Of course David Tennant’s pious wish for Kemi Badenoch to stop existing is being framed as “a row” between the two of them as opposed to a white man publicly wishing for a black woman to stop existing.
Rishi Sunak has intervened in a row between Kemi Badenoch and actor David Tennant, saying the Doctor Who star is “the problem”.
But it’s not “a row between” Badenoch and Tennant. It’s Tennant publicly wishing non-existence on Badenoch – publicly as in: in a public speech at a sleb event.
Tennant suggested at the British LGBT Awards last week that he wanted a world where the equalities minister “doesn’t exist any more”, and said she should “shut up”.
No he didn’t “suggest” that. He said it. They just can’t help themselves, can they. There is footage of him saying it, which we can all see, so there can’t be any legal motive for avoiding saying he said it. He can’t sue them for saying he said it, but they use the weaker verb anyway. Crap dishonest cowardly journalism.
Labour v women chapter 7 thousand:
Labour has “a lot of work to do to earn the trust” of women in the wake of rows about transgender rights, the shadow health secretary has said. Wes Streeting said it had taken the party “a while to navigate what has been a pretty complicated and at times toxic debate”, saying it was now time to “show some humility” for the hurt caused.
Oh [Bronx cheer]. Try rage instead of hurt. We don’t need the not so subtle reminder that you fools see women as the whiny sex, the sex that gets “hurt” if you give all its rights away, the sex that doesn’t do rage because it’s not ladylike.
Gender-coded language is so irritating. Would the Telegraph blither about Labour’s “hurt” or Wes Streeting’s “hurt” over political divisions? I don’t think so. But when it’s women then it becomes hurt feefees and whining and all the rest of it. Fark off.
Sir Keir Starmer – who had previously criticised a fellow Labour MP for saying only women have a cervix – insisted he was “very proud” of his party’s record on women. His shadow health secretary now strikes a more conciliatory note, saying Labour is “finally in a good place” when it comes to protecting women and listening to their voices.
“I think it’s taken us a while to navigate what has been a pretty complicated and at times toxic debate. And I think that JK Rowling’s comments over the weekend reflect that there’s a lot of work to do to earn trust on this issue, and that clearly there’s been a lot of hurt,” he said.
Oh that’s where they got it. Listen up, Wes Streeting: there’s a lot of anger and fury and frustration and bitterness. There’s a lot of profound alienation now that we’ve been made aware how little women matter to the political parties. Kissing the booboo is not going to make it all better.
Labour has also come under fire for plans to make it easier for people to change gender. Mr Streeting said simplifying the process by which people can legally change their gender would make it less “degrading” and “torturous”.
Of course making it ever easier for men to pretend to be women is degrading and torturous for women, but Mr Streeting doesn’t care about that.
The [Labour] party has said it would keep the requirement for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria but that this could now be provided by a single clinician. Under the plans there is no requirement for people to have either had gender reassignment surgery or be planning to do so, to legally change their gender.
Kemi Badenoch, the Women and Equalities minister, said the changes would create a “predator’s charter”.
And a charter for men who want to win women’s prizes and all the rest of the list.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Mr Streeting said that Labour had been “honest about the fact there are some tensions and there are some thorny issues to work through” and was “approaching those issues with the humility, the care and respect that this discussion deserves”.
No it isn’t.
He has no clue, and he has no clue that he has no clue.
News I’ve been dreading for some years:
Frederick Crews, Withering Critic of Freud’s Legacy, Dies at 91
A literary critic, essayist and author, he was a leading voice among revisionist skeptics who saw Freud as a charlatan and psychoanalysis as a pseudoscience.
Mr. Crews, a professor emeritus of English at the University of California, Berkeley, was the author of more than a dozen books. Most recently, he wrote “Freud: The Making of an Illusion,” a deeply researched evisceration of Freud’s reputation and therapeutic insights that drew wide critical attention when it came out in 2017.
He was a longtime contributor to The New York Review of Books, where his essays and reviews explored the works Melville, Twain and Flannery O’Connor, among other authors. He also examined broader subjects like recovered memory therapy, the Rorschach test, alien abduction cases and, particularly, psychoanalysis, which he considered a pseudoscience, as well as the scourge of what he called Freudolatry.
I can tell you someone else he saw through: Judith Butler. He was good at seeing through and at not falling for idolatries.
Thick thick thick. Thick as a whole load of planks.
The shadow secretary of education thinks that men who “go through a process” should be using the women’s toilets. What “process”? There is no “process” that turns men into women, just as there’s no “process” that turns stallions into mares or bulls into cows.
I suppose the idea is – whether they know it or not – that if men are willing to go to all that trouble then we owe it to them to let them take what belongs to women. They’re sincere, they made an effort, they jumped through hoops, they really really want to. Sorry, wimz, you lose.
I think I know the answer to this dudely question.
Some people who reply to Ally Fogg are asking who the fuck he thinks he is.
Oh no, Labour says, women are abandoning Labour because Labour abandoned women, how will we get them back??
It comes after the Harry Potter author said at the weekend that Labour had “abandoned” women and that she would “struggle to support them” in the election over their stance on trans issues.
Rowling, the Harry Potter author, wrote in The Times that she had a “poor opinion” of Sir Keir’s character and claimed he was “dismissive and often offensive” of women’s concerns about sex-based rights.
That is, dismissive of and often offensive about.
Ya think?
But you’ve been doing the opposite for years now, so women aren’t going to just stampede back to you. Women aren’t going to believe your efforts to pretend you’ve seen the light at last.
He said: “I think that we’ve clearly got more work to do to rebuild trust with people that we’ve lost on this issue. I think we can find a way through that both treats trans people with the dignity and respect that they deserve, and also treats women with the respect that they deserve, particularly protecting women’s spaces, women’s voices, and right to speak up.”
And yet he still puts trans people first, making women an afterthought, even as he tries to convince us he really does care about women despite evidence to the contrary.
“So, when women like JK Rowling do speak up, I think it’s important we engage seriously with the arguments that she’s making, with the concerns that she has.
“And also we listen to what trans people are saying about the everyday injustices and indignities that they’re experiencing too, whether that’s hate crime or poor provision in public services.”
There you go. Women have some vague concerns, which we’ll take a look at when we get a minute, but the really important thing is all these here everyday injustices and indignities that trans people face.
On Monday morning, Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, attempted to smooth over the row with Rowling. He said he felt “pretty depressed” about the article and admitted Labour needed to do more to “treat women with the respect that they deserve”.
Indeed Labour does, so how about working on that.
Can Louisiana force all public school children to stare at “the ten commandments” every day? Nine families are looking to find out.
Nine Louisiana families have sued the state over a new law that orders every public school classroom to display a poster of the Ten Commandments.
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Under the legislation, HB71, every classroom that receives state funding must by 2025 prominently display the biblical text in a “large, easily readable font” on a poster that is 11 inches by 14 inches (28cm by 35.5cm). The commandments must be “the central focus” of the display, the law says.
The complaint, backed by civil rights groups, says such a display violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees separation of church and state, and “pressures” students into adopting the state’s favoured religion. The law “simply cannot be reconciled with the fundamental religious freedom principles that animated the founding of our nation”, wrote the plaintiffs, who include both rabbis and pastors.
Nor can it be reconciled with the goal of educating children. Forcible indoctrination is the opposite of education.
A representative for the bill’s Republican author, Dodie Horton, declined to comment. Ms Horton has previously spoken of the importance of returning a “moral code” to classrooms. She was quoted saying “it’s like hope is in the air everywhere” as the bill was rubber-stamped by the governor.
But it’s such a thin “moral code” – it says nothing about what really matters – generosity, compassion, giving a damn. As I shouted the other day, it’s mostly about how to grovel to the sky daddy. People subject to the whims of a powerful monster generally don’t have much room to be genuinely moral. Obedience is not moral.
In 1980, in the case Stone v Graham, the Supreme Court struck down a similar Kentucky law requiring that the document be displayed in elementary and high schools. This precedent has been cited by the groups contesting the Louisiana law.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court said the requirement “had no secular legislative purpose” and was “plainly religious in nature” – noting that the commandments made references to worshipping God.
But that was 1980. That was Before Trump.
During his speech at the British LGBT Awards, David Tennant told Tory politician Kemi Badenoch to ‘shut up’ in a passionate award speech. The former Doctor Who star was honoured at the glitzy awards ceremony for his support of the trans community, winning the accolade for celebrity ally.
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‘But I think I suppose if I’m honest I’m a little depressed by the fact that acknowledging that everyone has the right to be who they want to be and live their life how they want to live it, as long as they’re not hurting anyone else, should merit any kind of special award or special mention, because it’s common sense, isn’t it? It is human decency. We shouldn’t live in a world where that is worth remarking on.’
So why is he assuming that men pretending to be women is not hurting anyone else?
I bet he would see the point if the variables were different. Rich people pretending to be poor? Bosses pretending to be workers? White people pretending to be brown? Colonials pretending to be indigenous? Able-bodied people pretending to be disabled? Bullies pretending to be bullied?
He then referenced Badenoch, who has served as the Minister for Women and Equalities since 2022. The politician recently spoke about the Conservatives’ pledge to change the 2010 Equality Act, which she said would ‘clarify that sex in the law means biological sex and not new, redefined meanings of the word’, claiming that this change would ‘protect women and girls’ spaces’, The Independent reported.
This move could mean that trans women are denied access to women-only spaces, even if this puts them in vulnerable situations.
Ahhhhhhhh there you go, there it is, there’s the massive sky-concealing blind spot.
Men getting access to women-only spaces puts women in vulnerable situations you absolute fucking imbeciles.
Brighton and Hove News on that rally on Sunday:
A group of women took shelter in a shop when they were surrounded by dozens of protesters who followed them after they left a rally in Brighton yesterday (Sunday 23 June).
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Several of those taking part in the rally yesterday complained that they were subject to aggressive abuse from about 200 protesters who mainly described themselves as trans rights activists.
Let Women Speak tweeted that Sussex Police had shown a “failure to act on multiple breaches of the peace, harassment and intimidation”, with footage on social media capturing several incidents including scuffles. And several of the women were alarmed to see and hear Sarah Jane Baker, also known as Alan Baker, with a megaphone in the ranks of the protesters. Baker spent 30 years in prison for kidnap and torture and later for attempted murder. The former Lewes inmate – pictured a few years ago carrying a sign saying “Kill JK Rowling” – was recalled to prison last year for breaching parole conditions.
But on Sunday there he was at the rally, merrily threatening women who dare to defend women’s rights.
One member of the audience said that many of those present were survivors of male sexual violence and abuse and were disappointed that the police had not provided better protection from harassment and intimidation. She said that the police had allowed the protesters – many of them men hiding their identity behind masks – to get too close and to keep up a menacing barrage of aggressive verbal abuse. She added that the police had protected the protesters’ freedom of speech and right to protest at the expense of the women’s freedom of speech and right to assemble for a peaceful rally.
Naturally. Women are stupid or malevolent or both; the only decent kind of woman is a trans one.
Wiltshire police are deranged.
A “person” was found guilty of rape. The court tried this “person” as a woman, even though he is of course a man. Women can’t rape. The police say that at the time of the “offence” – i.e. the rape – he was “living as a man.” What they mean is that he wasn’t yet pretending to be a woman. He was found guilty and remanded in custody. The victim of the rape is referred to as “they.”
Complete dog’s breakfast.
He’s horrified is he? Where’s he been all this time?
He says he’s horrified, yet he still says we have to “find a way through” this business of a man in the women’s changing room, staring at them while they undress. He says he’s horrified, yet he still says we’ve got to find a way through that treats trans people with respect first – before saying anything about the women who don’t want to take their clothes off in front of a staring man before they start their shifts as nurses. Why does he talk about “treating trans people with respect” first? Why don’t women ever get to be first? Why does a man’s desire to be in the room where women take their clothes off deserve any respect at all?
Man thrilled at opportunity to mangle women while playing rugby.
Female rugby players in Alberta, Canada, are expressing concerns for their safety after a male who only recently began to identify as a “woman” was permitted to join their team. The women say their club is more worried about “discrimination” lawsuits than their potential injuries.
Players for the Clanswomen, a female rugby team in the Clansmen Rugby Club (CRC) and under the jurisdiction of the Edmonton Rugby Club, told Reduxx they were only recently informed by a coach that Maeryn Gellhaus, 48, was allowed to join their team.
Several members of the Clanswomen, who are being kept anonymous for their protection, explained that they knew Gellhaus had previously played on a men’s team in the CRC before he began to identify as transgender. He also reportedly coaches a youth team in the CRC.
He only started “identifying” as female four months ago, and even that is only part-time. Thin end of the wedge innit. Men might as well just move to the women’s teams without bothering to claim to be trans.
The anonymous female players said that Gellhaus was allegedly informed that several of the women on the team were uncomfortable with his presence and worried about being injured playing with a male. Days later, Gellhaus took to Instagram again, complaining that some of the women had been less than accomodating to him.
“There are a lot of girls that have been absolutely amazing to me there. But there is an underlying feeling that some don’t want me there. Badly. It hasn’t been figured out yet. I’m trying to decide if it’s worth the struggle. I want to be celebrated, not tolerated,” he wrote.
He wants to be celebrated for endangering women and spoiling their sport. It’s all about him, you see.
Several of the women have approached Canada’s governing body for Rugby with concerns about safety, but were told that the club must follow the current guidance, which enables players to choose a team based on their self-identified gender “at both recreational and competitive levels.”
Rugby Canada regulations claim to “resolve gender identity and gender expression issues” via their discipline and complaints policy. The policy does not provide any mention of the safety of female players matched with or against males.
Pffff women’s safety – who cares?
Trump goes all ancient Rome on us.
As The New York Times reported, the Republican candidate also told his evangelical audience that he pitched starting a league for migrants to fight one another for sport.
Appearing at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s conference in Washington on Saturday, Mr. Trump described migrants with the dehumanizing terms he often uses to refer to them, saying they were “tough,” “come from prisons” and are “nasty, mean.” Mr. Trump then said that he had suggested to Dana White, an ally of the former president’s who is the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, “Why don’t you set up a migrant league of fighters?”
In fact, the former president seemed quite animated on the subject.
Well, sure, that’s the kind of thing that gets him animated.
Referring to Dana White, Trump told the audience, “I said, ‘Dana, I have an idea. Why don’t you set up a migrant league of fighters and have your regular league of fighters, and then you have the champion of your league — these are the greatest fighters in the world — fight the champion of the migrants.’ I think the migrant guy might win, that’s how tough they are. He didn’t like that idea too much, but actually, it’s not the worst idea I’ve ever had. No, it’s, these are tough people, these people are tough, and they’re nasty, mean.”
Unlike Trump of course, who is empathetic and generous and compassionate.
Trump tells the same stupid story all over again. To demonstrate that he’s not rambling.
Rosie Duffield and JK Rowling…were threatened with murder by a man for daring to dispute the transparent absurdities of the extreme trans lobby, and championing the right of women to enjoy female-only spaces free of men who identify as women. Like Galileo before them, the two women prefer science to “luxury beliefs” as a guide to truth. They happen to share the view that some things just are, and whether or not people like them is neither here nor there.
We all (we heretics) share the view that like and dislike have no power to change reality (except in the very narrow sense of changing our feelings about reality). Normally adults are well aware of this. We can’t make it start raining with the power of thought, we can’t wish the planet into escaping climate change, we can’t resurrect the dead, we can’t reverse crop failures, we can’t go for a stroll on Mars. We know that. Yet somehow this one thing has become an exception to the broad general reality. Why? I have yet to see any convincing explanation.
In 2021 Rosie pointed out that only women have a cervix.
Twenty years ago, no one would have raised an eyebrow at this statement of the blindingly obvious. Yet her party leader, Sir Keir Starmer, reacted to her comment with condemnation. It was, he remarked, “something that shouldn’t be said”. Now, at last, Sir Keir appears to have rediscovered his notes from O-level biology. After taking a lesson from his mentor Sir Tony Blair, who appears to be clearer on the basics, Sir Keir now says women have vaginas and men penises.
Well, to be really exact, he says he agrees with Tony Blair that women have vaginas and men penises. I’m not sure we know he would say that without the Tony Blair intro.
This is an encouraging evidence-based statement from a former practising barrister and director of public prosecutions whose professional currency was indeed evidence. Sir Keir’s Damascene conversion — he once said only 99.9 per cent of women do not have penises — was made during an election debate on Thursday. Asked about why he reprimanded Ms Duffield for her cervix comment, he attempted to use context: it was, he said, “a very toxic, very divided” time.
Yeah, dude, and you jumped for the wrong side, and hung Rosie out to dry, and treated women’s rights as so much dandruff to be brushed off your shoulders. It was and still is a very fucking toxic time for women, and you are no help whatsoever.
I will never understand why they don’t see the absurdity of this. Throw half of humanity – some four billion people – overboard for the sake of a tiny minority of trend-hugging men who claim to be women? Why would any politician make such a grotesque calculation?
Man awarded $35,000 Canadian because a salon refused to wax his legs.
The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) has awarded $35,000 in damages to an Indigenous transgender woman who was refused a leg wax at a salon in Windsor six years ago. However, the owner of the salon is challenging the ruling, which his lawyer calls “deeply flawed.”
The decision comes six years after the woman contacted Mad Wax Windsor Inc. by phone to book an appointment. She alleged there was a string of discriminatory and retaliatory behaviour by the salon and owner Jason Carruthers.
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In their phone call, the woman testified, Carruthers told her there was no one on staff who would be comfortable providing services to “someone like you.” Carruthers denied using that phrase or misgendering A.B., but said he didn’t have a staff member who could provide “male waxing services.”
I have to admit I know nothing about “waxing services”…but I’m guessing the issue was that the staff was female and they were suspicious of his motivation. I can hear it now – “Oh no dear, all the way up.”
The HRTO ordered Carruthers, the salon and another business to pay $35,000 in damages to A.B., plus interest, and that both Carruthers and salon staff undertake online human rights training.
Why? It’s not a “human right” to get someone to pour hot wax on your legs and then pull it off.
In welcoming the tribunal’s decision, A.B. said no one can silence her or the facts laid out by the tribunal. “This decision brings me some peace,” she said in a media release. “It helps tell the story of the discrimination I faced and the steps taken to escalate that discrimination and harassment against me.”
And the CBC reports all this ridiculous nonsense as if it were true and reasonable. Pathetic.
As long as I’m on the subject…exploring the Texas ACLU Facebook led me to the page of The Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity. Guess what: they too refuse to say “women.” (And what tf is reproductive equity?) It’s all people who are pregnant, abortion care for Texans, yadda yadda. “Women” is a filthy word and absolutely must never be used under any circumstances.
It’s been two years since Roe v. Wade was overturned, forever changing the landscape of reproductive and constitutional rights. Despite the challenges and ongoing attacks on abortion access, we’ve persevered and continue to show up for Texan abortion seekers. Thanks to your unwavering support, we’ve expanded our reach and are helping more people than ever before, and we continue the fight towards abortion access for all.
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Each of our clients receives all of our effort and love to help them have access to abortion and other reproductive services they need. No questions, no fear, and no stigma. Our heart is always with you guys.
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We fund abortions for Texans in states where abortion is legal. We can also help you pay for ultrasounds, contraception, and other reproductive healthcare.
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This Pride Month, let’s remember that reproductive justice and queer liberation are inseparable.
Everyone deserves access to abortion and comprehensive healthcare, including queer and trans folks.
Pride isn’t just a celebration—it’s a call for liberation. There is no reproductive justice without the liberation of all our queer friends and family, and there is no pride without global liberation.
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We’re thrilled to announce that our final Fund-a-Thon total is $106,630!
All money raised from Fund-a-Thon goes towards the cost of abortions for Texans who are forced to travel to other states for their care. With our trusted partner clinics in Texas, we are also funding other reproductive care like ultrasounds, contraception, counseling, trans care, and more.
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It’s a universal rule.
ACLU Texas’s Facebook page is interesting – it talks about immigrants, LGBTQIA+ Texans, people, lives, abortion, reproductive healthcare decisions, migrants, racial profiling, abortion access, abortion care, pregnant people, Pride, the First Amendment, a drag artist, asylum, library books that “center Black, Brown, and LGBTQIA+ stories” – and so on, but there is one subject, one cause, one set of people it just doesn’t name.
And we all know damn well what it is.
