Complaint upheld.

A programme on Today FM in which a contributor referred to author JK Rowling as a “transphobic bigot” breached rules regarding fairness, objectivity and impartiality, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland has ruled.

A complaint was submitted in relation to a segment of the Last Word with Matt Cooper on September 18th.

It stated that during the weekly panel discussion, one of the contributors stated that Ms Rowling was transphobic, without providing any evidence to back this up.

So you mean there’s not a blanket rule that if you don’t agree that people can literally become the other sex, everybody is allowed to call you a transphobic bigot?

The broadcaster cited UNESCO as defining transphobia as “the irrational

Originally a comment by Acolyte of Sagan on And then communicate it clearly and accurately.

The progress of science has helped us better understand who we are as trans people.

Maybe it has, but science isn’t any closer to showing that trans are the sex they claim than it was a century ago. Explaining why trans people might have their beliefs about their sex is not the same as confirming those beliefs as facts. Further, taking scientific findings about conditions such as intersex or atypical chromosone combinations out of context to back up transgender claims is not science, it’s exploitation of people with conditions only tangentially related to transgender.

I was thinking about that latter part earlier after reading … Read the rest

But if we can’t call a woman rude names how will we spend our time?

Broadcast regulator rules it 'not fair' to call JK Rowling a 'transphobic bigot'https://t.co/5E8ycrAJKF

— PinkNews (@PinkNews) April 15, 2021

I’ll tell you what’s not fair! It’s not fair to tell people who like calling women rude names that it’s not fair to call women rude names! That’s what’s not fair!… Read the rest

But Poland was in Hawaii the whole time.

Historians fear that mounting pressure against scholars who implicate Poles in the Holocaust is having a chilling effect on research across Europe, with one France-based researcher saying she will tone down her upcoming book and shy away from naming names.

Audrey Kichelewski, an associate professor of contemporary history at the University of Strasbourg who is writing a book about postwar trials of Poles, said she would be “very cautious with the vocabulary” she used and would not cite defendants’ names for fear of being sued by living relatives.

It is the latest episode in what critics say is a concerted effort by Poland’s right-wing government and supportive groups to aggressively enforce

American Atheists issues a statement rebuking…heresy.

In response to Richard Dawkins’ recent tweet regarding trans people, Alison Gill, Vice President for Legal and Policy at American Atheists, a trans woman, released the following statement:

So American Atheists don’t believe in a god but they do believe in a magical changeable “gender” that means men become women by saying so, and that no one is allowed to believe that’s nonsensical.

The progress of science has helped us better understand who we are as trans people. As the American Psychological Association notes, “Many experts believe that biological factors such as genetic influences and prenatal hormone levels, early experiences, and experiences later in adolescence or adulthood may all contribute to the development

Are they though?

UK public figures use huge platforms to say damaging things relating to trans people – one of the most marginalised minorities – then claim victimhood when criticised online.

In the last 10 minutes, Robert Webb is challenged by the dad of a trans kid, and simply crumbles. https://t.co/tLJjeZcMPz

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) April 14, 2021

Are trans people really “one of the most marginalized minorities”? We’re certainly constantly told they are, but what are the criteria? Who is keeping track? Where are their findings?

Are they as marginalized as homeless people with mental health and/or drug and/or alcohol issues? Are they as marginalized as very poor people who are too poor to do the things it takes … Read the rest

No freedom of information for you, terf.

A woman was interested to know how many inmates in Washington state identify as transgender, and how many of those transgender identified inmates have been given transfers to go from men’s prison to women’s prison, and the reverse. To get this information, she filed a Freedom of Information Act request. Instead of getting the information she requested, she got sued by the ACLU.

I’ll wait while you stare in disbelief. It took me quite some time.

To be clear, at no point had this woman contacted the ACLU to tell them she was filing a FOIA. She had used ACLU resources to figure out how to file a FOIA, but that was

What is the point of any of it if you can’t or won’t think clearly and say things clearly? Very first paragraph of Hemant Mehta’s oooh Dawkins is twanzphobic post:

On Saturday, for some reason, Richard Dawkins randomly decided to question the humanity of transgender people — under the guise of I’m-just-asking-questions — while comparing their situation to that of Rachel Dolezal.

No he didn’t. Even if you disagree with what he said, even if you despise what he said, he still did not question the humanity of any people. Not even close. Saying men are not women is not questioning anyone’s humanity.

It’s a pretty glaring sign of a weak case when people keep stumbling into those … Read the rest

So, I replied to Iona Italia’s “both sides” tweets, argumentatively but not rudely, and today I find that she’s blocked me. It’s her right to block me or anyone else, of course, but I can still point out some flaws in both her claims and her approach to disagreement.

What’s surprising about it, to me (perhaps I’m naive), is that she’s part of the anti-woke anti-feminist anti-cancel culture crowd, the Peter Boghossian-James Lindsay-Helen Pluckrose crowd, the let debate flow no matter what crowd. In short these are people you don’t expect to block you just for disputing them.

So, is it extreme to say that men are not women?

— Ophelia Benson (@OpheliaBenson) April 13, 2021

How is it complex?

Originally a comment by Bjarte Foshaug on Why won’t you bitches compromise?

Frankly, I think most people sounding the “why won’t you compromise” and “both sides are so extreme, ick!” and “I’m frankly sort of in the middle” are virtue signalling; they are better. They are also committing the fallacy of the golden mean. The right answer does not always lie between the two “extremes”. And sometimes one extreme is not extreme.

[iknklast]

While we are on the subject, in the “2+2” controversy, the 6 vs. 4 debate is so intensely toxic on both sides that expressing any view that is not extreme (e.g. 2+2=5), will instantly attract attacks.

Meanwhile the “Holocaust” debate seems to be totally dominated by those … Read the rest

But this NEVER happens. Never never never never. It’s fine to force women to share showers and toilets with men because this never happens.

A police officer “arrogantly” tried to film a female colleague as she showered at their force headquarters unisex changing rooms, a jury has heard.

PC Jonathan Eaton, 32, of Gloucestershire Police, denies a voyeurism charge relating to an incident on 27 February 2019.

Newport Crown Court heard the woman spotted the phone being held underneath the partition as she was drying off.

PC Eaton was suspended from duty when he was arrested.

That never happens though. Never.… Read the rest

Another “oh both sides are just so extreme.”

The trans right vs. gender critical debate is so intensely toxic on both sides that expressing any view that is not extreme will instantly attract attacks. I cannot even touch it myself here on Twitter because personal friends & family have such ferocious opinions (on both sides)

— Iona Italia, PhD (@IonaItalia) April 13, 2021

So…it’s extreme to say that men can be women and it’s also extreme to say that men can’t be women? It’s all just a matter of sides and not in the least a matter of what’s true and what isn’t?

Is there any other issue that is quite this electric? It has reached the stage at

Typical Pink News way of framing “he said a thing we don’t like”:

Richard Dawkins drew criticism Saturday (10 April) for a provocative tweet that compared trans people to Rachel Dolezal.

No he didn’t draw criticism; people decided to criticise him.

On Saturday morning, an entire minute after tweeting about the late Prince Phillip’s top hat, the evolutionary biologist and outspoken atheist abruptly gave his take on trans lives that absolutely nobody asked for.

Remind me – how does Twitter work, again? You’re supposed to wait for someone to ask you a question before you tweet? You mustn’t tweet about subject X unless someone asks you to? Have I got that right?

Dawkins compared trans folk to Rachel Dolezal, the

Christians and Proud Boys unite to fight the common enemy…

A data breach from Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo has revealed that millions of dollars have been raised on the site for far-right causes and groups, many of whom are banned from raising funds on other platforms.

…

Some of the biggest beneficiaries have been members of groups such as the Proud Boys, designated as a terrorist group in Canada, many of whose fundraising efforts were directly related to the 6 January attack on the United States Capitol.

Church militant.

Candyce Kelshall, the president of the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies-Vancouver, who at at Simon Fraser University researches violent transnational social movements, said that far-right crowdfunding on GiveSendGo was

What’s NARAL doing sharing this?

Of course women (and girls) are the only people who get abortions. What is a man going to do with an abortion? Men don’t get abortions, women do. The reasons are too obvious to spell out.

You can’t “remind” people of nonsense. “Reminder that owls aren’t the only rabbits who get shovels!” Can’t remind me of that because I never knew it because it’s a consignment of geriatric shoe manufacturers. … Read the rest

Meghan Murphy is underwhelmed by Andrew Sullivan’s urging us to “compromise.”

The problem begins with the premise: that the category of “trans” is either a definable or rational category, distinguishable from those who do not identify as “trans.” Often, explaining that there is no such thing as a “trans person” is (disingenuously, in my opinion) interpreted to mean I wish to “deny the existence” of people who identify as trans. I do not. I am well aware there are people in this world who identify as transgender or who have attempted to “transition” to the opposite sex or gender. It is the category itself that makes no sense. Anyone could be trans, should they choose to claim it. It means

Scientific American tries to tell us that “youth” who identify as trans need to take puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones, yes need I tell you. It’s science.

This week Arkansas became the first state to ban physicians from giving hormones or puberty-delaying drugs to transgender people under age 18. Doctors who do so could be stripped of their licenses and sued. The law is called the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act…

…

The state senate sponsor of the Arkansas bill, Alan Clark, has said that puberty blockers and hormone treatments are “at best experimental and at worst a serious threat to a child’s welfare.” But medical and scientific organizations say his claim is wrong.

We are given the … Read the rest

But hey at least it’s nothing to do with social contagion, so that’s good.

There is no such thing as rapid onset gender dysphoria. There is no social contagion.

— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) April 12, 2021

I guess Strangio has access to the minds of all people who identify as trans, and thus knows all their thoughts and where the thoughts came from. Must be a lot to keep track of.… Read the rest

Huh. I thought Dawkins wouldn’t backtrack, but…wrong again.

Funny. It was always easy for him to brush off feminist women who disagreed with him, but trans women? Not so much, I guess.

I do not intend to disparage trans people. I see that my academic “Discuss” question has been misconstrued as such and I deplore this. It was also not my intent to ally in any way with Republican bigots in US now exploiting this issue .

— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) April 12, 2021

… Read the rest

So there can be such a thing as too much deference? Who knew?!

The BBC’s wall-to-wall coverage of Prince Philip’s death has become the most complained-about moment in British television history, as viewers expressed their annoyance that shows such as EastEnders and MasterChef were replaced with royal tributes.

At least 110,994 people have contacted the BBC to express their displeasure at the decision to turn most of the corporation’s TV channels and radio stations over to rolling tributes to the Queen’s husband.

BBC One and BBC Two dedicated Friday evening’s programming to Philip, and their ratings fell as viewers switched off altogether, turned to streaming services or watched shows such as Gogglebox on Channel 4.

But but but but … Read the rest