June 27 to July 3: Another USSC victory, more cases to come
And Diddy is acquitted on the heaviest charges.
*WAHF will be taking a one-week summer vacation beginning today, July 4th. We’ll be back on July 18th with our next round of headlines for you. Stay cool!*
Calls to Action
Read the third issue of the radical feminist publication Total Woman Victory.
Top News
June 27 - US Supreme Court Allows Path for TQ+ Lesson Opt-out in Schools
In its ruling for the case Mahmoud v. Taylor, the USSC sided with parents seeking to opt their children out of school lessons with LGB/TQ-themed content. The case originated when a Maryland school informed parents that they could no longer withdraw their children from certain class material. We're not talking material from subjects like math or spelling, but rather "queer"-themed books introducing concepts tied to gender ideology. Parents had previously been allowed to opt-out, but the school reversed course when too many parents were requesting exemptions for children from this part of the curriculum.
This ruling is not total vindication. The Justices grounded their decision in religious freedom of the parents who first brought the case, whose Muslim faith does not recognize the concept of gender identity.
We’d prefer a broader ruling grounded in the general principles of freedom of expression. The Court, for instance, had the opportunity to hear the case L.M. v. Middleborough, in which a middle school student was punished for wearing a shirt that stated “there are only two genders.” A decision on a case like that, not tethered to religious expression, would have had even wider implications.
Efforts to Silence Girls, Women, and Their Supporters
July 2 - UK universities have failed to protect gender-critical academics, report finds
Mhmm. I experienced this back in graduate school in the United States, and I wouldn’t at all be surprised to hear it’s been true across the West. There is the issue of academic journals refusing to publish material that doesn’t align with the prevailing ideological narrative, but even more offensive, in my opinion, has been schools themselves silencing and shunning their students for wrongthink. My favorite quote from the article:
[The report written by Professor Alice Sullivan of University College London] recommends that universities help students to see “robust disagreement as an opportunity for intellectual growth rather than a threat”. They should also “avoid directing staff or students to mental health support resources in response to the presence of views with which they disagree”.
More than anything, this complaint shows how gender ideology reduces everything it touches to absurdity. Men who indetify as women are allowed to enroll at Smith College, but women who identify as men cannot. The latter almost kinda makes sense? If you want to be perceived as a man, why the hell would you apply to a women's college? But at the same time, no. Women's colleges were founded to give women access to higher education in a supportive, female-centered environment. It’s a matter of principle that men, no matter if they grow “boobs” from cross-sex hormones, don’t belong in that environment.
Erasing Women and Women’s Safe Spaces
June 30 - Washington Woman Wins $65K Free Speech Settlement After YMCA Lifetime Ban
Back in 2022, we highlighted a story about Ms. Julie Jaman, an octogenarian who was banned from her YMCA for expressing her discomfort around a man using the women’s locker room. The Center for American Liberty represented Ms. Jaman in a lawsuit against both the local YMCA and the City of Port Townsend for violating Ms. Jaman’s Constitutional right to free speech.
Males in Female Sports
July 3 - Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Cases Involving Transgender Athletes
We’re not done with the Courts quite yet! Expect yet another round of major decisions on the debate around gender ideology this time next year.
July 2 - Trans athlete wins USA Cycling women's event as female opponents protest and speak out
Our newsletter is three years old. As we’ve covered headlines about men infiltrating women’s sports these last few years, cycling has come up over and over again. Last January, US Cycling changed its rules so that men who want to compete with women have to sign an affidavit declaring themselves female and test below a certain level of testosterone. The latter, the testosterone testing, is seen as a kind of compromise, but it ignores the lasting physical advantages men retain after male puberty. It also ignores the natural hormonal and physical variations that women experience because of our menstrual cycles.
July 1 - Penn To Apologize For Allowing Lia Thomas To Compete On Women's Team
In the face of losing eye-watering sums of federal funding, the University of Pennsylvania has agreed to revise its position on allowing men to compete in the female sports category. UPenn has agreed to clearly and correctly define “male” and “female,” to restore awards that should have gone to female athletes, and to apologize to the female swimmers that had to deal with William “Lia” Thomas. However, UPenn will continue to acknowledge Thomas’ wins on its women’s swim team page by explaining how his records are reflective of old eligibility criteria.
Sex Discrimination
Kelly-Jay Keen, aka Posie Parker, led another Let Women Speak rally, this time in London. Pivoting from the subject of gender ideology, Keen focused the protest on the silencing of women across the Middle East as symbolized by the niqab.
Women’s Health
July 2 - Planned Parenthood at Risk of Losing Millions in Federal Funding
Even if an individual clinic does not offer abortions, it can still face loss of funding for its affiliation with the larger network of Planned Parenthood clinics that do provide abortions. This is a problem. Having worked in a field with impoverished women of reproductive age, I can attest to the fact that Planned Parenthood is a reliable provider to low-income women for a range of services, like birth control access and STI testing. I don’t think conservatives have thought through the long-term consequences of obliterating access to these services for the most economically vulnerable of women and girls.
July 1 - Miscarriage Is Increasingly Dangerous for Women in Texas, Our Analysis Shows. Here’s How We Did It.
Regardless of where you’re positioned in the political fight around the right to abortion, we should all agree that the policy banning abortion in Texas is currently written in such a way that is actively causing harm to pregnant women in dire need of medical intervention.
News Impacting Society and Children
July 2 - US FTC workshop criticizing medical care for transgender youth draws staff opposition
I’m sure those same staff were also opposed to forced diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) workshops, which is inherently political as well, right? It’s a shame that this issue has become so politicized that “exercising caution” = “doing harm” in the minds of gender ideology true believers.
July 1 - Denmark Begins Drafting Women as Russian Threat Looms
This is one of those cynical ways that The Powers That Be champion women as equals to men. It has nothing to do with believing in the strength and power of women, and everything to do with needing more meat shields and drone operators in the nasty game of war.
June 30 - Supreme Court ruling on care for trans minors reopens other cases
In short, the Justices have signaled that their ruling allowing a ban on puberty blockers in Tennessee can influence decisions on other trans medical issues that have been contested in lower courts. West Virgina and North Carolina, for example, have each tried to block insurance coverage of certain cross-sex cosmetic procedures. These attempts were previously blocked in the US Court of Appeals.
June 30 - Pride group founder jailed for rape of boy, 12
Specifically, the founder of a Pride group in Surrey. The crime is horrendous, but there is some schaudenfreude to feel knowing that this guy used to deride JK Rowling on Twitter.
June 5 - More and more parents around the world prefer girls to boys
Yes, I’m posting this article a month late because it’s so interesting. In a trend seen both in and beyond the West, families appear to be showing a preference for girl babies over boys.
Entertainment
July 2 - Sean 'Diddy' Combs found guilty on 2 of 5 counts: What's next for the rap mogul?
Last year, Ms. Casandra Ventura (aka the singer Cassie) won a multi-million dollar settlement in the civil suit she brought against Combs for the years of abuse she endured by him. It’s not entirely surprising that Combs was (mostly) acquitted of the criminal charges that were later brought against him. The question is what, if any, lasting social consequences he will face now that the public knows all about his cruelty and degeneracy.
June 30 - Martina Navratilova defends J.K. Rowling, slams ‘Fantastic Four’ star in ongoing trans rights debate
Reminder that Pedro Pascal has a brother who’s LARPing as a woman. No surprise at all that he defends the trans clan. Good on Ms. Navratilova for speaking up in defense of Ms. Rowling.
Op-Eds and Commentary of Interest
Gender Ideology
Ben Appel: ‘Transgender’ Kids Usually Grow Up Gay (Wall Street Journal)
Lucy Leader: Mutilating Yourself into “Manhood” (Bodies Get in the Way...)
Leslie Roberts: LGBTQ rights used to be about equality. Now it's about ideological coercion (The National Post)
Julie Bindel: Dr. Dame Katy Denise CH GBE 🏳️⚧️🇳🇬 (Julie Bindel’s Writing and Podcasts)
Sexual Exploitation
Poppy Sowerby: When Andrew Tate Met Bonnie Blue (UnHerd)
Jana Hocking: Disturbing reason behind the 'massage shop' boom: They're appearing on every street - but there's more to it than just 'happy endings' (The Daily Mail)
Society
Karmvir Padda: I analyzed more than 100 extremist manifestos: Misogyny was the common thread (The Conversation)
Parting Shot
Rather than summarizing the articles we featured this week, I want to briefly touch on the ones that I didn’t include. There was one headline gawking at Eddie Izzard walking around in a hot pink dress, an opinion piece about Imane Khelif, another headline about a trans-identified prisoner causing trouble for his state, and several more about men engaging in performative acts of defiance, like posing for pictures in the women’s bathroom at the Capitol. As the saying goes, “sunlight is the best of disinfectants.” Sometimes seeing really is believing, and so mabe it is necessary to highlight these stories to show mainstream audiences the reality of gender ideology. I think encountering these kinds of stories is what “peaked” all of us here in the first place, right?
That said, I hesitate to share those kinds of articles because I hate to give individual attention to these attention-seeking men. In cases like with Eddie Izzard, where the trans identity is a cover for autogynephilia, it feels like these men quite literally get off on forcing us to watch them. And as the cultural tide shifts away from full-throated acceptance of gender ideology, I also think it’s important that we make more space for other issues that directly and uniquely impact women. Especially as some of the beliefs underpinning gender ideology, like the disembodiment of the human self and the normalization of sexual paraphilias, also drive these other issues.
What do you think?
I do wish Planned Parenthood had not gotten into prescribing wrong sex hormones for confused young people as well as coaching them into medical and surgical paths as well as hiding this from parents. Planned Parenthood does harm young people.
I hear you on the "to cover or not to cover" issue with autogynephilia. How many times have we been through the big-tent-GC and true-trans arguments where AGP "allies" or presenters swanned in and made everyone look like fools because, in the end, they're still performing their paraphilia? Personally I think we can pass on giving them extra attention now -- live and learn.