No red wave this time.

Democrats have kept control of the Senate after the crucial race in Nevada was announced in their favor, cementing a midterms election performance for the party that widely beat expectations.

Democratic US senator Catherine Cortez Masto has now beaten Republican challenger Adam Laxalt, a former state attorney general who was endorsed by former president Donald Trump, according to the Associated Press.

That’s a whole separate piece of good news. Trump’s endorsement turns out to be not worth all that much any more, which is another stake in the heart of his plans to continue to dominate everything all the time.

For the Republicans, it was another blow after they steeply underperformed in many races. The party had touted hopes of a “red wave” that could sweep across the US and deliver the upper chamber of Congress into their hands. Instead – with a few exceptions, such as Florida – the wave was more of a trickle.

The Democrat[ic] win in the Senate is likely to prompt further recrimination in Republican circles over who is to blame for the poor showing. Much attention has so far focused on Trump after he backed rightwing or celebrity candidates in several key races who lost, such as Dr Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania.

Loser! Trump is a loser!!

Meanwhile, the loss of the Senate will focus minds sharply on Trump’s ongoing dominance of the Republican party. Fissures have opened up, with some prominent Republican figures openly appealing to Trump not to announce a 2024 run, as he is widely expected to do next week.

Loser loser loser.

Eliza Mondegreen at The Freethinker on the new politics of marginalized idenninies and the trans movement:

What began as an informal social and economic pressure campaign has crossed over into a formal effort by coercive state agencies to restrict freedom of expression, assembly, and conscience. In Norway, a feminist organiser named Christina Ellingsen could face up to three years in prison for tweeting that males who identify as women cannot be lesbians or mothers, because this statement violates Norway’s newly expanded hate crime laws. In Canada, a human rights tribunal entertained the complaints of a trans-identified male against religious-minority women who refused to provide intimate hair-removal services. Professors like Selina Todd and Kathleen Stock have needed security to accompany them on their own university campuses after voicing concerns about proposed reforms to the Gender Recognition Act. In England, police have investigated ordinary citizens for tweeting salty limericks or displaying ‘transphobic’ stickers.

Not something the UK police have ever done in response to misogynist limericks or stickers or shouts or taunts.

In November 2020, a prominent lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union tweeted that ‘stopping the circulation of this book and these ideas is 100% a hill I will die on’—referring to a book that questioned the sudden spike in girls identifying as transgender. Feminist groups attempting to organise in-person meetings have faced bomb threats and cancellations by venues nervous about optics and security risks. Teachers have been suspended or fired for refusing to use students’ preferred pronouns.

All for the sake of men who claim to be women. It doesn’t get any less strange as time passes.

Civil liberties have become distinctly uncool, panned by young activists, and more than a few grown-ups who ought to know better, as tools of marginalisation and oppression. Advocate for the right to freely speak your mind and activists will accuse you of harbouring specific heresies. In an interview with the BBC in September 2021, Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, defended his party’s decision to cast out a female member for asserting that women are adult human females: ‘Well, we absolutely believe in free speech but we also believe that we need to protect human rights and we believe in equality.’

But it’s neither a human right nor equality for a man to pretend to be a woman and order the rest of the world to agree with him.

Why do trans “activists” have such a hostile relationship with civil liberties? Because their claims are bullshit. They can’t defend them so instead they enforce them.

The short answer is that the trans movement threatens civil liberties because the movement is not what it claims to be and thus is threatened by free and open enquiry. If a movement cannot withstand scrutiny, it will create and enforce taboos—and undermine civil liberties in the process.

That’s a hella good point. Where arguments should be, there are taboos instead.

Rather than make a compelling case for why trans inclusion should trump fairness, trans activists seek to make sex—the very crux of the conflict—unspeakable. If ‘trans women are women’, then it does not matter whether or not placing trans-identified males in women’s prisons puts female prisoners at risk. ‘Trans women are women’ means no scrutiny and no debate.

The downside is that it’s so stupid. Unfortunately, that’s not as much of a barrier as you’d think it would be.

Sigh.

Jezebel has a sympathetic conversation with Synthia China Blast, or as they call him, “Trans Inmate Synthia China Blast.”

Synthia China Blast is a Latina trans woman who, according to her family, has been in involuntary protective custody (IPC), a glorified form of solitary confinement, for almost 20 years. When we spoke, Synthia was incarcerated at Sullivan Correctional Facility, a men’s prison about two hours north of New York City.

Last August, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP) launched a petition to pressure New York’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) to remove Blast from isolation. In a video released to promote the campaign, Laverne Cox read aloud a letter written by Blast, in which she names the abuses she’s experienced on the inside: spending 23 to 24 hours per day in solitary, receiving insufficient medical treatment, and enduring violence at the hands of guards.

What’s he in prison for?

Shhhhh that’s a rude question.

Women Are Human wrote about him in 2018:

Latin Kings gang member Synthia China Blast (born Luis Morales) held captive, repeatedly raped and brutally tortured Ebony Nicole Williams, a 13-year-old girl from Harlem, a court found.

Discovering that little Ebony was still alive after Mr Blast had stabbed her repeatedly, fellow gang member Carlos Franco broke the child’s neck. The two men were so brutal that their acts of torture nearly decapitated the girl.

While he was dressed in a skirt, 22-year-old Mr Blast carried and disposed of the young girl’s mutilated body in a Bronx underpass, and set the body on fire.

Mr Blast and Mr Franco bragged about the crime to friends. According to acquaintances, the two Latino men were openly anti-black, and had targeted the child for sexual torture and murder not only because of her sex, but her skin color, as well.

Jezebel indignantly tells us Blast was never convicted of murder, but neglects to mention the rapes and stabbings and torture. Very left-wing, much progressive.

The blue tick thing is so absurd – the point of it is supposed to be verification, so if you make it for money instead, what is the point of having it? What does it tell anyone? “I pay Twitter $8 a month for this blue check mark thing.” Yes, and? You might as well put your monthly bus pass in your profile.

A wave of new paid blue tick accounts impersonating influential individuals and brands has led to chaos and confusion on Twitter.

Fake “verified” accounts in the names of politicians, celebrities, major organisations and businesses started appearing on the platform on Thursday.

Twitter suspended many of them, but the company’s rapidly changing attempts to address the issue added to the confusion.

…

One of the most disruptive accounts impersonated US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, and declared “insulin is free now”.

The company had to say no it isn’t. Awkward.

Experts worry that the harm caused by a lack of trust in Twitter’s verification system could come to the fore during events such as mass shootings, terrorist attacks or natural disasters, where Twitter is often used by local authorities, police, emergency services and journalists for accurate information and advice.

That’s the thing. Twitter started out as a kind of toy, but it became a lot more than that.

You could knock me down with a feather. Mark Kelly wins in Arizona:

Three days after Americans voted, the BBC’s US partner CBS estimates Democrat Mark Kelly has beaten Republican challenger Blake Masters.

That would leave the Senate at 49 Democratic seats and 49 Republican seats.

Just Nevada and Georgia are yet to be decided.

If the Dems win one they stay in control of the Senate because of the VP vote. If they win neither the Republicans control the Senate. Nail-biter. Not that the Dems have been able to accomplish much, but if the Republicans get the Senate everything will be that much worse.

Now Trump is suing the January 6 committee.

Former President Donald Trump has sued the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, as a way to challenge its subpoena for documents and his testimony, according to filings in a federal court in Florida.

Trump is [both] challenging both the legitimacy of the committee – which multiple courts have upheld – and is claiming he should be immune from testimony about the time he was president.

No, Bub, you’re thinking of a dictator, not a president. Nobody elected you monarch or emperor or Divine Absolute Ruler. You shouldn’t be immune from anything.

Trump’s lawyers say they’ve communicated with the House over the past week and a half as the subpoena deadlines neared, offering to consider answering written questions while expressing “concerns and objections” about the bulk of the document requests.

He’s probably going to get his way.

Iran votes for mass executions of protesters.

Nationwide protests continue in Iran for the 53rd straight day, despite nearly 15,000 Iranians having been arrested in connection to the demonstrations and who are now facing the death penalty.

As thousands continue to rally across Iran’s capital city of Tehran, defying a brutal crackdown by Iranian forces, on Tuesday, the country’s parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of the death penalty for protesters.

Just kill them all. That will fix everything.

There was more backroom censorship than we were told.

Pippa Rogerson, master of Gonville and Caius, and senior tutor Andrew Spencer sparked controversy last month by announcing they were boycotting a visit by Helen Joyce.

In an email to students they said the bestselling author’s views on transgender people were ‘offensive, insulting, and hateful to members of our community’. In the October 19 message the pair said they could not ‘stay neutral’ and would avoid the talk, which had been organised by Arif Ahmed, a Gonville fellow and professor of philosophy.

We knew that much, but there’s more.

But the academics also prevented Professor Ahmed from publicising the event on Venn, the college intranet system, Varsity student newspaper reported. Professor Ahmed told colleagues: ‘I have tried to advertise this event on the Venn but the master and the senior tutor have told me that I cannot do this, on the grounds that “further publicity will only inflame already heightened tensions in college”.’

Imagine someone is giving a talk on racism, and some students are Offended on the grounds that racism doesn’t exist and anyway white people are best – would the master and senior tutor tell the talk-giver “You cannot advertise the event on Venn because further publicity will only inflame already heightened tensions in college?”

I don’t think so.

Why would a beauty pageant, i.e. a Prettiest Woman contest, let a man compete in the first place? It’s a stupid concept, but it at least has a basic outline, or did until the other day. Even the law agrees.

[Brian] Nguyen’s win came just days after a San Francisco Court ruled that women’s beauty pageants were not legally obligated to let trans-identified males to compete.

The case had been brought to court after a trans activist, Anita Green, filed a lawsuit against Miss United States of America after they barred him from competing in 2019. In their decision, the judges in the case said that forcing pageants to include “transgender” contestants amounted to compelled speech as beauty pageants aim to “to express the ideal vision” of American womanhood.

“The First Amendment affords the Pageant the ability to voice this message, and to enforce its ‘natural-born female rule,” stated the court.

Of course the “ideal vision” of womanhood is insulting and belittling, but that’s a separate issue.

Brian Nguyen of course sees it differently.

I guess it is finally time to introduce myself!

My name is Brían Nguyen, I am 19 years old, and I am currently a freshman at Nashua Community College majoring in Business Management. I hope to use my degree so that I can create sustainable, ethical, and inclusive products such as clothing, cosmetics, and accessories. I also hope to continue to grow my career in the modeling and social media industry.

My Social Impact Initiative is #QueensAreEverywhere. This is a media movement that helps the next generation develop self-confidence, realize their potential, and become the leaders of their destiny. This is done by spotlighting members of the community that have faced adversity and teach how they overcame it. I am excited to continue growing this project and expanding it into in-person events and appearances.

I am ecstatic to be the FIRST transgender woman to be a Miss America local titleholder, and I hope to make everyone proud and become the first to walk the Miss America stage.

I am Brían Nguyen, your Miss Greater Derry 2023, and I am so excited for my year of service, to compete for Miss New Hampshire in April, and to make you all proud

There are some questions behind all this. What was the process? There was at least one contest before this one, to select the top picks, right? And some kind of filtering process before that? Not all hopefuls get to compete, because there would be too many of them, yes? So I’m wondering how that worked. I’m wondering how the filter worked that let the very slight slender delicate girls with one bent leg through and also let the very hefty bulky undelicate boy with two straight legs through. In other words there’s a mismatch, so what was the process? I’m curious to know, but I don’t suppose we ever will.

Another question is how Brian Nguyen explained it all to himself. Is it just a cynical move to get a 7500k scholarship? Or is it…no, I can’t think of anything else it could be.

Trump is clinging to the window sill.

According to anonymous insider reports, Mr Trump still harbours presidential ambitions – and is leaning toward announcing another presidential bid from his Mar-a-Lago home next Tuesday. After this week’s disappointing midterm results for Republicans, where Mr Trump’s hand-picked candidates struggled to win key races, the former president’s advisers are counselling him to wait for the dust to settle.

“Like, you know, sir, a year or two. That would give you plenty of time to campaign for the 2028 election.”

Instead, with his Thursday social media posts and evening press-release diatribe against Mr DeSantis, Mr Murdoch’s Newscorp and all his critics, Mr Trump seems intent on throwing that dust in his enemy’s eyes. He called his Florida rival an “average Republican governor with great public relations” and made explicit the parallels to his first presidential bid.

“This is just like 2015 and 2016, a Media Assault (Collusion!), when Fox News fought me to the end until I won, and then they couldn’t have been nicer or more supportive,” he wrote. “The Wall Street Journal loved Low Energy Jeb Bush, and a succession of other people as they rapidly disappeared from sight, finally falling in line with me after I easily knocked them out, one by one.”

That’s right Donnie. Focus on that. It was so much fun, wasn’t it? Relive the old days. Thaaaaat’s right…curl up, put your thumb in your mouth, and dream. Night night.

In 2016, Mr Trump lashed out at prominent figures within his own party with no restraint – presidential rivals Mr Bush, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, as well as Arizona Senator John McCain. He didn’t need the respect or support of Republican leaders and wore their scorn as a badge.

A badge of honor, that is. The metaphor is a badge of honor, not just a badge. You can’t just stick your Boy Scout badge on there and call it a day.

At the time, those leaders feared Mr Trump would be a disastrous standard-bearer, that he would sink the party and doom them to defeat. Mr Trump won the White House anyway, but after this week – and the Republican midterm rout in 2018 and Mr Trump’s 2020 re-election defeat – his party’s elders are once again getting skittish.

Well, you know the old saying – lie down with pigs, get up covered in pig shit. “His party’s elders” should have walked away from him in 2015, end of story.

I’ve been putting this one off for a couple of days, but time is up. It’s about that guy in New Hampshire who won a scholarship by winning a beauty pageant.

The photo makes it all too clear what kind of body type is considered good, appropriate, conforming, acceptable in female people – extremely small, thin, dainty, with one permanently bent knee and a short skirt. That’s the right kind of body and presentation and skirt to have, but it’s not the kind to win. The winner is built like a fullback and wears a dress that trails on the sidewalk. He’s also a male person. The competition appears to be for female people, but a man was allowed to compete and he won despite his failure to conform to the apparently preferred body type and his not so skimpy dress.

He also won a $7500 scholarship, so that’s a female person who lost one.

I don’t think “beauty pageants” should exist, myself – I think in a sane world they wouldn’t exist any more than they exist for men. I don’t think scholarships should be awarded for prettiness (hint: scholar doesn’t mean pretty person). But they do and they are, so I don’t think men should muscle in on them.

Geneticist tells us women don’t actually exist. Honestly they don’t, he says.

He’ll have to let us into a rather shocking secret, researcher Gordon Strathdee says. “The reason us [sic] scientists find this question so hard to answer is that women don’t actually exist. Honestly they don’t. They’re all just a figment of your fevered imagination.

The reason is that “woman” and “man” are just categorisations that humans have invented to make communication easier. But these things are concepts, that exist only in human minds. They don’t actually exist in the physical world.”

Interesting. So…how does it make communication easier to use words that name things that don’t exist in the physical world? I get why many words are abstract, of course, and don’t name a physical object, but I stumble at the assertion that all words are like that. How easy would communication really be if they were?

“Could you let the dog out?”

“The what?”

“Get in the car, we’re late.”

“In the what?”

“I’ll have an apple please.”

“A what?”

You see? It would take forever to say anything except on a very high Platonic plane.

Trump is fuming.

Former President Donald Trump ripped Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a flurry of posts on Truth Social on Thursday, calling him an “average Republican governor with great Public Relations.”

In a public statement also posted on Truth Social, Trump unleashed on his one-time ally, offering a taste of the potential insults to come if the two face off in 2024. The Florida governor is seen as a potential 2024 presidential hopeful, which could challenge the former president’s hold on the GOP should DeSantis decide to run for president.

…

“And now, Ron DeSanctimonious is playing games! The Fake News asks him if he’s going to run if President Trump runs, and he says, ‘I’m only focused on the Governor’s race, I’m not looking into the future.’ Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that’s really not the right answer,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday. In another post, Trump took credit for DeSantis’ first run.

Ah yes, Donald Trump, prince of loyalty and class.

DeSantis has not said whether he plans to serve out his full second term as governor as the 2024 general election rolls around. And Trump has not been taking the prospect of a matchup against DeSantis quietly.

“If he did run, I will tell you things about him that won’t be very flattering,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. “I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife, who is really running his campaign.”

Psst – he’s telling us DeSantis is pussywhipped. A real man doesn’t let women run anything.

Once the glaciers melt, they’re gone, so the rivers go too. That’s happening in the Camargue:

People have always been attracted to the Camargue because of the abundance of species and resources it contains despite the challenges of living between the ebb and flow of an ever-evolving delta. Its nutrient-rich wetlands contain an enormous amount of biodiversity, making it one of the most productive ecosystems in the world. The Rhône river has long served as the Camargue’s lifeline, bringing fresh water from the Alps and dampening salt levels in the Camargue. As rain and snowfall decrease, it’s becoming a less reliable fresh water source, with researchers estimating the river’s flow has reduced by 30% in the last 50 years. It is expected to only worsen.

“Glaciers which are in the process of melting at an incredibly high rate have already passed the point of no return, so probably in the years to come, the 40% of river flow that arrives in Camargue will be reduced to a much smaller percentage,” said Jean Jalbert of Tour du Valat.

If you melt your glaciers, they’re gone.

Do it now or you won’t be able to do it at all.

Mary Trump, former president Donald Trump’s niece, has warned that the clock is ticking for the Department of Justice and Attorney General Merrick Garland to decide on whether to indict her uncle now that the midterm elections are over.

…

The former president’s niece argued that the decision whether or not to indict her uncle [will] have to take into account not just the amount of evidence against him, but also the actions he might take in retaliation.

“I guess it comes down to one — I guess if they feel that they have enough evidence to indict, which it would be shocking if they didn’t. Cause I think we all know that they did like two years ago,” she said.

Mary Trump, former president Donald Trump’s niece, has warned that the clock is ticking for the Department of Justice and Attorney General Merrick Garland to decide on whether to indict her uncle now that the midterm elections are over.

…

The former president’s niece argued that the decision whether or not to indict her uncle [will] have to take into account not just the amount of evidence against him, but also the actions he might take in retaliation.

“I guess it comes down to one — I guess if they feel that they have enough evidence to indict, which it would be shocking if they didn’t. Cause I think we all know that they did like two years ago,” she said.

“And two, just the — if they understand, what Donald’s about to do in terms of playing this very cynical card of, ‘If I’m announcing then any attack on me will be a political one’. Right? Or ‘Any indictment of me will be politically-motivated’. So I think the DoJ has about a week,” she added.

Mind you, he’ll say that no matter what.

Oof. This rivals the daisy ad in power.

Victoria Smith on Izzard and not being trendy:

Like many, I saw Izzard as someone who got it, who understood that women, like men, are full, complete human beings, not a set of stereotypes to be put on and taken off at will. Izzard’s descent into boorish sexism has surprised me; I thought he was better than that. Then again, his boorishness is in fashion, whilst the resistance of women such as [Rosie] Duffield and me is forever out of date. 

…

Whilst numerous studies have indicated that younger men are no less sexist than their fathers — that, on the contrary, they may be more so — this has not dented the view that the young, supported by older males such as Izzard, have a more sophisticated understanding of sex and gender than their boring old mummies, who still believe that statements such as “I campaign for politics in girl mode … I just switch, change, take off your heels, flat shoes” smack of male chauvinism. 

It’s the myth of eternal progress. People get more enlightened, aware, awake, with every generation – hell with every week, every day, every hour. We’ll be perfected just in time for climate armageddon.

What’s actually happening is just people chasing new fashions. It’s no more enlightened than that.

We need to distinguish between what is fashionable and what is actually a challenge to existing power structures. There is something insane about the idea that young people have cracked the code to millennia of misogyny and it is … rehabilitating the word “women” so it includes the proper humans — the ones who have penises — and not letting female people organise as a class, because that way everyone will forget to exploit them. This is fashionable, but what does it actually change?

Well, it makes everything worse; will that do?

My own view is that older women are the true gender radicals, both inherently — as the act of ageing subverts the link between femaleness and youth-coded femininity — and actively, in our willingness to challenge male entitlement even when it lowers our social status to do so. When we are told we are out of date, we’re really being told to get on board with a shiny, all-new iteration of patriarchy. Feminism for female people is old! Shut up and listen to an ageing comedian tell you why the most basic rules — female people exist, matter and deserve resources for themselves — no longer apply! 

An ageing male comedian at that, dress or no dress.

Gender fluidity is supposed to operate in a way similar to the great invisible hand of the free market, sorting everyone into their ideal, true self roles without anything so inconvenient and restrictive as male people being told they’ll have to give things up as opposed to gaining access to even more stuff.

Older women are the eternally uncool mummies, pointing out that no, it will take more than changing pronouns and shoes to end violence and redistribute wealth and power. Patriarchy is the eternally raging teenager, convinced he’s invented the same structures used by his dad, and his dad before him. 

Lecture us all you like. Tell us we need to get with the programme. The changes that happen — the ones that actually transform lives — are enacted by those who don’t care about appeasing 21st century sexists. Your tactics might be novel; your aims haven’t moved on at all. 

Props on the makeup though.

A sign at the The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance in London:

A scramble to apologize without any mention of what was wrong with the “signage.”

The statement issued:

Earlier today on-campus signage at the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance (ICMP) was shared on social media.

Our intention, following discussions with our student community, had been to communicate the definition of TERF (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist) to help clarify what we considered to be growing misconceptions around what the term means.

It’s not a “term.” It’s an incendiary device, like “cunt” and “bitch” and “whore.” It’s an epithet. The point of it is to invoke and inflame hatred of women. Trying to “clarify” its “definition” is like trying to clear up the meaning of “nigger.” This isn’t a dictionary thing, it’s an incitement of hatred thing.

We got it wrong. 

The signage is clunky and we can see how it can be misinterpreted as an ICMP view and/or policy. 

The signage has now been removed and we apologise profusely for any offence caused.

The sign is not “clunky”; the sign is a frank and open incitement to hatred of women.

The issue is not “offence” so much as fear. Men are afraid women will laugh at them; you know the punchline. It’s not unusual for men to inflict physical violence on women, including murder. Institutions putting up signs saying “Here’s a reason to hate women who are defending their rights” are not merely “causing offence,” they’re putting women at literal physical risk.

The “profuse” apology is rejected with prejudice.

I’ve just spent a few minutes trying to figure out what the Equality and Human Rights Commission is, with not much success. I can’t tell what its relationship to the government is. They don’t explain it very clearly.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is Great Britain’s national equality body and has been awarded an ‘A’ status as a National Human Rights Institution (NHRI) by the United Nations.

What’s a national body? What’s a body in this context?

As a statutory non-departmental public body established by the Equality Act 2006, the Commission operates independently. We aim to be an expert and authoritative organisation that is a centre of excellence for evidence, analysis and equality and human rights law. We also aspire to be an essential point of contact for policy makers, public bodies and business.

I guess that explains it some, but it’s still not clear whether it just says things or has enforcement power.

We use our unique powers to challenge discrimination, promote equality of opportunity and protect human rights. We work with other organisations and individuals to achieve our aims, but are ready to take tough action against those who abuse the rights of others.

What kind of tough action though? Are we talking cops, jail, court, prison?

In closely related news – how are we defining women when we talk about improving gender balance?

The Scottish government is facing a judicial review over plans to include transgender women in legislation aimed at improving gender balance on public boards.

See this is where we start screaming and throwing things. Let men wear skirts and lipstick, fine, knock yourselves out, but you cannot improve gender balance by putting more men in lipstick on public boards. You can’t improve gender balance in any other way than including more women. More women, not more men in skirts.

Aidan O’Neill KC, for the campaign group For Women Scotland, said the court of session’s ruling would have significant implications for the protection of single-sex spaces across the UK, as well as proposals to simplify how transgender people can alter their birth certificate currently being debated by the Scottish parliament.

O’Neill was speaking before Lady Haldane on the first day of the judicial review of the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act, which was passed in 2018.

It has been the subject of a long-running court action by the campaign group, which resulted in a ruling on appeal earlier this year that the legislation should not have included transgender women in its definition of “woman” as this “conflated” two distinct groups that are protected in law.

It should not have included transgender women because they are men, and it’s women who need more representation, not men who claim to feel like women.

For Women Scotland is now challenging revised guidance from the Scottish government that the definition of “woman” should include transgender women with a gender recognition certificate (GRC).

It really really really should not.

This shit is so insulting and I’m so sick of it. It underlines for us every day that women are the one set of people it’s ok to shove aside and replace this way.

O’Neill argued that the Equality Act, when read as a whole, demanded that specific statutory definition of the word “sex” as meaning biological sex.

…

Scotland’s gender recognition reform bill will introduce a system of self-declaration for obtaining a GRC, removing the need for a psychiatric diagnosis of gender dysphoria, reducing the time someone must have been permanently living in their gender before they can apply from two years to three months, and dropping the age at which people can apply from 18 to 16.

For Women Scotland has held a number of rallies at the Scottish parliament protesting against the reforms, the most recent one supported by the author JK Rowling, who tweeted a photograph of herself wearing a T-shirt reading “Nicola Sturgeon, destroyer of women’s rights”. The bill passed its first stage in Holyrood last month but the vote resulted in the SNP’s biggest backbench revolt in 15 years in power.

Men aren’t women. Next question?