There is much confusion right now about Labour and its position on women and what exactly it is trying to say.

Yesterday @Womans_Place_UK tweeted:

WPUK is pleased to see that @UKLabour recognises the importance of the single-sex exemptions in the Equality Act is committing to upholding them. https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Real-Change-Labour-Manifesto-2019.pdf 1/2

But now there is waffling, or there isn’t but there is the appearance that there is.

Dawn Butler, Labour Women & Equalities Secretary, says nothing has changed.

.@UKLabour will reform the GRA to introduce self-declaration for trans people.

We will remove outdated language from the Equalities Act.

And there is no way spaces will be permitted to discriminate against trans people. That is illegal and it will stay illegal.

In other news, the event involving Kathleen Stock went ahead.

Happy to report that talk went ahead without incident. Turns out 6.3k likes for no-platforming campaign translates to 5 individual emails sent against me; meanwhile 3 emails were sent in support, one of which had over 300 signatures. (Thank you so much to all who wrote & signed).

I did. There were over 300 I think.

Being Human Festival has details on the subject matter and participants:

Diversity has become a divisive issue in today’s society. In this debate philosophers at the front line will be picking at its complexities and difficulties. What are the different forms of diversity? Why do they matter? Should we be promoting or managing

A thread by Sarah Phillimore on the Fair Cop judicial review:

Home again after a hectic two days at #FairCopJR. Feel a lot more optimistic tonight than I did this morning. It’s hard to pick favourite moments out of so many but my Top Three have to be:

1. Judicial recognition that TERF is a slur
2. Both College of Policing and Humberside making it clear they didn’t understand the Equality Act
3. The carefully redacted document that was hiding the fact that the ‘victim’ had used hateful language herself

But the – possibly unseemly – glee provoked by watching someone stuff up their own case, line by line is tempered by the growing realisation that the Government have

About that custody battle over the kid whose mother wanted to trans him while his father did not –

The Younger case has gained much media attention, in the U.S. and beyond. The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the BBC all seem to cast the father as the villain, in particular for his refusal to agree that his child is transgender. Rolling Stone opines that the Younger story has become a “terrifying right-wing talking point.” Vox is worried about Republican state legislators’ trying to introduce bills prohibiting chemical and surgical interference with the sexual development of children who say they’re transgender, and “what [this] could mean for families nationwide” when “legislators want to have a say

A side note in Fiona Hill’s testimony at the impeachment hearing is of interest:

This is a bit of a sidebar to her testimony but Hill’s low estimation of the professional environment in the UK has not gone unnoticed.

“Years later, I can say with confidence that this country has offered for me opportunities I never would have had in England,” Hill testified. “I grew up poor with a very distinctive working-class accent.”

Julian Borger tweets:

Unfortunately, it’s worse than that. She’s saying even in 1980’s 1990’s, you couldn’t get recognition for your talent and expertise if you had a working-class accent.
It was an indictment of Britain. https://twitter.com/RobbieGramer/status/1197538764731629568 …

Robbie Gramer
✔
@RobbieGramer
In new testimony, Fiona Hill

The White House issues a statement:

Shifty Schiff thinks he hasn’t gotten enough camera time. So during a brief break, he’s doing a press conference.

New hoax. Same swamp.
8:12 AM · Nov 20, 2019· TheWhiteHouse

Not a hoax.

… Read the rest

Things from the past:

Many centuries ago, a cat walked over an Italian manuscript, leaving its paw prints on the document forever. 1445

You’re welcome.… Read the rest

Speaking of that Times article…

A feminist artist who was due to speak at Oxford Brookes University yesterday had her talk cancelled at the last minute after students accused her of holding transphobic views.
The event featuring Rachel Ara, hosted by the university’s fine art research unit, was called off after the LGBTQ+ society sent a letter to Anne-Marie Kilday, the pro-vice-chancellor, condemning her invitation.

That’s all it took. One letter, from stupid uninformed people complaining of the sharing of two tweets.

The letter to Professor Kilday was signed by a number of people, including the chairman of the university’s Labour Party Club and the president of the LGBTQ+ society.

They should have read it more carefully.

Ara, 53,

Also happening today – because there’s not enough going on?? – is that Fair Cop is in court tweeting the case of Harry Miller aka Harry the Owl, whose account was suspended for evilthought.

A selection of the tweets:

Opening by Harry’s counsel. Plainly a very important case involving freedom of speech in the internet era. Won’t go through all background facts but take the court to important documents. #FairCopJR

The involvement of the police in social media discussion about this. Judge interjects – want to lay down a marker. What is said against you is that recording a hate incident is not a sanction so not interference. And said your client is robust enough to comment.

Judge – suppose

This could be an apocryphal or exaggerated story, but if not…

A Hollywood executive wanted Julia Roberts to portray Harriet Tubman in the leading abolitionist’s biopic, the screenwriter of the new film “Harriet” said.

After studying Tubman’s life in college, about how she helped lead enslaved people to freedom on the Underground Railroad, screenwriter Gregory Allen Howard was determined to adapt her story into a feature film, he said in an interview with Focus Features, the distributor of “Harriet.”

When he met with a studio president about the idea in 1994, his script garnered praise, Howard wrote in an essay in the Los Angeles Times. It also received a casting suggestion.

“Let’s get Julia Roberts to play

A highlight reel of the statement:

… Read the rest

The Oxford Mail has the story on the abrupt last minute cancellation of Rachel Ara’s talk:

A FEMINIST artist who was due to speak at Oxford Brookes University tonight has had her talk cancelled at the last minute after accusations from students that she is transphobic.

Rachel Ara announced on Twitter this morning that her event had been cancelled after complaints from students and speculated that her art is ‘too challenging for today’s youth’.

It comes after Oxford Brookes LGBTQ+ society sent a letter to the university’s pro-vice chancellor, professor Anne-Marie Kilday, condemning the invitation to the artist to speak at the university because of her alleged transphobic views.

Ms Ara, who won the Aesthetica Art Prize 2016 for

Oh good, another smug stupid slogan from another group that should know better. Lambda Legal tweets:

Qualities that make someone “a real man”:

1. Identifying as a man.
2. See above.
3. See above.
4. See above.

#InternationalMensDay

Can anyone play?

Qualities that make someone a real pilot:

1. Identifying as a pilot.
2. See above.
3. See above.
4. See above.

Good? Compelling? Obviously true?

Qualities that make someone a real Beluga whale:

1. Identifying as a Beluga whale.
2. See above.
3. See above.
4. See above.

Qualities that make someone a real planet:

1. Identifying as a planet.
2. See above.
3. See above.
4. See above.

Qualities that make someone a real daffodil:

1. Identifying … Read the rest