Sometimes I try to think of a way I could change my mind about all this and join the orthodoxy, and I can’t really do it. I’m quite sure I couldn’t change my mind to the point of believing that men who say they are trans really are women (or that women who say they are trans really are men). I would still see men saying they’re women, not women. But could I perhaps convince myself that I should pretend to think that? Or that it doesn’t matter what I think about it, the point is to affirm them and validate them no matter what I think? Those two would be more possible than the first, I guess, but that’s … Read the rest

Glinner’s new book is – well I’ll leave it to Arty to tell you.

"Movers and shakers" is Amazon's rank of the thing with the biggest gain in the past 24 hours — "the hottest thing on Amazon right now."
Pre-orders for Glinner's upcoming book are literally the hottest thing on Amazon right now.#Glinner#GrahamLinehanhttps://t.co/oXT7gJ3qL0 pic.twitter.com/1xkqR6xoEn

— Arty Morty (@artymortyarty) September 14, 2023

Updating to add details and affirmation from Rosie Duffield and Simon Edge.

My friend @Glinner is one of the kindest, most generous people I know. He's also the genius behind Father Ted (no, we don't agree on everything). @wossy is also a lovely human. As for Richard Ayoade, if those now trying to cancel him

The BBC takes a moment to remember what a woman is:

A retired anaesthetist has faced backlash over “disgusting” comments about sexual harassment in the workplace. Dr Peter Hilton from Pembrokeshire wrote a letter to The Times referring to a “snowflake generation” of young doctors who “should toughen up”.

It comes as a new study found female NHS surgeons reported being sexually harassed, assaulted and raped. It highlighted a pattern of trainees being abused by senior male surgeons. The report, entitled Breaking the Silence, was written by the University of Exeter, the University of Surrey and the Working Party on Sexual Misconduct in Surgery.

But you see the senior male surgeons are stressed, they’re tired and emotional, they’re worn out … Read the rest

There was a story in the Times about sexual assault of female surgeons on September 12, which drew responses from female surgeons saying you’re damn right it happens on September 13.

Sir, Further to your report “1 in 3 female surgeons assaulted by a colleague” (Sep 12), these incidents are not limited to surgery and occur through out all medical specialties. For years our organisation has highlighted the mistreatment of women in medicine, from misogyny and sexual discrimination to sexual assault. We are tired of being told “there is no problem” and “robust reporting systems are in place”— this is untrue. This steadfast denial makes change very difficult and contributes to the high attrition rate in women in

Don’t judge people by appearances, he exclaims, talking much too fast. Just because somebody is wearing lipstick doesn’t mean they’re a woman, he says. Very true: anyone can put on lipstick. Just because somebody has a penis doesn’t mean that they’re not, he insists. Ding ding! Error! Change of category without notice!

That’s probably why he talks so fast: hoping to get all this past people by yammering.

It’s like saying

Just because somebody wears footy pajamas doesn’t mean they’re a child

followed by

Just because somebody is four years old doesn’t mean they’re a child.

Pattern detected:

First, item anyone can do because item is social and voluntary.

Second, item that is physical and involuntary and thus cannot … Read the rest

Boebert is such a cut-up.

Boebert didn’t care if she ruined the musical “Beetlejuice” playing at the Buell Theatre for anyone else, and she certainly didn’t care if the pregnant woman sitting behind her had to breathe her second-hand smoke from a vape pen. Boebert denies that she was vaping, although she did admit to taking photos of the live performance.

The woman sitting directly behind Boebert shared her story with The [Denver] Post on the condition of anonymity out of fear that there would be backlash from the congresswoman and her supporters. She provided me with the receipt for her tickets and a photo from the event that shows Boebert seated in front of her.

…

“These people

Too much water all at one time.

More than 5,000 people are known to have died and thousands more are missing after devastating floods swept through the Libyan port city of Derna.

Entire neighbourhoods disappeared into the sea as a huge tsunami-like torrent of water swept through the city. Whole families were washed away, according to a Libyan journalist who has been speaking to survivors in the city, and who described the situation as “beyond catastrophic”.

A river runs from the mountains through Derna to the Mediterranean, and two dams on that river collapsed, so the city was like a dollhouse hit by a firehose.

The storm – a Mediterranean hurricane-like system known as a medicane – brought more

The Free Speech Union tells us:

Bosses at the impartial public service broadcaster, the BBC, have cancelled a scheduled series of programmes featuring Irish singer Roisin Murphy just weeks after the Irish singer faced backlash from trans activists for her views on puberty blockers.

As reported by The Telegraph, Radio 6 music was set to broadcast five hours of Murphy’s songs, interviews and concert highlights next week, as part of the 6 Music Artist Collection, which celebrates the music and careers of artists and explores their influences and who they have inspired.

However, Murphy has been replaced by rapper Little Simz. The BBC said the decision was taken so that Little Simz’s work could reflect poetry, rap and

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

“Remember that your child has probably been thinking about and exploring this for some time – whereas you’ve just found out and you now need to go through that process of learning and discovery too

Pay no attention to those TERFs with their talk of ROGD! NO SOCIAL CONTAGION TO SEE HERE, FOLKS. YOUR CHILD HAS BEEN THINKING AND EXPLORING, SO SHUT UP AND NOD AFFIRM WHATEVER THEM SAYS.

Notice that there’s no suggestion that the parents cast their minds back to their own experiences struggling with these same issues when they themselves were growing up. Because none of this shit had been invented yet. The Beeb would have … Read the rest

Feminism that pretends men are women if they say they are is not feminism at all. It’s not feminism and it’s nothing to do with feminism. Feminism is a rejection of the age-old belief that women are inferior to men. What’s that got to do with pretending men can be women? Not one damn thing.

Our feminism is trans inclusive. We stand with trans people and work to fight anti-trans hate, discrimination and gender-based violence. pic.twitter.com/GAOIGJEVZ9

— YWCA Canada (@YWCA_Canada) September 13, 2023

However loudly and often they say it it remains a lie. Trans women are men who say they are women, but saying so doesn’t make it true. Men who say they are women are irrelevant to a … Read the rest

I took a bus out to the suburbs this afternoon to revisit a trail I haven’t been to in years. It’s along the Sammamish River, and it becomes a boardwalk when it reaches the marshy area where the river flows into Lake Sammamish. It’s actually not a river, I read the other day, but a slough, because it can flow either way: from Lake Washington into Lake Sammamish or the other way around. Currently (pun not intended) it’s flowing into Lake S.

That mountain down at the south end looks tiny in the photo but not in real life.… Read the rest

Unpleasant heedless of others egotist in real life as well as in Congress:

Republican lawmaker Lauren Boebert was escorted out of a theatre in Denver during a performance of the musical Beetlejuice, after being accused of disruptive behaviour.

…

The incident report filed by Denver Arts & Venues in Colorado said the disruptive behaviour at Buell Theatre during Sunday night’s show prompted three complaints from fellow audience members.

After an initial warning at intermission, an usher approached them again five minutes into the second half requesting they leave after additional complaints of being loud and recording the show. Taking pictures and recording at the show are not permitted.

In the report, one usher claims Ms Boebert and her companion “told

So gynecologists are supposed to do what now?

An LGBTI rights organization in France is calling on the Minister of Equality to intervene in the case of a gynecologist who they are accusing of “transphobia.”

On September 8, SOS Homophobie, which describes itself as a “national association against LGBTIphobia” took to X (formerly Twitter) to condemn a gynecologist for stating he only provided services to females. The comment from Dr. Victor Acharian, who operates in the Pau region, was made in reply to a Google review he received in which a trans-identified male’s partner complained that Acharian refused to provide services to him.

But…I don’t like to be indelicate, but what services can a gynecologist provide to a man? … Read the rest

We must grind the faces of the poor.

Property developer Tim Gurner says employees have become too arrogant, and that unemployment must rise substantially to lift productivity, especially in the construction sector.

…

“They have been paid a lot to do not too much in the last few years, and we need to see that change,” he told the AFR property summit in Sydney. “I think the problem that we’ve had is that people decided they didn’t really want to work so much any more through COVID.”

…

“We need to see pain in the economy. We need to remind people that they work for the employer, not the other way around. There’s been a systematic change where employees

Christ on a bike. Hi, parents, here’s how to help your children do whatever they want all the time, without asking any tiresome outdated parentish questions. It’s from the BBC, too, so it must be sensible and official and not harmful at all in any way.

An A-Z of LGBTQ+ language for speaking to your child

If your child opens up to you about their sexuality or gender identity, it’s likely to be a really significant time for both them and you.

…

The language around sexuality and gender has changed over time and your child may be using terms that you might not fully understand.

You are the one who doesn’t understand, here: you, the adult, are lost and … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on We must do MORE.

For the govt to provide targeted funding for research & innovation in gender-affirming surgeries & other areas of gender-affirming care that would benefit from more scientific knowledge, with funding conditional on info sharing around practices developed & their outcomes.

Be careful what you wish for. Look how this turned out for caloric, phlogiston, N-rays and the the ether.

8. To amend section 268(3) of the Criminal Code to restrict cosmetic surgeries on intersex children until they are old enough to consent.

Ah, looking for a loophole via the plight for people with DSDs (NOT “intersex”) in order to cut up “trans” kids, are we?

For

Helen Joyce on that meeting in Manchester and what happened afterward.

The event was a follow-up to the Sex Matters board meeting, which we held in late June, in a lovely private room that the museum hires out. I wrote about what happened afterwards in issue 53—in brief, after an online mini-whingefest from about three-and-a-half people, the museum abjectly apologised for renting us a room. It put out a statement in which it begged to be given time to rebuild the trust of the “wider LGBTQI+ community and all people who face marginalisation” and promised to “learn from” its terrible error in accommodating an organisation that does not “share its values”, an error it promised never to repeat.

Hey I … Read the rest

Laurel Collins is an NDP MP for Victoria. She has a long bonkers thread on Twitter listing all the things we must do to rescue trans people from the edge of a cliff over a pool of sharks. I’ll just quote it because too much Twitter is too much.

The rising hate directed at trans people is terrifying, and Conservative leaders are stoking this hate with dangerous discriminatory policies. We need to better support trans & gender-diverse people. [trans flag trans flag]

Here are 29 concrete things we’re fighting for:

29 Concrete Steps: 1 on supporting organizations 2 to 8 on gender-affirming healthcare 9 to 13 on hate & violence 14 to 16 on identity documents 17 to 19 on

Billy Bragg is even more disgusting than I realized.

The only gender ideology that actually exists is patriarchy, which poses a threat to women, girls and trans women alike https://t.co/Bc2U4EkO7X

— Billy Bragg (@billybragg) September 11, 2023

No. Wrong. Patriarchy does not “pose a threat” to trans women the same way it poses a threat to women. Trans women may well be subject to bullying from men, but that’s not the same as the relegation to second class status that women are subject to from birth.

I see people exercising their right to protest. Do you believe that people have that fundamental right or do you think that these women are bullies too? pic.twitter.com/m1P9RMR081

— Billy Bragg (@billybragg) September 11,

The glaciers are melting.

Once, there were 29. Now at least one is gone, maybe three. Those that remain are almost half the size they used to be.

Mount Rainier is losing its glaciers. That is all the more striking as it is the most glacier-covered mountain in the contiguous United States.

It doesn’t look as if it’s losing its glaciers from down here in Seattle. It still looks like a giant ice cream cone. But appearances can deceive.

Mountain glaciers are vanishing as the burning of fossil fuels heats up Earth’s atmosphere. According to the World Glacier Monitoring Service, total glacier area has shrunk steadily in the last half-century; some of the steepest declines have been in the