No, see, this is one reason I won’t just close my eyes and “be kind.”

https://twitter.com/KatyMontgomerie/status/1373324737049468938

No. “Birth sex” and “actual sex” are not opposite, they’re the same thing, which can most easily be named with simply “sex.” Your sex is your sex is your sex. You can’t change it, any more than you can change your species. Some things you can change, some you can’t. Deal with it.

It’s not “ideology” to refuse to pretend that sex is optional and switchable. What’s ideology is to make up a whole new pretend-science in which sex is as optional and switchable as what shirt you put on.

It’s pretty rich for the bossy bratty ideologues of the trans religion to accuse … Read the rest

Some people lie for Jesus, other people lie for boys can be girls.

On a human level. We are talking about punishing kids for being who they are. Taking away the outlets and joys available to their peers. On this @chrislhayes segment, you can see a father plead with lawmakers to let his kid live. https://t.co/L1IeRc0j0u

— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) March 19, 2021

No, that’s not what we’re talking about. It’s not “punishing” boys to say they can’t play on the girls’ teams, any more than it’s “punishing” boys to say they can’t punch girls in the face. They still have the outlets and joys available to their peers – including playing mixed-sex sports when that’s available.

The father on … Read the rest

A long thread by Steve Moses on joining the Green Party in 2009, and feeling confident that the Greens were on the right side of issues involving women and “the gay community” and that he could focus on issues he knew more about…until…

Climate change, nuclear power and weapons, air pollution, fracking, etc.
But then I became aware of the debate that labelled feminist as Terfs, branded life long women’s rights activist as bigoted, and language that reflected reality as hate speech.

— Steve Moses (@laplandlongspur) March 19, 2021

It was coming from within the GP, from some of those I had trusted to protect the rights of women. What was going on? I had to find out for myself.

… Read the rest

Rebecca Solnit on the habit of blaming women for “tempting” men:

The alleged murderer of eight people, six of whom were Asian American women, reportedly said that he was trying to “eliminate temptation”. It’s as if he thought others were responsible for his inner life, as though the horrific act of taking others’ lives rather than learning some form of self-control was appropriate. This aspect of a crime that was also horrifically racist reflects a culture in which men and the society at large blame women for men’s behavior and the things men do to women.

See, it’s superficial to think men are responsible for the things they do to women. You have to dig below the surface to discover … Read the rest

Proud of what?

Four men described as leaders of the far-right Proud Boys group have been charged in the US Capitol riot, as an indictment ordered unsealed on Friday presents fresh evidence of how federal officials believe members planned and carried out a coordinated attack to stop Congress certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

…

The latest indictment suggests the Proud Boys deployed a much larger contingent in Washington, with more than 60 users “participating in” an encrypted messaging channel for group members created a day before.

The Proud Boys abandoned an earlier channel and created the new Boots on the Ground channel after police arrested the group’s leader, Enrique Tarrio, in Washington. Tarrio was arrested on 4 January and charged

… Read the rest

There is some useful bluntness in this thread:

The UK isn't 'TERF Island', it's 'Awareness Island'. TRA's are seemingly unwilling or unable to understand what the 'problems' they are experiencing are actually about. You really, really need to understand it 1/ pic.twitter.com/Y6U3d08Dtr

— Ben (@BenWlv) March 20, 2021

Your problem is that many in the general population have now heard what you believe, and have overwhelmingly concluded you're talking out of your arse. Your ideology does not map onto how most people experience reality. And it never will 4/

— Ben (@BenWlv) March 20, 2021

I think “and it never will” is over-confident…but at the same time I also don’t see how the ideology ever could map onto how most … Read the rest

Fox News is Team Putin.

This week, asked by ABC News if he considered Vladimir Putin a “killer,” President Biden responded in the affirmative. Putin responded by challenging Biden to a debate this weekend. At this point, Donald Trump’s allies immediately weighed in on Putin’s side.

Putin “is openly mocking the president of the United States for his own amusement,” Fox News host Sean Hannity proclaimed last night, “and frankly, I find it, as an American citizen, humiliating.”

Junior got in on the act.

Putin just challenged Joe Biden to an unscripted live debate.

The whole world knows that we have no leadership at the top just an empty suit with a teleprompter (and he can’t even get that

… Read the rest

You…what?

https://twitter.com/FromPaperchase/status/1372865822398554113

“This image” of 24 female bums “has become a symbol of female empowerment”??? In what universe? What on earth do women’s buttocks have to do with empowerment?

What “positive message” does this drive? The only message I see is “Look look women butts doncha wanna get some of that???”

Gah we cannot win, can we. On the one hand “thongs are hawt!!” and on the other hand “this hairy six foot man with the beer gut is actually a woman and you have to be inclusive to him I mean her.” Between the two feminism has no room to breathe.

Updating to add:

https://twitter.com/FrancisWheen/status/1372965761229205529… Read the rest

NPR’s manipulative language was to introduce a conversation with a pediatrician.

Often missing from the culture-war aspect of the debate is a focus on the type of questions that Dr. Eric Vilain has spent much of his career researching. Vilain, a pediatrician and geneticist who studies sex differences in athletes, says there are no good faith reasons to limit transgender women’s participation in sports, especially at the high school level. Vilain has advised both the International Olympic Committee and the NCAA, and says these laws generally aren’t based in scientific evidence, but rather “target women who have either a different biology or … simply look different.”

Easy for him to say. It’s not his rights that are being rapidly carved … Read the rest

The endless struggle to pretend we don’t know what we know. It must be exhausting.

Throughout the country, roughly 35 bills have been introduced by state legislators that would limit or prohibit transgender women from competing in women’s athletics, according to the LGBTQ rights group Freedom for All Americans. That’s up from only two in 2019.

Yes of course it’s “up,” because more boys and men are doing this.

The latest action in this push came last week, when Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves signed into law the “Mississippi Fairness Act.” The law prohibits schools from allowing transgender female students to compete in female sports and cites “inherent differences between men and women” as one of the reasons to block

… Read the rest

About that Violence Against Women Act…

The House approved with bipartisan support a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, a popular 1994 law that protects and provides resources for victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence. The measure passed 244-172.

So the 172 are for violence against women? Good heavens no, it’s just that they love guns more than they hate violence against women.

The most contentious issue in the House-passed bill is a provision that expands the criminal threshold to bar an individual from buying a gun to include misdemeanor convictions of domestic abuse or stalking. It would also close the so-called boyfriend loophole to expand the definition of who is affected by existing gun prohibitions to

… Read the rest

All lives matter! Not just women’s! Shut up about women! Shut up shut up shut UP.

Let's build some bridges across those of us who feel that naturally women's, queer, trans & black lives matter & of course men's lives too. (Tho no-one seems to doubt that men's life matter.)

— Professor Amanda Vickery (@Amanda_Vickery) March 18, 2021

Of course there’s also the question of what it means to build bridges across people, but whatever. The point is: ALL LIVES MATTER.… Read the rest

Tatchell squares the circle.

Women need safe spaces & protection against male violence & sexual assault. But this does not require or justify discrimination against trans women. They're also victims of male rape & violence. Unite all women against misogyny! @CCriadoPerez @ManduReid @BiancaJagger @MhairiBlack pic.twitter.com/zt7TwTZAe7

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) March 19, 2021

Listen up, ladies, says Peter Tatchell – you need safety from male violence but that doesn’t mean we can’t force you to be “inclusive” of men in your safety from male violence. We want you to be safe! All of you! Including the male ones! So in order to be safe from male violence you have to be “inclusive” of men by pretending they are in fact women. … Read the rest

We have always been at war with…Singal.

https://twitter.com/jessesingal/status/1372606851959959558… Read the rest

The short inglorious career of…… Read the rest

Sinister.

https://twitter.com/jessesingal/status/1372182726380564483

Is all this happening in the basement of a pizza shop in DC?… Read the rest

I find that Planned Parenthood Ottawa has blocked me on Twitter, no doubt via one of those Lists (since I don’t think I’ve ever interacted with them). It seems bizarre for an organization of that type to block people – what if they block people who need their services? There are other routes but still, it seems…disobliging.

Anyway. Their focus is odd.

On International Women's Day, we must reflect on the immense contributions and strides in organizing made by non binary, 2SAQTBIPOC communities and people with disabilities towards greater SRH freedoms. #IWD #IWD21 #SRHR #FeministFunding

— Planned Parenthood Ottawa (@PPOttawa) March 8, 2021

On Pink Shirt Day, addressing homophobia, transphobia, biphobia and the impact of those intersections within QTBIPOC identities

… Read the rest

What does any of that have to do with Planned Parenthood?

Recently we have seen a rise in TERF politics and transphobia in Ottawa spaces. It is time to address this. There is no room for transphobia virtually or physically. There is nothing radical about excluding trans folks. #TransRightsAreHumanRights pic.twitter.com/FOA6KH6N5v

— Planned Parenthood Ottawa (@PPOttawa) March 17, 2021

Why is it “time” for PP to address “transphobia”? Why does PP feel called to use such harsh and violence-hinting language and imagery?

Tweeps are pointing out that PP Ottawa is the one that held a conference on “the cotton ceiling” and how to bash through it.… Read the rest

He really does say that.

"There's old sayings in Texas about find all the rope in Texas and get a tall oak tree. You know, we take justice very seriously, & we ought to do that. Round up the bad guys." — here's Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) glorifying lynchings during hearing on violence against Asian-Americans pic.twitter.com/uy5irfmJCo

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 18, 2021

… Read the rest

Oops.

A Milwaukee County Children’s Court judge and former president and CEO of the Cream City Foundation, which runs the city’s drag queen story hour program, has been arrested on seven counts of child pornography.

Brett Blomme, 38, was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly uploading 27 images and videos of children being sexually abused on the messaging app Kik.

Oh that kind of drag queen story program.

Not that millions of women pointed that out or anything.

Blomme was held overnight and released with a signature. He has been ordered to stay off social media and file-sharing services and is not allowed near any children except the two that he adopted with his husband.

Uh………about those two that he … Read the rest