The UK government issued a review thingy back in March about diversity and cohesion and similar feel-good words that clash with each other. It makes for deeply weird reading because of its total failure to make clear what it’s talking about.

The theme is something it dubs “freedom-restricting harassment” or (wait for it) frh for short.

Victims of freedom-restricting harassment suffer devastating impacts yet are often not treated as victims or offered the support they need. The impact on the religious studies teacher at Batley Grammar School provides a harrowing example.

As an in-depth victim case study and for the first time since the incident occurred, we reviewed the case of the religious studies (RS) teacher at Batley Grammar

Jolyon Maugham has a strange tale to tell. Very strange. Hard to credit kind of strange. Almost as if he’s making it up level strange.

He’s absolutely lost it. pic.twitter.com/1ocUnmDfpl

— Dennis Noel Kavanagh (@Jebadoo2) June 6, 2024

Really. There’s been a massive increase in deaths among young trans people. A massive increase from…zero? I ask because people who investigate the blackmailing “trans kids will kill themselves!!!” claims report that they find nothing. There is no detectable epidemic of suicide among young trans people. But maybe Maugham doesn’t mean suicide, maybe he means general deaths, deaths of any kind? That the NHS is somehow concealing?

Well, he put it in writing, so it must be true.… Read the rest

The BBC starts by saying it’s dangerous, then moves to saying be careful when you do it. They should have stuck with it’s dangerous.

Boys as young as 14 have been asking their teachers how to choke girls during sex, a teacher has told the BBC. Dr Tamasine Preece, who teaches at Bryntirion Comprehensive in Bridgend, said some children now felt it was a normal part of sex and asked if “a soft squeeze on the neck is OK”. Health experts said pornography was a key contributor and that there was no safe way to strangle someone.

There you go. Third sentence: there’s no safe way to strangle someone. And yet the Beeb goes on to give advice on … Read the rest

So the climate thing wasn’t a joke?

The planet just marked a “shocking” new milestone, enduring 12 consecutive months of unprecedented heat, according to new data from Copernicus, the European Union’s climate monitoring service. Every single month from June 2023 to May 2024 was the world’s hottest such month on record, Copernicus data showed.

The 12-month heat streak was “shocking but not surprising” given human-caused climate change, said Carlo Buontempo, the director of Copernicus, who warned of worse to come. Unless planet-warming fossil fuel pollution is slashed, “this string of hottest months will be remembered as comparatively cold,” he said.

Is planet-warming fuel pollution going to be slashed? Hahaha that’s a good one. The planes fly, the cars zoom, the … Read the rest

The Telegraph is on it. Yo, Guardian, BBC, why aren’t you?

A charity has come under fire after claiming that anyone, of any gender, can have ovarian cancer. Ovarian Cancer Action posted on Twitter: “Did you know that anyone with ovaries, regardless of gender identity, can be at risk for ovarian cancer? “Let’s raise awareness by asking: can men get ovarian cancer? #PrideMonth #OvarianCancerAwareness” The post was accompanied by an emoji of a rainbow flag, as well as an image entitled: ‘Can men get ovarian cancer?’ along with the answer: “Anyone with ovaries, regardless of gender identity, can be at risk of ovarian cancer.

Anyone with ovaries=any woman. Gender idenniny is wholly irrelevant.

Responding to the post,

The Telegraph reports:

Trans rights activists who have publicly trashed the Cass Review and promote puberty blockers are helping the SNP set up a new NHS child gender service in Scotland.

Why should there even be a “child gender service”? Why not a child service for children who think they’re birds? Stick them full of feathers and teach them to fly, yeah?

The Telegraph has seen evidence that a member of the group, which includes activist organisations and academics as well as doctors, used their position to spread disinformation to other members which rubbish[es] Hilary Cass’s findings.

Much bad unclear writing in this piece, unfortunately. The group includes activist organisations and academics as well as doctors. The Telegraph has … Read the rest

How to raise awareness of ovarian cancer? Hmmm, let’s see…I know! Tell everyone men can get it provided they have ovaries!

Another shipment of squalor from the bottomless source:

Let’s cut to the chase here: Is former President Donald Trump trying to sabotage Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich’s chances of being released before the November election?

On Thursday, Trump posted on social media that because of his extra-special relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he — and only he — can free the innocent young American who has been languishing in a foreign jail for over 400 days. Trump claims that Putin will free the reporter as a unique personal favor to him — but will not do it for anyone else, which presumably includes President Joe Biden and the rest of the United States government.

And

Why it’s almost as if hatred of women is a real thing.

Millions of men in England and Wales pose a danger to women and children, the commissioner of the Metropolitan police has said.

Sir Mark Rowley said the figures were “eye-watering” and an “inconvenient truth” as he called for a much bigger effort, a national strategy and more money to tackle the problem.

He relied on an upcoming study produced for police chiefs nationally that says there are up to 4 million perpetrators of violence against women and children, who are mainly men, with one in 10 people being victims, who are mainly women or children.

Quite a popular sport then.

Oh well. It’s just human nature, or … Read the rest

Bad dishonest reporting strikes again.

It starts with the headline:

East Valley teen is the first Washington transgender athlete to win a state high school track championship. But controversy followed

Yes that whole long thing is the headline.

The issue is the usual issue: saying “transgender athlete” conveniently evades the issue of what kind of trans athlete. If the athlete is a girl who identifies as a boy then she’s harming only herself. But the athlete hardly ever is a girl, is it, because what would be the point? But it’s excellent fun for a boy to do it, because he gets to cheat and be flattered and protected for doing so.

It starts with the headline and continues with … Read the rest

He’s really not bright.

India Willoughby explains that he doesn’t want to be in an all-male ward in a hospital.

Before offering your opinion on the latest bit of culture-war scaremongering from the Tories on trans people, consider this. How would you feel if a woman you know, perhaps vulnerable, was forced into being treated in an all-male ward at a hospital. How would that woman feel?

Notice anything there? He asks how “you” would feel if a woman you know blah blah – making it startlingly clear that he’s addressing men only, which makes it startlingly clear that he doesn’t even see women as people. A generic “you” reading this piece of his must be a man, because…women … Read the rest

Today I learned it’s Pride Month. Kathleen Stock is not entirely enthusiastic.

I know what you’re thinking: haven’t we already had it? Perhaps you’re thinking of LGBT+ History month in February. Or maybe you’re remembering the Tolkienesque-sounding IDAHOBIT — otherwise known as International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia — a fortnight ago. Later in the year there will be Ace (asexual) Week and Transgender Awareness Week; and don’t forget the Pride and Trans Pride parades scattered throughout the summer. The Catholic church has fewer holy days of obligation than the modern LGBTQI+ movement, and is arguably a lot less guilt-tripping.

On the other hand the Catholic church uses its enormous power to force women to have babies against … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on To bring communities together.

Conscious decision to place this on the 1st day of Pride month….

There are so many Whatever “Months” and Whatever “Days Of” Something throughout the year that any feminist pushback against trans hegemony and colonialism is going to be deemed “too close” to some Sacred, Appropriated Calendrical Stretch of Time. So basically it’s perpetually “Shut up and Obey All Year Long” Day.

And again, thanks for reiterating the fact that if women defending and asserting their sex-based rights is assumed to be nothing but “anti trans” activism, we can safely assume that any efforts to “extend” trans “rights”, and “equality”, are by definition anti woman. Also, … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Sonderval on DSDs are not halfway houses “between” the two sexes.

And of course, there is the usual mistake of equating “is on a spectrum” with “is difficult to determine”/”can be assigned at will”. A spectrum is a spectrum exactly because points on it can be determined uniquely and objectively. (Monochromatic) colors lie on a spectrum because each wavelength (which can be determined exactly) causes a different stimulation of the three color-perceiving cone cell types we have. So if sex were a spectrum, this would imply that there is an objective way of determining it. Yes people with DSD exist, but this still does not and cannot imply that a man can be a woman, … Read the rest

Elon Musk has way too much power.

Musk and the entrepreneur and investor David Sacks reportedly held a secret dinner party of billionaires and millionaires in Hollywood last month. Its purpose: to defeat Joe Biden and re-install Donald Trump in the White House. The guest list included Peter Thiel, Rupert Murdoch, Michael Milken, Travis Kalanick, and Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s treasury secretary.

Meanwhile, Musk is turning up the volume and frequency of his anti-Biden harangues on Twitter/X, the platform he owns.

Way too much power.

According to an analysis by the New York Times, Musk has posted about the president at least seven times a month, on average, this year. He has criticized Biden on issues ranging from Biden’s

Pro Publica tells us Trump has been bribing witnesses dealing out some conveniently timed rewards.

Nine witnesses in the criminal cases against former President Donald Trump have received significant financial benefits, including large raises from his campaign, severance packages, new jobs, and a grant of shares and cash from Trump’s media company.

The benefits have flowed from Trump’s businesses and campaign committees, according to a ProPublica analysis of public disclosures, court records and securities filings. One campaign aide had his average monthly pay double, from $26,000 to $53,500. Another employee got a $2 million severance package barring him from voluntarily cooperating with law enforcement. And one of the campaign’s top officials had her daughter hired onto the campaign staff, where

The Guardian has a long piece on Mhairi Black, who is retiring from her job as as MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South.

Swinney took up his position as first minister with a pledge to “govern from the mainstream” and many of Black’s colleagues have expressed concern at a growing perception among voters that the SNP is distracted and divided over gender issues at the expense of their doorstep concerns.

With a general election looming, Black is a pragmatist. “I think that progressing trans rights is absolutely the right thing to do, but during a cost of living crisis I can understand why people get frustrated with it,” she says. While she provoked anger when she dismissed gender-critical feminists

Oh ffs. Is it still 2015? Did I just imagine the last 9 years? Or does CNN need to read the room?

Maryhope Howland gave birth to a baby she thought was a boy. But at 6 years old, the child asked her questions such as “Mom, am I a boy? How do you know I’m a boy?”  

“Once I clued in, I said, ‘The doctors make a best guess based on your body … but only you can know, and we love you no matter what,’” said Howland, now co-lead for the Families United for Trans Rights, an organization of transgender kids and their loved ones.

No the doctors didn’t make a “best guess.” Children ask a lot … Read the rest

Shock-horror in Beeston.

The aim is to bring communities together and not to divide. Hm.

Which communities?

You’re not bringing all communities together with this endless bullying of women, now are you. You’re driving a fuck of a lot of women away, very far away, so far they’ll probably never come back.

It’s very creepy, this blather about “communities” to shore up the silencing and punishment and exile of women. New boss exactly like the old boss.… Read the rest

Extend them where exactly? How? Into what? What rights are missing?

As for “equality now” – what does that even mean? In what sense are trans people not “equal”? In what sense are they treated as not equal? In no sense that I know of. Idenniny isn’t about equality, it’s about pampering the self at the expense of everyone else.… Read the rest