Weekly News Roundup: 12/23 – 12/29/22
Pregnant women get workplace protections in the USA, Scotland passes legislation allowing gender self ID on official documents, Women's rights are being legally eroded in more instances than upheld.
Pregnant Women in the USA finally catch a break. Yet the legislation passed seems to forget to mention which people get pregnant.
Discrimination in the workplace against people who are pregnant is not a new phenomenon. In fact, this has been an ever-present sickness of capitalism and the workplace, systems that were not designed to support pregnancy. Because of the oppressive impact of workplace discrimination on the health and well-being of our communities, it has been the ongoing work of advocates and lawmakers to change our laws, policy and culture to better care for people who are pregnant. And while important advances have been made, including the passage of the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act, significant gaps remain. We need more policy to protect pregnant people, and the passage of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act would be an important and necessary first step.
Scotland
12/27/22 - MPs warn women will be put in danger by Nicola Sturgeon’s trans law reforms
Three cross-party politicians urge the Scotland Secretary to intervene after the country's gender recognition bill was passed at Holyrood
Nicola Sturgeon’s transgender law reforms will put women and girls across the UK in danger and must be blocked, female MPs have warned. Three cross-party MPs have written to Alister Jack, the Scotland Secretary, urging him to intervene after Scotland's gender recognition bill was passed at Holyrood last week to allow people as young as 16 to change their legal gender simply by signing a declaration.
A SCOTS comedian who 'flashed' parliament in a protest against the Gender Reform bill is being probed by cops.
12/24/22 - This gender bill represents all that is rotten about the SNP
Nicola Sturgeon cares more about the hurt feelings of sex offenders than she does about women’s safety.
12/22/22 - Labour will pay for supporting Nicola Sturgeon’s trans crusade
As a former Labour MP, I simply cannot explain why a party that once championed women's rights has so readily adopted this anti-women stance
Meanwhile in Switzerland
12/21/22 - Swiss government comes out against third-gender option
The Swiss government has rejected the idea of introducing a third gender option or no-gender option for official records. Responding to two proposals from parliament, it argued “the binary gender model is still strongly anchored in Swiss society”, in a statement published on Wednesday.
Erasing Women and Women’s Safe Spaces
12/28/22 - Defining ‘woman’ battle heads to states amid new wave of LGBTQ bills
“We need to have a common language and know what we’re talking about to protect women’s rights,” Carrie Lukas, president of the conservative-leaning nonprofit Independent Women’s Forum, said in an interview. “Right now, there’s tremendous confusion and concern, and a lot of conflict about when women’s only programs or spaces are allowed, and it shouldn’t be this way.” Lukas’ group is at the center of the multistate effort to promote measures like Verdin’s and is working to build support for a 9-point “Women’s Bill of Rights” that would define several gender-related words, down to “mother’’ and “father.”
The IWF and other women’s groups, she said, are focused on several statehouses in 2023: Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, North Dakota and Kansas. “This isn’t about being anti-anyone,” Lukas said.
12/28/22 - No, Louisa May Alcott was not a man. She was a woman ahead of her time
More efforts to erase notable women from history and literature is taking place with the transing of Louisa May Alcott. In the New York Times on Dec. 24, journalist and author Peyton Thomas argues that “Little Women” author and female American literary great Louisa May Alcott is best understood as a transgender man. It is true that both the historical Alcott and her semi-autobiographical self, Jo March (the heroine of her most famous novel, “Little Women” (1868), about four sisters growing up in New England during the Civil War, felt great and persistent “disappointment in not being a boy.” Near the end of her life, Alcott did describe herself as having “a man’s soul, put by some freak of nature into a woman’s body.”
12/26/22 - Man Who Slaughtered Family Over “Gender Dysphoria” Now Marked As “Female” In Maine Prison System
A man who claimed his motivation for slaughtering his family was their lack of support for his transgender identity has been quietly marked a “female” in the Maine prison system, and has been transferred to a mixed-sex facility where he is likely being housed with women.
Males in Female Sports
12/27/22 - Males Quietly Encroach on Niche Women’s Sports, Far from the NCAA, High-School Spotlight
World Triathlon Corporation which manages the Ironman competition, released a policy allowing male entrants to compete against women in their professional division as long as they reduce their testosterone to a certain level.
Suliaman is adamant that transgender fighters will not be allowed to compete against cisgender (not transgender) fighters. He plans for the WBC to use the ‘at birth’ rule, which would ensure that a transgender boxer who was born male will only be able to compete against another transgender boxer who was born male.
Pornography, Sexual Harassment, and Sexual Assaults
45-year-old Douglas Egan is facing aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and improper photo/video in a bathroom charges in connection to the incident. Fort Worth police say after speaking with the victim they learned the confrontation started in the women's restroom. "While she was using the restroom, she observed what she believed to be a cell phone coming from underneath the stall," said Fort Worth police corporal Joshua Johnson. Johnson says the woman quickly exited the stall and started chasing after a man later identified as Egan, who she says was dressed up like a woman.
Heidi Beedle, the transgender journalist who previously ran the Colorado Springs Antifa Twitter account, has called for violence against those who disagree with her far-left viewpoints. The Post Millennial reporter Andy Ngo recently identified Beedle, 38, as the individual behind the Colorado Springs Antifa account, which frequently promoted violence and was suspended last week by Twitter. This week, from her personal account, Beedle publicly called for violence once again.
Sex Discrimination
In the past 15 months or so, life has changed unrecognisably for Afghanistan’s women and girls. Speak to secondary school pupils, their parents and education activists, and you will hear just how devastating the impact of the Taliban’s school closures have been. It is hard to fathom the depth of the darkness that has emerged as a consequence of this action.
12/26/22 - Iran protests: 'No going back' as unrest hits 100 days
A hundred days after they began, the longest-running anti-government protests in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution have shaken the regime, but at a heavy cost to the people. More than 500 protesters, including 69 children, have been killed, according to the Human Rights Activists' News Agency (HRANA). Two protesters have been executed and at least 26 others face the same fate, after what Amnesty International calls "sham trials". Although nationwide demonstrations have swept Iran before - once in 2017 lasting until early 2018, and another in November 2019 - the current protests are unique, as they involve people from across society and women are taking a lead role under the slogan "Woman, Life, Freedom".
12/23/22 - In States Where Abortion is Legal, Some Cities Look to Restrict Access
Some city and county governments in states that allow abortion are exploring ways to restrict it within their communities.
News Impacting Society and Children
Twitter users called the Biden HHS official's remarks 'evil' and an example of 'fascism'
Conservatives on Twitter blasted a recently surfaced video of the Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Rachel Levine calling on Big Tech companies to censor "misinformation" about "gender-affirming care" for kids on the internet. Levine, a transgender woman, made the statements in May, though the video gained newfound attention on Twitter just after Christmas. Prominent Twitter users expressed horror that a government official was asking tech companies to censor content disputing that gender-affirming care for youth is a thing of "positive value."
12/23/22 - Spain’s trans law to allow gender change from 14
Spain has approved a law allowing anyone aged 16 or over to change their gender without parental consent. Children aged 14 and 15 will be allowed to legally change their gender without a medical evaluation but will still need their parents’ consent. Those aged 12 and 13 will need permission from the courts. The law also bans conversion therapy, imposes fines for attacks on LGBT people and overturns a ban on lesbian couples registering children under both parents’ names. The bill passed the lower house of parliament by 188 to 150 votes and will go to the Senate for final approval. It is expected to become law within weeks.
A serial child predator who identifies as transgender has been caught for the second time engaging in sexual communications with a child. Gemma Anne Hicks, 35, interacted in a sexually aggressive manner with a Facebook user he believed was a 12 year-old girl. On December 13, Hicks was handcuffed and arrested outside of his residence in Wales following a sting by volunteer predator hunters. Children’s Innocence Matters (CIM), had established a decoy Facebook profile presenting as a 12 year-old girl.
12/22/22 - Why detransitioners are crucial to the science of gender care
Understanding the reasons some transgender people quit treatment is key to improving it, especially for the rising number of minors seeking to medically transition, experts say. But for many researchers, detransitioning and regret have long been untouchable subjects.
12/22/22 - Washington mom slams woke school therapist for 'socially transitioning' her daughter, 10: Teachers let little girl use boy's restroom and fake name after she was influenced to be transgender on kids' online drawing class
A mother withdrew her 10-year-old daughter from public school to homeschool after discovering the school had secretly socially transitioned her daughter. A Washington mom has slammed a school therapist for 'socially transitioning' her 10-year-old daughter - and claims teachers let her use boy's restrooms and a fake name without parental consent. Interview with mother.
12/16/22 - MUSC to no longer hold pediatric transgender clinics
The Medical University of South Carolina announced they are dropping pediatric transgender clinics. The clinics provided hormonal care to minors.
Op-Eds of Interest
12/28/22 - 2022: The year Terfing went mainstream
12/27/22 - The year the West erased women, Progressives care more about semantics than emancipation
12/25/22 - USA: Almost 50% of Trans Inmates in Federal Custody for Sex Offences
Data obtained from the Bureau of Prisons has revealed that almost 50% of trans-identified male inmates are in custody for sex offences, compared to just 11% of the general male population. The shocking revelation comes after documents were acquired through a Freedom of Information request filed with the Bureau of Prisons by Amanda Stulman, the Director of the USA branch of Keep Prisons Single Sex. Stulman obtained the documents on December 14, 2021 – several weeks after submitting the request. The breakdown of trans-identified criminals was sectioned into two categories – one for male-to-female transgenders and one for female-to-male. According to the document, 48.47% of biological male inmates identifying as women are in federal custody for sex offences, compared to just 4.71% of biological females identifying as men, and 11.2% of the non-transgender male population of federal inmates in general.
12/22/22 - The Global Abolition of Sex | Opinion