What Owen Jones always ignores:

The British media is indeed a cosy club, in which transphobia is rife and acceptable, and the whole "Owen is a Twitter bully" meme was invented by anti-trans activists who object to a LGBTQ commentator using his platform to support LGBTQ rights.

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) August 3, 2021

I think the very major problem in this whole "debate" is anti-trans opinions dominate the British media, but anti-trans activists position themselves as marginalised victims which they deploy as a central weapon against the very few commentators to openly support trans rights.

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) August 3, 2021

What? What is it that Owen Jones always ignores? What are these tweets examples of Owen Jones … Read the rest

Originally a comment by latsot on Define “hate”.

The BBC ran a piece on Hubbard yesterday, which I overheard from another room. NOTE: distance from source does not mute rage. They were doing the usual dance around all of this to avoid screaming, wide-eyed into the camera “IT’S A BLOKE!!!! WE CAN ALL SEE IT’S A BLOKE!!!!! IT’S OBVIOUSLY A GADGIE!!!* HE’S JUST CHEATING!!!!!”

Then they seemed to change the subject and had a correspondent phoning in to talk about something else and they asked him what they thought of the whole men cheating in women’s sports thing. The correspondent was very careful to explain that he didn’t know anything about the subject and couldn’t possibly comment but that … Read the rest

Oh it’s all so complex.

As the first openly transgender female athlete to compete at the Olympics, Laurel Hubbard was making history and huge controversy in the Tokyo International Forum. It certainly looked like the weight of the world was on her shoulders.

If you believe that he really does have gender dysphoria. If you believe he’s just cheating, it looks a bit different.

Hubbard had met all the requirements set by the International Weightlifting Federation, though those rules — requiring athletes to demonstrate their total testosterone level in serum has been below 10 nanomoles per litre for at least 12 months before their first competition — are regarded as wholly inadequate by a battery of sports scientists. At

… Read the rest

How about a little feel-good item for a change.… Read the rest

US right-wingers are rejoicing that the US women’s soccer team lost.

I support watching Megan Rapinoe lose.

They kneeled. They shouldn’t represent America.

— Nick Adams (Alpha Male) (@NickAdamsinUSA) August 2, 2021

https://twitter.com/lavern_spicer/status/1422197248247713793 https://twitter.com/WayneDupreeShow/status/1422180470905790464

All because they kneeled (or knelt). The horror.… Read the rest

From last week but still of interest:

House Republicans on Wednesday angrily criticized a new order from the Capitol Hill physician to wear masks inside the Capitol due to the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus, leading Speaker Nancy Pelosi to call House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy a “moron” over his argument that the decision was not based on science.

Oh that’s why she called him a moron. Well, yes – that is a moronic thing to say. The whole anti-mask pageant is strikingly stupid and perverse.

“This is some serious nanny-state stuff that will only breed resentment. No kidding,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.) said on the floor, complaining that the House should be focusing on border

… Read the rest

Oh did they indeed.

Internationally acclaimed author @ChimamandaReal presented a lecture at @UCT_news Univ. of Cape Town. The @UCT_SRC tried to have her lecture cancelled, then held a counter-lecture by Dr Anastacia Tomson, who spoke on the "dangers" of Adichie's feminism.https://t.co/7jzPkIQUu0 pic.twitter.com/j2K2W2H5xd

— Genevieve Gluck (@WomenReadWomen) August 1, 2021

What’s SRC? Student Representative Council. Apparently a misogynist racist Student Representative Council.

Who is the simpering “Anastacia” Tomson?

Mister Catchme-fuckme shoes, that’s who. The kind of pretend woman who thinks crippling “sexy” footbinding shoes are a metonymy for women.

News 24 reported last week:

The University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Student Representative Council (SRC) wants an open lecture by writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie cancelled, accusing her of transphobia.  

“As

… Read the rest

The facts:

Transgender athlete Laurel Hubbard made Olympic history but failed to record a successful lift in the women’s +87kg weightlifting.

Stupid kind of “history” to make. He “made history” by being the first man to steal a woman’s place at the Olympics. Not something to brag about.

She became the first openly transgender athlete to compete at a Games in a different gender category to the one in which they were born.

Carefully worded to sound acceptable. The accurate wording would be “He became the first openly male athlete to compete at a Games in the women’s category.” It doesn’t sound quite as brave and stunning put like that, does it.

Why is the BBC wording it in … Read the rest

The BBC is mad at us. Livid, in fact. The BBC won’t have it. The BBC is taking names. The BBC will report us to the relevant authorities. It replies to its own tweet about “reluctant history maker” Laurel Hubbard:

I’ve never seen BBC Sport make such a statement or pre-emptively threaten to report social media comments for, say, sexism or misogyny, despite abuse against women in the public eye being well documented. Why is that?

— Helen (@fancyhatslady) August 2, 2021

… Read the rest

There’s this CNN piece from four months ago that I don’t think I saw at the time, so I don’t think I’ve already ranted about it.

It’s irritating because CNN is a news outlet, so it’s supposed to deal in verifiable facts for the most part (along with a lot of political commentary, it’s true). Reporter Devan Cole wrote about trans athletes and there’s hardly a fact to be seen.

South Dakota’s Republican Gov. Kristi Noem banned transgender girls and women from competing on women’s sports teams at public high schools and colleges via a pair of executive orders issued Monday.

In other words she banned male people who claim to be trans from competing on women’s sports teams. It … Read the rest

Preserving the dogma:

https://twitter.com/jessesingal/status/1421954005270466563… Read the rest

Oh come ON Beeb – “reluctant” is the LAST thing he is. If he were reluctant he wouldn’t be doing this sadistic unfair thing.

The reluctant history-maker at the centre of sport's transgender debate https://t.co/59yLC6dzLx

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) August 1, 2021

And it’s not “history” he’s making, either.

The ridiculous story, by Joshua Surtees:

“I’m not here to change the world,” said Laurel Hubbard in 2017, the year she first competed as a female weightlifter.

The year he first competed “as a female” as if that were something people can just do, the same way they can just comb their hair or eat a sandwich.

“I just want to be me and do what I do,”

… Read the rest

It’s Satanic Panic all over again.

https://twitter.com/jessesingal/status/1421278581863419907 https://twitter.com/jessesingal/status/1421279215308132353

Last paragraph of the statement:

CAAPS supports eliminating the use of ROGD and similar concepts for clinical and diagnostic application given the lack of empirical support for its existence and its likelihood of contributing to harm and mental health burden. CAAPS also encourages further research that leads to evidence-based clinical guidelines for gender-affirming care that support child and adolescent gender identity development.

CAAPS does not encourage further research that leads to evidence-based clinical guidelines for watch and wait care that support child and adolescent body-acceptance.

At this rate, 5 or 10 years down the road, will psychology organizations be supporting “species-affirming” care that helps children and adolescents look like horses, cheetahs, giraffes, … Read the rest

It’s always so funny when a man “jokes” about hitting a woman with a hammer. It’s even funnier when both parties are members of Congress.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy joked about casual violence against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during a glitzy fundraising dinner in Tennessee on Saturday night, according to several reporters who were at the event.

During a speech to around 1,400 GOP donors, McCarthy reportedly spoke optimistically about the Republicans’ chances for retaking the majority in the House following the 2022 midterm elections.

McCarthy went on to say that, should the GOP manage to flip the House in 2022 and if he were to become the speaker, he would find it difficult to resist hitting Pelosi

… Read the rest

WHERE ARE THE GROWNUPS???

The American Medical Association says core information should be left off birth certificates because…[ ]

Sex should be removed as a legal designation on the public part of birth certificates, the American Medical Association (AMA) said Monday.

Requiring it can lead to discrimination and unnecessary burden on individuals whose current gender identity does not align with their designation at birth, namely when they register for school or sports, adopt, get married, or request personal records.

Enough already. “Gender identity” isn’t a thing. We are what we are. We don’t have species identity or time identity or geographic identity or any other kind of identity that contradicts the dull facts. Think of yourself as magical all you … Read the rest

How these things go. Remember yesterday the Head of Diversity and Incloooosion at Harvard something Twitter-denounced an academic for “transphobic and harmful remarks”? Like so?

As the Director of the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force for my dept @HarvardHEB, I am appalled and frustrated by the transphobic and harmful remarks made by a member of my dept in this interview with Fox and Friends: https://t.co/kiBwkaqLGM#medtwitter

— Laura Simone Lewis, PhD (@LauraSimoneLew) July 30, 2021

All very public, with names and specifics, yeah?

But it turns out Laura Simone Lewis is the injured party here. She’s a grad student, you see, and the woman she pointed out for punishment on Twitter is not.

Also, it’s absolutely awful for her

… Read the rest

The Attorney-General of Missouri. That’s right, not some random goon on Twitter, not that twitchy guy on the bus, not even a Fox News Personality, but the top law person in Missouri.

To the great people of Kansas City: I will be filing a lawsuit to protect your freedoms.

This mask mandate is about politics & control, not science. You are not subjects but citizens of what has been the freest country in the world & I will always fight for you. #NoMaskMandate https://t.co/4zvW1RQw5n

— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) July 28, 2021

I see that claim from the other wackaloons – it’s not about the virus, it’s about control!!

Really. Why? To what end? How do you know? Why now? Why … Read the rest

More on the sentencing of Grant Karte:

Grant Karte threatened the 55-year-old [Joanna Cherry] with sexual violence in a series of messages on Twitter after she was sacked from the party’s front bench in February.

In one, the 30-year-old promised to ‘f**k you like you f****d Scotland,’ also leaving contact details behind.

In other words he promised to rape her. Promising to fuck a woman you’re bullying=promising to rape her.

He admitted sending the threats back in March, but sentencing waited while he got a psych evaluation.

Karte sent the five messages on the day Ms Cherry, 55, was “sacked” from the SNP’s front bench by the party leadership on February 1.

The first read: “You don’t know me

… Read the rest