Weekly News Roundup August 12-18
Some good with mixed the bad this week. Also, your curator wises up to using Archive links for several of the news stories!
Erasing Women and Women’s Safe Spaces
08/16/22 - Hundreds say they are ‘a believer in biology’ in Scottish census protest
It seems Scots are skeptical of self-ID as part of the census. The gender critical rightfully make the argument that allowing people to identify as the opposite sex will horribly muddle the accuracy of data that is important for understanding and creating policy that affects one sex or the other.
08/16/22 - Backlash after a man is appointed Scotland's first 'period dignity officer'
This is one of the more WTF articles of the week. Scotland has appointed a man to be the country’s first Period Dignity Regional Lead Officer. This is a role meant to promote free access to sanitary products as well as education on menopause. What’s so head-scratching about this is that for once it’s not a trans-identified man who got the post. It’s just some dude who looks like this:
People are understandably upset. The dude, Jason Grant, says it’s great for everyone that he has the job since a man in charge will reduce the stigma around menstruation and bring attention to the “repercussions” of menopause on a woman’s work and family. …sometimes it feels like the world is just trolling us.
08/15/22 - (GOOD NEWS!) Tears of relief as Australia’s first women’s-only trauma clinic opens in Thirroul
Australia’s first women’s clinic for trauma-centered care is opening in Thirroul! The mental health facility will support women who have experienced various forms of trauma, from domestic violence to car collisions. This is important, especially in the case of trauma that is disproportionately experienced by women (domestic violence, sexual abuse), to foster a feeling of safety and solidarty as the clients heal.
Silencing Girls, Women, and Their Supporters
08/16/22 - Women Seeking Civil Rights Stand Up to Mob Hatred and Intimidation in Port Townsend
You’ve heard a few of these kinds of stories by now. Here’s another one to add to the archive.
Some footage from the madness:
08/14/22 - UK woman visited by police for gender critical sticker
Check out the Twitter threads below for a real world example of police in the UK pestering a woman for the thoughtcrime of not subscribing to gender theory.
Here is a handy thread (and here is an alternative link) where the content of the video is transcribed.
Sex Discrimination
08/15/22 - The quest to show that biological sex matters in the immune system
Sabra Klein and Janna Shapiro of Johns Hopkins University share their perspective on why we must recognize sex as an important distinguishing factor in health studies. Interestingly, we see an idea for a middle ground be posited in the sex/gender identity debate: how about we also study transgender individuals as their own category? This makes perfect sense. Years of screwing with your endocrine system and undergoing extreme surgical body modifications almost certainly puts those individuals in a health class of their own as far as their risks of experiencing certain medical conditions.
Males in Female Sports
08/16/22 - Olympic champion Ellia Green finds liberation in transition
This is actually not about a male in a female sport competition, and is instead about a fomer female athlete who is now transgender. She shares about her life story, which includes some of the typical hallmarks seen in trans-identifies females: adopted (issues around identity), witnessing domestic violence (issues around fear of misogyny), feeling uncomfortable with ultra-feminine characteristics (issues around internalized homophobia, fear of misogyny). The Associated Press is all about “gender inclusive” language in journalism, so it’s no surprise they feature this kind of story in a positive light.
08/15/22 - WBC statesment on transgender athletes
In a roundabout, egg-shell-walking way, the World Boxing Council says that it does not support trans-identified males competing against women or trans-identified females competing against men. The comment section is a sigh of relief to read, too!
08/12/22 - Dad calls summer swim league’s gender changes ‘child abuse,’ moves family out of WA state
One dad shares why he has moved his family out of state following topsy turvy gender guidelines sanctioned in Washington state. These guidelines include men and boys being allowed into the women and girl’s locker rooms, the creation of “equity officers” who can question children about their sexual orientation, and a rule that trans swimmers must undergo hormone therapy and take puberty blockers from ages 13 and up in order to compete in the opposite sex’s competitions—a rule that all but encourages parents to start kids down the medicalized trans path at an early age.
News Impacting Society and Children
08/18/22 - Church Endorses Transitions for Transgender Children 'at All Ages'
The governing body for the Episcopalian denomination of churches has stated its support for transgenderism. Not much more to say about that.
This got me interested in the political leanings of different denominations, though. For anyone else curious, there’s a handy chart at this link.
08/16/22 - Americans with Disabilities Act protects transgender people, judge rules
The argument here is that it’s not being transgender that is a disability, but rather it is the “distress” from the misalignment between sex and gender identity that is significant enough to be considered a disability. This happened in the 4th Circuit court. I’m willing to bet that this or one of the many other lawsuits we’ve mentioned here over the last few weeks will make its way to the Supreme Court for a final decision on the validity of trans medicine and/or preserving single-sex spaces.
08/15/22 - USDA says religious schools will be granted automatic Title IX exemption
For those who really hate the idea of a school changing their non-discrimination policy to include discrimination on the basis of gender identity, you may consider sending your children to a religious school (said only half-sarcastically).
08/15/22 - Research project on transgenderism as a social contagion: click the link below for more info on how you can support this effort
Academia is actively suppressing any research or questioning of gender theory. Here, a parent of a trans child shares about a research project that she is about to begin and the funding needed to make it happen.
08/14/22 - Boston’s Children’s Hospital pushing transgenderism in children as young as 2
In the Twitterverse, Billboard Chris calls out Boston Children’s Hospital for a promotional video for its gender clinic.
08/13/22 - Judge weighing whether to halt enforcement of Utah’s new transgender high school sports ban
Highlights from this article: the attorney representing the trans-identified male students is from the National Center for Lesbian Rights, one of the teen boys upset couldn’t presently compete regardless of the law because his grades are so poor, another of the teen boys is an eighth grader who says he’d rather be home schooled than not get to compete on the girl’s swim team, and the third is a boy who wants to dominate girl’s track and cross-country. The current legal battle is not about the law itself, but rather whether or not the judge can stop the law from being enacted as the legality of the law is debated.
Meanwhile in Australia, in yet another lawsuit happening, a mother sues an all-girls school for rejecting her trans-identifying son.
Beyond the West
08/14/22 - Study reveals female monkeys live longer with female companions
I’m making the executive decision to summarize this story with the adorable face of a white-faced capuchin monkey, the animal that is the focus of the study for its complex social structures that are behaviorally comparable to those of humans:
Feel free to scroll back to those cute little faces to cleanse your spirit after reading the next few headlines.
08/14/22 - Japanese Photographer Blows Whistle on Treatment of ‘Comfort Women’
This short article covers the efforts of photographer Tsukasa Yajima to bring justice to women who survived sex slavery only to be mistreated with shoddy living conditions by a predatory nursing facility.
08/13/22 - Taliban violetly disperses rare women’s potest in Kabul
The Taliban is going full force in its anti-woman campaign. Read more about all the measures they have taken to do so in the bullet below. There is hope, though. There are women in Afghanistan who are risking everything to protest the treatment of women that the Taliban wishes to make law, and the world is seeing what is happening and keeping these kinds of stories in the news.
More on the Taliban: The Taliban shifts tactcs in its determination to control and oppress women (08/14)
08/12/22 - Saudi Women’s Rights Activist and Mother of Two Sentenced to 34-years in Jail
Women’s rights actvist and PhD candidate Salma al-Shebab has been sentenced to 34 years in jail as punishment for usng social media to call for another women’s rights activist, Loujain al-Hathloul, to be freed. Ironically, al-Hathloul is now free while al-Shebab saw her sentence increase from 6 to 34 years after losing an appeal to vacate her original conviction. Most in the West need no reminder, but here is more evidence in case you needed it that Saudi Arabia remains horribly oppressive of its female population.
08/12/22 - People who refuse marriage proposals in Chad to be fined
Chad, the country with the highest rate of child marriages in the world, has enacted a law that will see both men/boys and women/girls be fined if either refuses a marriage proposal (with, of course, women/girls facing a fine twice as high as men/boys).
Entertainment
08/16/22 - JK Rowling attacks Chocolat author Joanne Harris for failing to defend gender critical writers
This is a bit of a back-and-forth. In short, Rowling received a “you’re next” tweet threat in response to her own tweeted support of Salman Rushdie → Harris, head of a writer’s association, dismissively tweeted a poll asking other writers how often they receive death threats → Rowling calls out Harris in the above-linkes Times article for general pattern of standing back as gender critical women authors are attacked by the gender idealogues. Below is Harris’ response. Click the tweet for the full thread.
Warner Bros enters the conversation by issuing a statement condemning death threats sent to artists with unpopular opinions.
Shameful.