Cath Leng points out that actually the Channel 4 program took a very trans activist-friendly view of the core issue.

It’s not an opinion that men are not women, it’s a fact. That matters.

Pink News et al. please note.

That letter, the one signed by Stephen Whittle and Finn McKay among others – it’s remarkably bad. Couldn’t they find someone to write a literate and coherent few hundred words? If they could, why didn’t they?

On Tuesday 30 May 2023, C4 is screening a documentary with the title ‘Gender Wars’.

We, the undersigned transgender and non-binary (TNB)people are featured in the documentary,

·   DID NOT AGREE to take part in the documentary viewers will see, and

·   would NOT HAVE AGREED to take part in any documentary focused on Kathleen Stock.

Either omit “are” before “featured in the documentary” or add “and” after it. For cryin’ out loud.

We wish to clarify to our peers within the TNB community that we were not told the true nature of the documentary. It was only on seeing the first preview, in late April, that we become aware of the true nature of the film.

Don’t say “the true nature of” twice in two sentences.

On seeing the previews  all shocked and have expressed our dismay and anger to those responsible.

All shocked, eh? All shocked what? Or whom?

Then there’s the substance, which is dumb.

Stephen Whittle originally declined to take part after his previous experience of working with C4 in 2018 on the much-critiqued Genderquake debate. That programme had ramped up the increasingly toxic rhetoric about the right to existence and non-discrimination of trans and non-binary people.

Nobody is saying anybody doesn’t have “the right to existence.” If you can’t make your case without these moronic lies then what does that say about your case?

We all made it clear in our conversations with Pamela Gordon that we wanted to move away from any debate or questioning of our lives, our existence, or our rights.

It’s not the lives, the existence, the rights. It’s the ideology. The debate is about the ideology, and what flows from it. There is no “right” to force everyone to endorse other people’s fantasies about themselves. If there were, everyone would say “I’m King Charles, now give me all that money.” There wouldn’t be enough money to go around, so it would fall apart before it got started.

Maya sums it up:

Lucy Mangan at the Guardian on “Gender Wars”:

Channel 4 has bitten the bullet and is the first, I think, to produce a programme giving voice to both sides of what is usually called “the trans issue”. However, the first problem it faces is that “the trans issue” is actually about 400 issues packed into one, which has partly contributed to the endless difficulties in approaching, let alone resolving, it.

What are some of them? The incompatibility with women’s rights of course. The fact that it’s not true. The damage people do to their bodies trying to make it true. The entitlement that seems to go with it for so many. The maudlin hyperbolic rhetoric. The unwarranted belligerence. The boredom.

The fact that it’s not true is a real stumbling block, frankly. If we weren’t expected to pretend it is true then it might not be – it might be just another branch of fantasy, another Let’s Pretend for adults. If it were that it probably wouldn’t also be the new pet cause of the Left, and “activists” wouldn’t be constantly trying to ruin our lives because we can’t believe it. It would just be some people’s kink, and not of interest to anyone else.

But that’s not where we are.

Wisely, Gender Wars does not try to cover everything. It looks at the phrase “trans women are women” and the ramifications, if it is to be taken not as a catchy slogan, embodying the idea that everyone should be allowed to dress, present and live as they choose, but as literal truth and the central plank of an increasingly popular and powerful ideology.

What I’m saying. It’s the literal truth bit that makes it such a poisoned apple.

We were talking earlier about existential cuteness and puppy videos.

Channel 4 (UK)’s Gender Wars aired a couple of hours ago and was apparently very good, and not one long rant about terfs.

Not available over here alas.

the roof?

No, sir, this is wrong.

The guy with glasses and a microphone asks the guy in the purple top what he has made of what’s happening, particularly of “the professor, who’s come here to be part of a debate.” Purple top guy laughs a skeptical laugh and says “When you listen to that phrase itself, ‘a debate,’ a debate about, uh, trans existence, trans rights – if we were to talk about black people, and debate your existence, how would you feel – you know, people frame it as the transgender issue, the transgender debate, the trans question – if we were to ask that of black people or Jewish people”

Let me stop you right there.

They’re not the same.

Black people and Jewish people aren’t making any extraordinary claims about themselves. There is no magic involved, no mysterious form of “identity” that contradicts the body, no black or Jewish “soul” that doesn’t match the known facts. There may be people whose claim to be black or Jewish is iffy, or just plain fraudulent, but there is no matching ideology that says “You are what you feel, not what the facts say you are.” In particular there is no mob of “activists” insisting that white people who “identify as” black are more persecuted and attacked than black people are.

This difference between the two is important.

Oooooooh Hi yourself, cutie. Aren’t you just adorable?!

Just look at the lovely little fella. The bent knee/pointed toe – isn’t that sweet? The hand behind the head – so so cute! The darling pink shorts, the rakish denim shirt tied rakishly in a rakish knot, the darling winsome smile – he’s a far better woman than all you stubborn boring women who don’t take selfies with Pointed Toe.

Suzanne Moore says the empire is tottering at last.

Susie Green, the former chief executive of Mermaids, who stood down “unexpectedly” last year, has been hiding in plain sight for so long that I sincerely hope we can see her clearly now. How this woman was ever allowed to have so much influence over vulnerable children, never mind medical professionals, is frankly disturbing. 

No medical training yet she bossed the medical professionals around and they asked her for more.

We now find that Green herself had direct influence on policy at the gender identity development service (GIDS) at the Tavistock. After being told that the Tavistock [claimed it] did not have any records of meeting with Green, when threatened by court action, miraculously it found 300 pages of them.

Which means the Tavistock has revealed itself to have lied about what records it has. That’s got to be at least embarrassing.

They reveal that Green spoke directly to the director Dr Polly Carmichael, had advisory roles on two studies and – most scandalous of all – could refer children for treatment at the clinic even when their own GPs had repeatedly advised against it. The Cass Review, remember, effectively shut down GIDS as it was not fit for purpose.

It was fit for Susie Green’s purpose, and probably no one else’s.

None of this is really about the trans rights of adults. It is about the pushing of extreme gender ideology onto distressed children. Any basic model of safeguarding has gone out of the window. It is a complete negation of the duty to ‘Do No Harm’ and at its centre is a woman who should never, ever have been given any authority.

I really hope that for Susie Green, the game is finally up.

A consummation devoutly to be wished.

JK Rowling says Patrick Strudwick told a huge brazen lie.

It’s one of those new long tweets that subscribers get to do.

As @PatrickStrud has blocked me on here (we’ve never, to my knowledge, interacted on Twitter or anywhere else) I can’t challenge him directly about the claim he published in iNews (see below) that a Let Women Speak event in Australia ‘staged a mass Nazi salute’. This is a lie so brazen, so easily disprovable and so libellous, I’m amazed it was allowed into print by a supposedly reputable news source.

For years now, women and gay people concerned about the erosion of their rights, the dismantling of safeguarding and the escalating threats and violence of trans activists have been called ‘fascists’ and ‘Nazis’ by people like Strudwick for holding what, until five minutes ago, were solidly left-wing/feminist political positions. Nobody but useful idiots can be genuinely surprised that REAL fascists have spotted a glorious opportunity in trans activism. The homophobic, anti-feminist far-right has long held that the left is degenerate, foolish, immoral and authoritarian, and now they can point to the incoherent arguments of the gender ideologues, the bullying tactics of the no-platformers and the swarms of masked men threatening violence against women for wanting to retain single-sex spaces, and crow ‘we told you so’.

It’s true.

Actual Nazis have turned up on the fringes of Let Women Speak events for exactly the same reason aggressive, narcissistic trans activists are there. These groups closely resemble each other. Both are rife with misogynistic opportunists who’re using a clash of rights to push their own agendas, both are there in the hope of violence, and neither gives a damn about the women who’re there to speak out in their own voices, about their own lives, on their own behalf. It’s high time those peddling lies like Strudwick’s are held accountable and I sincerely hope @ThePosieParker takes action.

I await developments with interest.

Yes but no one says trans rights are not human rights. Trans people have human rights. The issue is fancy new bespoke rights that aren’t rights at all, because they trample on everyone else’s rights.

Guest post by Jonathan A. Gallant

Some children, particularly at early ages, like to imagine themselves being cats, dogs, lambs, or other lovable animals, and they display their choice by making appropriate animal noises. 

I have established a foundation to help empower such children in their new identity.  The program, which we call affirmative affirmation, provides psychological affirmation, instruction about the animal of choice, imitation fur, and such medical interventions—pharmacological, dermatological, and surgical—as may become available as cutting-edge research in this exciting new area proceeds.  Contributions to the foundation can be sent directly to me, preferably in cash.  We accept $, but no longer accept British, Swedish or Finnish currency.  

Nails.

And again, not two years ago but today.

800 million WOMEN.

Women. You mean women. Men don’t need menstrual products. Say the word. Women.

January 2021: a male OB/GYN informs us on the Planned Parenthood blog that it’s not just ” ciswomen” who get abortions.

Abortion rights, reproductive rights, women’s rights, reproductive justice…these terms may seem synonymous to many, but in fact they represent an evolution and intersectionality of many struggles for individuals to choose when and how to be pregnant and/or parent. Language around abortion has always been fraught with controversy, imprecision, and rhetoric. The topic of ending a pregnancy in the United States is more than a medical procedure but also carries political, ethical, and moral weight. Pro-choice advocates may use sterile scientific language while anti-choice proponents use emotion-evoking language about life and personhood. While abortion has long been a language minefield, a new abortion language issue has arisen: the gendered language of pregnancy and abortion.

Gee, I wonder why the language around pregnancy and abortion would be “gendered” i.e. sexed.

In recent years, the visibility of the transgender community has increased significantly. With increased visibility, the transgender and non-binary community has also demanded more equitable and knowledgeable treatment by medical providers.

It’s not just the “visibility” of trans people that has increased, it’s also the number of them. Why? Because it’s an out of control social contagion. Also, how are we defining “more equitable treatment” here? It’s not particularly “equitable” to pretend that men can be women, much less to bully women into agreeing that men can be women.

In response, many family planning providers, like Planned Parenthood, have embraced the provision of transition-related care for transgender and non-binary individuals.

Good god. Why?

Indeed, the tenets of reproductive justice and self-determination have pushed these health care providers to extend beyond traditional family planning services as well as make their core services more inclusive. 

It’s not reproductive justice to pretend that men can be women. Self-determination concerning pregnancy is not the same as self-determination concerning physical facts about the self. Self-determination doesn’t mean we can self-determine that we are cars or houses or Brazil or the space station. There’s a limit to what we can determine about ourselves.

While many changes were easy, abortion and pregnancy are highly gendered concepts, and the use of inclusive language remains challenging and problematic. While some can understand that a transgender man may need a Pap smear or experience a yeast infection, far fewer can think about anyone other than ciswomen becoming pregnant or needing an abortion.

Don’t. call. us. ciswomen. Don’t try to tell us we’re a subset of our own sex. Don’t find a new and trendy way to bully women.

Reflect on any experience you have had surrounding pregnancy. Do you imagine anyone besides cisgender women being pregnant? Many family planning providers similarly have had to struggle with their gendered roots in becoming more inclusive. Not all pregnant people identify as women, or have a feminine gender expression.

You reflect. You reflect on what “becoming more inclusive” means, and reflect on whether you really want to be telling the subordinated sex to become “more inclusive” of the dominant one. Then fuck off.

There is inherent tension in acknowledging an organizational history rooted in the women’s rights movement that lead to Roe v. Wade, but also left out many non-white, non-cis people.

Ohhh no you don’t. Apologize for PP’s failure to include non-white people all you like, but do not bring the absurd category “non-cis” into it. College kids who fancy themselves too special and unique to be just female or male are not comparable to brown and black people who’ve been pushed around and neglected.

While it may be challenging to use language like “people who become pregnant” as opposed to “pregnant women,” it is a minor discomfort that nowhere near exceeds the benefits.

Oh no it isn’t. Oh no it absolutely is not. Erasing women is not “a minor discomfort,” dude.

Cute. Male host of newsy talk show won’t let Kathleen Stock finish a sentence. Why have her on the show only to talk over her?

Good Morning Britain viewers were less than impressed with presenter Ed Balls while he was interviewing Kathleen Stock. The professor appeared on the ITV show to speak about her upcoming Channel 4 documentary Gender Wars.

…

The Channel 4 special, titled Gender Wars, will delve into the meaning of sex and gender and feature the professor who has caused controversy in the past with her views on the subject.

Having quit her role at the University of Sussex two years ago after accusations of transphobia, Good Morning Britain’s Ed Balls decided to question her opinions.

Ouch. Translation: Stock left her job at the University of Sussex two years ago after accusations of transphobia, and today Good Morning Britain’s Ed Balls decided to question her opinions. Still clumsy but at least it doesn’t say Ed Balls left her job at Sussex.

He questioned: “Is it not possible, in your view, for somebody who was a man, to become as they would describe it, a woman?”

Kathleen replied: “No, you can’t change sex. It’s not biologically possible. Womanhood, I would say is entirely predicated on sex, there’s no other good way of doing it -“

And he interrupted, and went on interrupting, in a very rude and domineering way. You’d think men would try to be more subtle about it, but…no.

Ed Balls has an offspring who is a trans activist.

Kevin Lister does a brilliant job of cutting up the history of Susie Green’s horrifying activities into manageable slices. Each slice is more hair-raising than the last.

Imagine if children start turning up with a mental health condition that causes them to identify as cars or buildings or plants – will there be a Susie Green to step in and help them get the relevant medications and surgeries to match their “identities”?

Susie Green is still in the spotlight, or on the hot seat, or both. Why? Because despite having no medical qualifications of any kind, she was able to refer children to the Tavistock when their GPs had refused to do so.

I guess she was allowed to do it because she had her own kid castrated before he hit puberty? That was medical qualification enough?

Owen Jones explaining feminism again. What would we do without him.

I keep forgetting to ask him if I’m doing feminism right or not.

Man is in jail for males. In other news cats have claws, rain is wet, fire burns, up is not down.

Non-binary former nuclear official Sam Brinton is to be placed in a men’s jail in Maryland while waiting to be sent to Virginia over suitcase theft charges.

A Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputy told The Post Tuesday that Brinton is in a “pre-placement” hold at the county jail and should be housed with the “general population” of the men’s jail sometime next week.

I guess the non-binary jail must be full.

Brinton, 35 — who uses they/them pronouns — was arrested at their home last week and is facing Grand Larceny charges over the alleged theft of a case belonging to a Tanzanian fashion designer from … National Airport.

The designer, Asya Khamsin, said she lost her luggage, which included her one-of-a-kind dresses created for a fashion show, at … National Airport back in March 2018.

…

The Biden appointee, who was fired after two different cases of stealing luggage were filed against them in Minnesota and Las Vegas, is being held at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility until they appear before a judge on June 14.

Arrest records show Brinton was arrested on May 17 at the 700 block of College Parkway as a fugitive from justice, and is being held without bail.

The Post says the cases were settled and then Brinton was re-arrested last week, but doesn’t explain why. Maybe the authorities wanted to ask him about his gender some more.