On the one hand “anyone with a cervix,” on the other hand drop your pants. Insult in ALL the ways.

This year the Bailiwick’s Cervical Screening Awareness Campaign will launch today (7 June) and run for 3 weeks.
This encourages anyone with a cervix to have their free screening appointment when invited.
More info at: https://t.co/e69W29HJqU#WeAreAllSmearReady#DropYourPants pic.twitter.com/SDjpBZvgTG

— States of Guernsey (@Govgg) June 7, 2021

Why not “Spread’em, honey”?… Read the rest

Libby Purves isn’t taking Stonewall’s instructions.

The lobbying charity Stonewall has advised that the M-word is not “inclusive” and should not be used by the bodies it advises and lists on its “Workplace Equality Index”.

…

It’s been going on for a while, the pious new word-world that cannot content itself with mangling a plural pronoun into singlehood but calls biological females “menstruators” and coins the insulting word “chestfeeding”. That was a Brighton maternity department, as keen as any Victorian divine to avoid the wicked word “breast” . It spoke of distress at the way “biological essentialism” was polluting the “mainstream birth narrative”. Makes one feel quite guilty at the reckless and rather messy essentialism of having given birth

… Read the rest

That Times piece by Michael Powell on the ACLU, part 2.

Less than two months after that terrible day in Charlottesville, Claire Gastanaga, then the executive director of the A.C.L.U. chapter in Virginia, drove to the College of William & Mary to talk about free speech. One of her board members had resigned after Charlottesville, tweeting, “When a free speech claim is the only thing standing in the way of Nazis killing people, maybe don’t take the case.”

Ms. Gastanaga planned to argue that by defending the rights of the objectionable, the A.C.L.U. preserved the rights of all.

Does it though? Is that how it worked in Charlottesville?

She walked onstage and dozens of students who proclaimed themselves allied

… Read the rest

The ACLU has changed.

At a celebratory lunch in 2017 Daniel Goldberger, one of its star lawyers, found the speeches disconcerting.

A law professor argued that the free speech rights of the far right were not worthy of defense by the A.C.L.U. and that Black people experienced offensive speech far more viscerally than white allies. In the hallway outside, an A.C.L.U. official argued it was perfectly legitimate for his lawyers to decline to defend hate speech.

Mr. Goldberger, a Jew who defended the free speech of those whose views he found repugnant, felt profoundly discouraged.

I find reporting and commentary on this issue frustrating, because it always (at least so it seems) evades the real issue. The issue isn’t … Read the rest

Sing it!

Another absolute heroine on Tiktok – this time defending birthing mothers ♥️. Tiktok username jothemama pic.twitter.com/HAkXZwPhNL

— Cherry McSciencey (@mcsciencey) June 5, 2021

… Read the rest

When guest talks go bad:

A psychiatrist said in a lecture at Yale University’s School of Medicine that she had fantasies of shooting white people, prompting the university to later restrict online access to her expletive-filled talk, which it said was “antithetical to the values of the school.”

The talk, titled “The Psychopathic Problem of the White Mind,” had been presented by the School of Medicine’s Child Study Center as part of Grand Rounds, a weekly forum for faculty and staff members and others affiliated with Yale to learn about various aspects of mental health.

The title doesn’t sound entirely reasonable or well judged.

“This is the cost of talking to white people at all — the cost of

… Read the rest

How can we ever match their eloquence?

https://twitter.com/Lubchansky/status/1401577928551505926… Read the rest

On the one hand Trump is more absurd than ever, on the other hand he’s more dangerous than ever.

Donald J. Trump, the former president of the United States, commutes to New York City from his New Jersey golf club to work out of his office in Trump Tower at least once a week, slipping in and out of Manhattan without attracting much attention.

The place isn’t as he left it. Many of his longtime employees are gone. So are most of the family members who once worked there with him and some of the fixtures of the place, like his former lawyer Michael D. Cohen, who have since turned on him. Mr. Trump works there, mostly alone,

… Read the rest

Trump issued a solemn Statement. Short, but solemn.

Cool. Zuckerberg requested no more dinners, and Trump is complying. Whatever.

It is however quite rude and dismissive to refer to anyone as “his wife” and nothing else. Most women are not as empty and useless as Melania Trump, or indeed Donald Trump.… Read the rest

https://twitter.com/Docstockk/status/1401468874579603462

Tell me more about the residential accommodation one.

That’s so interesting, because by giving a trans woman the option of being in a single sex flat that is an all women flat, they remove that option from the women in the flat. He gets his preferred option and they lose theirs.

Why is that fair, again? I just can’t seem to grasp it.… Read the rest

It’s been sorted and Marion has what she needs for now.

https://twitter.com/millar_marion/status/1401464837029470211 https://twitter.com/millar_marion/status/1401464840087117824

What a glorious progressive movement, am I right?… Read the rest

Excellent post by Lily Maynard on The Curious Case of Marion Millar.

It’s all good; I’ll just whet your appetite with her take on Joss Prior:

Joss’s attack on women is a triple whammy, the epitome of bigotry – attacking women for their age, their politcs (entirely speculative) and their perceived intellectual capacity.

I imagine Joss’s idea of a feminist protest would have been a parade of 20-year-old bikini girls sporting full make-up and perfectly coiffed hair, chanting ‘transwomen are women!’

While explaining astrophysics to the people in the bleachers.

Prior- no spring chicken himself- is also disparaging about the number of women in the photo. I’m told that others were present who were not photographed, but bloody hell

… Read the rest

Susan Dalgety in The Scotsman:

Why have I spent the last 24 hours sharing despairing texts with some of Scotland’s most successful women, each as bewildered as I am? Women who have won awards for their work, women who have spent their entire adult lives overcoming prejudice, women who are the social, economic, and political equal of any man. Warrior queens every one of them. And now scared to speak out.

I could point to a Coatbridge police station, where on Thursday, Marion Millar, a 50-year-old feminist, was charged with malicious communications after posting allegedly “homophobic and transphobic” tweets, but the story doesn’t start there.

I could direct you to Johann Lamont’s powerful parliamentary speech where she argued successfully

… Read the rest

Marion Millar put up a GoFundMe about 3 hours ago – the donations flooded in – so of course GoFundMe took it down.

https://twitter.com/millar_marion/status/1401233353299402752?s=20

Glinner sums up:

I hate that Marion Millar is going through hell at the moment, but I’m delighted she’s about to draw attention to the tactics used by trans rights activists, the ideologically captured police who empower and enable them, and the silicon valley companies that hold women down while this theft of their rights and resources is underway.

When she finally does get it going, share it everywhere. Use it to peak friends and family. Let’s get the light flooding in on this dangerous cult that has done so much in the darkness.

… Read the rest

Again with this crap.

Valentina Petrillo could this year become the first openly transgender woman to compete at the Paralympics. For the visually impaired Italian, selection for the national squad would be a dream come true – but she says she understands why other athletes may have doubts and questions about racing against her.

“I’m happy as a woman and running as a woman is all I want. I couldn’t ask for more,” says Valentina Petrillo.

“I’ve got a fire inside me, that pushes me. An emotional strength. Obviously, my body’s not what it was at 20 when I was at my peak, but my happiness pushes me to go further, to go beyond my limits.”

But what Petrillo … Read the rest

I feel a need to learn something about these here Yogyakarta principles we hear so much about.

So I’m reading.

In 2006, in response to well-documented patterns of abuse, a distinguished group of international human rights experts met in Yogyakarta, Indonesia to outline a set of international principles relating to sexual orientation and gender identity. The result was the Yogyakarta Principles: a universal guide to human rights which affirm binding international legal standards with which all States must comply. They promise a different future where all people born free and equal in dignity and rights can fulfil that precious birthright.

Two words there I don’t understand – “binding” and “must.” On what basis do the people who drew up the … Read the rest

Naomi Wolf pushed the vax conspiracy theorizing too far.

Anti-vaxxer Naomi Wolf has been suspended from Twitter after spending the afternoon fear-mongering about mRNA vaccines getting into the sewage system. pic.twitter.com/20NeNg8q1G

— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) June 5, 2021

Naomi Wolf of The American Institute for Economic Research, the Koch-funded conservative think tank that sponsored the dystopian, unethical Great Barrington Declaration, has finally been suspended.

I am pleased.

Dr Wolf peddles horrific, dangerous anti-vaxx nonsense.

1/3 pic.twitter.com/aNYfhsKzFr

— Prof Gavin Yamey @gavinyamey.bsky.social (@GYamey) June 5, 2021

I had many Twitter conversations/debates with Dr Wolf. Clearly it was impossible to reason with her. In addition, her M.O. was to set her giant army of angry male troll followers upon you.

… Read the rest

Ofsted is out.

Stonewall raised “concern” with Ofsted that inspectors do not always discuss trans issues with primary school children, The Telegraph can reveal.

Ahhhhhhhh now that’s damning. Stonewall was complaining to Ofsted that inspectors weren’t pushing primary schools to groom children.

The LGBT charity questioned an exemption in the school watchdog’s guidance allowing inspectors to avoid asking children as young as five about topics such as gender transitioning if a headteacher “reasonably believes” it is sensitive for pupils.

In an email to Ofsted, released under freedom of information laws, Stonewall said: “We are concerned that exempting inspectors from speaking to pupils about certain protected characteristics could undermine their ability to effectively assess a primary school’s compliance with the

… Read the rest

When Channel 4 goes…

Channel 4 has become the latest organisation to pull out of the diversity scheme run by the charity Stonewall.

In US-speak “scheme” is mostly a pejorative. That’s less true in the UK but I still smirk at calling Stonewall’s (cough) campaign a “scheme.”

The broadcaster, which has been praised for its programmes highlighting LGBTQ issues, said it was withdrawing from the “diversity champions” scheme.

…

Yesterday Moon Beever, a law firm, severed its ties with the charity. The Equality and Human Rights Commission and the employment dispute service Acas have withdrawn for “cost reasons”, and the DVLA and the housing department have also pulled out.

…

Frances Coulson, senior partner at Moon Beever, told the

… Read the rest

One more exit:

A law firm has ended its membership of a diversity scheme run by Stonewall citing concerns over its recent actions, saying it can no longer support the LGBTQ+ charity.

Moon Beever, based in Gray’s Inn and specialising in insolvency work, was one of 77 firms signed up to Stonewall’s Diversity Champions scheme.

But Frances Coulson, the firm’s Senior Partner, told RollOnFriday that Moon Beever had relinquished its membership.

“After some disquiet about recent actions of Stonewall we have decided to exit the Stonewall Diversity Programme”, she said. 

“This in no way detracts from our commitment to diversity and equality, but in common with the Equality and Human Rights Commission and Government Departments we no longer feel

… Read the rest