Weekly News Roundup – 11/11/22- 11/18/22
Top News
11/16/22 - Prominent Trans Activist Found Guilty for 2016 Triple Homicide of California Family
A prominent trans activist has been convicted in a 2016 triple homicide involving a lesbian couple and their son. Dana Rivers, 67, born David Chester Warfield, was found guilty of murder in the first degree for the killings of Charlotte Reed, Patricia Wright, and Benny Diambu-Wright.
Politics
11/12/22 - Civil servants ‘fight back’ to defend binary biological sex -
The defence of gender-critical beliefs follows a series of controversies around Whitehall diversity training
Civil servants have launched a new employee forum to “fight back” against groupthink and defend binary biological sex, The Telegraph can disclose. The cross-government Sex Equality and Equity Network (SEEN) is open to all public sector staff in the UK. It was launched by civil servants last week to “re-focus attention” among officials on furthering sex-based rights by reaffirming sex as immutable. It is the first-time mandarins have formally organised a defence of gender-critical beliefs, following a series of controversies around Whitehall diversity training.
11/12/22 - Federal Judge Strikes Down A Key Part Of President Biden’s Transgender Agenda
A federal judge from the District Court of Northern Texas has reversed a Biden Administration rule that directed the Department of Health and Human Services to increase access to sex change surgeries and hormone therapies, including to children, in a Friday ruling.
The judge argued that the Biden administration’s interpretation of Title IX to include “gender identity,” was faulty and could not be changed until Congress passed a law to that effect, or the Supreme Court ruled otherwise. “As noted above, the ordinary public meaning of ‘sex’ turned on reproductive function when Congress enacted Title IX,” Judge Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, wrote. “For an action to occur ‘on the basis of sex,’ biological sex must be the motivating factor.” The judge also added that by extending sex protections to individuals who identified with a sex other than their biological sex, the purpose of Title IX was compromised.
Erasing Women and Women’s Safe Spaces
11/15/22 - NZ: Trans-Identified Male Sent to Women’s Prison After Stabbing Spree
A trans-identified male in New Zealand has been handed a 9-year prison term for a stabbing spree at an Indian restaurant earlier this year which left three people, including his ex-girlfriend, severely injured. Matthew Richard Nelson, a male who identifies as a woman named Pandora Electra, appeared for sentencing in the Hamilton District Court today. Nelson is currently being housed at Auckland Women’s Prison. A pre-sentence report submitted to the court had found Nelson to be a high risk of violent harm to others.
11/15/22 - Court: Female-identifying Katie Dolatowski attacked inmate in male prison
A prisoner who identifies as a woman - despite having some of the outward appearances of a tall man - battered a fellow inmate in the male wing of a Scottish jail after being made the subjects of "comments" by other lags, a court heard today.
Katie Dolatowski, 22, a convicted sex offender, was serving a sentence in Polmont Young Offenders' Institution, for physical assault. Falkirk Sheriff Court was told she had been placed in male accommodation in the prison "notwithstanding" her identifying as a woman.
11/13/22 - Scottish hospitals warned over isolating transwomen
Hospital managers have been warned they could be guilty of discrimination if they put transwomen in single rooms to avoid upsetting patients in female-only wards.
Guidance for Scotland’s biggest health board also says that any woman who complains about a transwoman sharing their ward should be advised that “the ward is indeed female-only and that there are no men present”.
It comes as ministers have asked health boards around the country to explain how they accommodate trans patients, with some campaigners concerned that the trans-rights agenda could put the safety of women in female-only spaces at risk.
11/13/22 - Self-ID activists ‘will abuse hate speech law’
Norwegian campaigner tells Dublin meeting of gender-critical women that new bill may stifle discussion of trans issues
More than 200 people, most of them women, gathered in Dublin yesterday to discuss changes in gender law and policy and the effects they’re having on women and children. The Women’s Space to Speak conference was organised by Women’s Space Ireland, an organisation that encourages the discussion of gender issues without fear. On the agenda were hate speech and the publication of the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022, expected to be passed by the Oirechtas next week, as well as the effects of self-identifcation on society and gender identity in religion and in schools.
11/11/22 - Vermont High School Backs Down Over “Transgender” Incident After ADF Files a First Amendment Lawsuit
Lawyers representing Randolph Union High School (RUHS) in Randolph, Vermont, persuaded school officials to drop their threats of punishment upon receiving a 124-page lawsuit filed by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
At issue: the school’s determination to force its transgender policies upon a 14-year-old girl and her father. For daring to question those policies — i.e., complaining when a male who declared himself to be a female entered the girls’ locker room to observe them undressing — RUHS officials demanded that the student, Blake Allen, “take part in a restorative circle … to help her understand the rights of [transgender] students to access public accommodation … in a manner consistent with their [self-proclaimed] gender identity.”
11/11/22 - Schools face having single-sex and gender-neutral lavatories
Schools may need to provide lavatories that are single-sex and gender-neutral, new guidance suggests.
The document, drawn up by a group representing head teachers, governors, teachers and academy trust leaders, says facilities should be convenient to those who need them. The advice has not yet been published by the Department for Education.
Silencing Girls, Women, and Their Supporters
11/15/22 - NYC: Violent Trans Activists Arrested During Pro-Woman Demonstration
What was intended to be a peaceful demonstration held by women critical of gender ideology turned violent on Monday after trans activists showed up to oppose the women’s right to freedom of speech. The event is the last stop in the US tour organized by grassroots women’s rights campaigners and featuring prominent British women’s advocate Kellie-Jay Keen, founder of Standing for Women. Before the event was even able to formally kick off, Keen announced through YouTube that she was unable to attend because she could not get to the speaking podium safely. Keen explained that police were unwilling to provide her an escort to the area where other demonstrators had gathered outside of City Hall so she could pass through the crowd of detractors safely.
11/14/22 - Transgender activists clash with NYC police at Let Women Speak event
A group of demonstrators were seen shouting down police officers near City Hall where they successfully prevented Kelly-Jay Keen, a British women’s rights campaigner, from speaking
11/15/22 - Woman kicked out of Sturgeon trans debate for wearing suffragette scarf
Demand to remove item of clothing came despite SNP members being allowed to wear rainbow lanyards during the equalities committee meeting
A woman was kicked out of a Holyrood debate about transgender rights because her scarf in suffragette colours was deemed unacceptable by parliament staff.
The member of the public who had to leave the public gallery blamed Nicola Sturgeon for “striking fear” into society by suggesting that feminist opposition to her transgender reforms was “unacceptable”.
11/15/22 - Scottish Parliament APOLOGISE after woman chucked out for wearing suffragette colours
Presiding officer Alison Johnstone apologised for their handling of the situation which took place during a committee meeting about the controversial gender reform act.
The Scottish Parliament were forced into a grovelling apology after a woman was chucked out of a committee meeting on Tuesday for wearing suffragette colours.
11/11/22 - Music college accused of witch-hunt over QR-code transphobia alert
London’s Institute of Contemporary Music Performance (ICMP) asked students to inform on each other over gender critical thought crimes. A college has apologised for displaying a sign asking students to report trans exclusionary radical feminist ideology, or Terf, using a QR code.
The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance in north London was criticised for the sign telling staff and students that it had “zero tolerance” of Terf ideology, which it called a specific form of transphobia.
Males in Female Sports
11/17/22 - Biological male who was 72nd on boys’ track team takes first place on girls’ team
Washington’s Seattle Academy High School girls’ cross-country team qualified for the state championship thanks to trans student, Aspen Hoffman. Last year, Hoffman was a mediocre cross-country runner on Seattle Academy’s boys’ team. During freshman year, Aspen Hoffman competed as a boy and finished 72nd in the League finals. Now, as a sophomore competing as a girl, Hoffman broke Seattle Academy’s school record in the girls’ 5000-meter category and ranks 1st in League. Hoffman’s time in the 5000-meter would rank him 48th if he had competed in the boys’ division. Earlier this semester, Hoffman took 2nd at Districts, qualifying Seattle Academy for the State championship.
11/13/22 - Biological male wins women's division of US cycling race
Austin Killips, who identifies as a transgender woman, won Saturday’s UCI Elite Women’s division of the cycling event.
On Saturday, a biological male won the female’s elite division of the Verge Northampton International Cyclocross, held in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Austin Killips, who identifies as a transgender woman, won Saturday’s UCI Elite Women’s division of the cycling event.
11/11/22 - Caroline Wilson, Ironman triathlete, crosses the finish line at World Championship with a "save women's sports" banner
Sex Discrimination and Misogyny
The Guardian has been accused by one of its columnists of 'censoring' important discussions about gender identity. Hadley Freeman, who worked for the newspaper for 22 years, has resigned to go to another title. Freeman alleged that the newspaper's once‑willing embrace of complex questions had disappeared with respect to the 'gender issue'. In normal circumstances, the resignation of a columnist, even one so relatively well‑known as Hadley Freeman, would hardly be deemed headline news. But her embittered departure is the latest episode in a culture war that has been raging at the newspaper for more than two years. It is no exaggeration to say that Freeman is a casualty of 'cancel culture' in the 'gender wars'. As we shall see, she is far from being the only female Guardian journalist who has felt censored.
Never one to mince words, Martina Navratilova has lashed out at the Ontario school board after they allowed a trans teacher to wear a ridiculous outfit. The teacher, identified as Kayla Lemieux, was pictured wearing large prosthetic breasts, a blonde wig, and tight bicycle shorts while teaching a class. The local school board, however, permitted the outlandish costume, citing the need for transgender people to be able to "express themselves in accordance with their lived gender."
Martina’s criticism came after this, which happened last week:
"It is important for employers to make allowances to ensure that these employees are able to express themselves in accordance with their lived gender."
After a biologically male shop teacher, identified as Kayla Lemieux, began teaching class while wearing a blonde wig, tight bicycle shorts, and most notably obscenely large prosthetic breasts with protruding nipples, the local school board decided that, despite backlash, this attire would be permitted.
JK Rowling is a victim of “abominable” sexism, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has said. The Nigerian writer said attacks on the Harry Potter author for her gender-critical views – which Adichie said were “perfectly reasonable” – would not have been levelled at a man. “I think that she’s been treated abominably. I think a lot of that treatment is because she’s a woman,” she said. “I think that a man who aired his views, reasonable views, would not be treated in that way.”
Sexual Assault, Sexual Harassment and Pornography
11/16/22 - Hundreds of Women Set to Sue New York Over Allegations of Prison Sex Abuse
A law that takes effect on Nov. 24 allows people to sue over years-old assaults long past the criminal statute of limitations.
Hundreds of women who have accused prison guards of sexual abuse going back decades plan to sue New York State under new legislation that allows survivors to take legal action no matter how many years have elapsed.
The Adult Survivors Act, passed in May, gives people who say they were sexually abused a one-time opportunity to file civil suits long after the statute of limitations for most criminal cases has expired.
Young people who used drugs or surgery to change their gender but later regretted their procedures and sought to reverse them are warning of worsening abuse from the transgender community they've walked away from. De-transitioners, as they are known, speak of online vitriol, doxxing, harassment and death threats after they made the tough decisions to exit what they describe as inward-looking and even 'cult-like' trans groups.
Buried deep in the article, the truth about Aaron Herschel’s abuse of changing his identity to improve his circumstances while in prison can be gleaned. Serial offender Aaron Herschell, who was jailed in 2017 for attempted rape, linked his Alexa to a similar speaker in a former acquaintance’s home to allow him to surreptitiously listen to her conversations. He pleaded guilty on Friday to behaving in a ‘threatening or abusive manner’ towards the woman at an address in West Lothian between May 5 and May 15 this year as well as adopting a fake identity. He will be sentenced later this month. Herschell, who previously identified as female and changed his first name to Alexis in prison, had a beard and used his male name in court. Sheriff Jane Farquharson, KC, said elements of the charges such as adopting a fake identity and facilitating remote listening raised ‘significant concerns’.
Meanwhile, the use of common household devices to stalk and harass women is important to note for women’s safety.
News Impacting Society and Children
11/15/22 - New Studies Prove Puberty Blockers Are Not Reversible
Puberty blockers “suppress estrogen and testosterone, hormones that help develop the reproductive system but also affect the bones, the brain and other parts of the body.” It has become increasingly clearer that such drug use results in infertility, zero sexual function and other negative health effects on bone density and brain development.
11/15/22 - Blind woman branded 'transphobic' for raising guide dog issues around Dundee street art
The issue of Dundee street art obstructing access for guide dogs has resulted in accusations of transphobia, all because the concerned citizen stated the colours of the stripes. A Dundee resident who walks with a guide dog has complained about roads being obstructed by art projects featuring blue and pink stripes but has been branded 'transphobic' for pointing it out.
As the number of adolescents who identify as transgender grows, drugs known as puberty blockers have become the first line of intervention for the youngest ones seeking medical treatment. Their use is typically framed as a safe — and reversible — way to buy time to weigh a medical transition and avoid the anguish of growing into a body that feels wrong. But as an increasing number of adolescents identify as transgender — in the United States, an estimated 300,000 ages 13 to 17 and an untold number who are younger — concerns are growing among some medical professionals about the consequences of the drugs, a New York Times examination found.
Op-Eds of Interest
11/17/22 - Genevieve Gluck: Why I’m exposing the trans cult | The Brendan O’Neill Show
What ‘Because of Sex’ Really Means. Beneath the verbal jousting, the Court expressed dueling views of sexual orientation and gender, and how society should assess them.