All entries by this author

Guest post: Deutungshoheit

Apr 16th, 2024 9:12 am | By

Originally a comment by Sonderval on And a crime in Germany?

Actually, the situation is more complicated than described in the article by Tagesspiegel.

A biology PhD student (who is the focus of a lot of TRA criticism and hate since she dared trying to give a talk about the biology of sex) said that the Nazis did not pursue trans people. TRA activists then accused her on Twitter of being a holocaust denier.

The court clearly said that she is not a holocaust denier in the normal sense or anything like that, but that if you are a trans activist focused on this topic only (and only then), your opinion that the Nazis did pursue trans people is an … Read the rest



Concerns about a culture shift

Apr 16th, 2024 8:54 am | By

Attempt to force secular school to stop being secular fails:

A Muslim student at a London school has lost a High Court challenge against its ban on prayer rituals. Michaela School in Wembley was taken to court by the girl over the policy, which she argued was discriminatory. The non-faith state secondary school previously told the High Court that allowing prayer rituals risked “undermining inclusion” among pupils.

Theocrats will of course retort that secularism undermines inclusion of theocrats, which is true enough, but secularism has the advantage of neutrality. If the school allowed prayers for one religion then it would risk “undermining inclusion” for all the other religions and for secular neutrality. That, of course, is the goal.

In

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The Three Anti-imperialists

Apr 15th, 2024 11:52 am | By

The glorious future.

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And a crime in Germany?

Apr 15th, 2024 9:44 am | By

I’m pretty sure Willoughby is lying about this.

https://twitter.com/Phoebe2403/status/1779894174898172336

Smithsonian Magazine did an article on the Nazis and “trans people” last September, except that it admits up front that it’s not exactly about “trans people” for the simple reason that they weren’t a thing at the time.

In the fall of 2022, a German court heard an unusual case. It was a civil lawsuit that grew out of a feud on Twitter about whether transgender people were victims of the Holocaust. Though there is no longer much debate about whether gay men and lesbians were persecuted by the Nazis, there’s been very little scholarship on trans people during this period.

The court took expert statements from historians before

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Help patients be themselves

Apr 15th, 2024 6:57 am | By

It’s in The Sun, so I don’t feel like reading it, but I gotta say, that banner would make me feel the very opposite of welcome.

If all that gender chopped salad is welcome then gender skeptics are not welcome. Just for one thing, we don’t have a colorful stripey flag. We are aflagual. … Read the rest



Where hatred of women goes

Apr 15th, 2024 6:45 am | By

Guy goes to a shopping mall to kill people.

I say “people” but of course that’s wrong. Sheer habit; sorry.

He went there to kill women. A man tried to stop him so he killed that one man too, but the rest were all women. Women are shit; women need killing.

The man who went on a stabbing rampage in a Sydney shopping centre appears to have targeted women, police say.

Appears?

What would it take for the BBC to omit that “appears to have” part?

The New South Wales police commissioner told Australia’s ABC News that it was “obvious” Mr Cauchi focused on women.

The only man killed in the attack was security guard Faraz Tahir, 30, who

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The less equal campaign

Apr 14th, 2024 2:53 pm | By

Am I wrong to say that no one wants to make trans people less equal?

I get that there are plenty of malevolent people who dislike trans people along with gay people, feminists, lefties, atheists, you name it, but are there people who want to make trans people less equal? What would that even look like?

That question is related to one I ask a lot, which is “what do we mean by ‘trans rights’?” What exactly are trans rights? Trans people should have human rights, obviously, but what are specifically trans rights, and how do we know that anyone should have them?

There’s a lot of sloppy rhetoric about equality and rights all through the trans ControVersy, and … Read the rest



Looking fixedly in the other direction

Apr 14th, 2024 12:11 pm | By

President of Humanists UK refuses to step up.

They don’t want the tsuris.… Read the rest



The most egregious insult

Apr 14th, 2024 11:49 am | By

Neale Hanvey MP on Ruth Hunt:

Ruth Hunt’s claim that she was “absolutely someone who has always been working in the middle ground, trying to build consensus” is most egregious insult imaginable.

@stonewalluk attacked anyone occupying a position beyond their pious queer theory doctrine. Any LGB person who raised so much as a ‘heretical’ whisper was targeted and demonised. The agenda they have been pushing has seen emboldened extremist positions find their way on to the floor of the House of Commons where straight women tell gay men to get back in the closet. That’s what you achieved Ruth Hunt, but it’s never going to happen. Now we stand with @AllianceLGB.

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Guest post: Belief and obedience are held in higher esteem

Apr 14th, 2024 11:20 am | By

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Often contending with other difficulties.

You’d think they’d make sure there actually was such a thing as a “gender identity” before offering to “develop” it, “treat” it, or follow its dictates with regard to the bodies it allegedly inhabits. Why do some people claim to have such an identity, while others do not? Why are most people’s identities “aligned” with their sex, while others are not? What causes this supposed “misalignment”? How is the identity’s presence and nature determined, apart from patient self-diagnosis? How do you screen out people who don’t require your services, and/or those who will not benefit from them? Surely clinicians dealing with this phenomenon would want … Read the rest



Ultimately demeaning

Apr 14th, 2024 7:41 am | By

Dreaming the impossible dream again:

Euphoria actress Hunter Schafer has said she no longer wants to play transgender roles. The 25-year-old transgender star shot to fame playing a trans character, Jules Vaughn, in HBO’s hit teen drama.

So he’s an actor and a he, and the BBC is lying to its readers in the usual way by calling him “she.”

Anyway. Trans actor Hunter doesn’t want to play trans characters any more. Ok; there are other jobs. Have a nice life, Hunter.

But Schafer said she felt she could go further as an actress by “not making it the centrepiece to what I’m doing”. She said: “I worked so hard to get to where I am, past these really

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The escalation

Apr 13th, 2024 3:13 pm | By

In other news

This is exactly the escalation in the simmering conflict between Iran, its proxies and Israel that everyone feared: a direct attack by one nation against another.

For nearly two weeks Iran’s security establishment has been mulling its response to the 1 April airstrike on its consulate in Damascus, widely assumed to be the work of Israel, that killed several top Iranian commanders. Clearly, a decision was reached that such a major escalation – an attack that flattened a diplomatic building and therefore sovereign Iranian territory – called for an escalatory response.

Israel has several layers of air defences and it has vowed to respond to any attack on its soil and it will. The risk now

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Incandescent with rage

Apr 13th, 2024 11:42 am | By

Ruth Hunt’s “Who, me?? Never!!” is not going down very well.

https://twitter.com/TwisterFilm/status/1779159322666181054

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Often contending with other difficulties

Apr 13th, 2024 10:20 am | By

Hannah Barnes in The New Statesman:

[Hannah Barnes is associate editor of the New Statesman and author of “Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children” (Swift)]

The report confirms that the majority of children referred to Gids had complex needs, and alongside their gender-related distress were often contending with other difficulties: anxiety, depression, eating disorder and autism were all over-represented when compared with what you would see in the general children’s population.

It also vindicates what so many former Gids staff have been saying for years: that there was no consistency in its clinical approach; that some assessments – prior to referral for puberty blockers – could be just one

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Always check the wording

Apr 13th, 2024 9:31 am | By

Again with the re-wording.

Doc Stock asked for examples of Stonewall doing its thing, which has made for a highly useful thread full of sources. One item gives us yet another lie about what the trans ideology is about:

Second paragraph under “We stand up for people”:

“We do draw a line with regard to questioning whether trans people deserve the same level of equality as any other group.”

NOBODY SAYS trans … Read the rest



The revisionism is in full swing

Apr 13th, 2024 5:56 am | By

Welp.

Stonewall tried to suppress early warnings to schools about the shaky evidence base for medical transitions for children, The Times can reveal.

Not just ignore; not just dispute; not just dismiss; suppress.

Speaking for the first time since the publication of the Cass review, Baroness Hunt of Bethnal Green insisted that Stonewall had always supported calls for evidence-based medicine during her leadership from 2014 to 2019.

That buzzing you hear? That’s gender-critical types exclaiming “Like hell it did!!”

However, when campaigners sent out resource packs to schools in 2018 warning teachers that there was little medical evidence to support puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, Stonewall sought to have them removed from schools.

The evidence-led approach advocated by

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Speaking of “disinformation and myths”

Apr 13th, 2024 4:30 am | By

Talk about mission creep…

Amnesty International put out a press release announcing Cass review on gender identity is being ‘weaponised’ by anti-trans groups.

What does the Cass review have to do with Amnesty International? And what does Amnesty have to do with the Cass review? Does AI now see itself as simply The Correct Ones, there to rebuke the wicked and sanctify the good, “wicked” and “good” according to Amnesty itself of course?

In response to the sensationalised coverage surrounding the independent review of gender identity services for children and young people by the paediatrician Hilary Cass, Amnesty International UK and Liberty, said:

“All children have the right to access specialist effective care on time and must

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The lesson is don’t just come right out and say it

Apr 12th, 2024 6:01 pm | By

16 Candles felony charges:

https://twitter.com/MichalSabra/status/1778924416140763203

I don’t think she’s out on bail.… Read the rest



Yet experienced professionals are increasingly scared

Apr 12th, 2024 5:35 pm | By

This isn’t how it’s done:

Critical thinking and open debate are pillars of scientific and medical research. Yet experienced professionals are increasingly scared to openly discuss their views on the treatment of children questioning their gender identity. This was the conclusion drawn by Hilary Cass in her review of gender identity services for children this week, which warned that a toxic debate had resulted in a culture of fear.

Why are the professionals scared? Why is the debate toxic? Why is there a culture of fear?

We all know. We’ve been watching it for years. It’s because of the staggering level of bullying that the rah-rah-trans side goes in for.

Her conclusion was echoed by doctors, academic researchers and

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Guest post: So used to the mantra

Apr 12th, 2024 5:07 pm | By

Originally a comment by Screechy Monkey on 14 when he knew.

The BBC has gotten so used to the mantra that (clap) trans (clap) kids (clap) are (clap) who they say they are (clap clap clap) that they can’t shake it even when reporting on a story about how the medicine actually doesn’t say that.

Imagine if a report came out that said that it appeared that oncologists were over-prescribing chemotherapy, and that the medical evidence strongly shows that it’s not appropriate in many cases in which it’s being used.

Would the BBC rush to interview cancer patients for their “opinions” on the medicine? No doubt some patients would have opinions (“I had chemo, and I think it saved … Read the rest