On the case:

I am https://t.co/DRl12AVXOB

— Emma Harriet Nicholson (@Baroness_Nichol) October 19, 2022

She is. She’s been sending out letters.

It’s all pretty awful. I’m implementing requests from the lady in question. Fingers crossed she sleeps well tonight.A truly lovely person in any case. https://t.co/nYb9Nun2Oe

— Emma Harriet Nicholson (@Baroness_Nichol) October 19, 2022

And this letter (no email address allowed). BNoW pic.twitter.com/W4VRYoOJ20

— Emma Harriet Nicholson (@Baroness_Nichol) October 20, 2022

MY NEXT STEP – PRIVATE HOSPITALS COME UNDER UK REGULATIONS – HAS THIS LONDON HOSPITAL COMPLETELY COMPLIED pic.twitter.com/l3z930cmVc

— Emma Harriet Nicholson (@Baroness_Nichol) October 20, 2022

IMPORTANT REGULATION pic.twitter.com/Rm5SlUKSMH

— Emma Harriet Nicholson (@Baroness_Nichol) October 20, 2022

I am steadily working my way through all https://t.co/MW4g3ofOOo

— Emma Harriet

The CBC reports on trans issues as if the trans ideology were just obviously and unmistakably the latest in a long line of progressive movements, entirely comparable to unionization and civil rights and feminism and lesbian/gay rights. It’s not. It’s a cuckoo in the nest.

In school board elections across Ontario this Monday, dozens of candidates are running on promises to roll back protections for transgender students, part of a concerted effort by conservative lobby groups to undo policies aimed at addressing systemic discrimination.

But those “protections” often destroy protections for female students. It’s not only conservative lobby groups who object to the destruction of women’s rights or protections.

The Canadian Anti-Hate Network, a non-profit that monitors extremism, recently posted

It’s that day again.

Today is International Pronouns Day. Using people’s chosen pronouns affirms human dignity that fosters inclusivity, respect and a sense of belonging. Visit our website for four simple ways you can help raise awareness. #PronounsDay https://t.co/Ceufm1EMvX

— Waterloo Region DSB (@wrdsb) October 19, 2022

On International Pronouns Day, we can all raise awareness around personal pronouns by encouraging education and mutual respect. Sharing and using people’s chosen pronouns affirms human dignity. https://t.co/BtfXpuEkMy

— Laurie Tremble (@laurie_tremble) October 19, 2022

DSB is District School Board. Tremble is a trustee of Waterloo Region DSB.… Read the rest

Interesting. Trump appears to have lied in some court documents.

Former President Donald Trump signed legal documents describing evidence of election fraud that he knew were false, a federal judge indicated on Wednesday.

Tssssss naughty.

U.S. District Court Judge David Carter wrote in an 18-page opinion that emails from attorney John Eastman, an architect of Trump’s last-ditch effort to subvert the 2020 election, needed to be turned over to the Jan. 6 select committee. Those emails, Carter wrote, “show that President Trump knew that the specific numbers of voter fraud were wrong but continued to tout those numbers, both in court and to the public.”

I think we can guess what their defense will be. Trump can’t really be … Read the rest

Originally a comment by latsot on At a women’s shelter.

I raise money for nia (donate!) largely because of this sort of thing. nia is run and staffed entirely by women and provides female-only crisis and other care.

I’m told constantly that I’m transphobic for doing this. There are lies circulating all the time that I’m stealing from the charity or that I’m not really doing the half marathons. I’ve had people impersonating me to dissuade others from donating. I’ve had death threats because of it.

And then, of course, the inevitable happens again and rather than pausing for thought, trans activists double down. We know why: it’s an area in which it’s so patently obvious… Read the rest

Unbelievable.

Let's just leave this here… pic.twitter.com/5B794hjTu6

— Cambridge Radical Feminist Network (@camradfems) October 19, 2022

“Freedom of expression is a fundamental principle which we wholeheartedly support

…

…

HOWEVER”

It’s as if stupidity is an erupting volcano, and the lava is slowly but steadily swallowing everything. Every single last thing.

[Caius by the way is pronounced Keys]… Read the rest

This is the really breathtaking bit – the brand new CEO of the hospital telling the patient “we don’t share your beliefs so we’ve decided not to do your surgery.”

I think she might very well get fired for that, and perhaps more than fired.

It’s a quite incredible thing to say – to put in writing. I think it screams lawsuit.… Read the rest

Of course Raw Story can’t report it honestly.

A North Carolina school district has decided to halt all future competition with one of its school’s female volleyball teams after a trans player allegedly injured a player on an opposing team, The National Desk reports.

A male player injured a female player.

A trans player on the Highlands School volleyball team reportedly spike the ball hard at a girl on the opposing team, hitting her in the face and giving her “severe head and neck injuries, resulting in long-term concussion symptoms,” according to the Education First Alliance.

A male player did that. The issue isn’t that he’s trans, it’s that he’s male. Trans is the reason he was … Read the rest

It’s public information who the CEO of Princess Grace Hospital is.

HCA Healthcare UK has appointed Maxine Estop Green (pictured) as [CEO] of The Princess Grace Hospital, with effect from 3 October.

She’s a brand new CEO and one of the first things she does is tell a critically ill patient “we don’t like your values so we’re not going to do your necessary surgery.”

Estop Green’s 22-year career in the private healthcare sector began at the turn of the century in finance management at Ramsay Healthcare.

Cool cool cool. All about the money; not about the patients. Awesome.

Estop Green added she was “beyond excited“ to step into the role of CEO at The Princess Grace Hospital and said

ripX4nutmeg at Glinner update reports on a hospital nightmare:

In one of the most shocking stories yet, a London hospital has cancelled a woman’s life-saving operation at the last minute because it doesn’t ‘share her values’. That ‘value’ she had was that she wanted the aftercare nurses to be female.

Former solicitor Teresa needs urgent, rare and highly complex, colorectal surgery. She selected the private Princess Grace Hospital, which specialises in women’s healthcare, for it specifically because she didn’t want to be in a mixed-sex facility.

A victim of sexual assaults, Teresa made it clear to the hospital how important this issue was to her, by both requesting a single-sex room and bathroom, and stating she would only

A thing that calls itself a rape and sexual abuse counselling centre changes the subject to…pronouns. I guess rape and sexual abuse are so trivial that something more serious was needed?

A person’s gender is always valid. Even if you don’t understand. It's important to show respect and if you don't know, just ask them. #PronounsDay #InternationalPronounsDay pic.twitter.com/Pqho8LoEpJ

— Rape & Sexual Abuse Counselling Centre – Co.Durham (@RSACCdarlo) October 19, 2022

Replies are closed. Retweets are hostile.… Read the rest

Oh yay, we’ve got some of the world’s worst air quality today. Go Seattle!

As the days of smoke-filled air from ongoing wildfires in the Cascades continue, air quality in Seattle remains an issue.

It’s been unremittingly bad for two weeks now. Today it’s worse.

The city ranked fifth worldwide for poor [bad] air quality and pollution as of Wednesday morning, according to IQAir, a Swiss air-quality technology company that also operates a real-time air-quality information platform. Portland and Vancouver, B.C., also ranked in the Top 10, along with cities in China, India and Pakistan.

Where oh where oh where are the adults? Where did they all go? What are they doing? Why are they hiding? When will they get a fucking grip?

Today is International Pronouns Day. Using people’s chosen pronouns affirms human dignity that fosters inclusivity, respect and a sense of belonging. Visit our website for four simple ways you can help raise awareness. #PronounsDay https://t.co/Ceufm1EMvX

— Waterloo Region DSB (@wrdsb) October 19, 2022

First the boring obvious for the millionth time: there’s no such thing as “people’s chosen pronouns” because people don’t get to “choose” special personal meanings for public language.

Much more to the point, humoring people about “their pronouns” absolutely does not affirm human dignity, it treats people as if … Read the rest

Billy Bragg writes in the New Statesman about how “reactionary” people have to be accountable, apparently to people like for instance Billy Bragg.

When pressed on whether his idea of accountability included the abuse suffered by JK Rowling following her statements on trans women, [Graham] Norton suggested that it might be more illuminating to talk to trans children and their parents, rather than merely amplifying the opinions of a celebrity or author – even a very good one. 

Says a celebrity writing in the New Statesman, which he probably wouldn’t be able to do if he weren’t a celebrity.

But more to the point: what are “trans children”?

What if there are no “trans children,” but only children swept … Read the rest

Victoria Smith in The Critic:

Self-censorship is like housework: the vast majority of it is done by women, and men only notice when they think we’ve missed a bit. 

She’s writing about Graham Norton and his ill-informed views on JK Rowling, but of course the pattern is ubiquitous.

This is true not just about discussions of sex and gender, but female experience both in the home and in public space: there is so much we do not say, to which men remain completely oblivious. They do not appreciate all our silences, all our accommodations. All they notice are the inconvenient truths we do choose to utter. For those, we are damned. 

One comfort here is that that makes being … Read the rest

But we were told this never happens.

A woman was allegedly raped by a sex offender at a women’s shelter in Ontario, Canada after the predator identified as transgender in order to gain access to the facility.

Shane Jacob Green, 25, was arrested on August 24 by Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). At the time, the OPP issued a notice stating Green had been charged with two counts of sexual assault, four counts of failing to comply with a probation order, and one count of failing to comply with a release order.

But new details have emerged through the Toronto Sun revealing that Green’s crimes occurred while he was staying in a women’s emergency shelter in Parry Sound.

He’d already … Read the rest

And fourteen billion eyes rolled in unison.

Today is International Pronouns Day, and we're looking to make respecting, sharing, and educating about personal pronouns commonplace.

Here are some tips:
✨ ASK
✨ RESPECT
✨ PRACTICE#PrideInSport #LGBTQ #InternationalPronounsDay #Pronouns #Respect #Dignity pic.twitter.com/0sHbSQ0y05

— Commonwealth Games Australia (@CommGamesAUS) October 19, 2022

… Read the rest

Primum non nocere.

Sure is wild to be in trial over medical care where the claim is that the medical care is harmful and should be banned when the care is the only reason why you are able to be alive and lawyering and defending it.

— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) October 18, 2022

There’s so much wrong with this one tweet from an ACLU lawyer.

One thing wrong with it is that trying to change people’s sex isn’t “medical care.” Even if it treats something (misery, anxiety, self-hatred) it isn’t medical – it doesn’t cure any illness or mend any bone. I don’t know exactly what it should be called, but I think “medical care” is way too misleading, not … Read the rest

And speaking of Saudi Arabia and grotesque levels of suppression and punitive absence of rights, meet Ron DeSantis’s Florida:

This is wild!! https://t.co/nRoMggpAsp pic.twitter.com/UOKEF84ulU

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) October 18, 2022

I stopped breathing while watching this clip. You know how you do, in shock and disbelief? Like that.

The Tampa Bay Times has details:

When police went to arrest Tony Patterson outside his Tampa home in August, he couldn’t believe the reason.

“What is wrong with this state, man?” Patterson protested as he was being escorted to a police car in handcuffs. “Voter fraud? Y’all said anybody with a felony could vote, man.”

Body-worn camera footage recorded by local police captured the confusion and outrage of Hillsborough County