The Times reports on the zealous policing in Scotland:

Marion Calder, spokeswoman for [For Women Scotland], said Millar had been overwhelmed by the support she had received.

“Marion still has no idea of what she is being accused of and won’t know until she attends the police station on Thursday,” she said. “This is exactly why we raised concerns about the new hate crime legislation.

“It was obvious that if complaints were made they would be followed through — no matter how vexatious or politically motivated. Serious questions have to be raised about how Police Scotland has handled this.

“The public are finally waking up and getting worried about what is happening to freedom of speech. Police Scotland

… Read the rest

We should just elect cows and chickens and wombats to Congress, it would make more sense and be cheaper.

All you do is promote hate. Hate is destroying our country. (Oh, and Berkeley is spelled with an "e" after the k.)

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) May 23, 2021

… Read the rest

About those “femmes”…

If you have been on the internet recently, then you’ve likely seen the phrase “women and femmes” floating around. Maybe you read it in this article from Everyday Feminism concerning emotional labor or maybe in this takedown of white feminism from Wear Your Voice. You’ve almost certainly seen it pop up on your Twitter or Facebook feeds, at least if you’re someone who has links to queer and/or feminist communities. While it might seem innocuous, the phrase has been irritating me for the last two years or so. Why? Because it is, to put it lightly, incoherent nonsense.

…Femme is a term that comes from working-class lesbian culture. It was originally used to describe lesbians who

… Read the rest

Someone should ask Stonewall “U ok hun?”

Left: the logo of the @EHRC, the commission responsible for the promotion and enforcement of equality and non-discrimination laws in England, Scotland and Wales. Right: Stonewall's gif to unveil its new branding today. It's almost as if they're trying to cause confusion. pic.twitter.com/UhcRc8KotF

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) May 24, 2021

… Read the rest

Chelsea Mitchell on what fun it was having to compete against two boys in her sport:

It’s February 2020. I’m crouched at the starting line of the high school girls’ 55-meter indoor race. This should be one of the best days of my life. I’m running in the state championship, and I’m ranked the fastest high school female in the 55-meter dash in the state. I should be feeling confident. I should know that I have a strong shot at winning.

Instead, all I can think about is how all my training, everything I’ve done to maximize my performance, might not be enough, simply because there’s a runner on the line with an enormous physical advantage: a male body.

… Read the rest

Women are being ordered to wheesht about that man taking a woman’s place at the Olympics.

Former Olympic weightlifter Tracey Lambrechs says females are being told to “be quiet” when they complain about the [un]fairness of transgender New Zealand athlete Laurel Hubbard competing in women’s competitions.

…

“I’m quite disappointed, quite disappointed for the female athlete who will lose out on that spot,” Lambrechs, who won a bronze medal for New Zealand at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, told TVNZ.

And not just disappointed, but also angry at the injustice of it. But wheesht.

“We’re all about equality for women in sport but right now that equality is being taken away from us.

“I’ve had female weightlifters come up to me

… Read the rest

Some new light, perhaps, on the dreaded Controversial Stickers in Kirkcaldy:

Kirkcaldy Police said – in a now deleted tweet – there was a report of a hate crime involving “controversial” stickers on lampposts in Viewforth Avenue on Monday May 17, and asked people to contact Fife Council so they could be removed.

Which, by the way, makes no sense. The police had already been told about the stickers, so why “ask people to contact Fife Council so that they could be removed”? Why not just go right on ahead and remove them themselves, without any further tattling from “people”?

However, officers have since said that no criminality was established following inquiries.

Why wasn’t that blindingly obvious to them … Read the rest

Trans woman Dawn Ennis bullies a young female athlete on Twitter, because that’s what trans activism is all about, right?

I sent this letter to the editor of @USATODAY in response:
Ms. Mitchell:
Your op-ed is, like your federal lawsuit, full of lies and omissions. 
You didn't just win one race against a trans girl: You beat her at least twice within 8 days of filing that suit. 
(1/13)

— Dawn Ennis (She/Her/Hers) (@lifeafterdawn) May 22, 2021

But no matter what phrase or words you use, your bias cannot erase who they are. Trans girls are girls. Trans women are women.
You won a sports scholarship to @williamandmary. Terry and Andraya won nothing. They opted to not pursue sports

… Read the rest

Fortunately, some higher ups are now watching what Police Scotland are doing to Marion Millar.

Thanks to everyone drawing my attention to this case. I’m aware of it already & keeping a close eye on it for obvious reasons https://t.co/zrFpCqFIiy

— Joanna Cherry KC (@joannaccherry) May 22, 2021

Dear Marion,
Are you all right?
Yours,
Emma (half Scot) https://t.co/IZSEUs2Cm1

— Emma Harriet Nicholson (@Baroness_Nichol) May 23, 2021

… Read the rest

Hand the keys over to Bev and Kate.

The future of @stonewalluk is @ALLIANCELGB. https://t.co/fSk3gXEsFQ

— Arty Morty (@artymortyarty) May 23, 2021

Stonewall, meanwhile, is taking the bratty route.

Anyone else think Stonewall’s infantile “U ok, hun?” response to the deadly serious concerns raised in the press over the last few days/weeks/years, was on a par with “Ok, boomer” or “F U, Terrrfs!”…

Kind of sums it ALL up really… pic.twitter.com/cn3qktQGSl

— James Dreyfus (@DreyfusJames) May 23, 2021

https://twitter.com/oliverburkeman/status/1396452286377955331 … Read the rest

Siva Vaidhyanathan on UNC and Nikole Hannah-Jones and special insults:

When the prestigious Hussman School of Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – the oldest public university in North America – went searching for a Knight chair – funded by the Knight Foundation to promote journalism education by putting some of America’s finest practicing journalists in the classroom – a distinguished alumna of that school was the obvious choice.

Nikole Hannah-Jones is just such an alumna and just such a journalist.

It did not turn out as planned. On Tuesday we learned that conservative activists on the University of North Carolina board of trustees took the unprecedented step of withholding tenure from Hannah-Jones’ appointment as

… Read the rest

Looks like piracy.

A Belarusian journalist and opposition activist is being held at an airport in Minsk after his Lithuania-bound flight was forced to land, opposition politicians and outlets said on Sunday.

Opposition figures swiftly criticized the move, which they said was a bid by the government of longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko to clamp down on critical voices.

A Ryanair flight #FR4978 from Athens to Vilnius, diverted to Minsk in Belarus earlier today.https://t.co/rnUpiqOjch

According to reports in media a Belarus journalist, that was onboard the flight, was arrested after the diversion to Minsk. pic.twitter.com/MQyvXsDExM

— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) May 23, 2021

The regime forced the landing @Ryanair plane in Minsk to arrest journalist and activist Raman Pratasevich. He faces

… Read the rest

Press Release from Sex Matters:

Equality and Human Rights Commission cuts ties with Stonewall

Now there is a headline.

In a letter to the campaigning group “Sex Matters”, the Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Baroness Kishwer Falkner has disclosed that the equalities watchdog has quit the Stonewall Diversity Champions Scheme. 

Yes yes YES.

Falkner was writing in response to an open letter sent by Sex Matters calling on the EHRC to quit the scheme. 

Sex Matters campaigns for clarity about sex in law and policy. It argues that membership of the Stonewall Scheme conflicts with public service independence and in particular with the EHRC’s mandate to protect everybody’s rights.  

Organisations that join the scheme pay Stonewall

… Read the rest

This has been around for at least a year, but I’ve been seeing some pretty stupid anti-mask rants from a once intelligent guy lately so we still need it.… Read the rest

I’m curious about Police Scotland now, because of their high-handed persecution of Marion Millar.

In case you haven’t seen the post earlier today:

https://twitter.com/millar_marion/status/1396039074239164423

So I looked at their Twitter and I didn’t have to look far.

Today is International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia with the theme of #TogetherResistingSupportingHealing. If you have been the victim of a hate crime, please report it to us ➡️https://t.co/EcWBiZCGl9#IDAHOBIT https://t.co/TACtLJptme

— Police Scotland (@PoliceScotland) May 17, 2021

They say “A hate crime is any crime which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by malice & ill-will towards a social group” but I don’t think that’s true. I don’t think they act on reports … Read the rest

Joanna Moorhead at The Guardian interviews Kathleen Stock:

Stock, a professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex, says the key question she addresses – itself offensive to many – is this: do trans women count as women?

Whatever else about her views is controversial, she is surely on firm ground when she writes that this question has become surrounded by toxicity. But the problem for her is, at least partly, that many people do anything they can to avoid answering it. “Very few people who are sceptical talk about it directly, because they’re frightened,” she says. “It’s so hard psychologically to say, in reply: ‘I’m afraid not.’”

Maybe it’s easier if you just say no, of course … Read the rest

Jesus, Scotland, get a grip.

On Monday 17th May we received a report of controversial stickers having been placed on lampposts within the Viewforth Avenue area of Kirkcaldy.

Should you come across stickers of this nature, please contact ourselves or @FifeCouncil so that their removal can be arranged.— Kirkcaldy Police (@KirkcaldyPolice) May 21, 2021

Of what nature? The people of Kirkcaldy are supposed to let them know if they (the people) see any stickers “of this nature” but they (the police) forgot to say what “this nature” IS. The word “controversial” doesn’t narrow it down enough to be useful.

Maybe all the phones are ringing off the hooks with people reporting every single sticker on every single lamppost in not … Read the rest

One of those times when your eyes bug out because you just cannot believe what you’re reading.

https://twitter.com/millar_marion/status/1396039076680282112 https://twitter.com/millar_marion/status/1396039079930834944 https://twitter.com/millar_marion/status/1396039083261112332

wheesht.

FOR TWEETS. For tweets that some damn fool of a cop considers “homophobic” or “transphobic” (and why do I suspect that “homophobic” is tossed in there to shield the “transphobic” bit when it’s really the “transphobic” they’re in a lather about?). Are all the cops in Scotland hunched over their phones reading all the tweets in the universe to find people to interrogate and charge?

It’s their damn fool “hate crimes” law.

MSPs have passed Scotland’s controversial new hate crime law.

The legislation consolidates existing law and extends protection for vulnerable groups with a new offence of “stirring

… Read the rest

Matthew Parris on Stonewall:

You hear talk of “identities” but your gay identity overlaps with so many others you feel that it needn’t define you. Nevertheless, as “a member of the gay community” (a fiction that can make you grind your teeth) you may feel there’s still a need for an organisation to speak up for gay men and lesbian women’s rights and needs: to do “outreach” work in British schools and workplaces, and maybe abroad where your fellowgays still face the gallows. You might join and pay your subs to such an organisation.

I did — until last year. I was one of that organisation’s fourteen founders. Stonewall, formed on May 24, 1989, was set up during the

… Read the rest

The Times on how Essex University got it so wrong:

Forster’s apologies came as Essex University published the damning report of an 18-month independent inquiry by barrister Akua Reindorf. It found that Essex had failed to uphold free speech, labelled Phoenix and Freedman transphobes, and subjected them to mass complaints in what Phoenix has described as a “mob atmosphere”. The two professors believe that men cannot become women by surgery and that it is important to protect women-only spaces in institutions such as prisons and refuges, views which are anathema to some trans activists.

That puts it the wrong way around though. It’s not that they “believe” that men cannot become women by surgery so much as it … Read the rest