A reporter for NewsAnglia talked to Margaret Nelson about her encounter with the police.

Police have apologised to a blogger for their handling of a complaint about her online comments which had offended some members of the transgender community.

Margaret Nelson, who’s in her seventies and from near Needham Market in Suffolk, was asked to tone down her web posts and tweets about the sensitive issue

That’s such shit writing, and shit reporting. “Their handling” “was asked” – be specific. Be specific and tell the truth. A police person called her on the phone early in the morning, which would be at least startling and intrusive even if the call were about buying tickets to a fundraiser.

What

Speaking of shame and disgust and fear around menstruation – it has killed another woman in Nepal.

A 21-year-old woman has been become the fourth person known to have died this year as a result of the illegal practice of chhaupadi, whereby menstruating women in Nepal are banished from their homes and forced to sleep in huts.

Parbati Bogati, from the western Doti district, is thought to have died from smoke inhalation while sleeping in a small, windowless hut. She was discovered by her mother-in-law on Thursday morning.

Thus women are banished at the risk of their lives because they are the people who grow new human beings inside their own bodies.

Just weeks earlier Amba Bohara,

At long last, a period emoji!

I kid, but actually I think “Good.”

More:

It’s happening. We’re definitely getting a period emoji.

Unicode has confirmed the period emoji has been given the go-ahead and will hit keyboards in spring 2019.

The blood drop emoji is the result of a campaign led by girls’ rights group Plan International UK backed by 55,000 people, which set out to smash the silence and stigma surrounding menstruation by bringing a period emoji to global smartphone keyboards.

Sure; why not?

The period emoji is officially happening. It might not seem like it's a big deal, but it is. The stigma & shame surrounding menstruation can have a damaging effect on girls' lives. An emoji

… Read the rest

I’ve mentioned a couple of times en passant that a couple of trans activists had managed to get The Police to go visit Graham Linehan to “caution” him about saying unapproved things on Twitter, but now in following the story of a woman who was actually arrested and held for seven hours, apparently also for saying unapproved things on Twitter, I’ve done a little more digging.

The Guardian, October 7 last year:

Graham Linehan, the co-writer of the sitcom Father Ted, has been given a verbal harassment warning by police after a complaint by a transgender activist.

Linehan was told by West Yorkshire police not to contact the activist Stephanie Hayden, after a row on Twitter.

Hayden reported him

.@RepCummings is on fire. Stop whatever you're doing and watch this.

“One year ago today, on my mother’s dying bed at 92 years old — a former sharecropper — her last words were: Do. Not. Let. Them. Take. Our. Votes. Away. From. Us.” pic.twitter.com/yN6phWkC7D

— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) February 6, 2019

… Read the rest

The pope says oh yes it’s true that priests have been abusing nuns since always, we know all about it, we make sure to keep the nuns powerless so that they won’t kill us, would you like a biscuit?

Nuns have suffered and are still suffering sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests and bishops, and have even been held as sexual slaves, Pope Francis confirmed on Tuesday. The abuse was so severe in one case that an entire congregation of nuns was dissolved by former Pope Benedict.

The scope of the abuse of nuns by clergy members first came to light with the publication at the beginning of February of the monthly Vatican magazine “Women Church World.”

Speaking of people wanting to be “recognized” not as what they are but as some other, more interesting thing – poor billionaire Howard Schultz doesn’t like being called a billionaire.

Billionaire Howard Schultz isn’t a fan of being called a billionaire.

On Monday, the former Starbucks CEO and chairman sat down with the New York Times reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin to talk about his book “From the Ground Up: A Journey to Reimagine the Promise of America.”

Sorkin asked Schultz to respond to a question from the “Winner Takes All” author Anand Giridharadas — who’s been critical of Schultz’s political ambitions — about whether or not billionaires wield too much political power in the US.

The horror! You mean … Read the rest

What’s wrong with this picture.

https://twitter.com/thomjaminer/status/1092881106364391425

I don’t think I’m being virtuous. I just think that people should be recognized as how they are. Pretty low bar for virtue. For example: trans women are women. Calling trans women “Male” because you are transphobic is a you problem. Don’t make it their problem.

Spot the flaw. BZZZZZZZT! Correct! The flaw is the non sequitur between sentence two and sentence four:

People should be recognized as how they are. For example: trans women are women.

But that’s not an example of recognizing people as how they are; it’s the opposite. Trans women are in fact men who identify as / think they are / call themselves / claim to be women. How … Read the rest

Trump is reading his speech later today, and he’s invited a kid to come along to the show.

An 11-year-old boy who says he’s been bullied because of his last name — Trump — will be one of President Trump and first lady Melania Trump’s guests at the State of the Union on Tuesday, the White House announced.

Joshua Trump, a sixth-grade student from Wilmington, Del., who is not related to the president, drew headlines last year after his parents went public to share stories of the abuse they said he had suffered because of his last name.

…

Melania Trump has made combating bullying one of her main priorities in the White House — the thrust of her

Good; it’s in the Spectator. James Kirkup as usual.

Margaret Nelson is a 74-year-old woman who lives in a village in Suffolk. On Monday morning she was woken by a telephone call. It was an officer from Suffolk police. The officer wanted to speak to Mrs Nelson about her Twitter account and her blog.

Mrs Nelson, a former humanist celebrant and one-time local newspaper journalist, enjoys tweeting and writing about a number of issues, including the legal and social distinctions between sex and gender.

Among the statements she made on Twitter last month and which apparently concerned that police officer: ‘Gender is BS. Pass it on’.

Another:

‘Gender’s fashionable nonsense. Sex is real. I’ve no reason to feel

Talia Lavin explains the profound meaning of “Learn to Code.”

Last Thursday, I received the news that the HuffPost Opinion section—where I’d been opining on a weekly basis for a few months—had been axed in its entirety. The same opinion column had had a home at The Village Voice for some 21 weeks before that entire publication shuttered as well. “This business sucks,” I tweeted, chagrined at the simple fact that I kept losing my column because of the cruel, ongoing shrinkage of independent journalism in the United States. Dozens of jobs were slashed at HuffPost that day, following a round of layoffs at Gannett Media; further jobs were about to be disappeared at BuzzFeed. It was a grim day

And another thing about this business of the police calling people on the phone to “raise awareness” of complaints about a blog post that says cadavers reveal sex…

“A number of people”. Trans rights activists are using the police to harass people with gender critical views. HOW IS THIS NOT BIGGER NEWS? https://t.co/1Z8P8Ihb2n

— Graham Linehan (@Glinner) February 4, 2019

Another thing about that…What the hell makes them think anyone needs awareness raised when social media already exist? Not to mention phones, and Margaret Nelson said she’s easy to find. The people who have complaints can express them to Nelson; what makes the police think they need to help out? Since when is it part of the police’s job to … Read the rest

You have got to be kidding.

What a way to start the day! 2 early cold callers, one saying they're from the "call-blocking department", and a policewoman to tell me my online activity has caused offense to "transgenders", though she agreed a blog post wasn't untrue. Whoever's been offended tracked me down!

— Margaret Nelson (@Flashmaggie) February 4, 2019

The police. PHONING. Phoning to tell you your “online activity” has “caused offense.”

What blog post?

This blog post was mentioned. Apparently it's offensive.https://t.co/tnXG8VDLkW

— Margaret Nelson (@Flashmaggie) February 4, 2019

Let’s read it, to see if we can find what “caused offense” and of what type the caused “offense” was.

It starts with a tweet.

https://twitter.com/SamanthaMesse10/status/954267968183193600

It goes … Read the rest

I’ve seen headlines saying the Trump administration started grabbing children away from their parents at the southern border a lot earlier than it had admitted, but I didn’t follow them up. I should have. The law library blog at Stanford collected some blood-chilling details.

Via Truthdig:

Following reports on Thursday that federal officials forcibly separated thousands more migrant children from their families than previously reported, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D.-Ore.) released a document to NBC News revealing the Trump administration intended to “traumatize children and intentionally create a humanitarian crisis at the border.”

…

The December 2017 draft memo—which Merkley shared with NBC News after receiving it from a government whistleblower—shows that Trump administration officials wanted to deport

It seems the Washington Post ran a rather compelling ad during the “Super Bowl” yesterday, expanding on its post-Trump inauguration masthead slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” Paul Farhi explained in February 2017:

The Washington Post added a new phrase beneath its online masthead this week — “Democracy Dies in Darkness” — and the commentary flowed immediately. The slogan quickly trended on Twitter, drawing tweets even from the People’s Daily newspaper in China. It was fodder for a few late-night cracks from Stephen Colbert, who suggested some of the rejected phrases included “No, You Shut Up,” “Come at Me, Bro” and “We Took Down Nixon — Who Wants Next?”

Why that particular quartet of words? It goes back to Woodward, … Read the rest

Lynne Featherstone celebrates LGBT history month with the Liberal Democrats:

We have a long way to go.

It is our duty and responsibility to fight for equal rights everywhere we can. For LGBT+ people to express who they are, without fear. For trans people to be seen as people and welcomed into all spaces. For people of any sexuality and gender to come and live here without persecution.

Wait a second.

First – who doesn’t see trans people as people? That’s a red herring. The issue isn’t whether they’re people or not, the issue is whether they can change material reality just by declaration.

And second – welcomed into all spaces? Like, for instance, into all our living rooms, … Read the rest