Victoria Smith on the surprising absence of embarrassment:

It has just been announced that Danielle McGahey, a biological male, will represent Canada as the first trans cricketer in an official international women’s match. What’s more, McGahey isn’t remotely ashamed to be stealing the place of an elite female cricketer. All the rules have been followed: blood tests, declarations of gender identity, and all the rest. As long as a series of arbitrary hoops — none of which turn males into females — can be jumped through, McGahey assumes the right to pose as the injured party should anyone object. 

The cricketer follows Lia Thomas, Veronica Ivy, Laurel Hubbard, Lindsay Hecox, Hannah Mouncey and CeCé

Jo Bartosch on the sudden cancellation of Róisín Murphy:

Murphy’s crime was to have been forthright about her views on the use of experimental puberty-blocking drugs on children who are confused about their gender.

…

Murphy’s views are certainly not unfounded. Medical opinion across the world is now shifting against the use of puberty blockers to treat childhood gender distress. And yet Murphy could not have put a larger target on her own back had she announced her engagement to President Putin, with Andrew Tate as celebrant.

…

This week, it was reported that Ninja Tune, the record label behind Murphy’s long-awaited upcoming album, Hit Parade, has halted all marketing and promotion of her work. It has

This guy is a medical doctor – it says so on the tin. And yet, he thinks a single word can change people’s sex.

Trans women are women.
Not “cheating men.”

Glad I could clear that up for you! #TransRightsAreHumanRights

— Alastair McAlpine, MD (@AlastairMcA30) September 1, 2023

He’s been trying to bully Martina.

When I was young, Martina Navratilova was accused of being too “butch and muscled” to compete against “normal women.” It was vile.

Now she’s bullying trans folk for being too “butch and muscled” to compete against “normal women.” Still vile.

The bullied become bullies.

— Alastair McAlpine, MD (@AlastairMcA30) August 25, 2023

Peak argumentative skills: put quotation marks on things people never said. Martina doesn’t bully … Read the rest

Proud dude sentenced to 17 years.

A leader of the far-right Proud Boys has been sentenced to 17 years in prison, one of the longest terms yet handed out over the US Capitol riot. US Army veteran Joe Biggs, 38, was an instigator of the storming of Congress on 6 January 2021, prosecutors said.

Another Proud Boys member, Zachary Rehl, was sentenced on Thursday to 15 years, also on a charge of seditious conspiracy. Rehl, a former US Marine and leader of the Philadelphia branch of the Proud Boys, was seen on video spraying a chemical irritant at officers outside the Capitol during the riot.

Biggs was convicted of a slew of charges in May, including seditious conspiracy, intimidation

He’s absolutely right.

Idea known perpetrator of violence can get off scott free consequences of their very public incitement towards women, said with conviction, because they were having a "larf" – as opposed to this betraying aggravated contempt for said group – so back to front preposterous & sick.

— Shahrar Ali (@ShahrarAli) September 1, 2023

But see women don’t get to cite aggravated contempt. We’re not eligible. Racial minorities are eligible, LGB people are eligible, god-botherers are eligible, trans people are super eligible, but women are not. Some women are of course included in racial minorities and religions, some of course are lesbians, but women qua women are not entitled to claim that misogynist abuse is aggravated anything. We’re … Read the rest

I wish Seattle would do the same.

Paris says au revoir to rental e-scooters

They’re a menace. It’s like allowing people to drive their cars on the sidewalks.

A ban on rental electric scooters has come into effect in Paris in response to a rising number of people being injured and killed in the French capital.

…

Paris is now one of the first capitals to have outlawed the rented electric vehicles, just five years after being one of the first to adopt them.

Come on, Seattle, do the same.

As a cyclist of the traditional variety, I am more than a little peeved by the way electric “personal vehicles” like e-scooters are crowding out our space. Forty years

Keith Olbermann really is a piece of dung.

Second team all-conference. Happily for nasty, stupid, unsuccessful transphobe @Riley_Gaines_ she has no reputation to ruin

Anyhoo, don't forget to listen to the Countdown podcast because Trump also sucks: https://t.co/IFzDwY6MdN pic.twitter.com/hkc52w4YOV

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) August 31, 2023

I guess that whole revival of feminism thing was a hallucination. It’s still 1960 and women are still a joke and a punching bag.… Read the rest

The BBC account of Baker’s girlish prank:

A transgender activist who told a crowd to “punch a terf” has been cleared of intentionally encouraging the commission of an offence.

Because telling a crowd to punch feminist women in the face is not encouraging the commission of an offence. It’s…something else. Crocheting, or rock climbing, or tennis. Something.

The court heard that during the arrest, which Baker live-streamed on to social media, she said “don’t punch terfs, I’m really sorry I said that”. The court was told she accepted she had said the words but denied any intent to incite violence.

See that’s the special kind of trans activist urging people to stab or choke or punch feminist women – … Read the rest

Of course it’s not.

There has been some confusion about prosecutorial decisions of late. What follows is not aimed at any particular case. I know not why some cases are prosecuted and other are not. But the points below are perhaps not widely known.

— Roddy Dunlop KC (@RoddyQC) August 30, 2023

3- the PF is not obliged to prosecute every reported crime. Again, there is a discretion.

4- once more, however, the discretion not to prosecute is removed, of at least tightly circumscribed, where there is an aggravation.

— Roddy Dunlop KC (@RoddyQC) August 30, 2023

7- likewise, being gender critical may be covered under the Equality Act. But it is not covered by aggravations under the criminal law.

From the Toronto Star:

Róisín Murphy’s record label ceases promotion of her new record following transphobic social media comments

Subhead:

The Irish singer-songwriter is facing heavy backlash following inflammatory social comments about the trans community.

Nice neutral reporting you got there – her comments are “transphobic” and “inflammatory” right out of the gate.

For the billionth time I have to point out that the news media have never reported on misogyny in this way. Femalephobic inflammatory comments and indeed whole articles are commonplace, and journalists don’t even notice, let alone shriek about phobia and inflammation.

Róisín Murphy’s record label is ceasing all marketing and promotion of “Hit Parade,” the Irish singer’s highly anticipated album just days before the project’s release

Watch what you say in public. Actually, to be safe, watch what you say, period.

A performer says he was ‘shocked’ to hear an alleged transphobic conversation at the hotel hosting Manchester Pride’s media accreditation suite.

Dev Mistry was staying at the Malmaison Hotel in the city centre on Friday (August 25) for Pride weekend, where he was performing burlesque. The 30-year-old says he was having a coffee while wearing headphones in the hotel lobby when he overheard the alleged conversation.

“I picked something up and I took my headphones out to confirm that I could understand what I heard over the music,” Dev told the Manchester Evening News.

As one does. It’s a public duty to monitor … Read the rest

Oh well that’s fine then.

A transgender activist who told the crowd at a London Pride event to “punch a Terf” has been cleared of encouraging violence after telling a court it was a stunt for publicity.

Sarah Baker, 54, was filmed addressing the crowd at the Trans+ Pride rally on July 8, and shouted into the microphone: “If you see a Terf, punch them in the f***ing face.”

But she told City of London magistrates court her words was not intended to incite violence, but rather to grab a front page newspaper headline.

Well he would say that, wouldn’t he.

I wonder if the same claim would work if the word “terf” were replaced with “nigger” … Read the rest

Paula Scanlan on being shoved aside by Lia Thomas:

In a recent congressional hearing, I beseeched lawmakers to keep women’s physical safety in mind when considering policies that affect women-only spaces like locker rooms. The issue is close to my heart: I was a swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania alongside my transgender teammate Lia Thomas, whose participation on the women’s team raised serious questions about the eligibility of athletes who identify as a different sex to the one they were born as.

…

The politics of womanhood has become increasingly bizarre in the aftermath of the #MeToo revolution. In 2020, the otherwise left-leaning British author JK Rowling fired the tweet heard around the world when she mildly

Talk about chutzpah…

Can you just address the reality and move past it? You sucked at swimming. That's why you lost.

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) August 31, 2023

Riley Gaines “sucks at swimming” because she can’t swim faster than a man twice her size.

Trans ideology=an amusement park for men who hate women.… Read the rest

BBC “reporting”:

Danielle McGahey: Transgender cricketer set to play in women’s T20 international for Canada

That is, male cricketer set to play in women’s T20 international for Canada.

Canada’s Danielle McGahey is set to become the first transgender cricketer to play in an official international match.

That is, Canada’s Danielle McGahey is set to become the first male cricketer to play in an official international women’s match.

The 29-year-old opening batter has fulfilled all of the eligibility criteria the International Cricket Council (ICC) has for male-to-female transgender players before the event in Los Angeles from 4-11 September.

Which doesn’t change the fact that he’s a man playing on a women’s team.

McGahey’s participation comes despite other sports – including

Man accused of homophobic comments towards Patrick Harvie arrested and charged

The alleged incident occurred while the Scottish Greens co-leader was launching his party’s candidate in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election.

It has now been confirmed that a man has been arrested and charged after the incident in Rutherglen. The Glasgow MSP was taking part in a live TV interview when the incident took place. 

A Police Scotland spokesperson [said]: “Following a report of homophobic comments a 59-year-old man has been arrested and charged. A report will be sent to the Procurator Fiscal.”

I have to wonder if Police Scotland have ever arrested any man for gynophobic comments. I have to wonder if they even know there is such … Read the rest

How about suspending him over a really deep gorge?

Kidding, kidding.

UCI has now recommended a suspension for cyclist Veronica Ivy (male who competes with women) for continual abusive and threatening behavior. Good on @UCI_cycling for holding Ivy accountable

Ivy wishes all who oppose male inclusion in women's sports should die in a grease fire pic.twitter.com/wn8Gv8TETu

— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) August 30, 2023

That guy should be suspended from more things than cycling. Social media, for a start.… Read the rest

Fox News (sorry) on Rhys McKinnon/Veronica Ivy six weeks ago:

Veronica Ivy, a Canadian cyclist who became the first transgender woman to win a world track cycling championship, took issue with the sport’s governing body’s updated policy on transgender athletes’ participation in women’s events.

Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) released its new policy on Friday, prohibiting any trans cyclist from competing in women’s events if they “transitioned after (male) puberty.”

Ivy vented her frustrations on her Instagram account.

“However, now I’m forced into the humiliating ‘Men’s/Open’ category,” Ivy wrote. “No cis woman will be in this category, only trans women and CIS men. That means it’s not ‘open.’

“The UCI has said loud and clear that trans women are not

It’s amusing to find that I quoted “Veronica Ivy” aka Rhys McKinnon just six weeks ago saying:

Trans women are women. Trans women are female. Our sport’s governing body (cycling’s Union Cycliste Internationale, the one that banned Armstrong for life) says I’m female. My U.S. and Canadian identification documents say I’m female, including my birth certificate. My medical records all list me as female. So officials in sports, government and medicine all consider me, a trans woman, to be female. The people who disagree are just wrong.

How times change.

It’s such a bizarre thing for him to say, anyway, as Francis Boyle pointed out in the first comment. “All these people and institutions say I’m a woman therefore … Read the rest

But what is a woman? Dodds is one of those who are confused on the subject.

This you? https://t.co/FPhVBUrS4E pic.twitter.com/3nEEWiIAts

— Bessie Braddock (@BraddockBessie) August 30, 2023

… Read the rest