Stonewall is melting, melllltiiiinnnggg…

Liz Truss, the equalities minister, is pushing for all government departments to withdraw from Stonewall’s employment scheme following a row over transgender rights.

…

The Times understands that responsibility for co-ordinating participation in the scheme rests with the Cabinet Office. The scheme counts 250 government departments and public bodies among its 850 members, which pay for guidance on issues such as pronouns and gender-neutral spaces.

Why pay for that? There are a million sources on it that don’t charge anything, besides which, it’s all nonsense anyway. Nobody needs “guidance” on pronouns.

Stonewall says the scheme is “the leading employers’ programme for ensuring all LGBT staff are accepted without exception in the workplace”. 

Oh yes? What … Read the rest

Seriously bad joke.

A Belgian weightlifter says dealing with transgender issues in sport is “impossible” but the presence of Laurel Hubbard in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games is “like a bad joke” to women athletes.

The women athletes have been keeping quiet, though, for all the reasons we know about.

Anna Vanbellinghen of Belgium has broken the athletes’ silence with a considered statement on Hubbard’s achievement.

Vanbellinghen has a chance of qualifying in the same weight category, the over-87-kilogram super-heavyweights, and is therefore directly affected by the presence of Hubbard, who transitioned to female at the age of 35.

Others have voiced outrage at Hubbard’s presence in women’s sport, most often on social media, but Vanbellinghen is not making

… Read the rest

The people who get elected to Congress these days…

At about midnight four years ago, restauranteur Lauren Boebert, in her words, “turned too sharp,” and rolled her truck into a ditch near her home in Rifle, Colorado. She faced a careless driving and unsafe vehicle charges, and a court date was set for three months later.

Not an uncommon slip-up on rural roads at night. But Boebert, who’s now a Republican candidate for Congress, never showed up for her court hearing on October 5, 2016, according to records obtained by the Colorado Times Recorder from Colorado’s 9th Judicial District.

Now, nine months after the article appeared, she’s in Congress.

So there was a warrant for her arrest. The court … Read the rest

It’s not in the future, it’s not 20 or 10 years from now, it’s now. The Himalayas are losing their ice.

When Padma Thinles was 11 years old, he lived in a city called Leh, in the northern Indian territory of Ladakh, on the Western side of the Himalayas. Then, it was a small village with streams brimming with freshwater. Now, “forget the streams,” said Thinles, who is now 21 and still lives in the region.

“There’s no water left in the sewers, either,” he said.

Despite the location of Leh in the upper Indus River Valley, which is usually flushed with water, global warming has caused an immense water shortage that has led to the shutdown of

… Read the rest

The Tulsa massacre almost got buried. One future historian got curious.

The white schoolboy Scott Ellsworth of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was left to wonder what the city’s darkest secret could be.

“As a 10- and 11-year-old, I would occasionally hear older adults, neighbours, talking about what we then called ‘the riot’ and they would always lower their voices or change the subject,” recalls Ellsworth, now 67. “I started to catch wind of these stories about bodies floating down the Arkansas River, machine guns on the roofs of town, but you couldn’t really find out anything about it.”

All that changed one day in 1966 when the local library installed a microfilm reader and Ellsworth and friends fed in daily newspapers

… Read the rest

International embarrassment.

A hat shop in Nashville, Tennessee, has drawn condemnation and protests after it advertised an anti-vaccine yellow star like those forced on Jews by Nazi Germany.

The shop, Hatwrks, said in a now-deleted Instagram post that it was selling the patches for $5 (£3.50).

The shop was criticised online and targeted by protesters, who held a sign saying “no Nazis in Nashville”.

A local rabbi said the star was an insult to Jews killed under the Nazis.

Being urged to get a vaccination against a lethal pandemic is not very comparable to being murdered by a fascist antisemitic state.

In a later Instagram post, the shop apologised “for any insensitivity”. It said it did not “intend to

… Read the rest

Inspirational?

It’s always special to be part of the #prideofmanchester awards, but this year I was especially proud to present the Lifetime Achievement award to the inspirational @christineburns. https://t.co/dM5Pp75wn5

— Lisa Nandy (@lisanandy) May 28, 2021

Many women ask what’s inspirational about him.

Wow. @Keir_Starmer how dare you allow someone so harmful to the most vulnerable women in your party. I can't believe you obviously haven't warned this MP after last time. No wonder #LabourLosingWomen – we're all watching the polls

— Jayne (courage calls to courage everywhere) (@ScouseJayne) May 29, 2021

A reminder that Lisa Nandy said last year that rapists should be allowed to go to women's prisons if they say they identify as women during the

… Read the rest

About those anti-vax yellow stars…

A few guys are trading off holding this banner in front of #hatwrksnashville in Nashville.

Yesterday, the store owner posted on Instagram about selling gold stars reminiscent of the Star of David, that say “unvaccinated.”

I spoke to a few Jewish people today who were furious. pic.twitter.com/RnRZo2aOFk

— Chris Davis NC5 (@ChrisDavisMMJ) May 29, 2021

For those who somehow thought that the Nashville woman was just misguided (or that it is an over-reaction on my part to be so incensed):

This was a Star of David; yellow; & a patch. This was not an error. This was vile. https://t.co/Ikxbn5FQrW pic.twitter.com/akCwpaQC9z

—1) (@thehowie) May 29, 2021

Republicans: Criticizing Israel in any way is antisemitic.

… Read the rest

More passengers are disembarking.

A string of high-profile public sector employers are cutting ties with the LGBT charity Stonewall amid mounting disquiet over its diversity training on transgender rights.

Campaigners have warned of a “flood” of departures from the Stonewall Diversity Champions scheme, after the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the equalities watchdog, did not renew its membership over “value for money” concerns.

The Telegraph says it knows of at least five more leavers.

The scheme counts 250 Government departments and public bodies among its members. They pay thousands for guidance on gender neutral spaces, pronouns and trans inclusion and are ranked on the charity’s Workplace Equality Index.

Imagine paying thousands for “guidance on pronouns” – i.e. on using … Read the rest

Stonewall boss is fine with comparing gender-skeptical women to antisemites.

The new EHRC chair, Lady Falkner, has said women have the right to question transgender identity without being abused, stigmatised or risking losing their job.

Or threatened. All those “kill a terf” shirts and signs and posters – those are threats.

Ms Kelley said while Stonewall believed in freedom of speech, it was “not without limit”.

“With all beliefs including controversial beliefs there is a right to express those beliefs publicly and where they’re harmful or damaging – whether it’s anti-Semitic beliefs, gender critical beliefs, beliefs about disability – we have legal systems that are put in place for people who are harmed by that.”

That’s nice.

Challenged as to

… Read the rest

Sport builds character.

On 17 May, 2021, it was announced that Valentina Petrillo is set to create a world record as the first, and so far only, male to participate in a female sports competition with male documents.

The software programmer and divorced father, who identifies as a woman and has not undergone cosmetic ‘gender’ surgery, is among the athletes chosen to compete in the European Paralympic Athletics Championship in Poland from June 1 to June 5. Seven athletes, including Petrillo, will compete on the Italian Team for Bydgoszcz 2021 in the women’s category, and 16 in the men’s.

The 47-year-old’s goal is to qualify for the Tokyo 2021 Paralympics.

Petrillo, who has a degenerative eye condition, skyrocketed to

… Read the rest

Seen on Twitter:

For people in urban, liberal cities, the mask and associated rituals are articles of faith. It is literally a yarmulke or a prayer shawl. Not hard to understand if we see it as motivated by signaling “I’m part of the good tribe.”

No it isn’t. If the mask were literally a yarmulke or a prayer shawl then it would be literally a yarmulke or a prayer shawl. It isn’t, it’s a mask. You can tell it’s a mask because of the loops for the ears, and the size and shape. It doesn’t look like a yarmulke or a prayer shawl.

But more to the point, there’s no need to attach some weird political idenniny to it. I … Read the rest

Oh so this is who Christian Jessen is.

https://twitter.com/TwisterFilm/status/1398414921969418240 https://twitter.com/TwisterFilm/status/1398414927421968389

Maybe he never had any critical thinking to begin with.… Read the rest

Via Your Name’s not Bruce? at Miscellany 6 – The Toronto Star reports:

KAMLOOPS, B.C. – The remains of 215 children have been found buried on the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.

Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlups te Secwépemc First Nation said in a news release Thursday that the remains were confirmed last weekend with the help of a ground-penetrating radar specialist.

Casimir called the discovery an “unthinkable loss that was spoken about but never documented at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.”

She said it’s believed the deaths are undocumented, although a local museum archivist is working with the Royal British Columbia Museum to see if any records of the deaths can be found.

… Read the rest

The existential threat:

On Friday Republicans in the Senate torpedoed an effort to create a bipartisan commission to investigate the deadly insurrection by Donald Trump’s supporters at the US Capitol on 6 January, deploying the procedural move known as the filibuster to stop it even being debated.

The filibuster is bad and stupid and needs to go away.

Tellingly Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, who previously condemned Trump’s role in the riot, reportedly asked senators to nix the commission as a “personal favour”. It was a sign that the rot now goes deeper than a cult of personality into the foundations of the Grand Old Party (GOP).

A personal favor ffs. This isn’t his living room we’re talking … Read the rest

It’s called “Woman’s Hour” for a reason.

BBC Woman's Hour today promoted a book by a male about what it's like growing up as a 'girl', just after doing a segment on men having sex in public toilets. Some women stated that the show is failing to cater to women, despite its name. This is the presenter's response https://t.co/qBVtu7jHxj

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) May 28, 2021

Ah yes the old space to discuss everything approach. We used to understand that woman’s meant woman’s, and that for women meant for women. Now instead we “understand” that woman’s means everyone’s, and for women means for everyone.

https://twitter.com/helensaxby11/status/1398279153149960196

Funny, isn't it. When Jenni Murray expressed an opinion on the trans issue, she was banned

… Read the rest

Once in every billion tweets or so, a man will go so much too far that it bites him in the ass.

Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster has been awarded £125,000 in damages after a defamatory tweet by TV presenter Dr Christian Jessen. Dr Jessen tweeted an unfounded claim that the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader had been having an extra-marital affair on 23 December 2019. The post remained online until Dr Jessen deleted it on 7 January 2020.

A judge at the High Court in Belfast said it was an “outrageous libel” which was “grossly defamatory”.

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He ordered Dr Jessen, who is best known for presenting Channel Four programme Embarrassing Bodies, to pay damages of £125,000

… Read the rest

Like corporate greenwashing only trans-color.

Parents should have a say in political messages targeted at our kids. #CancelKelloggs https://t.co/BYHMwQ9qUY

— Rachel Moran (@RachelRMoran) May 27, 2021

Oh look, a box of 98% sugar “cereal” that’s pushed on kids via cute animals and endless tv ads – but this one is different, because it’s about…um…telling kids to be trans inclusive.

They even put out a press release.

BATTLE CREEK, Mich., May 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Limited-edition Together With Pride cereal hits shelves across the country today, marking the latest collaboration between Kellogg Company and GLAAD. LGBTQ+ icons and friends of GLAAD will start their day with the new cereal to celebrate that no matter who you are or who

… Read the rest

Lovely words maybe, but she certainly doesn’t live up to them.

‘Being a humanist means always asking questions about the world around me… It means trying to make the most of the one life I know I have. And it means trying to support other people to do the same.’ Lovely words by @theAliceRoberts pic.twitter.com/f6WA3aTHgy

— Humanists UK (@Humanists_UK) May 27, 2021

She’s not always asking questions about the world around her, and she’s very hostile to women who asks questions about the world around us that she finds politically unacceptable, aka terfy.… Read the rest

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave – very very much free, top free, most free of any anywhere.

With just a week to go before the legislative session ends in Texas, a host of bills are making their way to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.

One of the pieces of legislation still under consideration would require sports teams to play the national anthem at games.

So there! You have to stand up for this anthem if you go to a sports game, and the teams have to play this one song if they do a sports game. Have to, I tell you, it’s mandatory and required and a legal obligation. That’s FREEDOM. You there, … Read the rest