Originally a comment by Artymorty on Referred to.

Interesting that team trans’s defence here is that transwomen are male after all — or this particular one at least is — and that there is a clearly visible difference between males and females.

Watkin’s lawyers said she saw and presented herself as female but was “visibly and audibly” male, so it would have been “blindingly obvious” to the man that Watkin was not biologically female.

It’s notable that they only ever admit this when it’s advantageous to their side to do so. Still, this is one of those items that’ll make a handy bookmark. It can be deployed to show that transactivists are never consistent in what they profess to believe. They’ll readily change their tune and even completely flip their arguments right around, depending on whatever side benefits them the most.

Interesting, too, that this case establishes that sexual orientation is based on biological sex and not “gender identity”. It didn’t take the jury very long to agree with the prosecution that deception about one’s biological sex can violate people’s deeply-held sexual instincts. I think that principle is very easy for people to grasp and to agree with.

It also goes to highlight how bizarre it is that we still can’t openly state our biological sex-based boundaries on dating apps like Grindr. This ruling says biological sex matters so much that it’s potentially criminal to mislead people about it, but the dating apps’ policies state the opposite — that biological sex is so inconsequential it’s practically criminal to even mention it. Effectively, dating app users are not allowed to reject a sexual advance on the basis of someone’s sex until they’re face-to-face IRL. Within the confines of the apps, they’re obligated to lie, potentially putting both sides in legal danger.

I wonder if that will change…

This ruling puts the gay male transgender culture in a bind in another way: it’s all about assimilating into “femaleness” as much as possible, especially for the purposes of gaining sexual attention from males. See, for example, Kim Petras, the gay male transwoman of “Slutpop” fame, whose entire persona consists of bragging about how fuckable he supposedly looks in the eyes of straight men.

See also the actor Hunter Schafer (who I just read about this morning, as he’s been cast in the upcoming Blade Runner TV series). I wrote about him here last year. He wants to be cast in roles that don’t mention his transgender status. But in reality, such “stealth” transness is illegal, once dating and mating become a part of one’s life.

The entire puberty blockers and pediatric gender medicine regime is built upon the total erasure of feminine boys’ biological sex.

But if they’re still legally obligated to inform potential partners of their sex, then what’s the point of all that deception? In this particular case, the fact that the defendant hadn’t had surgeries and hadn’t changed his appearance enough was what their entire defence rested on. The strange corollary of that is that the more transwomen “pass” the more liable they are to be found guilty of sexual assault by deception.

Seemingly, according to this ruling, transwomen always have to disclose to their sex partners that they’re male, which is going to make a lot of them question why they were put through this regime in the first place.

Hmm, there’s a lot to think about here…

Just a slight misunderstanding.

A transgender woman “deceived” a man into thinking she was a biological female so he would have sexual relations with her, a court has heard.

Ciara Watkin, 21, told the man she was on her period to stop him discovering she was biologically male, prosecutors told Teesside Crown Court…Ms Watkin, who was referred to by female pronouns in court, denies three counts of sexual assault.

He shouldn’t have been referred to by female pronouns in court. Courts shouldn’t allow lying, let alone encourage it or enforce it.

The defendant, who was born male, had used the name Ciara since the age of 13 although had not undergone any medical treatment or surgery, the court heard.

That’s how the BBC is dealing with the pronoun issue now? Just not using any pronoun at all?

The trial hasn’t ended yet.

Correction! “Ciara” was found guilty.

Chicago’s turn:

The Pentagon has for weeks been planning a military deployment to Chicago as President Donald Trump seeks to crack down on crime, homelessness and undocumented immigration, in a model that could later be used in other major cities, officials familiar with the matter said.

Trump on Friday touted his ongoing National Guard intervention in D.C., where more than 2,200 Guard members have been deployed in what he has cast as an overdue effort to crack down on crime. He zeroed in on Chicago as the next target.

“Chicago’s a mess. You have an incompetent mayor. Grossly incompetent,” Trump said, in remarks that were immediately dismissed by Chicago’s leaders as unfounded. “And we’ll straighten that one out probably next. That’ll be our next one after this. And it won’t even be tough.”

The officials familiar with the matter said that a military intervention in Chicago has long been in planning, probably in conjunction with expanded operations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to search for undocumented migrants.

This is of course in violation of the law, to wit the Posse Comitatus act. The president is not supposed to unleash the military on cities unless there’s a genuine crisis.

[Illinois Governor JB] Pritzker said in a statement Saturday night after this story was published that the state of Illinois had received “no requests or outreach from the federal government asking if we need assistance, and we have made no requests for federal intervention.”

He added that there is “no emergency that warrants the President of the United States federalizing the Illinois National Guard, deploying the National Guard from other states, or sending active duty military within our own borders.”

And that means he is violating the law by doing it.

Trump deployed both the National Guard members and a battalion of Marines in California in June while citing “incidents of violence and disorder” that had occurred during ICE operations to round up undocumented immigrants. Under the law Trump used, Title 10, the troops are generally prevented from being involved in law enforcement.

The California deployment was contested in court, with Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and other officials questioning whether Trump had violated the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law that prohibits U.S. troops from carrying out civilian law enforcement actions. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled that Trump’s orders violated the law, but his decision was halted by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco.

So here we are.

Here’s a funny little circle. The other day I found a book in a Little Free Library titled The Sociopath Next Door. When I see or hear the word “sociopath” I always wonder how it differs from psychopath, so I snapped it up. Reading it last night I naturally noticed that Trump meets every criterion for both, and that that doesn’t get said all that often. So this morning I googled, and turned up The White House has become the Bates Motel by Robert Kahn from last April.

As a student of Ancient Rome, I am disturbed that the reign of Donald Trump.2 so closely resembles the reigns of Nero and Caligula. By some measures, Trump.2’s is worse. After all, Nero and Caligula knew what they were doing, once in a while.

But why is it worse, and how is it worse? I find four major reasons. We shall attempt to discover which of his flaws is the worst: Is it that he’s a moron, a narcissist, a sociopath, or a psychopath?

In my view there is no one worst; they’re all worst. It’s futile trying to rank them, because they’re all as bad as they could possibly be. So anyway. He starts with stupidity and narcissism and concludes the narcissism is multiplied by the stupidity. Then:

As for Trump’s sociopathy: In an excellent 2005 book, “The Sociopath Next Door,” Martha Stout shows that the traits of a sociopath — lack of conscience, habitual lying, aggressive and manipulative behaviors, and absolute unconcern for people one has injured — are also, or could be, in many ways, the “attributes” of a “successful” businessman.

Which is funny because that’s the very book that prompted me to seek out more information on sociopathy and psychopathy.

I wonder why he doesn’t get called a psychopath more often. I suppose it’s that silly taboo on armchair diagnosing? But bloody hell, if ever anyone ticked the “could not possibly care less about other people” box it’s Donald Trump and it’s necessary to say so. Not that it will do us any good – we turn out to be the nation that loves having a psychopath in charge.

Wo. Just happened to notice the headlines about this and read further and wtf.

SEATTLE — The Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS) arrested the captain of the container ship MSC on Wednesday for allegedly operating the vessel while intoxicated.

I can see the container ships gliding past from where I’m sitting, so I take an interest. I can see them in detail at the terminal every time I take a bus to West Seattle (which I do often), so I take an interest.

The incident began when watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound received a report from a Puget Sound Pilot aboard the MSC Jubilee IX, a 333-meter container ship operating under the Liberian flag.

The Liberian flag signals, among other things, less stringent rules.

The pilot reported that the ship’s captain was showing signs of intoxication.

During the transit from an anchorage near Everett, Washington, to Terminal 5 at the Port of Seattle, the pilot and first mate took over the ship’s operation, ensuring a safe passage without incident.

Upon the ship’s arrival at Terminal 5, a Coast Guard boarding team and CGIS agents began an examination.

The captain underwent a field sobriety and breathalyzer test, which revealed he was impaired at more than six times the legal limit for commercial mariners.

Six times!!!

He’s now in jail.

Thanks Coast Guard!

Hmm.

I watched the clip. I gotta say, he’s not very good. Too slow. Waits for laughter that doesn’t arrive. Also of course not particularly funny. Other than that…

JKR firing with both barrels.

Is there a clinical term for an individual who has extreme thinness of skin when it comes to their own perceived hurts, coupled with a rhino-hide when it comes to the fear and suffering of others?

I’m thinking in particular of the two women Isla Bryson raped, who had to watch their First Minister squirm and smirk on TV as she tried to avoid admitting he was a man; of the five survivors of male violence who were ready to give evidence to Sturgeon’s committee on gender self-ID, but were told to put their concerns in writing while seventeen trans-identified people appeared in person; of the mother of a young girl with a learning disability who campaigned against self-ID because she wanted her daughter to be guaranteed same sex intimate care, should she need it (the mother was presumably one of those female opponents Sturgeon calls ‘shrill’ and ‘hysterical’ in her memoir); of the ten-year-old girl sexually assaulted in a public bathroom by a 6’5″ paedophile who served his jail sentence in a women’s prison because he called himself ‘Katie’; of Sandie Peggie, forced to discuss her own menstrual history in public to justify not wanting to undress in view of a 6ft straight cross-dresser in the nurses’ changing room; of Marion Millar, dragged into court because she tweeted a picture of suffragette ribbons; of the Scottish rape crisis centres reliant on government funding who were pressured to admit trans-identified males into their services if they wanted funding to continue.

When Sturgeon refers to an ‘elevated debate’, she means a discussion that takes place within a tiny, smug bubble from which regular women suffering real life consequences of her policies are firmly excluded. These faceless ants are loftily dismissed as bigots, or, to be more precise: ‘transphobic, misogynistic, homophobic, maybe racist as well.’

Nicola, you hated the T-shirt picture because you couldn’t ignore it, as you’d ignored so many other women trying to make you understand their concerns. Appeals to your empathy, your intelligence and your compassion all failed. Apparently the only way to get through to you is through your vanity.

Ouch.

Imane Khelif says he’d just love to come back, the very minute they drop those pesky tests.

Olympic champion boxer Imane Khelif insists she has not retired, accusing her former manager of ‘betrayal’ after he falsely claimed she had called it a day. 

Although the gender row fighter will be skipping the upcoming World Championships after the introduction of sex testing, she shut down any notion that she has stopped competing for good. 

Nasser Yesfah, who used to represent her, had been reported in French newspaper Nice Matin as saying she had hung up her gloves, which was then denied by gold medal winner.

I don’t know why the Mail calls him “her” at this point.

Since the Olympics, the new governing body World Boxing have confirmed fighters will be required to undergo mandatory sex screening to compete in their events.

Khelif skipped her comeback event in the weeks following the announcement.

Khelif skipped his comeback event.

The president of World Boxing, Boris van der Vorst said: ‘World Boxing respects the dignity of all individuals and is keen to ensure it is as inclusive as possible, yet in a combat sport like boxing, we have a duty of care to deliver safety and competitiveness fairness which are the key principles that have guided the development and creation of this policy.’

What does he mean “as inclusive as possible”? It’s not “inclusive” to include a man in women’s sports. Including that man entails excluding that woman, and since it’s women’s sports the woman is being excluded from, that’s not inclusive.

Not even at first glance.

Recently, a disturbing trend has surfaced at the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) games: fans throwing dildos onto the court. At first glance, some might brush it off as a crude joke or a bizarre stunt.

Might they? That would be stupid. Of course it’s not a joke or stunt. It’s just boring old misogyny. “You think you’re so great, bitch? Hahaha suck my dick.”

Throwing a dildo onto a court where women are competing isn’t comedy. It’s about control and humiliation. It turns a professional sporting event into a stage for sexualising female athletes and stripping away the focus from their skill and hard work. This act reinforces the belief that despite women’s achievements, someone can still see them as sexual objects for amusement. 

And throw things at them.

Very special man with pink hair interrupts this broadcast to tell us he has brand new twin babies but he doesn’t love being called Daddy.

‘Daddy’s right here for you, okay?,’ said the neonatal medic to my newborn identical twins as they wheeled them to the special care unit.

This was the first time someone had referred to me by this name, but as well as finding it sweet and overwhelming in a good way, I also found it quite jarring. 

As an assigned male at birth (AMAB) non-binary person, being referred to as ‘the dad’ or ‘daddy’ – which are clearly masculine-gendered terms – didn’t fit with my gender identity. 

Way to make it all about you, bro. Way to conjure up some kind of rebukey petulant gripe in order to talk about yourself right after the woman who did all the work did all the work.

But as the options for gender-neutral titles aren’t great – and deviating from the traditional binary gendered parent names is fraught with risks like people not being able to work out what my relationship is with my children – I’ve had to learn to make peace with being misgendered in this way ever since. 

I wish that we as a society had already established gender-neutral parent words which everyone is aware of, to allow me to be recognised as my full self, but the poor state of LGBTQIA+ education means this feels like a distant possibility.  

But having a special luxury word would do nothing to allow you to be recognized as your full special glorious platinum self, for the extremely simple reason that NO ONE GIVES A FUCK.

Are you really old enough to impregnate a woman but still unable to grasp that other people don’t care about you the way you care about you? That trying to tell the world how special you are is supremely childish?

There’s much more of the same and it’s all just as infantile. His twins are smarter than he is.

This is what’s holding us hostage. This.

This will go very well.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered National Guard troops patrolling the streets of Washington for President Donald Trump’s law enforcement crackdown to start carrying firearms, the Pentagon said Friday.

…

The step is an escalation in Trump’s intervention into policing in the nation’s capital and comes as nearly 2,000 National Guard members have been stationed in the heavily Democratic city, with the arrival this week of hundreds of troops from several Republican-led states.

Trump initially called up 800 members of the District of Columbia National Guard to assist federal law enforcement in his bid to crack down on crime, homelessness and illegal immigration. Since then, six states have sent troops to the city, growing the military presence.

That’s cool. Send some tanks why doncha?

Alex Wagner, a former chief of staff to the Army secretary and assistant secretary for the Air Force during Democratic administrations, said asking troops to carry firearms is a “recipe for disaster.”

He said most National Guard members don’t have the right training for Trump’s law enforcement crackdown and are being put in a “no-win situation”

“Do they have any role that would require them to have firearms? No,” he said.

Yes they do! They’re there to crush the enemy!

He done undercut the principle again.

When federal agents armed with a search warrant showed up at John R. Bolton’s home outside Washington at dawn on Friday, it was a display of one of the government’s most intimidating powers, in this case deployed against a fierce and high-profile critic of President Trump.

It is not yet clear what evidence the Justice Department cited in convincing a federal judge to sign off on the search warrant, or what culpability Mr. Bolton might have in an on-and-off investigation into whether he mishandled classified information dating back to when he served as Mr. Trump’s national security adviser during the president’s first term.

But the episode illustrated how Mr. Trump’s campaign of retribution has undercut the principle that law enforcement should keep a substantial distance from politics, stoking questions about whether even legitimate investigations are colored by the president’s insistence on putting his perceived enemies through the same treatment he faced as a target of multiple inquiries.

Ya think??? I know it’s hard to imagine that Trump would ever allow investigations to be colored by his determination to get revenge on anyone who pisses him off, but on the other hand we’ve seen him do it many many many times so maybe we should start to entertain the thought that he’s not better than he seems.

In the case of the search of Mr. Bolton’s home, the developments were accompanied by almost gleeful statements from administration officials. Mr. Trump’s F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, who before taking office listed Mr. Bolton as a member of an executive branch “deep state,” posted on social media: “NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission.” The deputy F.B.I. director, Dan Bongino, reposted Mr. Patel, saying: “Public corruption will not be tolerated.”

What? What? WHAT???

The Australian:

A parliamentary committee examining the impact of stillbirth on mothers has prefaced its evidence by acknowledging that men who have transitioned or are transitioning to become women should also be part of the conversation around the loss of babies during labour and pregnancy.

What???

Obviously fathers are affected by stillbirths, but that’s not what this says. This singles out fathers who pretend to be women, and what the hell is the point of that?? I can guarantee you that men who pretend to be women are not physically affected by stillbirths the way women are, so what remains? There’s no reason to think fathers who pretend to be women are emotionally more affected than fathers who are just plain humdrum men are. If anything it’s probably the reverse – men who pretend to be women are necessarily self-centered, so they may well be less distraught over a stillbirth than men who are not that type or degree of self-centered.

Despite the medical impossibility of former men ever becoming pregnant or enduring the hardship of miscarriage, one of South Australia’s most senior health bureaucrats opened her evidence to an SA parliamentary committee by reassuring that her use of the terms “women” and “woman” was not intended to be exclusionary in the context of stillbirth.

Well then she might as well have opened her evidence by saying none of her words mean anything.

The select committee has been formed after lobbying from groups representing affected and grieving mothers to examine ways to make the health system more attuned to the needs of women who experience the trauma of miscarriage.

But SA Women’s and Children’s Health Network chief executive Rebecca Graham used her opening statement to the committee last week to reassure intersex and transgender women that they should also feature in discussion around stillbirth.

But they shouldn’t. Intersex maybe, but “transgender” of course not.

“In our discussion today, the terms ‘woman’ and ‘women’ will be used, and this is in line with the current research and evidence,” Ms Graham said. “It is intended to include those with diverse sexualities as well – intersex women and transgender women too. SA Health seeks to acknowledge inclusivity and individual family and community preference and identity in what we are describing.”

But inclusivity and preference and idenniny don’t apply here. It’s wrong to be “inclusive” of men in discussions of the impact of stillbirth on the woman who experiences one.

Ms Graham sought to clarify her remarks when contacted by The Australian. “It is important to acknowledge that anyone can be impacted by the loss of a child through stillbirth,” she said in a statement.

Weasel wording. What kind of “anyone”? You mean just random people? Shove a microphone at someone on the street to ask “Are you ‘impacted’ by the stillbirth of someone you don’t know?”

Anyway it doesn’t matter, because the committee was examining the impact of stillbirth on mothers. The people who have that experience with their bodies. Not everyone, not just anyone, not even both parents, but specifically the mother, because it’s her body that goes through it.

I couldn’t find any Anglophone news on this but for what it’s worth…

If it’s true it’s hard to think of anything more calculated to insult and harm women.

Why does he do this on “social media”? Why not just run around DC writing it on the walls of toilets?

Wait a second…

Citation Justice – what it is and how you can practice it

Citations play a powerful role in academia, both institutionally and for individual careers. They form the bedrock of research assessment practices and are increasingly influential in job applications, promotions, grant applications and university rankings. There is no denying that citations matter. However, there is increasing evidence that women, people of colour, and other minoritised groups are systemically under cited, serving to exclude and silence many voices from scholarly and academic debates. Take a look at the paper you’re writing, or the texts in your reading lists: how many of these authors are men and/or white? How many women or people of colour have you cited? Are those that you are citing only established authors, or have you made space for new and emerging voices? All of these questions will reflect the extent to which you are representing the diversity of thought and authorship in your field.

But…I hate to belabor the obvious, but that’s not how citations work. Academics seek sources that are relevant to their subject matter, and high quality. They don’t seek them in order to tick some boxes. I know that’s a bromide whenever the subject of affirmative action comes up, but still, when it comes to academic research, the content and quality and relevance are what count.

Citation justice is using the power of citations to address the historical and persistent undercitation of certain groups by changing citation practices. As part of Birmingham Business School’s Decolonisation Project, we have been exploring the issue of citation justice within our own research culture. Working closely with the Library Services team, we’ve begun to look at citations in both our research and our teaching, to understand how these can be changed.

But it isn’t about “justice.” It’s about content. It’s certainly true that, for instance, women and non-white people have been left out of a lot of history, so urging historians to seek out areas that are not 100% pale male to research makes sense. If a particular book ignores women and/or non-white people when they were right there the whole time, say that. But telling scholars to change their citations for demographic reasons is just silly.

Sounds interesting.

Period pain and heavy bleeding linked with lower school attendance and GCSE results – new study

The article is by two women, in fact two women named Gemma.

Menstrual cycles are experienced by roughly half of the population for half of their lives. The experiences of menstruation on teenagers are incredibly important, especially as young people are starting periods earlier. Our research shows that this impact extends to their school attendance – and GCSE results.

Previous studies have reported that many young people take time off school and struggle to concentrate in school because of difficult experiences related to menstruation.

By roughly half the population is it? Any particular half? Teenagers, young people, yes, but can you share with us which teenagers/young people?

Menstrual-related pain and heavy bleeding are commonly experienced menstrual symptoms. For many, these symptoms may be minor and have few consequences. For others they can be severe and have a significant impact on daily life.

Normalisation of these symptoms makes it difficult for people, especially young people, to identify whether their symptoms are problematic. Societal pressures to hide or conceal menstruation and menstrual stigma also foster feelings of shame, making it challenging to have conversations about periods or ask for help. As a result, many people struggle with menstrual symptoms that affect their health and wellbeing.

Ah yes social pressures – thank you for bringing that up. Speaking of social pressures, any thoughts on the intense social pressure to delete words like “women” and “girls” and “female” from the language?

The results from this study fit with many previous studies that have shown menstrual issues can result in more absences and difficulties focusing and concentrating. They also provide further evidence that qualifications can be affected. This shows that menstrual difficulties can restrict the ability of young people to reach their full potential, with possible implications on access to further education or employment prospects.

Talk about laboriously concealing your own point. What they’re telling us is that menstruation is a giant hindrance to girls’ efforts to do well on exams and thus go on to higher education. That’s what the article is about and yet they deliberately conceal it.

Final two paragraphs:

Teenagers can face challenges managing menstruation at school. These may include restrictions on when they can go to the toilet, or inaccessibility of period products.

This can lead to many feeling that school is not a safe and supportive environment when menstruating. They may end up missing school entirely, or struggling to concentrate if they do attend school due to worries about managing and coping with menstruation and associated symptoms. Better support is needed for young people who menstruate and who struggle with problematic menstrual symptoms, so they are able to achieve their full academic potential.

It’s just astounding. They go to all that trouble only to hide the very point they’re trying to make. It doesn’t get more idiotic than that.

Well this took my breath away. The NPR article is about Trump’s plan to meddle with all the museums, not just the federal ones, and that’s breathtaking enough, but then it got even more so.

In a statement to NPR Wednesday, the president and CEO of the American Alliance of Museums, Marilyn Jackson, framed the issue as one of creative and scholarly independence. She wrote:

“The idea of extending federal reviews to the nation’s 22,000 museums misunderstands how museums operate. The vast majority are independent nonprofits, guided by professional standards and community trust. Museums cannot and should not be subject to government review of their exhibitions. The integrity of museums depends on their independence, and that’s what makes them so valuable to the public.”

…

Trump Administration critics, including multiple Democratic Congressional representatives, like Rep. Bennie Thompson, have said this year that the President is trying to erase “Black voices and history.” The New York City Bar released a statement in June saying that it seemed like the president and his administration are trying to dismantle the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

“The common thread running through all these orders and actions is that the civil rights laws can and should be invoked to justify protecting a dominant group (i.e., white people or cisgender girls) at the expense of the rights of minority groups and in contravention of the transformative purpose of these laws,” the NYC Bar statement read.

EXCUSE ME???

Since when are girls the dominant group? Since never, that’s when. That’s not the pattern. That pattern is inside out and backwards. It’s not white people & girls have privilege while people of color and boys do not have privilege.

And it’s the NYC Bar saying that outrageous thing!

Hoist by their own petard much?

A German neo-Nazi will be allowed to start serving an 18-month sentence in a women’s prison after he used a new government policy to register a change in gender.

Sven Liebich, who has been photographed at far-Right rallies wearing a Nazi-style uniform, will be sent to the Chemnitz women’s prison in Saxony, according to FAZ, a German newspaper.

Because he’s obviously not taking the piss, right? Totally sincere?

Also of course there’s the issue of the safety of actual women in the prison, but meh, that doesn’t matter.

Dennis Cernota, a senior prosecutor in Saxony, said that Liebich would be interviewed upon arrival to check whether it was appropriate for him to be placed among female prisoners. If it is decided that Liebich poses a threat to other inmates, or to law and order inside the prison, he may be transferred, Mr Cernota added.

And they’ll be able to figure that out by interviewing him, because of course he won’t lie and manipulate, right?

Liebich was able to switch genders via reforms introduced last year by Olaf Scholz’s centrist coalition, which simplified the process of changing a person’s name and gender on official documents.

The reforms were supposed to support transgender, intersex and non-binary people in Germany, but their use by a neo-Nazi to avoid male prisoners has plunged them into controversy.

Bashes head against wall

How many billion times have we pointed out that any man can “use” such reforms to avoid male prisons and make female prisons extra-special dangerous for women? How many billion times have we pointed out that’s why there are separate prisons in the first place, and that if you make exceptions then you’re opening the door to men doing exactly what Herr Nazi is doing? How many more times do we have to explain it???

When Mr Scholz was in power, he justified the reforms on gender changes as a key step forward for German society and its respect towards minorities.

“We show respect to trans, intersex and non-binary people, without taking anything away from others. This is how we continue to drive the modernisation of our country. This includes recognising realities of life and making them possible by law,” he said.

You can’t, you absolute buffoon. You can’t do that because it is not possible. You can’t let men into women’s prisons without “taking away” women’s safety from men in prisons. You have to pick one.