All entries by this author

FWS

Dec 28th, 2025 9:46 am | By

Hadley Freeman talks to For Women Scotland:

Politicians are “thwarting” the Supreme Court ruling on women’s rights and are putting women at risk, according to the feminist group For Women Scotland (FWS).

Ruling in favour of the campaigners, who brought the court case, the judges said in April that the term “sex” in the Equality Act refers to biological sex, when it comes to the provision of single sex spaces. This means the term “women” refers to — hold onto your hats — women, and women-only spaces are lawfully provided for women. The term does not mean, as the Scottish government insisted, and spent at least £374,000 arguing, a man who identifies as a woman, known as a

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A disservice to the arts

Dec 28th, 2025 7:58 am | By

It can be so disorienting living in this half-horror show half-slapstick comedy.

The Kennedy Center says it plans to file a $1 million lawsuit against jazz artist Chuck Redd, after the musician canceled his annual Christmas Eve performance. The Associated Press first reported that Redd pulled out of the show days after President Trump’s name was added to the exterior of the performing arts center in Washington, D.C.

In an email to NPR on Saturday, Kennedy Center spokesperson Roma Daravi said Redd’s decision is a disservice to the arts.

Oh dear, that sounds bad – but wait, who is Roma Daravi? Is she one of the Trump people who were hired to replace all the people who quit when … Read the rest



Stickers found

Dec 28th, 2025 5:46 am | By

Sticker crime strikes again.

Western Australia’s recently formed State Security Investigation Group Hate Crime Team is investigating a series of criminal damage incidents in Subiaco around Wednesday, 10 December 2025 where anti-transgender stickers were plastered around Subiaco.

“The WA Police Force will not allow acts of hatred, intolerance, or discrimination to go unchecked. We have zero tolerance for hate in our community and will use every resource at our disposal to protect the public and bring offenders to justice. Those responsible will be held to account.” the police said in a social media post.

The stickers must have been really horrible.

The stickers were found around the Subiaco Library, the neighbouring primary school and a nearby park. There have

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Catching up

Dec 28th, 2025 5:26 am | By

From the Department of Made-up Problems:

Youth charities like Girlguiding can hopefully come up with “innovative” ways to ensure children do not feel excluded in the wake of a ban on trans girls joining, the Children’s Commissioner has said.

The ban is on boys joining. Girlguiding is for girls (the name is a broad hint). Lots of things are for boys; Girlguiding is one thing that is for girls. If boys feel “excluded” because of that, well, welcome to what it’s like being a girl.

A coalition of volunteers and parents has argued that refusing a child based on their gender identity “sends a message of rejection” to young people.

But it’s not based on their “gender identity”, which … Read the rest



A nurse who objected

Dec 27th, 2025 5:15 pm | By

“Beth” Upton continues to get away with it.

A nurse who objected to sharing a female changing room with a transgender doctor has won a claim for harassment against NHS Fife but other allegations of discrimination and victimisation were dismissed.

Sandie Peggie was suspended from her job in a hospital’s A&E department after she complained about Dr Beth Upton – a biological male who identifies as a woman – using a female changing room.

An employment tribunal judgement outlined four ways in which NHS Fife harassed Ms Peggie but dismissed the other allegations against the health board and all claims against Dr Upton.

Dr Upton is a sadistic misogynist bully.

The campaign group Sex Matters, which backed Sandie Peggie

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Trying to fudge the law

Dec 27th, 2025 4:59 pm | By

Hadley Freedman talked to For Women Scotland about the interesting fact that Scotland has done absolutely fuck-all to put the ruling into practice.

Politicians are “thwarting” the Supreme Court ruling on women’s rights and are putting women at risk, according to the feminist group For Women Scotland (FWS).

Ruling in favour of the campaigners, who brought the court case, the judges said in April that the term “sex” in the Equality Act refers to biological sex, when it comes to the provision of single sex spaces. This means the term “women” refers to — hold onto your hats — women, and women-only spaces are lawfully provided for women. The term does not mean, as the Scottish government insisted, and

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For women’s rights are human rights

Dec 27th, 2025 4:04 pm | By

A very good listen – and under three minutes.

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An audit has revealed

Dec 27th, 2025 10:56 am | By

The NHS continues to force women to be ill in the presence of men.

The NHS is defying the Supreme Court by allowing transgender patients and staff to access single-sex spaces in English hospitals.

Hospitals are using outdated guidance allowing trans-identifying biological males to use women-only spaces such as wards, changing rooms and lavatories.

An audit has revealed that more than eight months after the Supreme Court ruled that the term “women” in the Equality Act referred to biological sex, the NHS is still failing to protect female spaces.

And thus refusing to protect women. In hospitals.

Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, pledged to overhaul the NHS guidance on single-sex spaces after the Supreme Court ruling but, like

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Dignity for others, never for you

Dec 27th, 2025 10:22 am | By
Dignity for others, never for you

Oh have they now.

Girlguiding, an organization for, as it says on the tin, girls, must use its power to terminate itself for the sake of being incloosive of boys in an organization set up for girls. It must do that. Girls must not be allowed to have anything for themselves. It’s imperative to take away everything that is for girls only.

Meanwhile…

No Women’s Institute for … Read the rest



The time that is supposed to be special

Dec 27th, 2025 7:26 am | By

Maggie Chapman announces 2026 must be year we halt the rollback of trans rights.

Must it? Why? How about halting and reversing the rollback of women’s rights? What actual literal enforceable rights have trans people lost anyway?

She tells us “the festive period” is a time when people get together tralala, in order to say BUT not for everyone.

It can be a particularly hard time for a lot of LGBTQIA+ people, with many forced back into the closet or into denial just to keep the peace, and others cut off by estrangement.

But there are no such people. Trans is not the same as lesbian and gay and bisexual.

All over our country there are people being made

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Little benefit to women

Dec 27th, 2025 4:16 am | By

Gosh what a surprise – women are still treated like a tiresome worthless nuisance even after we say we would prefer something different.

A bill that set targets for increasing female representation on public boards in Scotland is not working and has delivered little benefit to women, critics have claimed.

The complaints over the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 come in the wake of statistics revealing that more than a third of listed public authorities had not achieved the key target as of December 31 last year.

The legislation demands that at least 50 per cent of non-executive members on public boards are female. Of the 143 listed public authorities, 88 had achieved the gender representation target,

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Lawyers warn

Dec 26th, 2025 4:13 pm | By

Ok so I’m catching up, which means following up links you peeps have shared, so let’s read Green Party tearing itself apart over trans rights, leaked dossier reveals from December 12.

Subhead:

Lawyers warn guidance on identifying ‘queerphobia’ risks discriminating against members who question gender ideology

Do they now!?! That is good to know. Of course it does, so it’s excellent news that lawyers are now pointing out that it does.

The 53-page report on legal and reputational risk to the party, leaked to The Telegraph, exposes an extraordinary row over the party’s policies on transgender and LGBT rights. It poses material legal and financial risks to Zack Polanski’s movement, the dossier reveals.

The report, drawn up by the

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Normal service restored

Dec 26th, 2025 1:02 pm | By
Normal service restored Read the rest


The trans woman’s efforts to appear feminine

Dec 8th, 2025 7:18 pm | By

From the Times:

“In public, at least, her supporters claimed victory. Sandie Peggie had, after all, been found to have been harassed by her employer, NHS Fife, in four different ways. But the veteran nurse’s win was a relatively narrow one. It was far from the slamdunk gender-critical campaigners had hoped for and had, in truth, expected after their landmark Supreme Court win in April.

“A load of sexist shite,” was how one leading activist privately described the 312-page ruling. “I didn’t think the judge would fall for his [Beth Upton’s] schtick. I was wrong.”

It means an employment tribunal which has divided opinion for the best part of a year is unlikely to be the end of the

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Way too partial part two

Dec 8th, 2025 6:26 pm | By

The BBC is so shitty on this subject.

The campaign group Sex Matters, which backed Sandie Peggie in the case, said it was very disappointed in the approach taken by the tribunal.

Maya Forstater, the organisation’s CEO, said it should have provided employers with clarity regarding single-sex spaces and that should have meant giving them the confidence to refuse to let trans women use those spaces. She added: “It is a travesty that a woman can be judged as having expressed herself in the wrong way when she objects to finding a man in the women’s changing room.”

Ms Forstater said there was an “urgent” need for the Health and Safety Executive to provide clear guidance to employers regarding

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Way too partial

Dec 8th, 2025 4:02 pm | By

Partial victory for nurse in NHS trans changing room row

A nurse who objected to sharing a female changing room with a transgender doctor has won a claim for harassment against NHS Fife but other allegations of discrimination and victimisation were dismissed.

An employment tribunal judgement outlined four ways in which NHS Fife harassed Ms Peggie but dismissed the other allegations against the health board and all claims against Dr Upton. Ms Peggie welcomed the decision and said the past two years had been “agonising”, while NHS Fife said it would take time to work through the details.

In a written judgement on Monday, the tribunal found that NHS Fife had harassed Ms Peggie in a number of

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A prior name

Dec 8th, 2025 1:00 pm | By

Trump and his goons are wrong about almost everything, but not about Admiral Levine.

As you walk down a particular hallway on the seventh floor of the Humphrey Building in Washington, D.C., you’ll find a line of photographic portraits of all the people from years past who have led the Public Health Corps at the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

Only one of those portraits is of a transgender person: Adm. Rachel Levine, who served for four years as President Biden’s assistant secretary for health. She was the first transgender person to win Senate confirmation, and her portrait has been displayed in the hallway since soon after she was confirmed in 2021. 

They say “the first transgender … Read the rest



Regular service returns

Dec 8th, 2025 12:35 pm | By
Regular service returns

Hiya!

It’s just that the connection stopped working. Maybe the whales get in the way somehow.

On the other hand here’s the beach I walked to at sunset yesterday:

Today Seattle is under an atmospheric river. It is WET out there. … Read the rest



Next up: Fifa Compassion Prize

Dec 6th, 2025 8:17 am | By

Is this a joke?

President Trump wins inaugural Fifa Peace Prize

The guy who kills civilians in lifeboats wins a peace prize? The guy who responds to protests by sending soldiers to terrorize the protesters? The guy who is helping Putin gobble up Ukraine? The guy who cheers on violence provided it’s his team perpetrating it?

Trump is not a good symbol of peace or peace seeking or peacemaking.

Trump received the inaugural Fifa Peace Prize before the draw for the 2026 Fifa World Cup.

The award has been introduced this year by Fifa president Gianni Infantino, designated for a person who has “taken exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace” and “united people across the world”.

Description does not match … Read the rest



Cetacean bulletin

Dec 5th, 2025 1:41 pm | By

Just so you don’t think I’m ignoring you – I’m at my employer’s other place, on the Monterey Peninsula, doing strenuous employee activity like taking a puppy out for walks. The internet connection is slow as frozen molasses in Greenland, so posting may be a bit sparse for a couple more days.

This morning while puppy was sleeping off the first morning walk I zoomed off to Asilomar State Beach, and there staring out at the ocean I saw little white puffs in the distance so I looked harder and you know what, I think they were whales blowing. I’ve never seen THAT before. I watched and watched, and there were a couple that just had to be that, so … Read the rest