pic.twitter.com/RMIRvlSOYw

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024

… Read the rest

JL at The Glinner Update:

A medical journal has published an article by a group of trans activist academics which advocates the taking of testosterone by trans-identified females during pregnancy, despite the proven and potential risks to the unborn child.

The trans activist academics are not, repeat not, academics in medical fields. They’re all sociologists.

Monthly medical journal, Qualitative Research in Health, has published an article titled ‘Medical Uncertainty and Reproduction of the ‘Normal’: Decision-Making Around Testosterone Therapy in Transgender Pregnancy’.

Scare-quotes on “normal.” That’s the ticket. Deliberately invite birth defects because “normal” is in the eye of the beholder. Yay sociology!

The authors are Carla A Pfeffer, an associate professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan

Now for the fun part: feeling grumpy after that BBC shock-horror over a “pride” flag I clicked on a feel-good item about a guy who takes his parrots to Primrose Hill to fly around.

Meet Happy and Scarlet.… Read the rest

The cops are in a fine old rage about the “hate crime” against a trans flag so I found myself wondering what the perps did to the flag that was so hate crimeish. Threats of murder and torture? Or not quite as harsh as that? So I went looking for the previous “hate crime.”

Pride flag vandalism investigated as hate crime

“As hate crime” – meaning it’s not actually a hate crime but the cops decided to pretend otherwise, because after all, trans people are the most persecuted injured threatened tormented people on the planet. Don’t come at me with your Uighurs or refugees or migrants in tiny boats or women killed by the Taliban, they’re happy as Larry … Read the rest

Oh my god not a flag!!!

The Beeb:

The Metropolitan Police has appealed to the public to help it identify a suspect after three painted Pride flags in north-east London were vandalised for a third time.

The incident, which happened outside Forest Gate railway station on 19 July, is being treated as a homophobic and transphobic hate crime, the force said. It follows previous incidents of damage on 23 and 26 June outside the same station.

Det Insp James Rush said the force would “not tolerate these disgusting, inexcusable hate crimes in Forest Gate”.

Do the police ever say they will not tolerate these disgusting, inexcusable hate crimes against women? Do the police even mention hate crimes against women … Read the rest

Lawyers accused of ‘dangerous and false’ trans suicide claims

That’s the Times saying that on Friday.

Activists lawyers are spreading “distressing and dangerous” claims that transgender children will kill themselves because of a ban on puberty blockers, a government review has found.

Professor Louis Appleby, the government’s adviser on suicide prevention, found that there was no evidence to support claims of a “surge” in suicides among trans children.

The Good Law Project, a campaign group led by the barrister Jolyon Maugham, has repeatedly invoked statistics on social media purporting to show an “explosion” in deaths among children being treated for gender dysphoria at the Tavistock and Portman NHS trust.

He loves attention, but perhaps not that kind of attention. Maybe … Read the rest

God this is brutal. The Telegraph on Biden:

“Anyway” is a word that is constantly being used by Mr Biden – seemingly when he senses he is starting to lose track of what he is saying.

The US president sometimes uses it as a filler, giving himself time to marshal his thoughts before returning to the subject. More disconcertingly, he often uses it to change subject abruptly or trail off altogether.

…

Mr Biden uses “look” in a similar manner to “anyway” – to throw himself a lifeline when he cannot remember how a sentence is meant to end.

The tactic, if not elegant, puts a stop to the long silences that marred his debate performance and stops him

Hm. Should we get in a huff because the Royal Parks admit that there are some aspects of the Albert Memorial that are a tad shall we say embarrassing?

I would say nah. The empire stuff is embarrassing. Also – and the Telegraph leaves this bit out – Al’s Mem has always been seen by many as a tad vulgar, to say the least. It’s also always been seen by many as an ugly blot on a beautiful park. It’s never been universally embraced as just a wonderful gift to the nation. Let’s not forget: Q. Victoria was considered very self-indulgent and derelict for going into such complete seclusion after Albert died. She had a job to do and she … Read the rest

Oh man. There isn’t enough cringe in the world to deal with this one. Jolyon Maugham claims to be in receipt of a drooling mash note from someone Very Important, but when you go to read the mash note you find that it’s obviously written by Joly himself. Nobody else on the planet could or would possibly have written it. I’m genuinely surprised he didn’t realize how obvious that is. It’s like “I agree with PollyO” all over again.

Excuse me excuse me. People don’t talk like that.

Cringe cringe CRINGE.… Read the rest

We’re waiting for the wings to fall off before we decide to make an emergency landing.

Democrats were caught in an apparent stalemate on Saturday as a dug-in Joe Biden continued to endure high-profile calls to end his re-election campaign after a week of astonishing party moves to unseat the president in favor of a candidate many hope will be more likely to beat Donald Trump.

In the weeks since his disastrous debate performance against Trump, the 81-year-old Biden has attempted to fight off calls for him to step down from the top of the ticket amid concerns that his age and mental acuity are no longer up to the job.

Well you can see his point. There’s no need … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Alan Peakall on Progress has a plan.

Perhaps better history teaching covering the real ugly complexity of the moral struggles of the past should be part of the solution. A good example to start with would the the checkered relationship between the anti-slavery Republican Party of Lincoln and the nativist penumbra adjacent to it which gave rise to a vociferously anti immigrant state government in Massachussets with a sterling record of socially reformist measures. Instead popular culture gives us Gangs of New York.

Around the beginning of the current century the aphorism that Marxism filled a God-shaped hole was succeeded by the wisecrack that European integration filled a Marx-shaped hole. I think that Francis … Read the rest

Jolyon must be feeling So Important.

Review dismisses claims youth suicides rose after NHS curbed puberty blockers

A government-ordered review has dismissed claims that suicide rates in young people with gender dysphoria have risen sharply since the NHS restricted access to puberty-blocking drugs.

A report by the government’s adviser on suicide prevention also found that the claims – made by the campaign group the Good Law Project – were not supported by data and could prompt children under the age of 18 to take their own life.

See there? A shoutout to Jolyon and his project – a shoutout saying he was wrong at best and lying at worst, but hey, it’s still a shoutout. He does love attention, that … Read the rest

Radio 4 has a thing on…LGBTQ Life in Weimar Germany

There was no such thing. For some reason, Weimar Germany was not 2024 London, so it didn’t have people throwing paint around at the Tate Gallery and it didn’t have LGBTQ life. It was a different place and it was a century ago. Different things are different.… Read the rest

Under the counter hormones for the kids:

The former CEO of trans youth charity Mermaids is launching a private clinic that will “exploit a legal loophole” to bypass the ban on puberty blockers, [i news] can reveal.

Susie Green, who left the controversial charity in 2022, will open Anne Health this weekend to provide a range of medical, pharmaceutical, and psychological support services – including puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and counselling – to transgender people of all ages.

But puberty blockers are not “medical services” for transgender people.

But the loopholes that Ms Green’s clinic will use to provide medication to young people raise questions about the effectiveness, scope, and robustness of the government’s ban. i understands that DHSC

Oh hey, it turns out Mridul Wadhwa is on involuntary leave. At long last. Now they need to make it permanent.

Mridul Wadhwa, a man who identifies as a woman, was sent home in May by the board of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC) after being identified as the “invisible hand” behind a “heresy hunt” designed to force out Roz Adams, a counsellor with gender-critical views.

The outcry over Wadhwa’s behaviour intensified following the sentencing this week of Cameron Downing, a coercive and manipulative male sex offender, who identified as non-binary and claimed to have received extensive support from ERCC.

It’s almost as if trans ideology/activism attracts poisonous people, isn’t it.

Downing, 24, was sentenced to six years in

My god, I had no idea! Jolyon Maugham is facing down Trump AND Putin AND Murdoch AND the billionaires AND the Rothermeres. That is one hell of a lot of heroic facing down. I wonder, has it made any difference yet?

Just incredible. https://t.co/OHa8uBjMY9

— Gareth Roberts (@OldRoberts953) July 19, 2024

By the way that 33 is the final number on a string of tweets. Yes that’s right, 33 of them. I can’t see them because blocked but I’m sure they make clear how important Jolyon Maugham is. … Read the rest

Well well well. Welcome aboard The Staggers.

It is unacceptable to see the integrity of the New Statesman’s journalism questioned this week by the British Medical Association. We stand by Hannah Barnes and her story. pic.twitter.com/kYZtTLSQnS

— The New Statesman (@NewStatesman) July 19, 2024

… Read the rest

24 Hour Fitness has a corporate policy on locker rooms. You can guess what it is without breaking a sweat.

RESTROOM AND LOCKER ROOM ACCESSIBILITY-TRANSGENDER EQUAL OPPORTUNITY POLICY

As set forth in 24 Hour’s Equal Opportunity Policy, all members shall have full and equal access to the club facility. Consistent with this Policy, all members shall have access to the restroom and locker room facilities that correspond to the member’s gender identity, regardless of the member’s sex assigned at birth. For example, transgender women (who were born male but identify as female) are permitted to use the women’s facilities, and vice versa for transgender men. Each member should determine the most appropriate option for her/him/themself. Any member who has

Top front page news – drag queens and the cost of living.

We find this astonishing.

⁦@BBCNewsbeat⁩ ⁦@BBCNews⁩ seem increasingly immune to concerns about BBC bias by omission on gender issues.

(No coverage yet of the statement on suicide)

‘Drag Queens feel the pinch of rising costs’ https://t.co/WJvWK7Jj9D

— SEENinJournalism (@JournalismSEEN) July 19, 2024

Women, of course, have no concerns about the pinch of rising costs. All women are rich as well as cis. How hateful and privileged they are.… Read the rest

The stupid it burns.

Jodi Picoult compares abused women to transpeople because both have “had their bodies fail them”#BulliesOfBookTokhttps://t.co/kSH8fDen6a pic.twitter.com/gv8Rujm9Sr

— Bullies of BookTok (@BookTokBullies) July 17, 2024

One of the biggest challenges, particularly in this country right now to trans people are feminists who feel that trans women are not women.

Other way around, sport. We don’t “feel” that, we know it, we realize it, we’re aware of it. The people doing the feeling instead of knowing here are the people who “feel” that men are women if they say so. In short we’re not the ones who have our facts wrong.

They believe that trans women are actually just men

No, again, that’s not what we … Read the rest