Oh goodness gracious me, they had no idea.

Organisers of a women’s rights march have been forced to drop a transgender speaker after being “made aware” of a violent past.

The co-ordinators of the UK Women’s March (UKWM) caused outrage by asking Sarah Jane Baker, a convicted criminal, to address crowds on Saturday in London. The organisers had encouraged “anyone who is an ally of women and believes in women’s rights” to march with them in the fight for gender equality – and the event was set to have Baker as a speaker.

However, they have now said that Baker will not be given a platform. They said they had not previously known that the transgender rights activist was the subject of a life sentence for attempted murder and had served 30 years in 29 separate male prisons.

Excuse me???

If that’s really true, how did they manage to know enough about him to find it appropriate to invite him to tell the assembled women what’s what? If they didn’t know that about him what did they know about him? What the hell prompted them to invite him in the first place? Sheer fucking spite against the very people they claim to speak for – women?

“There has been a lot of social media traffic about Sarah Jane Baker speaking at the UK Women’s March in London tomorrow,” organisers said in a statement online.

“We would like to clarify that after being made aware of Sarah’s criminal background in interpersonal abuse, UKWM and Sarah have mutually agreed that she will stand down as a speaker at the event.”

Those absolute shits. It wasn’t mere “interpersonal abuse”; it was attempted murder.

The punchline of the whole thing is that Baker is now mad at the organizers.

“I sent a statement to the organisers and asked to share it with the public stating that it had been mutually agreed that I would step aside so that the march’s focus would be on women’s issues, not transgender issues.” However, Baker said, an alternative statement from the organisers was instead released.

“I do not agree with this new statement and was not involved at any point in its formation,” Baker added. “It is deeply disappointing and yet entirely predictable from people who don’t actually have the guts to fight on these issues.”

So that went well.

And sure enough, “trans rights” front and center in the mockingly named “Women’s March.”

The UK women’s march – the one that’s incloosive of men – is today, so it’s probably happening (in multiple cities) now.

It’s pathetic how anti-feminist it is.

The Facebook group – with 21 thousand members – has a statement. Most of it is what you’d expect; the rest of it isn’t.

We are marching because reproductive rights are being removed state by state in the US making it increasingly more difficult to access safe abortions, and where vital healthcare is needed to save a woman’s life.

We are marching because discrimination and violence against trans women and girls has increased around the world. Anti-trans rhetoric prevents women from addressing the real issues they encounter by reinforcing the gender stereotypes that have oppressed women for centuries.

We are marching because women in Afghanistan under Taliban rule have been effectively silenced by being banned from speaking in public. They are no longer allowed to access education or work and are prevented from freedom of expression.

Staggering, isn’t it. Sandwiched between forced pregnancy in the US and the Taliban we get an irrelevant whine about “trans women” i.e. men.

We’re not allowed to have anything for ourselves.

The conclusion:

It’s time to march.

*Our feminism is intersectional*

Inclusivity is at the core of UK Women’s March. We acknowledge how race, gender, class, sexuality, and disability intersect. Women are exposed to racism, ageism, ableism, homophobia, and transphobia, not just sexism and misogyny. This means we must acknowledge how these differences interlock for feminism to work.

“Not just sexism and misogyny” – way to belittle your own cause.

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Empathy deficit.

There’s no legal obligation on a bi or even c i s / straight person to declare their personal info…

Sure there is. If you deceive someone into having sex with you by pretending to be someone you’re not, it doesn’t matter what your orientation, or “gender identity” is. It’s the deception part that is wrong. You are lying about your “personal info.” That’s going to be a red flag no matter what that personal info is, if the other person’s consent hinges on that very information. To put it more transactionally, you’re not allowed to purchase something with counterfeit money. In fact it’s a crime. The same goes for consent. If the consent was given on the strength of that deception, a consent that would have been withheld if the true identity of the individual seeking it had been known at the time, it means that it wasn’t consensual sex at all, but rape or sexual assault.

It’s not “homophobic” or “transphobic” or “misandrist” or “misogynist” if someone exercizes their preference for partners of a particular sex. Sex is about sex, not imagined and imaginary “gender identity.” Your “gender identity” does not and cannot change your sex, no matter what it says in your passport. Your passport could just as authoritatively say that you are invisible, but it doesn’t have any more power to render you invisible than it has to turn you into a female. There’s nothing and no one that can do that. Nobody can legislate reality. We can still see you’re a man, and we have the right to say you are a man.

So wave your passport all you like. It won’t get you anywhere. Just because the IOC would let you get into the boxing ring against a woman doesn’t mean that it gives you the right to get into someones’s bed on the strength of your fraudulent claim to being “female.” And unlike athletics, part of the dating game actually does depend upon what one might well call “genital inspections.” And if you don’t pass that “test” (or if you fail to meet any other need, requirement, or desire someone might have before consenting to let you become their intimate partner), you can’t force them to change their mind. They don’t owe you anything. And, since you obviously need some guidance on this, such consent as is given is always provisional; it can always be withdrawn at any time for any reason.

All of the surgery, hormones, clothing, accessories, and makeup in the world can’t change the fact that you are male. To maintain otherwise is deceitful, however well or fleetingly you might “pass.” Nobody needs any reason at all to say “No” to you at any time. Ever. One of those reasons might be because you’re engaged in an ongoing lie. Or maybe just the fact that you’re an asshole. Perhaps someday you’ll find someone who loves you, and wants you for you; but until that day, nobody is obligated to do either on account of your supposed “identity.” We all get to say “No.”

A deep question.

Because they’re playing a trick, that’s why.

I suppose there are some circumstances where it doesn’t matter much, but for anything up close and personal, yes morally speaking you damn well should inform.

And there is something wrong with being trans: it’s based on a lie, and it’s inherently deceptive.

This just in –

Also the “mutually agreed” part is odd. What mean? He agreed that he’s a violent man with a violent history and should not be anywhere near a women’s march? Then why did he accept in the first place? Why did you invite him in the first place?

Why, in fact, DID YOU INVITE HIM IN THE FIRST PLACE?

These people are such fucking fools.

The inclooosive women’s march has a Facebook page.

It lists some rules.

2 No Hate Speech or Bullying

We want to ensure that this group feels safe for everyone. Therefore, bullying or degrading comments about race, culture, sexual orientation, gender or identity will not be tolerated.

And of course comments about genner idenniny are considered bullying and degrading if they fail to bend the knee to the Obvious Absolute Truth of the dogma that people can change sex just by saying so.

4 No Discrimination. No transphobia.

This is a women’s support march which includes anyone born female, identifies as female, or just wants to support other women. This is an inclusive space. Discrimination or transphobia will not be tolerated and will result in a permanent ban.

So. There you have it. It’s a women’s march, but women who say men are not women are evil people and will be permanently banned.

More on the march that identifies as a women’s march while it expresses intense hostility toward women:

A protest for women’s rights will take place this weekend across various cities in the country, including Bristol.

UK Women’s March, organised by Grassroots Feminism, will hold demonstrations against Donald Trump’s reelection, as well as recent comments made by Nigel Farage on abortion.

…

Grassroots organiser, Carolyn Storer, posted their statement regarding the need for these marches to their official Facebook and Instagram pages.

It reads, “With Donald Trump set to return as US president in January 2025 and Nigel Farage picking up the anti-abortion mantle here in the UK, it’s time to make our voices heard.

“We are marching because violence against women and girls in the UK has increased by 37 per cent since 2018 and has now been declared a national emergency. We are marching because abortion in England and Wales, if not carried out according to the strict requirements of the Abortion Act 1967, is technically still a criminal offence carrying a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.”

She continues to address concerns around anti-abortion and women’s healthcare, adding, “We are marching because reproductive rights are being removed state by state in the US making it increasingly more difficult to access safe abortions, and where vital healthcare is needed to save a woman’s life. We are marching because discrimination and violence against trans women and girls has increased around the world. Anti-trans rhetoric prevents women from addressing the real issues they encounter by reinforcing the gender stereotypes that have oppressed women for centuries.”

No. Wrong. Rejection of the ideology that claims men are women if they say they are – what you call “transphobia” – is not reinforcing the gender stereotypes that have oppressed women for centuries. It simply rejects the fatuous idea that saying “I am a woman” makes you a woman.

All is not well in Women’s March land.

It’s supposed to be a women’s march, and yet, women are kicked out, kicked aside, kicked to the curb, for refusing to pretend that men are women.

You can’t have a feminism that refuses to recognize a man when it sees one. You sure as hell can’t have a feminism that punishes women for recognizing a man when they see one. You sure as hell with knobs on can’t have a feminism that boots women out of a women’s event because they recognize a man when they see one.

You also can’t have a private group that is inclusive.

Who are these bozos?

Undefined buzzwords displace thought.

“But ultimately, it’s important to remember that under the Equality Act 2010, all organizations have a responsibility to make sure trans people are included at work and don’t face discrimination.”

Yes but what are you meaning by “included at work”? What are you meaning by “face discrimination”?

We’re supposed to understand those two items in the familiar generic way, but that’s not what he means by them at all. He means a special new meaning of “included” and “discrimination.”

The familiar generic way is just that inclusion means not being shunned or bullied for no good reason, and discrimination means not being treated as weird or dangerous for no good reason. Inclusion does not mean “included among the women when you’re not a woman” and discrimination does not mean “not included among the women because you’re not a woman.”

The unspoken but crucial meanings this sly dude is using are carefully veiled and implicit and not spelled out, because if they were spelled out it would be obvious how grotesque and unjust they are.

This trick is performed absolutely everywhere, and needs to be called out absolutely everywhere.

Seriously disgusting.

From the Bad People file:

Pam Bondi, President-elect Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Justice (DOJ), has a history of “undermining” voting rights, according to a report opposing Bondi from the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund. 

The report highlights that Bondi’s work as Florida attorney general and as chair of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) make her “unfit” for the office of U.S. attorney general.

“Ms. Bondi has a record of limiting voting rights, baselessly undermining faith in U.S. elections, and encouraging politically motivated prosecutions as an act of vengeance,” the report states.

“By contrast, DOJ has historically played a vital role in protecting the right to vote, a function that has become even more important in a post-Shelby County v. Holder era in which there has been a widespread effort across the country, particularly in the South, to limit the voting rights of Black communities and other communities of color. DOJ has also been central to the federal government’s efforts to ensure free and fair elections and to the upholding the principle of equal justice under law.”

“Ms. Bondi’s record of actively seeking to limit voting rights, coupled with her attempts to undermine the integrity of our elections by supporting President-Elect Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen, should raise grave concerns among Senators who will be tasked with considering her nomination,” the report states. 

But she’ll get the job anyway. Always expect the worst outcome, because it’s going to happen.

Catastrophize much?

More on the trans laydee actor winning a women’s award:

Spanish performer Karla Sofía Gascón, 52, starred in the Mexican musical comedy Emilia Pérez, a film about a cartel boss who transitions from a man to a woman to escape vengeful criminals.

The British Academy is the latest film body to include the transgender performer in a best actress category, following the Cannes Film Festival and the Golden Globes.

…

Gascón could become the first ever transgender best actress at the Baftas if she fends off competition from Cynthia Erivo for Wicked, Marianne Jean-Baptiste for Hard Truths, Mikey Madison for Anora, Saoirse Ronan for The Outrun, and Demi Moore for The Substance.

That’s five women potentially cheated out of an award from an industry that notoriously ignores and under-employs women.

Liverpool Anglican Cathedral and Rainbow Toffees – reach for the stars, Willoughby!

Yeah boy what could be more inspiring than India Willoughby?

The goldy spiky crown is a nice touch. Is he ascended like that Jesus fella?

The New Scientist says we’re cooked.

Hopes of keeping global warming below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels have been all but extinguished after new data confirmed 2024 was the first calendar year to see average temperatures breach that critical threshold.

Last year was the hottest ever recorded in human history, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) declared on 10 January, in the latest stark warning that humanity is pushing Earth’s climate into uncharted territory.

Ok but on the upside we have lots more people and buildings and cars and planes.

Scientists agree that the surge in temperature was caused mostly by the continuation of human-caused climate change and an El Niño weather pattern, which tends to push up global temperatures. But the scale and persistence of the heat has shocked many experts, who expected temperatures to subside once El Niño ended in May 2024. Instead, they remained at record levels throughout the rest of the year.

And as for Los Angeles County…

The world’s oceans have been most affected, with sea surface temperatures staying at record levels for most of 2024, playing havoc with marine ecosystems. The year also brought no shortage of extreme weather on land, with fierce heatwaves, sharp declines in polar ice, deadly flooding and uncontrollable wildfires. “This was a year when the impacts of climate change are right across the planet,” says David King, former chief scientific adviser to the UK government and founder of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group.

Technically, the Paris Agreement target of limiting warming to below 1.5°C is calculated using a 20-year average, so a single year above the threshold doesn’t signal a formal breach of the target. But given the pace of warming in recent years, many scientists say the long-term Paris goal is now out of reach.

“The abrupt new records set in 2023 and 2024 join other evidence that recent global warming appears to be moving faster than expected,” said Robert Rohde at Berkeley Earth in a statement. “Whether increased global warming is a temporary change or part of a new long-term trend remains to be seen. Already though the Paris Agreement target of staying below 1.5°C is unobtainable, and the long-term average will pass this milestone within the next five to 10 years.”

Elon Musk goes everywhere via private jet.

There’s nothing about this in the news, so it has to be Elon’s toy again.

Why? Why him? I do not get it.

Man “vents fury” because he’s not allowed to play on the women’s team.

Let’s all do this – it could be so entertaining. I hereby vent fury that I’m not allowed to fly around at night grabbing insects. Perhaps you would like to vent fury that you’re not allowed to roam the savannah gathering grass with your trunk.

Transgender athlete Hannah Mouncey claims the Australian women’s handball team has left her out of the world championships team because her teammates are refusing to share a change room with her. 

Excuse me, Daily Mail, but Hannah Mouncey is a man. Of course he’s not on a women’s championship team: he’s not a woman.

The 30-year-old was thrust into the spotlight in 2018 after she was blocked from playing in the Women’s AFL because she had too much testosterone to qualify for the female league.

Mouncey, who previously represented the nation in men’s handball, has since helped the Australian women’s handball team qualify for the world championship.

In other words he’s helped them cheat.

Michael Tomasky at The New Republic:

Trump will be a completely unaccountable president, then, for this very simple reason: The only three power systems capable of holding him to account—the right-wing media, Republicans in Congress, and the Supreme Court—have no interest in doing so. The mainstream media will try to hold him to account, or at least we hope it will; but the mainstream media means nothing to Trump, his party, and his base. Ditto Democrats in Congress.

I can’t imagine a single scenario in which the right-wing media or the GOP Congress or the high court will show backbone or independence. In the meantime, these three entities, especially the right-wing media, have by now been trained to immediately and reflexively aim their fire at Democrats and liberals for every single thing that may go wrong during Trump’s presidency.

We’re getting a little taste of that now. Once upon a sweet old time, the barely imaginable horror of the Los Angeles fires would have been given a little time to marinate before us as a merely human tragedy. It’s entirely appropriate to ask questions and hold leaders accountable—of course. But historically, we tend to get a few days of unified mourning before we get to that. And those days of unified mourning serve a civic and national purpose of reminding us that we are one people.

No longer. Within hours or even minutes of the fires spreading, conservatives took to social media to let the world know that there was nothing accidental or capricious about any of it—it was all the fault of Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass and, most of all, DEI, which stripped the LAFD of the kind of manly white men whom the fires would have taken one look at and retreated back to the hills in fear.

With a big assist from the loudmouth owner of TwitterX.

This is what the new Trump era will be like, and it’s what Democrats need to know they will be up against. There is a powerful disinformation and propaganda apparatus (1) for which Trump can do no wrong and (2) which, in all cases of conflict, will instantly advance a narrative, whether true or false or somewhere in between, that it’s the fault of Democrats, liberals, or the woke left. Thus the paradox of the new Trump era: The only institutions that will try to hold Trump accountable are powerless to do so, while the only ones with the power to punish him will never do it.

Four more years of futile yelling while everything goes to hell.

Won’t somebody please think of the poor stigmatized men?

Lone male travellers should be allowed to sit next to unaccompanied children on passenger planes, a discrimination tribunal has ruled. The decision comes after a man was asked to swap seats with a woman by the cabin crew of a flight travelling from Oslo to Paris in October 2022.

They told him he could not be seated next to two children travelling alone, with the policy being enforced by Air France to prevent any possibility of predatory behaviour. But the man, Dominique Sellier, filed a complaint with Norway’s anti-discrimination tribunal, which ruled that the airline’s policy was discriminatory.

Yes it is but (sorry to repeat myself) sometimes discrimination is necessary. Sometimes it’s for bad reasons but sometimes it’s not. Life is complicated that way.

According to the tribunal’s ruling late last year, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, Air France’s policy stipulates that if a flight is fully booked, a woman should “preferably” be seated next to unaccompanied minors.

And why would that be? Because sexual predators are very rarely women.

In proceedings, a lawyer for Air France argued that the crew was merely following company policy, which was based on the argument that men account for 97.93 per cent of all suspected sex crimes.

There you go. 98 percent – that’s why you don’t want to seat a child next to a male stranger on a plane.

Mr Sellier said Air France generalisation about men went too far, adding: “How can we accept this kind of suspicion because we belong to the male gender?”

By being a god damn adult, that’s how. By realizing that it’s more important not to let children be creeped on than it is to coddle the vanity of men.