What no excuses?
Well I’ll be. The BBC doesn’t say a single mollifying word to excuse the vandalism.
The cost to repair an almost 300-year-old mausoleum which was graffitied with the words “trans rights” is expected to be more than £2,000. The message was sprayed on the side of Dashwood Mausoleum near West Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
James Parker, the West Wycombe Estate land agent, said the Dashwood family would bear the cost of the cleaning and restoration work, which has yet to be completed. He said: “This site holds deep personal and historical significance not only to the estate, but to others with loved ones buried nearby. Many feel this as a personal violation of a sacred space.”
This should be the place where the Beeb jumps in to remind us how marginalized and persecuted and marginalized and terrorized trans people are. Yet somehow the jumping in never happens.
Mr Parker said: “This mausoleum is not only a place of rest for the Dashwood family ancestors, but a part of our shared heritage and local community. While we support everyone’s right to free expression and peaceful protest, damaging sacred and historic spaces cannot be justified under any circumstances.”
Independent member at Buckinghamshire Council, Orsolya Hayday, said she was saddened by the incident. “Whilst I understand the important issue of minority rights, as everybody should have the same rights, but vandalising this family mausoleum in a popular beauty spot is definitely not the right way to go about it,” she said. “I wish they could have found another way to promote their cause without causing damage.”
And there the story ends.
H/t Acolyte of Sagan
But does it? Something tells me that somewhere, sometime, there will be an Episode 2, a sequel, a consequence, or something. Even as we blog, someone, in some way, is getting ready with that predictable but mysterious something.
All the women who have suffered at the hands of this “cause” would agree. But “causing damage” was the goal of this cause. Getting what transactivists wanted was only possible by destroying women’s rights. Unfortunately there were far too many people eager to do exactly that, knowing full well what the consequences for women would be, and became, because women told them. It should always be remembered that this was a price that activists and their allies were willing to force women to pay. This was not an accident, or an unforeseen, unintended consequence: it was inevitable result of choices that were made deliberately, choices and policies enforced with calculated, misogynistic malice. Men in women’s prisons. Men in women’s hospital wards. Men in women’s crisis centres. Men in women’s short-lists. Men in women’s sports.
None of this just “happened.” It was all done, with authorization, coordination, and implementation from Cabinet on down, through all levels of corrections, hospital, counseling, and sporting authority management and staff. And all of it was regulated and enforced by these same departments and officials, as well as both the police and the judiciary. It was all reported upon by compliant, partisan, pro-trans/anti-women media, both public and corporate. This was a coup of delusion that captured practically the entire aparatus of the British state. How did it happen so quickly and so completely? How does anyone trust any of these institutions ever again? Some of them engaged in what amounted to state-sponsored terrorism against many of their own citizens, with the vast majority of the victims being women.
I’m still slightly amazed at the ruling of the Supreme Court, but it’s still early days. Too many institutions and departments are dragging their feet, or actively denying and resisting the clear meaning legal requirements of the ruling. They’re pretending there’s wiggle room, nuance, or confusion when there is none. This is a slap in the face for the women who stood up and said “No” to a state gone mad. We can hope that their courageous example will serve as a beacon and promise of justice to come in other countries. The continuing human toll of what has been perpetrated during this nightmare time may well be incalculable. Some of just can’t be undone. The tide seems to be turning, but the cleanup will take years; there’s a lot of toxic waste to be collected and safeguards to be installed. Heads should roll, but probably won’t.
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