Author: Ophelia Benson

  • which we should not have

    Amnesty sort of apologizes, while also assuring us how wonderful it is and how not as wonderful everyone else is, especially the people it is sort of apologizing to.

    We apologise for the publication of the briefing “A growing threat: the anti-rights movement in the UK.” This document should never have been published, and full responsibility for this error rests with Amnesty International UK.

    Well the document didn’t publish itself. What do you mean it should never have been published? Who published it? Was it you? If you published it, why are you now saying it should never have been published? Was it someone else? If so, who? It’s not much of an apology if we can’t tell who is sorry or who did what.

    The briefing was taken down within 48 hours of publication, as soon as management were notified of its existence, was not actively promoted, and will not be republished. We have an ongoing internal investigation into how this briefing came to be published.

    What do you mean “was taken down”? Who took it down? Why are there no agents in all this; actions but no person or persons taking them? You do realize we can see it, right? We can see how evasive and impersonal it all is, and we’re not impressed. You seem to be talking about a car crash with no cars.

    Whilst we do not share the views of all these organisations, we recognise the concerns raised by those labelled as “anti-rights” in the document. To be clear: this labelling does not represent our institutional position, and we apologise for its inclusion. In particular, we apologise to Beira’s Place

    Yes we know: because you were going to get your asses sued.

    and other groups, which we categorised as gender critical organisations, which we should not have collectively labelled as anti-rights. We have also taken down an earlier more discursive briefing (entitled Like A Snowball) which also referenced a wide range of organisations.

    Still hasty, perfunctory, non-specific. I am deeply unimpressed. You’re doing the bare minimum and we can tell you’re scowling and sulking while doing it. You’d much rather be calling us all “anti-rights” again.

    AIUK holds itself to the highest standards of research, evidence and editorial oversight in all its publications. We have concluded that this briefing fell significantly short of those standards.

    Wut? You are the very best; you have concluded this item was not the very best. That’s what you’ve got? You’re awesome, except this one time you weren’t quite awesome, now let’s change the subject?

    I am underwhelmed.

    H/t Piglet

  • Oh special off

    The spesh rapporteur in question is Alex Xanthaki.

  • Special indeed

    Eeeeeesh. A UN Special Rapporteur talks the most mind-bogglingly childish drivel here.

    …they have come under pressure from a specific section of women, not all women, not trans women for sure, they are women as well, because women are not defined by sex, they’re defined by gender, and not all biological women, and the reason why they have said they should not be [garbled], you know we go back to the 60s, where others were defining who we are […] all of them are women, the way we define women at the moment is emmm you know on the basis of gender…

    It’s interesting that she pauses and fumbles and says “emmm” and “you know” at that particular point – the point where she has to get specific about what she’s saying. It’s almost as if she knows it’s bullshit and loses her confidence.

    …of experiences, on society and how we view ourselves and how society views us –

    No, sport, that is not the way we “define women”. That’s the way we resist the ideologies that grow up around women and men, it’s not the definition of women and men. Obviously.

  • she hoped

    I think I missed this one at the time. The BBC reports on “Heather” Herbert’s public rejoicing at the violent murder of Ann Widdicomb without ever admitting that he’s a man. You keep waiting for the t-word to appear and it never does – it’s just straight-up she and her throughout.

    Heather Herbert had reportedly posted that Widdecombe’s death on Thursday was “good news” and that she hoped it was an “extremely painful death”.

    Her posts were reported to Police Scotland who initially said there was no criminality in relation to what she had written.

    It’s just plain lying.

  • He’s gutted

    Yet another.

    A women’s health campaigner and former local Labour women’s officer has been banned from the party’s women’s conference because she is trans.

    No, not because he is trans; because he is a man. It’s a women’s conference.

    Steph Richards is ‘gutted’ at her treatment by the party which she said once selected her as a candidate from an all-women shortlist.

    And it shouldn’t have. Men should never be on all-women shortlists.

    Metro revealed yesterday that four powerful Labour unions – Unison, Aslef, Usdaw, and the Musicians’ Union – are boycotting the event over the ban.

    So four powerful Labour unions want men to be able to take what was intended for women. Might as well let the bosses take what was meant for the workers; it makes just as much sense.

  • Following an incident

    Fuck around and find out?

    Seattle Storm minority owner Celeste Keaton has been fined by the WNBA and suspended for her team’s next five home games following an incident Tuesday night involving a pair of Sophie Cunningham fans, the WNBA confirmed to Yahoo Sports’ Cassandra Negley.

    The incident reportedly occurred when the two young women, wearing shirts for a brand advocating against the inclusion of transgender women in women’s sports, held up signs reading “We love you Sophie” and “Thank you Sophie for speaking up for girls” while sitting courtside for the Fever-Storm game. Their appearance came a week after Cunningham made comments against transgender inclusion.

    No, not “transgender inclusion”; male inclusion in women’s sports.

    After the game, the pair recounted to a content producer that a woman, identified as Keaton, confronted them and told them they were “effing insane.”

    Well isn’t that nice – the adult woman who is one of the owners of a women’s team told two girls they are fucking insane, because they don’t think men should be in women’s sports.

    It sounds so different when the wording is accurate. Funny how that works.

  • Men claim victory

    This is a good look. This is a very very very good look. They are right to look so confident and happy with their triumph over women. We are all hugely impressed. Well done three men!

  • Bringing out the best in people

    Wow, that’s a good look.

    Storm apologize after co-owner berates teen girls supporting Sophie Cunningham

    Yes how dare teenage girls support teenage girls who don’t want boys in their sports. Teenage girls are supposed to submit without asking a single question! And by the way so are women!

    The Seattle Storm issued an apology statement Wednesday, one day after one of their co-owners verbally accosted two teenage female fans with expletives because they were holding signs supporting the views of ​Indiana’s Sophie Cunningham during a home game against the Fever.

    The teenagers each had a ‌sign, one saying “Thank You Sophie for speaking up for girls!” Cunningham recently went to bat for the protection of women’s sports and keeping them female-only.

    Independent journalist Brandi Kruse reported that minority owner Celeste Keaton told the girls they ​were “fucking insane.”

    Isn’t that nice? Adults telling teenage girls they’re fucking insane for not wanting to lose everything to boys invading their sports? So enlightened, so progressive, so kind.

  • Of all the possible targets

    Ugh the filth. We’re drowning in it.

    Wednesday’s hearing is very unlikely to be the end of the story. And it could actually grease the skids for Republicans and the Trump administration to do something many of them have openly floated: Trying to put Fauci in prison.

    They’re ostensibly not trying to prosecute Fauci for what he did during the Covid pandemic, but have talked about holding him in contempt of Congress — a threat to initiate a process that would result in the Justice Department considering whether to charge him.

    …

    Fauci indicated he was pleading the Fifth because he feared Republicans would try to lay a perjury trap — i.e. try to get him to say something that could be used to bring a perjury case against him.

    Indeed, some prominent figures had spoken before the hearing about Fauci possibly still being prosecuted for perjury, despite his pardon. They included Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and conservative lawyer John Yoo, who both suggested as much in interviews on Fox News.

    I don’t understand these people.

  • Just force them

    Jolyon is…erm…threatening force against the Charity Commission. That’s a good look.

    Of course what he means by “hate” is just repeating the banal fact that men are not women.

    He wants to force us all to submit to his will. Modest chap.

  • Bad woman says what?

    Well, that’s a nice fair-minded headline.

    ‘She is a stain on society’: Sophie Cunningham’s anti-trans comments lead to ‘digusting’ rally and spark outrage

    One two three four. She is a stain on society; her comments are anti-trans; they lead to disgusting rally; they spark outrage. Got all that? Are you sure you hate her enough yet?

    Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, who is averaging 9.3 points off the bench this season, had a feature published by ESPN where she spoke about what she felt was necessary to “protect women’s sports.”

    Ooooh that bitch. How dare she think it’s necessary to protect women’s sports. What does that even mean? “Protect” how? What tf even are “””women’s sports”””?

    When approached about her stance by local media, Cunningham doubled down, saying, “I said what I said.”

    Oooh how dare she stick by what she said? How dare she not crumble and weep hot tears and apologize and call herself names and promise to submit no matter what?

    Now, the ramifications of Cunningham’s comments are being felt by the already vulnerable trans community.

    Oh oh oh oh the already vulnerable trans communninny oh that’s so sad – the ramifications! Good thing nobody else is vulnerable.

  • First in Our Nation’s History

    Well whose fault is that?

    Attorneys for President Donald Trump filed a petition Tuesday to toss the more than $83.3 million judgment in the defamation case brought by former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll.

    “This is the first case in our Nation’s history in which a court has imposed damages liability on a President for his conduct in office,” the filing states.

    It’s the first time in our history that a president has been such a worthless evil sadistic women-hating abusive violent rapey shit. He is by far the worst human being who has ever had that job; no one else even comes close. He makes Nixon look like a saint. He has not one single redeeming quality. He’s not charming or funny or witty, he’s not generous or kind or loyal, he’s not interesting or well-informed or thoughtful. It’s not anyone else’s fault that he’s the first president to be entangled in such a disgusting brawl.

    The petition went on to argue, “If left standing, the decision below will cause significant damage, not only to this President and future Presidents, but also to ‘the Nation that the Presidency was designed to serve.’

    “As this Court has recognized, it ‘would seriously cripple the proper and effective administration of’ government if Presidents feared that their official acts could result in damages liability…

    Excuse me. How is his revolting treatment of Carroll in any way an official act?

    He’ll be raping and then eating toddlers next.

  • Define your terms

    Again with the obfuscatory language.

    What “discriminatory” treatment? In what sense of “discriminatory”?

    We are allowed to discriminate between women and men in the sense of knowing which is which and sometimes acting accordingly. Sometimes it doesn’t matter which is which, and other times it does.

    See also: children and adults. There are many circumstances in which it’s necessary to discriminate between them. Discrimination is not always or automatically invidious; it’s often necessary. Triage is discrimination. In an emergency you don’t treat the person with the scratch before the person who is bleeding out.

    Humans are either one sex or the other. It’s not invidious discrimination to be clear about which is which and act accordingly.

  • Met with a lot of criticism

    They just can’t report it honestly. Not ever.

    Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham has made headlines this week as she spoke out against transgender women in women’s sports. While her comments have been met with a lot of criticism, she has received some support from a high-profile author who has similarly criticized transgender people.

    It’s not about “criticizing trans people”. It’s about objecting to men invading women’s sports.

    In an ESPN article last week, Cunningham was asked about her political beliefs and the “MAGA Barbie” nickname she has recently been given. While Cunningham says that label is a projection, given that she is a white girl from Missouri, she did go on to speak out on how to “protect women’s sports.”

    No scare quotes on “that label is a projection” or “a white girl from Missouri”; only on “protect women’s sports.” Funny how that works.

    Later in the week, Cunningham was given the opportunity to address the comments, ahead of a game against the Connecticut Sun. During that interview, Cunningham doubled down on her statement.

    Oh no, really? You mean she failed to withdraw it? How shocking.

    Cunningham was asked if she thought her comments could be viewed as derogatory toward trans athletes. She responded, saying that she does not “dislike anyone” and there is “room to love everyone.” However, she wasn’t backing down from her opinion.

    How dare she!

    While not everyone has been pleased with Cunningham’s political stand, Rowling did come to her support with a post on X.

    The Harry Potter author, who has a history of speaking out against transgender rights, praised Cunningham for “standing up for women and girls everywhere.”

    That’s just a lie. JKR doesn’t “speak out against transgender rights”. She doesn’t think or say that trans people should not have rights. The problem is that there are new claimed rights that are not rights at all, and that are destructive of women’s rights. Men who call themselves women don’t have any right to help themselves to everything that belongs to women.

  • After a video showed

    Well what did they think was going to happen?

    Two transgender netball players have been banned from competing in Australia after a video showed one of them knocking an opponent to the ground.

    Rival teams threatened a boycott over footage of Melton Central player Manawa Aranui sending a member of the Romsey team crashing to the court.

    There was no foul and Aranui, who played elite men’s netball before transition, is seen offering to help the opponent to her feet.

    So typical of journalism on this subject that it casually neglects to spell out the key fact here. What kind of “transgender netball players” eh Telegraph? Are they possibly male at all? If so why not say so in the lede? You pathetic chickenshits.

    However, following a host of complaints, Victoria’s Riddell District Football Netball League (RDFNL) announced the two trans Melton Central team-mates were now excluded from competition.

    That is, the two male Melton Central team-mates. The word “trans” does not specify sex or gender, so you have to spell it out. It’s your job to report clearly and accurately on this manipulative evasive sly sneaky campaign to let men ruin women’s sports.

    Melton South Netball Club had threatened to boycott matches against Melton Central due to safety concerns. The RDFNL acknowledges the pair “exhibit superior stamina and physique” in a statement explaining the ban.

    “After lengthy consideration and consultation, the RDFNL has ruled that the two transgender participants be excluded from the RDFNL netball competitions for the remainder of the 2025 season on the premise that both participants exhibit superior stamina and physique over their competitors, deeming Section 42 of the Sex Discrimination Act relevant,” a statement said.

    All this yet the Telegraph still finds it necessary to be hyper-“polite” to the massive shits invading women’s sports and threatening women’s safety.

    Melton South’s netball coordinator Melissa Dawson subsequently told News Corp reporters in Australia that she would support her players if they chose to forfeit games over safety concerns.

    “One of the players is six foot something – it’s ridiculous,” she said. “Netball Victoria needs to put the safety of biological females first.”

    In response, a furious Aranui said on Facebook: “I’ve sat quietly long enough while this narrative brewed and I’ve been dragged – publicly and without consent – into a conversation where both my character and identity have been attacked. Now, it’s exploded across social media and news outlets.”

    Cheating cheater says what?

    Update: This happened a year ago, but I missed it then, so here it is now.

  • It’s incenjeri old chap

    Euan identifies as a legal expert.

    Why hasn’t Julie Bindel been arrested and charged for saying something Euan Weddell doesn’t like?

    It’s an outrage!

    Also, never mind is two words.

  • One day a baseball star

    Is Trump a malignant narcissist?

    On Monday [several months ago], the president contradicted himself no fewer than five times regarding his plans in Iran, after weeks of simultaneously insisting that the United States had won the war and that much remained to be done. Hours later, he posted several incomprehensible messages on his Truth Social platform, retweeting flattering news stories about himself published months earlier. And not too long ago, there was the letter to the prime minister of Norway criticizing him for not awarding him the Nobel Prize, even though it wasn’t within the monarch’s power to do so; there was also the speech full of insults directed at his allies in Davos; and that news conference in which he launched into a monologue about a mental institution in Queens and his mother’s belief that he would one day be a baseball star.

    For his supporters and for members of his Administration, all this only proves the unorthodox personality of the president, as well as the unpredictable and approachable style of someone who has no regard for the conventions of traditional politics and who has created around his own figure an almost cult-like movement that is unprecedented in the recent history of the United States.

    Yeah well to the extent that’s true, they’re all deranged. Trump is indeed “unorthodox” but that’s not the salient thing about him. Not within a million miles.

    [Johns Hopkins University psychologist John] Gartner has been warning about Trump’s “mental disorders” for a decade, and he has no doubt about them. “He is a malignant narcissist,” the psychologist explained in a video conference with EL PAÍS. He explained that this is an illness described by Holocaust survivor Erich Fromm to diagnose Hitler, and that, according to the doctor, it has these components: “Narcissism, of course—many politicians have it—antisocial personality disorder (psychopathy) —they lie, deceive, harm others, violate the rules, and feel no remorse—paranoia—they constantly feel attacked and, therefore, seek revenge—grandiosity—their desire is to dominate and be above everyone else; ‘I am the best president in history,’ ‘nobody knows more than me about tariffs,’ etc.—and sadism: they enjoy chaos, destruction, and humiliation.”

    To put it another way: is he a narcissist? Well duh. Is he malignant? Duh again.

    Vince Greenwood, founder of the Washington Center for Cognitive Therapy—who since 2020 has focused on studying Trump’s psychopathy, on which he plans to publish a book in August—says via videoconference that for that specific disorder, “one of the best-defined in the American psychiatric manual,” an interview is not necessary “if a large amount of data on the patient’s life history is available.” “It is, fundamentally, a disorder of long-standing behavioral patterns and traits, manifested over decades,” explains Greenwood. 

    What I’m saying. He’s obviously narcissistic and obviously malignant. You do the math.

    That “danger” has only worsened, according to Frank George, a psychologist, neuroscientist, and author of the popular substack Gaslight Report, in which he writes about Trump’s mental health. In a video conference interview, he explained that narcissism is a disorder that accompanies people from birth, and that it is “influenced by the patient’s circumstances, environment, or upbringing.” “It’s like heart disease; eating hamburgers every day doesn’t help. If you manage your narcissism, you may not end up being the most generous and empathetic person, but at least you’ll have it under control. That’s not the case with Trump: his parents didn’t help, nor did his time at military school, where he learned that being a bully worked for him. Becoming the most powerful person in the world did the rest, transforming him from a pathological narcissist into a malignant narcissist,” George explains.

    He sure as hell doesn’t have it under control.

    He also shows symptoms of frontotemporal dementia.

    “When people hear the word dementia, they usually think of Alzheimer’s, but that’s not what’s happening to him,” he explains. “FTD affects the frontal and temporal lobes. The frontal lobes are where what makes us most human resides; thanks to that part of the brain, we can plan, make rational decisions, and think things through. With this type of dementia, it’s as if the neurological guardrails disappear.”

    Among the symptoms of FTD is confabulation, which goes beyond simply making up stories. It’s not lying; it’s believing what one says, however implausible it may seem. Another symptom, George explains, is paraphasia: “making mistakes with words, mispronouncing them, or not knowing how to finish them.” “A third symptom is insistence: how many times has he listed the wars he’s won?” George asks, adding that FTD “makes his narcissism manifest itself more starkly.”

    Worrying at all?

  • Burn the witch

    Here is the message that an Australian court has ordered Kirralie Smith to pin to all her social media whatsits.

    PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE LOCAL COURT OF NSW AS VARIED BY THE SUPREME COURT OF NSW Following proceedings in the Local Court of NSW (2024/78280) the Local Court of NSW has declared that Kirralie Smith and Binary Australia contravened section 38S of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1997 (NSW) by making and publishing various social media posts between 19 January 2023 and 27 March 2023 and a newsletter dated 19 January 2023 that incited hatred towards, serious contempt for, or severe ridicule of a soccer player on the ground that she is a transgender person. Public acts that incite hatred towards, serious contempt for, or severe ridicule of, a person or group of persons on the ground that the person or group are transgender are unlawful under the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW). The Local Court of NSW has ordered Kirralie Smith and Binary Australia to pay damages to the soccer player, and to remove the offending posts and to not repeat or continue the offending behaviour.

    But it’s not “on the ground that she is a transgender person”. Not not not. It’s on the ground that he is a male person. We don’t give a shit whether people call themselves transgender or not. We give a shit about men calling themselves women and then taking all our stuff and forcing themselves on us in our own spaces.

    Courts abusing women for refusing to call men “women” is not social justice, not progressive, not lefty, not liberal, not reasonable, not sane, not fair, not decent, not ok, not acceptable.

  • Direct action

    Time to say no, perhaps?

    Ministers should consider proscribing a militant transgender activist group which has targeted the offices of MPs, the government’s former adviser on political violence has said.

    Writing in The Times, Lord Walney said the conduct of the group Bash Back “deserves far more serious attention than it has so far received” and that ministers should test it against the same threshold that led to the proscription of Palestine Action.

    Bash Back is a transgender-led direct action group which vandalised the office of Wes Streeting in July last year when he was the health secretary, and it has pushed for a “new era of trans rage”. 

    It’s not really a good fit, is it. The rhetoric doesn’t mesh with the cause. Passion and anger can work when the cause is righteous enough – stop the mass slaughter, end the torture, do away with the system that subordinates millions of people. When the cause is “fawn over men who insist that they are women” it doesn’t work so well. It’s too trivial, too niche, too fictional, too childish, too silly. The result is that demands for rage come across as entitled and coercive.

    The Times previously revealed that the group had produced a guide for members urging them to arm themselves and carry out repeated illegal attacks on MPs and organisations.

    There again, a flimsy and inherently narcissistic cause stumbles at the first step. If you’re going to go all militant you want to have a decent reason for it.

    It told activists to form “independent local cells”, “identify a target” — including MPs, organisations and political party conferences — and “ensure your target can be hit repeatedly until they desist” from their “transphobic” activities.

    It’s not accidental that that looks like telling people to resort to physical violence against people while leaving room to say “Oh no, we mean their offices and organizations.” Please. If they really meant that and only that, they would have said that and only that. The not doing so is absolutely intentional.

    Walney stressed that he made no suggestion about who was responsible while proceedings were active, but said it was “a fair observation” that Bash Back had withdrawn none of its material since her death.

    “Not one image of masked, hammer-wielding activists. Not the guide instructing supporters to select political targets and strike them until they desist,” he said. 

    The implications of which, I repeat, are extremely obvious.

    “An organisation genuinely committed to non-violence, watching the country absorb the killing of a public figure in her own home, would have paused. This one did not.”

    Let’s be real here. An organisation genuinely committed to non-violence would not have said all that about striking targets until they desist.

    In a statement posted on social media, Bash Back said: “We completely reject the idea that we are a ‘terrorist’ group. We are a non-violent direct action group that demands the total liberation of trans people, and opposes the rising tide of anti-trans bigotry.”

    Nope. All those threats, all those images of snarling men brandishing hammers, are not “non-violent”. It’s violence by wink wink nudge nudge.

  • Brick by brick

    Now Trump is wanting to kill off the International Criminal Court. Well of course he is, being an international criminal.

    Barely a month appears to go by without Donald Trump making a fresh attempt to destroy the international rules-based order. The US has pulled funding from dozens of international institutions, shut down USAID and withdrawn from the Paris climate agreement. Nato may survive on paper, but Trump has made clear that he has little interest in coming to the aid of any ally that is attacked. The Board of Peace is clearly an attempt to sideline the United Nations.

    But the state department’s announcement last week that it wishes to dismantle the international criminal court “brick by brick” could be Trump’s most frightening move of all.

    I missed the State Department’s announcement of that. How appalling.

    It is now official US policy to destroy the ICC, and the administration is prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to do so.

    Nations that do not fall into line will be punished. The state department has promised “increased scrutiny of nations that refuse to reject the ICC’s false authority while relying on US assistance”, particularly targeting those countries that “enjoy the benefits of the US security umbrella”. That will include the UK, a country that contributes just over £15m a year to the ICC, making it the fourth largest donor after Japan, Germany and France.

    …

    The state department campaign also includes working with other nations that are not part of the ICC, suggesting that the US could ally itself with Russia and China.

    Make no mistake, this is an existential crisis not just for the ICC but the very idea of international justice. The most powerful nation on Earth and the supposed leader of the democratic west is aligning itself with dictators and autocrats to prevent those accused of genocide, ethnic cleansing and war crimes from ever facing justice.

    …

    The question now is what the “rest of the west” will do in response to Trump’s attacks. The court’s biggest donors need to stay strong and not give in to intimidation. It will be an early test for Ed Miliband, who said upon his appointment as foreign secretary on Monday that “we face a time of greater instability and threat to international law … than at any time since the second world war”.

    The ICC’s imperfections undoubtedly make it a harder institution to defend. Those weaknesses can be magnified and targeted, making the court’s natural defenders reluctant to man the barricades.

    Yet that is exactly what needs to happen. Even when it is badly run or cases are poorly constructed, the ICC’s very existence can have an impact. Netanyahu and Putin will for ever be referred to as men indicted for war crimes. Their worlds have shrunk thanks to the threat of arrest. The Philippines’ former president, Rodrigo Duterte, is on trial, accused of crimes against humanity during his “war on drugs”.

    This is why Trump is so determined to shut it down, argues Luis Moreno Ocampo, the court’s first chief prosecutor. “Trump knows he could be a target after he leaves office,” he told me. “The ICC is a huge obstacle for him.”

    He doesn’t need to worry about that. He’s not going to live long enough.