More from John Nicolson testimony:

KM – referring to assertion of extensive political campaigning of LGBA. Is that the right place for them to go?

JN – yes, but they should be doing some charitable work as well. They are only doing lobbying. I have yet to see an example of their charitable works.
KM – we will hear about that when they give their evidence so you don’t need to worry about that. Now reviewing the correspondence. You refer to their lobbying – are these appropriate avenues to be lobbying.
JN – yes, but they need to be doing some charitable people. Kemi Badenoch in particular was not an appropriate person to be holding the Equality brief, given

John Nicolson MP is the witness today. KM is Karon Monaghan KC – Counsel for LGB Alliance.

KM – outlining the panel, fairly stringent requirements

Now going on to proposed reforms. 

KM – may apply for a GRC if 16,
JN – you can vote in Scotland at 16 that is the motivation
The use of the word child is ’emotive’ and that person has adult responsibilities.
KM – Legally ‘child’
JN – You would agree that a child is not allowed to vote
KM – I’m not here to answer your questions.

JN – repeats point. Then can we agree ‘young adult’.
KM – I will say child.
JN – I will say young adult.

Naturally. Words are … Read the rest

Mermaids reports on the first day of the tribunal:

Paul Roberts, CEO of LGBT+ Consortium, gave evidence in support of Mermaids.

LGB Alliance’s legal team cross-examined Mr Roberts on his Witness Statement for several hours, and under intense questioning, he was clear that Consortium’s view is that trans women are women, trans men are men, and trans people belong in the LGBT community.

The tribunal also ruled in favour of publishing documents relevant to the case, including skeleton arguments and witness statements.

That’s it. That’s the sum total of their reporting. One of the martyrs was questioned for hours but he stuck fast to the dogma.

Not to mention the circularity of “trans people belong in the LGBT … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Incredibly diverse and incredibly intersectional.

AR – what I am putting to you is that it is reasonable for you to hold that trans women are women and for LGBA to say that they are not.

PR – they are transphobic and focus on trans phobic activities.

AR – gender critical views are transphobic views?

PR – yes.

AR – you don’t think that anyone that has gender critical views should be running a charity in the LGBT sector.

PR – I don’t believe that any charity that is campaigning to remove the rights of trans people to live their lives safely and fully, should be allowed to exist.

AR

Ah so this is yer man –

On his own frequent admission, @paulsatravellin is #NotAnExpert on any of these things. But he wants to destroy the @ALLIANCELGB, which has the temerity not to be part of his 300-strong group-think federation @LGBTConsortium, and does know about these matters. Slow handclap. pic.twitter.com/XS7oWaqzmv

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) September 12, 2022

He “leads to ensure Consortium stays community focussed and LGBT+ issues are listened to by a range of stakeholders…”

But that’s not true, is it. He doesn’t lead to ensure LGB issues are listened to by a range of stakeholders; very much the opposite. He’s shockingly ignorant on some of them, and shockingly hostile to some of them. He’s all about … Read the rest

Next installment:

AR: moving on. You complained about a tweet by Bev Jackson who observed that female lesbians are being driven off lesbian dating apps. If you are told by the people running the site that you cannot specify that you only want to meet female bodied people you are being denied service by the dating site based on your sexual orientation.

PR – I’m not on these sites and not a woman.

He’s not a trans woman, either, but that certainly doesn’t stop him advocating for their purported rights to the detriment of other people’s rights.

AR – you complained about this tweet, so I hope you can answer some questions. 

PR – yes
AR – Do you agree

More Tribunal:

(I’m not sure if this is the next ReaderApp thread in the sequence or a third for the day.)

AR – we are talking about material that children might use to decide whether to go on to a medical pathway.

PR – I disagree, our members are providing helpful materials to young people struggling with their identity.
AR – a young person wouldn’t look at these words and attempt to figure out their identity.
PR – It’s a very complex area, lots of organisations working in this area helping young people.
AR – lets go back to the definitions. Gender identity is about whether you instinctively relate to the gender stereotypes of your sex 

PR – I

He won’t like that.

International guests are said to have been asked to travel on commercial flights and forbidden to use helicopters or private cars to reach the [Queen’s] funeral. They are to arrive together on a bus from a site in west London, Politico said, citing official documents.

Westminster Abbey is expected to be so full that only one representative from each country can attend, although they can be joined by their signficant other.

Questions have been asked in the US over whether the former president, Donald Trump, would be invited but British sources have scotched the idea that he could accompany the US delegation and said there would not be space for Biden’s predecessors. The former US

Tribunal part 3:

AR – going back to charitable objects of LGB Alliance, same sex attraction and advocacy.

PR -yes,
AR – the elimination of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.
PR – that’s what they claim.
AR – that’s quite a broad object many ways they could do that. AR – they do not hide their object that they are campaigning to maintain the definition as same sex attracted.
PR – what there aims are and what they do are different
AR – we are not talking yet about what they do, there is no dark agenda. They don’t lie about it. 

PR – what they say and what they are doing is different. I disagree.
AR –

More tribunal:

AR – you agreed its transphobic to say that a person with a female body can be a gay man.

R – yes
AR – you believe that it is transphobic to say that gay men do not have sex with people with female bodies.
R – its not for me to say who should have sex with anyone. 

Naughty. That’s not the issue. The issue is definitions.

AR – I’m not talking about individuals. Is it a transphobic statement in general?

R – that puts it in a very binary way and I’m not sure I agree.

But that’s the whole point. The trans ideology does put it in a very binary way: it does shun … Read the rest

The Mermaids-LGB Alliance tribunal has resumed.

AR is Akua Reindorf for LGBA, R is Paul Roberts, CEO of LGBT Consortium, for Anti-LGBA. I’ve filled out some of the tweets a little without marking them because they’re quick stenography.

AR – you believe they have a transphobic agenda?

R – yes that is correct

AR – you believe that they have deliberately adopted a positive stance to deceive the Charity Commission and the wider community.
R – yes that is correct
AR – you describe their messages as innocuous, are they delivering Hidden messages?

R – Yes
AR – CC decision looked at LGBA inevitably denigrates T people. Quoting from website, ‘respect’, ‘tolerance’ ‘dialogue’ ‘disagreement is not hate’. Do you believe

This comment of Sastra’s sent me to the source to get the full context.

The source is

SEC. 1101. DEFINITIONS AND RULES.
``(1) Race; color; religion; sex; sexual orientation; 
        gender identity; national origin.--The term `race', `color', 
        `religion', `sex', `sexual orientation', `gender identity', or 
        `national origin', used with respect to an individual, 
        includes--
 ``(A) the race, color, religion, sex, sexual 
                orientation, gender identity, or national origin, 
                respectively, of another person with whom the 
                individual is associated or has been associated; and
                    ``(B) a perception or belief, even if inaccurate, 
                concerning the race, color, religion, sex, sexual 
                orientation, gender identity, or national origin, 
                respectively, of the individual.

``(2) Gender identity.--The term `gender identity' means 
        the gender-related identity, appearance, mannerisms, or other 
        gender-related 

Guest post by James Garnett.

More and more these days I keep seeing pop technologists ranting on about AI and “transhumanism”, which is to say, moving beyond biology and injecting our consciousness into machines. There is so much wrong with this even from a merely technical standpoint that I don’t even know where to start.

So much of our consciousness and the way we understand and interpret the world is tied up with our physical bodies and the inseparable link between them and our minds (yes, I said “inseparable”) as to make talking about one without integrating the other almost nonsensical. It betrays the blindered standpoint of persons without disability or dysfunction; people who can mostly ignore the presence of … Read the rest

Global warming–more frequent droughts–crop failures–famines.

California rice fields:

Normally, by September, the drive north from Sacramento on Interstate 5 showcases vast stretches of flooded rice fields on both sides, farms bustling with tractors and workers preparing for fall harvest.

Not this year, said Kurt Richter, a third-generation rice farmer in Colusa, the rice capital of California where the local economy relies heavily on agriculture. “It is now just a wasteland,” he said.

As drought endures for a third year with record-breaking temperatures and diminishing water supplies, more than half of California’s rice fields are estimated to be left barren without harvest — about 300,000 out of the 550,000 or so in reported acres, provisional data from

There’s an awful lot of flapdoodle around over the public’s supposed “grief” – and not for the first time.

Another contender in the ridiculous headline competition. I would never mock anyone’s grief but we don’t all feel it – or any connection to the monarchy. https://t.co/MEo8bW8kyK

— Joan Smith (@polblonde) September 11, 2022

Ours what? Our “grief”? Come on.

The queen said so herself – the fictional one at least.… Read the rest

Erin Friday on the move to change Title IX at the expense of women and girls:

While U.S. citizens, and particularly women and parents, should be celebrating the golden jubilee of Title IX, marking 50 years of protection against sex discrimination, they are instead feverishly trying to stop the Biden administration from implementing sweeping changes to the 1972 federal civil rights law. The proposed regulations undermine the initial premise of Title IX, prohibiting sex discrimination in educational programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. These regulations will chill speech and enshrine gender identity as a reality…

When reality, oddly enough, is the very thing it isn’t.

Imagine changing federal laws to enshrine other fantasies. Affirmative action for white people who … Read the rest

Call to action.

CALL TO ACTION! Lesbian Solidarity, a counter demo to Lesbian Strength, will celebrate lesbians while opposing transphobia in Leeds next Saturday. The trans and lesbian communities have always been intertwined! Come along, bring your friends, and spread the word! pic.twitter.com/Z3U8QoY4Ji

— Transgender Action Block (@TransActionBloc) September 10, 2022

The trans and lesbian communities have always been intertwined??? Meaning lesbians have always been intertwined with men who claim to be lesbians? I don’t think so. I really really don’t think so. Why would they be?

Also, there’s no such thing as a “trans lesbian.” Men can’t be lesbians. Men aren’t lesbians. Lesbians are under no obligation to “validate” or embrace or protect or prioritize or defend or scrub … Read the rest

I remember when Republicans and the right wing were all about law n order. Seems like a century ago now.

Donald Trump’s non-stop drive to paint the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago to recover classified documents as a political witch hunt is drawing rebukes from ex-justice department and FBI officials who warn such attacks can spur violence and pose a real threat to the physical safety of law enforcement.

But the concerns have not deterred Republican House minority leader Kevin McCarthy and other Trump allies from making inflammatory remarks echoing the former US president.

The unrelenting attacks by Trump and loyalists such as McCarthy, senator Lindsey Graham, Steve Bannon and false conspiracy theorist Alex Jones against law enforcement have continued despite

Judge throws out ludicrous lawsuit:

A federal judge in Florida dismissed Donald Trump’s lawsuit against former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, saying there was no basis for the former president to claim that Clinton and her allies harmed him with an orchestrated plan to spread false information that Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential race.

What means this word “basis”? If Trump thinks it, it’s true; that’s how the world works.

Trump “is seeking to flaunt a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him, and this Court is not the appropriate forum,” Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks of the Southern District of Florida wrote in a scathing 65-page ruling released Friday. The

How to pretend women are included even when they’re not:

Bros review – Billy Eichner’s all-LGBTQ+ romantic comedy is a winner

What the Guardian goes on to describe, though, is a movie about gay men. Which is fine, but don’t pretend it’s also about lesbians.

Billy Eichner’s slick Judd Apatow-produced gay comedy Bros carries with it the specific sort of baggage that only a “first” is forced to carry. As the first theatrically released studio gay rom-com, the first studio film co-written by and starring an openly gay man and the first studio film with a majority LGBTQ+ cast, it’s a light movie made heavy with expectation – will it be gay enough or good enough or accessible enough or