is a choice.

Born what way? Born “identifying as” the other sex? Nobody is born “identifying as” anything. Are there gender dysphoric infants? If so how does anyone know? How do the infants know? Infants don’t … Read the rest

Welp. That’s clear enough.

My statement on the Capitol bomb threat: pic.twitter.com/yCuTNTbJyP

— Mo Brooks (@RepMoBrooks) August 19, 2021

Although this terrorist’s motivation is not yet publicly known, and generally speaking, I understand citizenry anger directed at dictatorial Socialism and its threat to liberty, freedom and the very fabric of American society.

There is no socialism, let alone dictatorial socialism. There’s no such thing as “Socialism’s march.” Centrist Democrats are not socialists, nor are they dictators.

It’s true that the US’s future is at risk, but that’s because of climate change and authoritarian conservatives like Mo Brooks, not because of phantom “socialism” red in tooth and claw.… Read the rest

Surprise surprise the Taliban appear unlikely to protect women’s rights. You don’t say.

Taliban guarantees that women and girls will be able to study and work under their rule have been thrown into doubt after one of their leaders said that the decision would be left to a council of Islamic scholars.

“Thrown into doubt” – who believed them in the first place? Don’t be silly. They included the proviso “as long as/to the extent that they are compatible with sharia.” Sharia is not a human rights respecting system of laws. Sharia perceives women as inferior and as constantly on the verge of spreading their legs for any man who approaches.

“Our scholars will decide whether girls are allowed

… Read the rest

Troublesome women object.

https://twitter.com/suzanne_moore/status/1428281478459318277

That an independent chair of the Mayor’s Violence Against Women & Girls Board of Joan Smith’s calibre was brought in by a Tory mayoral administration and dumped under a Labour one is further evidence that Labour really do not prioritise women’s issues including men’s VAWG. https://t.co/34xLO5uHNG

— Dr Karen Ingala Smith (@K_IngalaSmith) August 19, 2021

Joan Smith sacked for speaking the truthhttps://t.co/NMpJ4MNDGo

— LesbianLabour (@LesbianLabour) August 19, 2021

https://twitter.com/Docstockk/status/1428252538906845193

This is outrageous. @polblonde is THE expert on violence against women – literally wrote the book on it. Dispensing with her services is a huge signal that women’s rights are dispensable when those women assert the reality of sex https://t.co/4sBH8FOrVJ

— Helen Joyce (@HJoyceGender) August 19,

… Read the rest