Trans woman says why can’t women be more ladylike god damn it?

I was sad that, yet again, JK Rowling is using her fame to campaign against trans women (“JK Rowling rounds on Starmer”, News, last week). As a trans woman myself I am angry and frustrated that the media debate has deteriorated into an argument about whether I can use a ladies’ lavatory. The argument that a public lavatory can be classed as a “safe space” is frankly bizarre.

Not if you’re a woman it isn’t, not if its comparative safety is being taken away from you.

High-profile women should stop using megaphone tactics to whip up transphobia: using words like “scared, angry and disillusioned” creates a

Parents have written a new letter on the Lia Thomas question.

As parents of Ivy League swimmers, from men’s and women’s teams across the league, we have witnessed firsthand the utter abandonment of women and girls this year.

Ironically, during Women’s History Month, the subjugation of our daughters continues at the Women’s NCAA Swimming Championships when Lia Thomas, a biological male, took a lane and a podium from a deserving female swimmer on Thursday. Lia has now broken female legacy records across pools and in the Ivy League. 

We are furious and most everyone in our community is furious as well. Parents, coaches, swimmers, and rational, logical people know this is grossly unfair. Female swimmers have not consented

A lot of people think this way? And that’s supposed to be a bad thing?

When I ask people what they want to say publicly but can't, most won't tell me. But when they do, it's usually this…

And they think that there is some problem that the world doesn't know that a lot of people have these views.

Trust me, we know a lot of people think this way. https://t.co/Ql0PndCf69

— Adam Davidson (@adamdavidson) March 20, 2022

It’s self-evidently shameful to say that men don’t belong in women’s sports?

I do disagree with you.

But the point I am making is that the folks afraid of cancel culture aren't afraid of some broad, overarching stifling of discourse. They want

I don’t know what’s going on here but…you know…soldiers are soldiers, not commanders. Maybe they just didn’t want to mow down a bunch of civilians and so backed away.

‘GO HOME’: Powerful video shows Russian military vehicles turning around and leaving as Ukrainian protesters confront them on a street in Kherson, Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/nQ8X0nrXf0

— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 20, 2022

… Read the rest

Naomi Cunningham replying to a comment at Legal Feminist last September:

So it’s ok for the diversity training to emphasise that staff mustn’t harass trans colleagues or discriminate against them. It’s very far from ok for the diversity training to assert, for example, that “trans women are women”: that’s a highly contentious claim that many people reject. Similarly, it’s ok for diversity training to emphasise that staff mustn’t harass Christian colleagues or discriminate against them. It’s not ok for training to assert that Jesus is the Risen Lord.

I will add that if diversity training does emphasize that staff mustn’t harass Christian colleagues, it should also emphasize that Christian staff mustn’t harass atheist or secularist colleagues. It should cut both … Read the rest

Russia still fighting dirty:

Ukrainian authorities have said Moscow’s forces bombed an art school in Mariupol where more than 400 people had taken shelter, amid further reports that civilians from the devastated southern city were being forcibly transported to Russia.

Days after Russian shells struck a theatre in the city also being used as a shelter, local authorities said Mariupol’s G12 art school had been destroyed while women, children and elderly people were inside. There was no immediate word on casualties.

A theater and an art school. Both full of non-combatants taking shelter. Meanwhile Russia is kidnapping Ukrainians.

As Moscow claimed on Sunday it had fired a hypersonic missile against Ukraine for the second time, the country’s human rights

I would post the tweet itself but he’s deleted it.

The fucking nerve of that guy. THEY aren’t going to be haunted by that photo. THEY aren’t the ones who showed horrendous sportsmanship. The one who should be haunted by the photo is Lia Thomas, fraud and cheat, but he probably won’t be.

Of course it makes sense for Rhys McKinnon aka Veronica Ivy to take this view, given his photo gallery.

So now they’re closing down actual training because “transphobia.”

Great Ormond Street Hospital has been forced to cancel a top trainee doctors conference after trans activists protested that speakers would make Zoom attendees feel “unsafe”, The Telegraph can disclose.

Note the “Zoom attendees” bit – how can you feel “unsafe” at a Zoom conference?

All trainee child psychiatrist finalists from across London were due to attend the day-long video conference on March 16 on how they can support gender-questioning young people.

High-profile speakers from across the trans debate were invited by a group of trainees at the hospital to speak on panels, including major trans charities, academics and gender-critical groups.

But the programme quickly descended into chaos as trans

There’s a blog post dated March 10 on the National Women’s Law Center website, titled Women in Sports: The Good, The Bad, The Sexist. It starts with The Good.

Women coaches have had a moment, too. Iconic coaches like Dawn Staley and Kim Mulkey are leading incredible women’s programs and breaking records left and right. Coaches like Katie Sowers and Jennifer King broke barriers and paved the way for the NFL to have the most female coaches in their history last year. Becky Hammon left the San Antonio Spurs to be the head coach of the WNBA Las Vegas Aces, but there were still seven women on NBA coaching staffs this season!

And so on. No complaints. But … Read the rest

The National Women’s Law Center used to be actually about women and law. No more.

Lia Thomas deserves all the celebration for her success this season, but instead is being met with nationwide misogyny and transphobia.

Lia, we need people like you. Not only as a swimmer, but to inspire women athletes—cis and trans—everywhere.https://t.co/RfynyiWYq4

— National Women's Law Center (@nwlc) March 18, 2022

I would love to know how the fuck they think Thomas can “inspire” women. Inspire women to do what? Quit sport? Stay home? Learn to smile politely while men steal their opportunities and wins and medals?

And why does he deserve “celebration for [his] success”? Why would he deserve celebration for “success” he owes to a … Read the rest

This person is an applied health scientist, with a primary focus on injury prevention and safeguarding in sport settings.

Rude. Rude way to begin. It’s not a “narrative.” That’s an insulting label.

3/20

Let's unpack this a little:

A. Women's sport exists as a category because the dominance of men athletes was threatened by women competing.

We see this over and over again in the history of sport…

— Dr Sheree Bekker (@shereebekker) March 18, 2022

No we don’t. She offers a few illustrations but they’re all (of course) from the few sports where size and strength don’t make a difference.

5/20

Exhibit A2: Skeet Shooting

1992 Barcelona: Zhang Shang wins the Gold Medal. The event had always been

More testimony:

UPDATE: the Penn teammate of Lia Thomas I spoke with sent me her thoughts on Lia’s win last night. She has given me permission to post this: https://t.co/IqKvIKQ0Gy pic.twitter.com/HCcrBU8THo

— Rich McHugh (@RichMcHugh) March 18, 2022

… Read the rest

Oh good, a statement on “transphobic abuse.” We need more of those.

Herstory Festival is a two-day celebration of women’s lives and experiences, bringing together different backgrounds, voices and experiences to support women’s rights and the historic progress made. The festival will incorporate the contributions and voices of over 400 women, and will feature the work of 17 poets, 8 musicians, 8 speakers and 30 artists.

Following online promotion of the festival, one of the artists featuring in the festival has been subjected to transphobic abuse on social media. Poet in the City has also been criticised for including this artist’s work as part of the range of perspectives that feature.

What this dishonest “statement” leaves out of course is … Read the rest

A discussion of NATO and Putin and how we got here on Fresh Air yesterday:

My guest, Mary Elise Sarotte, is the author of a book about the history of NATO in the years just before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It’s called “Not One Inch,” and it helps explain how NATO, Ukraine and Russia got to where they are today. It’s based in part on papers she got declassified after fighting for years to get them released. Sarotte is the Kravis professor of historical studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and she’s a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She’s also the author of an earlier book about the collapse

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Noticeably quiet.

Here’s an idea.

A whole group of people should go to each of Thomas’s meets dressed as Napoleon, all demanding to be addressed as “Your Majesty” and that they all be seated in the Emperor’s Box for the event. They could, each and all, identify themselves as Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French. A special press representative could accompany the Band of Bonapartes, explaining how each of them identifies as the Emperor, and that this true, sincere identification clearly overrides trivial material details such as the fact that the supposedly “real” Napoleon is dead. (Without an identity, that first guy’s just a corpse anyhow.) It can be explained … Read the rest

What about the human rights of child abusers? Like the right to keep abusing the child? What about that, huh?

A major Boise hospital went on lockdown for about an hour Tuesday after far-right activist Ammon Bundy urged supporters to go the facility in protest of a child protection case involving one of his family friends.

Ammon Bundy isn’t just an “activist.” He’s a violent intruder and occupier and vandal and intimidator.

Earlier in the day, Bundy released a statement on YouTube warning that if an acquaintance’s young child was not returned to the family after a hearing Tuesday afternoon, that “Patriot groups” would take action.

Bundy later released another video telling people that child protection workers were poised to

Oh that rape.

A hospital has finally admitted a woman may have been raped by a transgender patient after denying the possibility of an attack for almost a year, the House of Lords has heard. 

When police were called to the unnamed hospital in England, they were allegedly told by staff that ‘there was no male’ on the single-sex ward, ‘therefore the rape could not have happened’. 

And that was a lie.

Now they’re admitting one of the patients was trans, i.e. a man.

The details of the case were shared by Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne during a debate on single-sex wards in the Upper Chamber yesterday. 

She claimed: ‘They forgot that there was CCTV, nurses and observers.

‘None the

Arty on the New Yorker’s embarrassing collapse:

The New Yorker has finally chimed in on the Lia Thomas debacle, and it’s a disgrace. The cult-like language used throughout is a stain on its reputation. Remember, The New Yorker is renowned for having the most prestigious and respected fact-checking department in the world.

Exactly. They’re famously, even notoriously picky. FACTS.

They make a blunder on the fact front.

The N.C.A.A. allowed a path for people like her to join the women’s team, but it was not quick or easy. In general, élite male athletes have considerable physical advantages over élite female athletes.

Whoops, you’ve just acknowledged that “people like her [sic]” are, in fact, “élite male athletes” who “have

ESPN reports on Lia Thomas’s “win”:

Thomas, who is a transgender woman, touched the wall in 4 minutes, 33.24 seconds in the 500-yard freestyle on Thursday night to become the first known transgender athlete to win a Division I national championship in any sport.

Yes but the issue isn’t “transgender” but man playing in women’s sport. We weren’t waiting eagerly for the first male athlete to win a woman’s national championship. We don’t see that as a breakthrough, or as a good thing in any way. We see it as cheating. We see it as brazen theft of a woman’s win and a woman’s spot in the race. We’re not impressed, we’re disgusted.

Thomas finished 1.75 seconds ahead of