Athena Forum responds:

On 3 October 2025, Michael O’Flaherty, Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe, addressed a letter to the UK Parliament expressing concern over the Supreme Court’s recent ruling and what he described as the “current climate for trans people in the UK.”

As one of the main drafters of the Yogyakarta Principles, a non-legal activist document that seeks to erase sex as a category in law and policy, O’Flaherty has long blurred the boundaries between human rights and ideological advocacy. His intervention now appears less as a defence of rights than as political pressure on independent courts and legislators. The UK Supreme Court ruling reaffirms basic legal clarity and women’s sex-based rights. Attempts

… Read the rest

Here we go again.

Trans people at risk of exclusion from many UK public spaces, rights expert says

Transgender people risk being excluded from many public spaces as a result of the recent UK supreme court judgment and must be protected from discrimination, a human rights expert has said.

Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe commissioner for human rights, said he had concerns about the climate for transgender people in the UK after April’s supreme court ruling that the legal definition of a woman in the Equality Act 2010 refers to biological sex.

Did he now. I wonder if he has any concerns about the climate for women.

Interim advice issued after the judgment by the Equality and Human Rights

… Read the rest

That’s not accurate.

Britain has been made into a hostile environment for our trans siblings.

Trans people just want to live their lives, accepted for who they are, just like anyone else.

Instead politicians and media outlets turned their existence into a football – a grim episode in our history. https://t.co/fld58SVQcN

— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) October 14, 2025

It’s not “just like anyone else.” There are differences. Differences matter. And they don’t want to be accepted for who they are, they want to be accepted for who they are not. That’s the whole point. That’s what “trans” means. They’re men who want to be accepted aka validated aka confirmed as women. Men are not women.

What Owen Jones means … Read the rest

Tipping point crossed.

The planet is grappling with a “new reality” as it reaches the first in a series of catastrophic and potentially irreversible climate tipping points: the widespread death of coral reefs, according to a landmark report produced by 160 scientists across the world.

As humans burn fossil fuels and ratchet up temperatures, it’s already driving more severe heat waves, floods, droughts, and wildfires. But there are even bigger impacts on the horizon. Climate change may also be pushing Earth’s crucial systems — from the Amazon rainforest to polar ice sheets — so far out of balance they collapse, sending catastrophic ripples across the planet.

…

Since 2023, the world’s reefs have been

… Read the rest

Which human rights?

The treatment of transgender people in Britain could breach the European Convention on Human Rights, a watchdog has warned. Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, has written to senior MPs to raise his concerns about trans rights in the UK.

He urged the Government to avoid legal uncertainty for trans people in the wake of the Supreme Court‘s landmark ruling in April. Mr O’Flaherty also warned against breaching the human rights of trans people through ‘blanket practices or policies’ on single-sex spaces.

Well what are the rights of trans people? Do male trans people have a right to go into women’s spaces? Of course not, any more than they have a right … Read the rest

I forget; who was it who authorized Trump to kill people in boats near Venezuela? Could it have been nobody?

The US military conducted yet another strike on a boat alleged to be trafficking drugs off the coast of Venezuela, killing six people on board, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday.

Trump said that the vessel was “affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization” but did not name any organization or provide evidence to back up the assertion.

“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known DTO route,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform. “The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were

… Read the rest

The local airport says it’s not taking Noem’s crap.

The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) won’t air a video of U.S Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blaming Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown, a spokesperson confirmed. 

The video was made to play on monitors over TSA lines at airports nationwide. In the video obtained by CNN, Noem states: 

It is TSA’s top priority to make sure that you have the most pleasant and efficient airport experience as possible while we keep you safe. However, Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government, and because of this, many of our operations are impacted, and most of our TSA employees are working without pay.

Bluh. No competent proofreaders there? “the … Read the rest

So this is going well.

More than 150 unvaccinated schoolchildren are being quarantined for 21 days in South Carolina after being exposed to measles, state officials said. Because the students who were exposed did not have immunisations, they were forced to miss school during the period of potential disease transmission.

South Carolina is the latest US state to experience a measles surge this year after outbreaks in New Mexico and Texas where hundreds were infected and three people died.

Great news, right? It was boring having immunization take measles out of the picture, doncha think? Life is better with a little excitement and risk. Provided it’s those other kids over there.

So far this year the US has confirmed

… Read the rest

Grovel grovel grovel we’re sorry we ever thought of it, we’ll never do it again.

A Scottish pub has cancelled a Harry Potter-themed event after public backlash.

The Old Forge, on the Knoydart peninsula on the west coast, said in an announcement on social media that the Halloween party had been called off as the theme “has proven dividing, and some of our staff have received inappropriate grief as a result”.

Well I should think so indeed. The naughty woman who wrote the Harry Potter books doesn’t think men can be women. Have you ever heard of anything so evil?

In a statement on Mondaty, the Knoydart pub said: “The pub management team have decided to cancel this year’s

… Read the rest

Ministers must not delay single-sex guidance

A key part of Bridget Phillipson’s second cabinet role as women and equalities minister, one might have thought, would be trying to keep discrimination against women to a minimum. Luckily for her, that job was made a lot simpler after the helpful intervention of the UK Supreme Court this year. In April’s landmark ruling, the court clarified what even the most legally naïve onlooker might have been able to guess: namely, that when words such as “woman” and “man” occur in the UK Equality Act 2010 they refer to female and male people respectively, and have nothing to do with anyone’s self-ascribed gender identity.

Much the way anyone’s imaginary age – be it 12 … Read the rest

Trump pretends to be buddies with coal miners and other working stiffs, but when it comes to enforcing regulations that protect workers…sorry, he has a pressing engagement on the nearest golf course.

When coal miners came to Washington in April, they posed behind President Trump at the White House, wearing their hard hats and thanking him for trying to reinvigorate their struggling industry.

But on Tuesday dozens of miners and their families will be in a more unusual position: protesting the Trump administration outside the Labor Department building, arguing it has failed to protect them from black lung disease, an incurable illness caused by inhaling coal and silica dust.

They have been waiting months for the government to enforce federal

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Aesthetics.

And of course those are ‘safe’ questions, meant to be answered with a Biblical citation, to comfort ‘doubters’. Note the lack of, “Explain childhood leukemia, you fucker!”

No, nothing so blunt is going to have survived the sanitizing, homogenizing editorial committee that came up with this display of architectural temporary tattoos, but even the questions that have made it through the winnow of orthodoxy are not so safe, if you’re prepared to look beyond the Bible for answers, or decline to recognize its authority or relevence. (Some of the questions below are from other images taken of the exhibit, more details of which can be found here: https://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/whats-on/events/hear-us/ )… Read the rest

This pair are on every social media platform there is, including Youtube, where every Sunday they talk utter bollocks about translife. For several years, they have gone around taking selfies in ladies toilets, and publishing them with the sole intention of antagonising actual… pic.twitter.com/v3RFREn43t

— Stuart Macintosh (@stueymaco) October 12, 2025

No. Wrong way around. It’s not that people who say your videos are bad are making personal attacks when they should be addressing the substance of what you say. It’s that you’re bad people, which we already know because of all the bad things you have done, out in the open. You hate and sneer at and bully women, and you pretend you are women yourselves when of course … Read the rest

Tom Harris in the Telegraph:

That is how events played out this weekend when the Brighton Centre played host to FiLiA, a Europe-wide feminist campaigning organisation who held their annual conference in the city. You might be forgiven for believing that the Sussex venue would be ideal for a conference debating women’s and girls’ rights. Brighton, after all, is Britain’s San Francisco, known for its high proportion of gay and trans citizens and a generally progressive outlook.

That’s just it though. The two don’t march together any more. Women and girls’ rights are one thing and trans ideology is another. The “gay” umbrella is full of gaping holes that let the rain in, because lesbians don’t necessarily want to … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Papito on The liberal capitulators.

Apropos of strange bedfellows…

Now, faced with an economy crippled by war and sanctions, the Islamic republic is promoting its expertise to a global audience, hoping to attract transgender foreigners with the promise of inexpensive surgeries packaged with luxury hotel stays and sightseeing tours.

Desperate for foreign investment, Iran’s theocratic government has set a goal of generating more than $7 billion from medical tourism annually, according to Iranian state news media, about seven times as much as it earned last year. That objective has resulted in the proliferation of medical tourism companies, marketing not just nose jobs and hair transplants, but vaginoplasties, mastectomies and penis constructions through glossy English-language

… Read the rest

Well, we know what’s going on here.

London Mosque bans girls over 12 and women from charity park run

Girls over 12 are women: they can get pregnant, therefore they might get pregnant, therefore they have to be monitored and excluded and controlled at all times. All female people are sluts, and when they’re old enough to get pregnant from slutting, it’s time to exclude them and lock them up and terrorize them. If they rebel, it’s time to kill them.

A mosque has banned women and girls over the age of 12 from competing in a charity park run.

The fundraising event, called the Muslim Charity Run and organised by East London Mosque, follows a 5km route and takes

… Read the rest

Ah yes, the old “I’m not an abusive rageaholic bully, I’m a fierce warrior for justice” ploy.

https://twitter.com/OkayBiology/status/1977362320578748793 Yep yep yep, he’s the kind of strong fierce n courageous woman who calls real women “torn-faced cow” and the like.… Read the rest

The Times:

A council refused to grant a legal order shielding a feminist organisation from antisocial behaviour hours after trans activists smashed up its conference venue.

More than 2,000 people are due to attend the three-day conference hosted by Filia, which started on Friday. Organisers say the twice-yearly event is aimed at defending women’s rights and challenging sex-based injustices.

On Thursday night, under the cover of darkness, masked transgender rights campaigners attacked the venue in Brighton.

The activists, who call themselves “Bash Back”, later released video on social media of them smashing the glass frontage of the Brighton Centre, which they said was hosting a conference that would be attended by “hate groups”.

Yes, you know: groups that hate … Read the rest

Canterbury Cathedral is in the news for having an art installation in the form of graffiti. The medium is removable stickers as opposed to being painted directly on the walls, so I don’t feel obliged to get very indignant about it. I do think it’s butt-ugly though.

I’m just not a fan of the style. Sorry not sorry.

Since we’re on the subject of art and fandom…there’s this muralist in Seattle who’s considered very hot shit, and his work is everywhere. Until very recently I thought it was a style as opposed to one guy, because I kept seeing it all over the city. You can see where this is going – I hate his work. I think it’s … Read the rest

Julie Bindel on the fad for bullying women:

As I headed to the conference, I saw the news on social media that trans activists had, in the middle of the night, smashed one of the large front windows of the conference centre, daubed slogans in paint, and put out warnings that they were having a call to arms. We walked past the usual array of blue-haired idiots shouting, “trans women are women”, “sex work is work”, “blowjobs are real jobs”, and “from the river to the sea”. Anything that is bad for women – be it prostitution, Islamic fundamentalism, or trans activism – these people support it.

Islamism and transism make strange bedfellows, and yet, the marriage is … Read the rest