It all depends on how you look at it.

US Supreme Court tosses rulings that favored transgender people

Did they favor trans people though? Depends on how you look at it.

The U.S. Supreme Court threw out on Monday judicial decisions that favored transgender people in cases from North Carolina, West Virginia, Idaho and Oklahoma, including in legal challenges to state health insurance programs that deny coverage for patients seeking gender-affirming medical treatment.

That’s a car-crash of a sentence. The issue isn’t “favoring” trans people, it’s whether there is such a thing as “gender-affirming medical treatment.” Affirming gender isn’t really a medical category – gender itself isn’t really a medical category. Sex is, and sex is not switchable.

What the … Read the rest

When worlds collide.

The BBC has said it regrets livestreaming a Glastonbury performance by the punk-rap duo Bob Vylan on Saturday, with the prime minister and Ofcom among those to weigh in on the incident.

…

In the run-up to Glastonbury, the BBC was under pressure over how it would treat the performance by the Irish-language rap group Kneecap, since one of the band had been charged with a terrorism offence.

But it was an act that appeared on the same West Holts stage before that has left the BBC expressing regret over its editorial decisions. Pascal Robinson-Foster – of the punk-rap duo Bob Vylan – led chants of “Death, death to the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]”. He

Broadcasters must air view that trans women are women, says Ofcom

Broadcasters must give airtime to claims that biological men are women when covering trans issues, Ofcom has said.

The media regulator warned GB News in a letter seen by The Telegraph that it could not treat the controversy as settled, despite the Supreme Court victory for women’s rights campaigners in April 2025.

But it’s not a controversy.

Granted, there are people who try to make it one. There are people who claim that biological men are women. But they’re wrong; wrong in a very crude obvious unmistakable sense. It’s not a genuine controversy, it’s a performance of controversy based on an absurd blatant falsehood.

The media regulator warned GB

No. That’s not how that works.

Why I Use Trans People’s Preferred Pronounshttps://t.co/Dhsjx8sR1x pic.twitter.com/aj10Y0dhlv

— Benjamin Ryan (@benryanwriter) June 27, 2025

No, he doesn’t choose “being kind.” He says he does, but he doesn’t. Being kind is not what he’s choosing. He’s choosing a performance of “being kind” which is actually being astonishingly rude and aggressive and hostile to women.

When was it ruled that letting men who pretend to be women do whatever they want is what “being kind” means, while defending women’s rights is the very opposite of “being kind”? It’s clear that that’s what Benjamin Ryan thinks “being kind” means, so I wonder why he thinks that. Why does he see women as not in need … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Karen the Chemist on Near the crater.

Re risk taking: Ego is a factor.

Common objections to instituting safety measures or changing how they handle a chemical:

We’ve been handling it this way for years and haven’t had problems. Things have been going fine, no problems, without [safety procedure].

Another common attitude is that people think that they won’t have a mishap* with a chemical because they are careful. They assume they are very careful, certainly more careful, and a better chemist, than those who did have mishaps.

And those who claim they don’t need eye protection because they’ll use their arm or hand to shield their eyes. As if they could raise them quick … Read the rest

Benjamin Ryan is happy to bully women in general, but when there’s a sleb involved suddenly he wants to chat. Toady.

I’d love to interview you to discuss this if you’re open to it and want to DM me, @JK_Rowling. Many thanks.

— Benjamin Ryan (@benryanwriter) June 29, 2025

Yes of course he’d love to discuss it with her.

I was explicit about my position on this in the essay I published in 2020.

"I've read all the arguments about femaleness not residing in the sexed body, and the assertions that biological women don't have common experiences, and I find them deeply misogynistic and regressive……

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 29, 2025

“I’ve read all the arguments about femaleness

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Are they though?

… the part that gets me is how much disputed stuff just slides by as obvious, assumed knowledge and common perspective, things that “everyone” supposedly thinks.

And all the stuff we’re supposed to let slide, in the interests of Not Being Seen to be Siding With Fascists on Anything:

Whatever your views are about the metaphysics of sex and gender, or about trans persons in sports or prisons, or about what kinds of medical care trans youth should have—topics which are difficult and about which it’s not unreasonable to have various views….

But nobody is supposed to voice these views, or question the genderist staus quo, so as … Read the rest

Ah yes, and it was as I was walking home from the bus stop in the rain that I realized dogs are cats.

I Realized I Was Trans While Making Cheese

The realization didn’t strike overnight. It took many months. But the daily evidence of one thing becoming another, enzymes turning liquid to solid, milk into curd into cheese, showed me possible futures.

Yup yup yup. Impeccable logic. One thing changes into another, therefore all things can change into all things other. An orange can become a cruise ship, a planet can become a spider, a bro can turn into a hairdo.

I spent four years immersed in cheddaring, my life revolving around transformation. And it was there on the

Our friend latsot went to a protest in Leeds yesterday…

I was at the Keep Prisons Single Sex event in Leeds yesterday. Needles to say some misogynists turned up to try to down out the women with a loud and expensive PA.

I politely asked three different police officers from @WestYorksPolice if they wouldn't mind just politely asking…

— latsot (@latsot) June 29, 2025

I politely asked three different police officers from @WestYorksPolice if they wouldn’t mind just politely asking the misogynists to turn down their music just a little bit so that anyone could hear both sides.

All three absolutely refused, two laughed in my face. They were, of course, under no obligation to do so, but when I

Originally a comment by Arcadia on Are they though?

I quite agree, and find the part that gets me is how much disputed stuff just slides by as obvious, assumed knowledge and common perspective, things that “everyone” supposedly thinks.

For instance, that Trump likes this (perhaps), that these changes are “pulverising the trans community” (significant evidence to the contrary), that Trump’s doing it to be righteous (perhaps, he’s not usually driven by that value though), that it’s an issue of “metaphysics” (Christ on a bike!), that it’s about “trans in sports or prisons” (when it’s about males in female sports and prisons), that these medical, hormonal, surgical and societal interventions constitute “care” (evidence mostly to the contrary), that this is

Justin Weinberg at Daily Nous on Alex Byrne’s response to his criticism:

Alex Byrne (MIT) has written an op-ed in The Washington Post in which he admits to being one of the co-authors of the US government’s “Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria” Report, discussed previously.

Sly, that “admits to” – as if it were a crime.

…in response to a question from a reader, I elaborated on the reasons for my criticism; here’s part of what I said:

Trump seems quite happy to pulverize the trans community—for political gain, for the pleasure he takes in domination, and maybe even because he occasionally thinks it is a way to be righteous. It’s horrible. Whatever your views are about

Daily Blegh.

That’s the headline of UNC philosophy professor Justin Weinberg’s June 26 post on his philosophy news site, Daily Nous (@DailyNousEditor). I’m posting comments here since Weinberg has chosen to not to open them on this particular post. What’s Byrne’s sin? He served as one of nine co-authors on the recently released HHS report “Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices.” (Available on the HHS website.)

Weinberg clearly disagrees with Byrne (who, for the record, did not vote for Trump) about whether serving as a co-author of the report was the right thing to do.

I happen to have intimate knowledge of Byrne’s motives—I’ll refer to him as “Alex” from here on—because

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on A means to exclood.

once he ‘transitioned’, he did his landscaping in hot pants and spike heels. That just proves he isn’t a woman; no woman of any sense at all would mow a lawn dressed like that. [quoting iknklast]

It’s a vicious circle. Performance and appearance are all that TiMs have; any time they’re not in “woman-coded” clothes and accessories = not being a woman, so even in situations where safety, comfort, and mobility compel women to dispense with “woman-coded” wardrobes, TiMs have to keep up the pretense, because doing otherwise results in even smaller chances of “passing”. Their use of stereotyipcal, exaggerated “female” clothing and mannerisms are the … Read the rest

It seems the NHS is allowing lunatics to tell NHS midwives that men can breastfeed infants.

NHS midwives have been trained by a trans workshop that promotes male breastfeeding, The Telegraph can reveal.

The Queer Birth Club runs “LGBTQ+” competency and lactation classes, using the tag line “birthing people ain’t all women”.

People who think men can get pregnant ain’t right in the head.

The group has provided training sessions for NHS England and a number of trusts across the UK, and its founder has given talks at the Royal College of Midwives (RCM).

One nurse who raised concerns about the training is now facing disciplinary action.

Oh come on. Seriously?

The Queer Birth Club has said that

Huh. The Scottish government is still trying to get away with it.

Earlier this month, officials told For Women Scotland (FWS) that the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) had advised ministers to wait for the Commission’s final Code of Practice before making changes and to “not do anything in advance of that”.

The comments earned a stinging rebuke from Baroness Kishwer Falkner, the Chair of the EHRC, who said the Commission had made it “clear” to civil servants that public bodies should not wait for updated guidance before acting on the judgment.

“Comments” is not the right word there. It should be claims or assertions or orders. We’re not talking casual remarks over a beer, we’re talking officials … Read the rest

Sigh.

CNN:

President Donald Trump stepped up attacks on his handpicked Federal Reserve chairman on Wednesday, claiming Jerome Powell has “low IQ” and suggested that he has narrowed down the list of potential replacements to three or four people.

“He’s an average mentally person…Low IQ for what he does,” Trump said of Powell during remarks at a press conference at the NATO summit in the Netherlands Wednesday. “I think he’s a very stupid person, actually.”

Well which is it? Average or very stupid?

Tell you what: only a very stupid person starts with “average” and then pivots to “very stupid” and tries to get away with it by adding “actually.”

But really. Trump is horrifyingly successful, obviously, but not … Read the rest

Oh did he now.

Men won’t comply with laws or rules or norms that tell them to stay out of women’s toilets and changing rooms. Man MP says hooray, taller man visitor smirks.… Read the rest

Nancy Armour, a sports columnist at USA Today, rounds up the usual suspects.

The days of transgender athletes being able to compete at the Olympics are numbered.

The International Olympic Committee will no doubt dispute that, arguing that new president Kirsty Coventry’s announcement Thursday was only for a working group to examine how to “protect the female category.” But from her loaded language to the dearth of transgender athletes at the Games, it’s obvious this is intended as a means to exclude, not include.

Let’s start with her lede. Is there some moral law that says transgender athletes should be able to compete at the Olympics? I mean, one could also write a sob story about how crappy athletes … Read the rest

Hmmm.

President Donald Trump stepped up attacks on his handpicked Federal Reserve chairman on Wednesday, claiming Jerome Powell has “low IQ” and suggested that he has narrowed down the list of potential replacements to three or four people.

“He’s an average mentally person…Low IQ for what he does,” Trump said of Powell during remarks at a press conference at the NATO summit in the Netherlands Wednesday. “I think he’s a very stupid person, actually.”

But…sir…you…you yourself are…

Oh never mind.

… Read the rest

What’s this what’s this?

Court of Appeal has refused Liberty permission to appeal on all grounds, unanimously.

Oh dear, how sad, never mind.

Counsel now arguing about costs. EHRC seeking some £35K, which is quite a bit more than the £20,235 raised by their crowdfunder. https://t.co/wJ2r4wrfKV

— Richard Dunstan (@Wonkypolicywonk) June 26, 2025

The Guardian three weeks ago:

EHRC commissioner calls for ‘period of correction’ on trans rights after legal ruling

Transgender people must acknowledge a “period of correction” of rights after the supreme court decision on gender because they “have been lied to over many years” about what their rights actually were, one of the commissioners drawing up the official post-ruling guidance has said.

Speaking at a debate about