The return of measles:

The measles crisis in West Texas has claimed the life of another child, the second death in an outbreak that has burned through the region and infected dozens of residents in bordering states.

The 8-year-old girl died early Thursday morning of “measles pulmonary failure” at a hospital in Lubbock, Texas, according to records obtained by The New York Times. It is the second confirmed measles death in a decade in the United States.

We’re energetically going backwards. Hey team, let’s bring back lethal epidemics!

If the virus continues to spread at this pace, the country risks losing its measles elimination status, a hard-fought victory earned in 2000. Public health officials in West Texas have

Hemant Mehta – remember him? – has written a snotty abusive post about Jerry Coyne and his failure to subscribe to trans ideology. It’s not an intellectually respectable attempt.

In an essay published in print yesterday, on the Trans Day of Visibility, biologist Jerry Coyne wrote in the Wall Street Journal (archived link) about his recent self-own against the Freedom From Religion Foundation. 

Weeds already. They do dash into them, the gender-worshippers. The sanctimonious “on the Trans Day of Visibility” is downright childish. Wtf is “the Trans Day of Visibility” and why should anyone care and above all why should anyone consider it a sanctified day on which it is unacceptable to say that trans ideology is bullshit? Hey, heads … Read the rest

Originally a comment by maddog at Before you find yourself throwing up your hands in a tizzy.

A separate division denies them their truth to compete as their authentic selves and is antithetical to USA Fencing’s Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) vision.

I call BS. Why is creating separate divisions* for transgender athletes not a proper solution?

One advantage to creating a separate division for trans women athletes is that there would be no need for artificial T suppression, as there would be no need to pretend that the trans woman was an actual woman.

Creating a division for trans women would not “deny them their truth.” “Their truth” consists solely of an internal, unexaminable feeling (or claim of a … Read the rest

What an unpleasant person.

Riley Gaines is and was a mediocre swimmer who is making a career out of being a bigot. https://t.co/YWCB3YJDzv

— Claire Potter (@TenuredRadical) April 5, 2025

Repeat: Riley Gaines is a mediocre swimmer, who was beaten by almost everyone, and never won a major race. Ever. She is making a living from being a bigot because she is a failed athlete.

— Claire Potter (@TenuredRadical) April 5, 2025

It’s not “being a bigot” for a woman to object to a man competing in women’s races. It is being a bully and a cheat for a man to compete in women’s races. It’s bizarre for a woman who claims to be a radical to abuse women for … Read the rest

But sir…

From the Scottish Daily Express:

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has claimed that banning trans women from using female bathrooms is a “dangerous road to go down” as he raised concerns about how this would be policed. He also insisted that he didn’t regret voting for Nicola Sturgeon’s controversial gender reforms, despite the issues they have raised now.

But sir. But sir. You say “dangerous” but what about the danger to women if men who claim to be trans are not banned from using female bathrooms? Why do you worry about the danger to men while ignoring the danger to women? You are aware that male violence to women is a good deal more common than … Read the rest

Aw, diddums.

Lia Thomas left feeling ‘devastated’ and ‘grief’

Is he now the poor wee mite?

Is anyone telling him to think about how girls have been left feeling because of him?

Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas has revealed she felt “devastated” and experienced “grief” after being banned from competing against biological women.

Thomas made these comments whilst serving as a keynote speaker at HiTOPS’ annual Trans Youth Forum at the weekend.

Makes sense. Trans ideology doesn’t work unless everyone is rigorously trained to be indifferent to the harms to women and girls.… Read the rest

This time I’m not the only one saying it, there’s a flood of people saying it. No, you lying shits: the nurses don’t object to trans nurse using their changing room; they object to MALE nurse using their changing room. Stop lying about it.

Staff object to trans nurse using changing rooms https://t.co/ifgy1FWIIq

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) April 2, 2025

… Read the rest

Ok let’s see if I can stomach this. Dreadful pompous smug fencing coach in August 2023 telling women and girls why they should take a back seat and like it.

So perhaps, before you dive in, it’s best to call out my beliefs up front before you waste your time reading this and find yourself throwing up your hands in a tizzy.

He means women there. It’s only women who “throw up their hands in a tizzy.” It’s so womany – stupid, weak, emotional, futile. Already we know where we are.

• Trasngender women are women and gender is not sex.
• Transgender fencers deserve the right to compete with the gender they identify with, and those of adult age should comply

The rot is deep.

A director on the USA Fencing board once published an opus in support of trans athletes — less than two years before the athletic organization disqualified a female fencer from a tournament because she refused to compete against a trans opponent.

Damien Lehfeldt, the board’s elected at-large director, outlined his staunch position in a long-winded Aug. 30, 2023, blog post, in which he defended the right of trans fencers to compete against women, despite conceding they may have “a physical advantage.” 

Can confirm. I started reading it but had to stop – it’s too enraging. I might go back to it later to gather some excerpts. It is indeed long-winded, and of course self-admiring, … Read the rest

From the tribunal:

NC: But sometimes ppl *have* to say it at work. For example if s/o changing and a man comes in and she wants to complain, she *has* to be able to say that he is a man surely?

— Tribunal Tweets (@tribunaltweets) April 3, 2025

Not to mention at work as a doctor or nurse or similar.

GB: Can't put myself in that situation – can't get my head round feelings of the parties. Does the woman know he's a man?
NC: He is visibly male. Even if wearing women clothes. How can she complain to security w/out calling him a man?

— Tribunal Tweets (@tribunaltweets) April 3, 2025

Well that is quite the admission, bro. He … Read the rest

Et tu Brontë Parsonage Museum?

Meet the Senior Leadership Team:

Our Senior Leadership Team steers the Brontë Parsonage Museum towards achieving our goals, and ensures we continue to work with our core values at heart.

Contact list of staff members

• Rebecca Yorke Pronouns She/her Role Director
• Mhairi Tomlinson Pronouns She/her Role Head of Finance
• Gail Price Pronouns She/her Role HR and Operations Manager
• Ann Dinsdale Pronouns She/her Role Principal Curator

Let’s see…does the Shakespeare Trust do that?

Nope. Not a pronoun in sight.

Dickens Museum?

Nope. The staff seems to be all or mostly women – the real kind.… Read the rest

Reduxx back in 2023 on men taking over women’s fencing.

In November of 2022, USA Fencing adopted a Transgender and Nonbinary Athlete Policy which stated that division placement would be determined based on self-declared “gender identity” or “gender expression” rather than on biological sex.

Now let’s pause for a second to think about who benefits from such a policy and who does not.

Could it be that men benefit at the expense of women? And thus necessarily women are cheated for the pleasure of men?

Yes, it could. It couldn’t be any other way. Everybody knows this.

“USA Fencing will not discriminate on the basis of gender identity, regardless of sex assigned at birth, or any other form of

When babies fall out.

Donald Trump fired six national security council staffers after a fraught meeting in the Oval Office where the far-right activist Laura Loomer presented opposition research against a number of staffers that she said showed they were disloyal to the US president, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The firings encompassed four staffers who were fired overnight, after the meeting, and two who were removed over the weekend. It created the extraordinary situation where Loomer appeared to have more influence than the national security adviser, Mike Waltz, over the NSC and undercut Waltz in having aides axed under him.

And when the Guardian says “Loomer” it means a completely random person off the street … Read the rest

This all seems very reasonable and carefully thought through.

The Trump administration has fired the head of both the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command, the BBC’s US partner CBS has reported. The removal of General Timothy Haugh comes amid what appears to be a wider purge of top security officials at the agency and at the White House.

Democrats have said they are “deeply disturbed” by the move and say it jeopardises national security.

It is not clear why Gen Haugh was removed, but it comes after a meeting between President Donald Trump and far-right activist Laura Loomer on Wednesday.

Between Trump and who the hell is Laura Loomer?

She’s an…internet personality. Ah. That’s definitely who should be … Read the rest

USA Fencing tells lie after lie after lie.

pic.twitter.com/XHTR4imfIS

— USA Fencing (@USAFencing) April 3, 2025

It’s not the least bit “committed to fostering an inclusive, respectful community for everyone” in their sport. It’s committed to the exact opposite – it’s committed to fostering a community that forcibly excludes women who decline to compete against men in women’s competitions. That policy is not inclusive of women and it’s not respectful to women. It excludes women from their own competitions, it insults them, it punishes them, it bullies them.

They don’t believe in the principle of creating safe communities, either. Forcing women to fence with men is not safe. They don’t believe in creating communities where all athletes have a place, … Read the rest

Oh, gee, thanks; good to know.

Stickers saying “I Love JK Rowling” are not a “dog whistle” for transphobia, a university professor has told an employment tribunal.

Academics Deirdre O’Neill and Michael Wayne are suing the University and College Union (UCU) after its Edinburgh branch said their film Adult Human Female was an attack on transgender identity.

How are we defining “attack”? “Identity”? “Transgender”?

People who talk about and believe in and aggressively defend “transgender identity” believe that sex is swappable and that “transgender identity” is vastly more important than mere bodies. It’s all a bit church-like, really – never mind the vile body, it’s the soul that matters.

The film challenged trans rights claims and provoked protests when

From the Telegraph’s coverage of the tribunal:

Naomi Cunningham, for the academics, said: “The conduct of the union in encouraging protest against these screenings and calling for [the] venue to be withdrawn was a completely consistent part of a wider course of conduct.” She said that Dr Wanggren, Grant Buttars, UCU Edinburgh branch president, and the union had sought to create “a hostile environment for anyone who held a gender critical view”.

Ms Cunningham added: “You were trying to create an environment, both at Edinburgh University and in the union as a whole, in which it was simply impossible to discuss gender critical ideas or arguments at all because you regarded those ideas as inherently transphobic.” She went on

Another front in the Shut Up About Women wars.

Two academics behind a gender-critical film have taken legal action against their union, accusing it of discrimination and harassment after it campaigned on social media to stop the documentary being screened.

Deirdre O’Neill, a senior lecturer in film studies at the University of Hertfordshire, and Michael Wayne, a professor of media and film studies at Brunel University, describe Adult Human Female as the first UK documentary to look at the “clash between women’s rights and gender ideology/trans rights”.

When a screening was arranged at the University of Edinburgh in 2022, documents before the tribunal said the local branch of the University and College Union (UCU) wrote to the university calling

Round up the usual manipulations.

Fencer disqualified for refusing to compete against transgender opponent

No. Female fencer disqualified for refusing to compete against male opponent. The problem is not that he’s transgender, the problem is that he’s male.

USA Fencing has backed a transgender athlete after a female opponent refused to compete in their match and instead took a knee in protest.

No. Again. USA Fencing has backed a male athlete after a female opponent refused to compete in their match. Issue not transgender; issue male.

Sullivan transferred to Wagner College’s women’s team, having previously competed in the men’s division. On Wednesday, USA Fencing came out in support of Sullivan after footage of the protest went viral.

The

Musk’s hobby:

Ashley St. Clair, who says she is the mother of one of Elon Musk’s children, has accused the billionaire of withdrawing child support payments to punish her for “disobedience.” It comes after St. Clair said she sold her Tesla car on Saturday to make up for Musk’s alleged 60 percent cut to payments, according to the The Daily Mail.

…

Responding to St. Clair’s claims on Monday, Musk wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “I don’t know if the child is mine or not, but am not against finding out. No court order is needed.

“Despite not knowing for sure, I have given Ashley $2.5M and am sending her $500k/year.”

Not a huge amount of child … Read the rest