The authors of the paper issued a statement on the attempt to shut them up:

This time last year, our article ‘Losing sight of women’s rights: the unregulated introduction of gender self-identification as a case study of policy capture in Scotland’ was published in the journal Scottish Affairs.

A couple of months prior to publication, we were made aware of an effort from within the publishing house, Edinburgh University Press (EUP), to prevent publication on the grounds that our article was transphobic.

This clarifies a point I didn’t fully grasp via the Times article – EUP simply publishes the journal Scottish Affairs, it doesn’t edit it or oversee it. The officious complainer works for EUP, not for Scottish Affairs. … Read the rest

Let’s shut it down just in case.

Three female academics have complained about an attempt to censor an article that had been accepted for publication in an academic journal published by Edinburgh University Press (EUP).

The women say they were falsely accused of being transphobic as a way to silence their views and stifle academic freedom. In recent years several women academics have had talks cancelled, articles refused or speaking dates withdrawn after transgender activists accused them of transphobia.

PhD student Lucy Hunter Blackburn and research fellow Dr Kath Murray, both at Edinburgh University, together with independent policy analyst Lisa Mackenzie make their claim in a submission to the Scottish parliament.

They are giving evidence in a consultation on

Trump continues to think he knows better than Fauci.

Donald Trump has again publicly contradicted Dr Anthony Fauci, claiming the US’s top infectious disease expert is “wrong” to attribute the surge in US coronavirus cases to the country’s failure to sufficiently shut down its economy.

The US president came in hot on Saturday after a lengthy-for-him 15-hour hiatus from Twitter, responding to a clip of Fauci’s testimony before Congress from Friday with the largely debunked claim that Covid-19 cases in the US are surging exclusively due to increased testing.

“Wrong!” Trump said. “We have more cases because we have tested far more than any other country, 60,000,000. If we tested less, there would be less cases. How did Italy,

John Lewis wrote us a farewell letter in the New York Times, which is not behind the paywall.

While my time here has now come to an end, I want you to know that in the last days and hours of my life you inspired me. You filled me with hope about the next chapter of the great American story when you used your power to make a difference in our society. Millions of people motivated simply by human compassion laid down the burdens of division. Around the country and the world you set aside race, class, age, language and nationality to demand respect for human dignity.

That is why I had to visit Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington,

The news that Jared Kushner wanted the virus to kill off Democrats hasn’t gone over well with everyone.

In the wake of devastating new reporting by Vanity Fair, a chorus of voices Friday called for the immediate resignation of Jared Kushner, a top White House advisor and the son-in-law of President Donald Trump, for disastrous—and deadly—failures by the administration that appear to have put the political desires of the president above the public health needs of the American people.

This is a total outrage. Jared Kushner commissioned and then abandoned a rational plan for dealing with #COVID19 because it would only affect blue states! Or so they thought. Jared Kushner should resign. https://t.co/Ni3JU1Lw7u

— Claire Finkelstein (@COFinkelstein) July

Apparently it has finally dawned on Trump that a lot of people really don’t like him. Really don’t like him.

You’d think he would have known that all his life, given what an up front unabashed asshole he is…except he’s a narcissist so if you understand about narcissists you wouldn’t think that. Understanding narcissists is not easy.

In a week that saw a devastating global pandemic worsen, a record economic meltdown confirmed and an all-out bid to stoke racial tensions for political gain deepen, Trump is finding himself more and more the odd man out: absent and detached from the leadership of either party, locked in antique cultural battles and increasingly unpopular among voters.

In other words most … Read the rest

Alexander Vindman

After 21 years, six months and 10 days of active military service, I am now a civilian. I made the difficult decision to retire because a campaign of bullying, intimidation and retaliation by President Trump and his allies forever limited the progression of my military career.

…

At no point in my career or life have I felt our nation’s values under greater threat and in more peril than at this moment. Our national government during the past few years has been more reminiscent of the authoritarian regime my family fled more than 40 years ago than the country I have devoted my life to serving.

Our citizens are being subjected to the same kinds of attacks tyrants

Melodrama and hyperbolic overreaction and loud fits of rage are always a winning political strategy, right? Always the way to win people over to your side? Always the cue to open the floodgates of sympathy and solidarity?Especially when based on an ideological commitment and command to deny material reality as the basis of the belief system?

Canterbury Young Labour committee has been deeply worried and saddened today at the comments and actions of our MP @RosieDuffield1. Firstly, we would like to extend our unconditional solidarity and love to trans people, whos rights are under attack from the government.

— Canterbury Young Labour Comrades (@CanterburyYL) August 1, 2020

Deeply. Deeply worried. Deeply worried and saddened. Deeply worried and saddened at … Read the rest

Oh look at that, how interesting. There’s a thing – a campaign? group? website? all of the above? – called Prostate Cancer UK. It’s quite unabashed about saying it’s men who get prostate cancer. Men, we are with you, it says on the front page. Twice.

Men, men, man, men, in just one bit of the home page.

Scroll down – lots more use of the word.

And they’re on Twitter. Not abashed about the M word there either.

The latest tweet:

Where are all the angry cries about exclusion?… Read the rest

Labour Campaign for Trans Rights – i.e. some trans “activists” who created a website – has “issued” a “statement” saying why MP Rosie Duffield is in their view “transphobic.”

We in the Labour Campaign for Trans Rights are shocked by the comments made by Rosie Duffield today. To insist that “only women have a cervix” denies the existence of trans men and many nonbinary people. Not all women have cervixes, and not everyone who has a cervix is a woman.

Shocked, shocked.

Saying that only women have a cervix does not “deny the existence” of anyone. That claim is idiotic. An activism founded on idiotic claims of that kind (and not much else) is an activism that is doomed … Read the rest

Another one in the crosshairs:

Labour MP Rosie Duffield has locked her Twitter account as she is facing abuse and official complaints because she said that only women have a cervix (something that's a biological fact) pic.twitter.com/8GC5o8vTbV

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) August 1, 2020

What terrible thing did she say?

Ah no, you would never dream of politicizing anything.

REPORTER: Is there any concern that Herman Cain contracted Covid at the president's rally in Tulsa?

McENANY: "I will not politicize Herman Cain's passing." pic.twitter.com/7twWaaCgU7

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 31, 2020

… Read the rest

Don’t mess with Fauci.

Rep. @Jim_Jordan asks if protests should be limited.

Dr. Anthony Fauci: "I'm not going to opine on limiting anything. I'm telling you what it is the danger is. You can make your own conclusion about that. You should stay away from crowds no matter where the crowds are." pic.twitter.com/DfgmahK35F

— CSPAN (@cspan) July 31, 2020

Shirtsleeves Jordan’s “point” is that people are told not to go to church so why won’t Fauci tell people not to go to protests?

Which is stupid because as Fauci keeps pointing out, it’s not his job to make laws, it’s his job to give medical advice.

Jim Jordan is a representative because he gets to run in a rather peculiar … Read the rest

Diddums.

A trans footballer who endured online abuse after announcing she was joining a professional team said the experience has been “hurtful.”

That is, a man who wants to play football against women has received some pushback.

Sammy Walker, 29, from Bristol, was targeted by Twitter users who labelled her a “paedophile” and claimed she was stealing places from female players.

Because he is stealing a place from a female player. That’s how that works. If the team gives a place to him then there’s a woman who didn’t get that place.

“I fought tooth and nail to be me, and it obviously hurts,” she said.

Heedless of how his tooth and nail fighting affects women, isn’t he. Male-typical … Read the rest

I always wonder how Jolyon Maugham QC can be so confident about the wack things he says. I don’t wonder it so much about Adrian Harrop and Owen Jones, because they’re rather childish and undisciplined and silly, but I have this idea that QCs have to do better than that. (To be sure, Harrop is a medical doctor and you’d hope that would apply to him too, but he’s just so goony that it seems futile to wonder further.)

Like this thing for instance.

If a transgender child cannot access provision, the choice is (in reality) made for them. They get (2).

Constraining supply is a truly terrible way to distinguish between children who have a settled wish to transition

Vanity Fair has a big new article on how Prince Jared made himself the boss of the administration’s coronavirus testing plan, and how that plan just disappeared because they’re all fools and hacks.

By early April, some who worked on the plan were given the strong impression that it would soon be shared with President Trump and announced by the White House. The plan, though imperfect, was a starting point. Simply working together as a nation on it “would have put us in a fundamentally different place,” said the participant.

But the White House said Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaah we don’t need to do that.

Trusting his vaunted political instincts, President Trump had been downplaying concerns about the virus and spreading misinformation

So let’s read this piece about violence against women in Turkey.

Feminists in Turkey have called on the rest of the world not to forget the original context of Instagram’s #challengeaccepted trend, which was supposed to draw attention to skyrocketing rates of gender-based violence in the country before it was co-opted by western celebrities.

Femicide, violence against women and so-called “honour” killings are deeply rooted issues in Turkey. Last week, the country was rocked by the brutal killing of Pınar Gültekin, a 27-year-old student, who was allegedly killed by an ex-boyfriend.

Why would that be? Funnily enough, the Guardian story doesn’t mention the word “Islam” or the word “religion.”

Campaigners are also deeply worried about fresh efforts by 

Sometimes the juxtapositions on Twitter can be…I dunno, striking, ironic, poignant, something like that.

One:

CNN is not using the word WOMEN anymore.
We are “Individuals with a cervix.”

Can’t find the words to express how i feel about #femaleErasure. It is a full blown #WarOnWomen

https://t.co/n0K60PS4Ky

— Caroline (@CoachCaroline) July 31, 2020

Two:

Challenge accepted: Turkish feminists spell out real meaning of hashtaghttps://t.co/cwBglGaUXc

— Cátia Freitas (@Mocha_Soul) July 31, 2020

Violence against women in Turkey. Not “individuals with a cervix,” not generalized “people,” not “non-men”; women.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Tim Harris on A woman is whoever wants to be a woman.

‘Childhood pretending’ – I am reminded of doing mask-work while doing acting training (which can be alarming – some odd things come out, and the emotions called forth can be overwhelming), and of the way a Noh actor (the shite – which is pronounced, roughly, ‘shte’ and not the way you might suppose, though it may be there are some real shites among Noh actors, as there are among all actors), having put on his mask, looks into a mirror to allow the spirit of the character to enter him. And I feel that when you are acting well, it is as though … Read the rest

Did you know that women menstruate? How gross is that? Let’s never mention it again.

Offensive, crude, vulgar, unnecessary, embarrassing and grotesque. That’s Tampax’s current television ad – now banned – according to complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland.

The advertisement features the host of a talkshow called Tampons & Tea asking her studio audience how many of them ever feel their tampon. When her guest, a young woman, raises her hand to indicate that she does, the host tells her that she shouldn’t and that it might mean her tampon is not in far enough. “You gotta get ’em up there, girls!” the host says. The ad then shows how to insert a tampon correctly –