There was no log

Jul 24th, 2025 10:57 am | By

So it turns out it was a systematic stich up. Boswell Today:

It began with an email. On 29 December 2023, just hours after a fraught exchange in the women’s changing room, Dr. Kate Searle sent a message to every consultant in the Emergency Department. Sandie Peggie, the nurse who had asked Dr. Beth Upton why he was changing clothes in a female-only space, was portrayed in that email as the aggressor. Searle thanked DU for his “composure” and suggested that other, unspecified incidents involving Peggie existed. No such incidents had ever been formally recorded.

Today at the tribunal, cross-examination dismantled the scaffolding on which this claim was built. Naomi Cunningham methodically unpicked the story of a so-called “log” of previous events. When asked directly, Searle admitted she only learned of those other alleged episodes on 29 December – the same day her email to colleagues implied an established pattern. There was no log, no independent corroboration, no risk assessment – only an eagerness to frame Peggie as a serial problem.

Why? Why the eagerness?

My guess is the chance to play a role in a Significant Drama. The maudlin story of Trans Oppression is still a hot ticket, so I suspect that Searle was not unhappy to get a chance to step on that stage. It’s an understandable feeling, and not a bad one provided you are careful to get the facts right. The trouble is that the feeling can make it tricky to get the facts right. It seems that Searle didn’t even try.

That impulse metastasised into the Datix incident report filed by Searle shortly after. Here, the language escalated: Peggie had, it claimed, behaved akin to someone comparing a colleague to a convicted rapist. Yet Searle admitted today, under oath, that Peggie had never used the word “rapist” and had never mentioned Isla Bryson by name. It was an inference – one that transformed an interpersonal disagreement into a formally logged hate incident.

Because a formally logged hate incident is a drama. Get your costume on, Kate, quick, the star is puking her guts out and you’re on in ten minutes!

This isn’t a technical failing. It is narrative manipulation under the guise of safeguarding. Where the facts didn’t suit, interpretations were slotted in to fill the gaps, then weaponised through internal reporting mechanisms. A nurse with 30 years of service was re-cast as an abuser based on the offensive impact that others imagined, not on what was actually said.

The imagination makes it all so much more dramatic and exciting.

I’m not just being flip here; I think this has to be part of the story, because otherwise it makes no sense. I think people have been trained for years to see “transphobia” everywhere, and trained to see it as one of the worst possible things, and trained to consider it the height of righteousness to fly into action at the first hint of “transphobia” within a 5 mile radius.

Cunningham highlighted that the “Datix heat” intensified only after Upton refused to leave the changing room. Peggie had said, repeatedly, that it was a women’s space and Upton was male. For that, she was suspended, interrogated, and accused of bigotry – not by patients, but by colleagues whose language around Upton bristled with reverence.

The tribunal also heard today how Searle convened what one might call an inner circle of sympathy. Her group emails were selective, curated to exclude dissenting views. Peggie was not permitted to discuss the incident with co-workers – a restriction never applied to Upton or his allies.

At every turn, the machinery bent to accommodate a single perspective. Internal procedures became tools of enforcement, not investigation. No one asked why a trans-identifying male was changing in a female-only space without prior policy or consultation. Instead, they asked how best to silence the woman who said no.

Or we could also (or instead) see it as a religious movement. Trans is sacred; women are of the earth earthy and the opposite of sacred. Upton is an ascended angel; Goody Proctor Peggie was seen with the devil.



Such luxurious spiritual lodgings

Jul 24th, 2025 9:32 am | By

Dennis absolutely nails it.

Nailed it.


High viz

Jul 24th, 2025 8:30 am | By

There’s visibility and then there’s visibility.

What a good idea: training children to “escort” adults to toilets for the opposite sex.

SW Londoner has the exciting details.

A BBC TV presenter has launched a new campaign calling on UK workplaces and schools to make visible commitments to trans inclusion.

Dr Ronx Ikharia’s ‘Safe With Me’ initiative invites allies to wear a yellow badge with bold black text, signalling to trans+ individuals that they are safe to approach, especially when using public toilets or navigating other gendered spaces.

How does the doc know that wearing a badge=safe to approach? How does the doc know that sane people won’t wear the badge and then ask the men who want to barge into the the public toilets for women what the hell they think they’re doing?

Launched by Dr Ronx – a Black, non-binary, transmasculine emergency doctor and BBC presenter – the campaign responds to the Supreme Court’s judgment that ‘sex’ in the Equality Act refers strictly to biological sex, a decision that campaigners say has heightened fear within trans+ communities.

Dr Ronx said: “I have often been kicked out of toilets because people don’t know where to place me. But when I’m with someone, it happens less. This badge is about making allyship visible. It’s non-confrontational. It’s a signal to a trans+ person that they can come up to you and feel safe doing so.”

And it’s a signal to women that you’re eager to help men barge into their toilets. Thanks, Dr Ronx.

The campaign encourages badge-wearers to accompany trans+ people if asked, without needing to speak or intervene, and to simply be present as a silent form of solidarity.

Dr Ronx added: “Most people aren’t trying to deny our humanity, they just don’t understand what being trans+ means or how to help. This is a way for people to step out of the shadows and into visible support.”

But Dr Ronx, denying that a man is a woman is not denying his or your humanity, it’s just denying that he is the sex he is not. This would apply to any such magical claim. If you say you’re a rabbit and we say you’re not, that’s not denying your humanity. It’s denying your lagomorphity, and affirming your humanity. Accuracy in naming is not an attack on anyone’s humanity.

They suggested that many institutions have used the Supreme Court’s judgement, the practical implications of which can be found here, to justify excluding trans people or failing to protect their safety at work.

Yap yap yap. Always with the carefully vague wording. To justify excluding trans people from what? You know what, which is why you carefully don’t say it.



Class and genner idenniny

Jul 23rd, 2025 3:38 pm | By

JKR nails it.

The Sandie Peggie employment tribunal is currently exposing, as perhaps no court case to date has, the issue of class as it relates to the top-down imposition of gender identity ideology in the workplace.

‘Diversity officer’ Isla Bumba has now admitted in court that she didn’t bother consulting the 1992 regulations guaranteeing single-sex spaces when she told a trans-identified male, Dr Beth Upton, to use the female changing room at the hospital where he was working. Bumba justified this decision with comments that I assume sounded really clever and convincing, inside her own head.

‘I don’t know anything about Beth’s body. I didn’t at the time. I don’t now. I don’t need to know. But it wouldn’t be something that I would ever have the information of exactly what she is made of, biologically.’

Kate Searle, a consultant in emergency medicine, backed Bumba up, expressing outrage on the witness stand that anyone would be so insensitive as to ask about Upton’s chromosomes.

‘I could only imagine how upsetting and invasive a question that would be for Beth, and also not relevant to a colleague to ask another colleague. Beth identifies as female, and it does not matter what her chromosomes are to her.’

In Bumba and Searle’s world, a belief that gender identity trumps biological sex is proof you’re intellectually and morally superior to women like Sandie Peggie, so I’d imagine it’s come as a shock to discover, in a blaze of public and press scrutiny, just how idiotic and cruel they appear to people outside their dinner party circle.

When Upton, a 6′ tall, 28-year-old ex-rugby playing male, claimed that a petite 50-year-old female nurse was making him feel ‘unsafe’, his word appears to have been taken as gospel. Searle, Bumba and management fell over themselves to coddle the middle-class doctor who shared their voguish post-modern views on gender. What did Sandie matter? She’s just one of those ghastly uninformed bigots who still thinks sex is real and important – so embarrassingly gauche and simplistic! Whisper it – she probably drinks red wine with chicken, too.

According to @tribunaltweets, an emotional Searle blurted out on the stand ‘I am kind.’ This is not something genuinely kind people need to say. Genuinely kind people don’t find themselves compelled to explain in court why they helped whip up a witch-hunt against a woman whose only crime was wanting to change her clothes without a man watching.

Well, the nurse who was supposed to shuffle off in disgrace wasn’t having it. Sandie Peggie refused to be sacrificed on the altar of elitist ideologues who believe themselves to be higher and better than she is. She fought back, for herself and for every other woman who’s currently being silenced, persecuted and punished by a smug management class that preens itself on its virtue while imposing rampantly misogynistic policies on its workforce.

Sandie Peggie is a heroine. The woman NHS Fife thought they could treat abominably without any consequences to themselves has succeeded in shining the brightest spotlight yet upon the brain rot and compassion deficit suffered by supposedly intelligent people when they embrace gender identity ideology. Women everywhere owe her a debt of thanks. Whatever the outcome of this tribunal, Sandie Peggie has already won.

Yes yes yes and yes. The smugness, the preening, the self-admiration, all at the expense of women who just don’t want to give up all our rights when we’ve only even had them for a few decades. “A smug management class” is the perfect description of these ratbags.



Misbehaving

Jul 23rd, 2025 9:00 am | By

It was all her fault.

A veteran nurse was viewed as “misbehaving” for refusing to share a female changing room with a transgender doctor, her lawyer has claimed in a landmark tribunal.

Dr Kate Searle, an A&E consultant, recalled being told about two occasions when Sandie Peggie left the women’s changing facilities at Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy, when Dr Beth Upton entered, causing the doctor to feel “uncomfortable”.

Isn’t that classic? Man bounces into women’s changing facility and it’s the woman who leaves who is causing discomfort. Classic classic classic. “You bitch, your nose hurt my hand when I punched it.”

She said that Peggie could have been reported to her manager, but Upton, who is biologically male but identifies as female, deciding against pursuing the matter further.

Awwww, isn’t he generous.

But of course he did not decide against further forcing himself on women in their changing rooms.

Peggie confronted Upton on the third occasion on which they met in the female-only space, on Christmas Eve 2023, claiming the doctor had no right to be there.

Not claiming but pointing out. Obviously he had no right to be there.

Searle was Upton’s line manager and, giving evidence on Tuesday, said that the doctor had informed her about the two occasions, in August and October 2023, in which Peggie had left the changing room when Upton entered, without saying anything.

Documentation showed that Upton had been given the option by Searle to “take the matter further” in late October that year.

That is, Searle, a woman, encouraged Upton to punish a woman for not staying in a changing room after he entered it. A woman wants women to stay in spaces where they are vulnerable if a man comes in. What next? Holding their legs apart so that he can rape them more easily?

“At the time you discussed this with Dr Upton both you and he [Upton] considered Sandie’s choice to remove herself from the changing room if he was there, to be misbehaving, didn’t you?” Naomi Cunningham, Peggie’s lawyer, said. “She was behaving badly and making him [Upton] feel uncomfortable.”

Searle replied: “Beth felt uncomfortable that Sandie appeared to not want to engage, she was the only one behaving like this and that was why Beth felt uncomfortable with someone behaving differently like that. I don’t agree we would have classed it as misbehaviour.”

Why did Searle not worry about Sandie’s feeling uncomfortable? Why is it only “Beth”‘s discomfort that matters? Why is Beth so very important while Sandie is so very insignificant?

The consultant said she had checked when introducing Upton to the department, in August 2023, that the doctor was comfortable using the female facilities.

Searle agreed with Cunningham that she had proceeded on the basis that it wasn’t “anyone else’s business” whether Upton, who began transitioning to live as female in January 2022, was going to use the women’s changing room or not.

Because women who aren’t men just don’t matter? It’s only women who are men who matter? When did we decide this? Why did we decide this? How can we undecide it?

“Beth identifying as a female has every right, under the Equality and Human Right Commission Act [sic] to use the facilities under the gender in which she identifies,” Searle said.

Every right? Moral as well as official? I beg to differ.

However, she went on to admit that many women may feel uncomfortable about taking their clothes of in the presence of a man.

But oh well, tough shit, sucks to be them, doesn’t give them the right to tell him to get out, or even to leave themselves.

Cunningham put it to Searle that her suggestion that she might have facilitated a conversation between the nurse and Upton “about why she wasn’t willing to take her clothes off in a room that he was present in” would have been “a very long way from kind or compassionate” to Peggie.

A very very very long way.

Searle added: “That’s not how I would have directly approached them nor how I did directly approach it. I was suggesting ways that you might manage a situation when two parties are uncomfortable.

“We would have discussed, if Dr Upton felt very uncomfortable and it was affecting them in coming to work, then it would have been appropriate to take it further, whether it’s just a discussion between parties to say how can we work through this together, with compassion and kindness and to make sure everyone is safe.”

Cunningham put it to Searle that Peggie was clearly feeling uncomfortable with sharing facilities with Upton, after being told about the two occasions in which the nurse self-excluded from female changing rooms.

The lawyer asked: “What steps did you take to offer her any compassion or kindness?”

Searle replied: “I didn’t make that approach.”

Exactly so. WHY NOT????



go away Pete

Jul 23rd, 2025 7:46 am | By

The tribunal about an hour ago:

[NC is Naomi Cunningham; KS is Kate Searle, the doctor who helped Upton make a big stink; Pete is the star of a thought experiment about women telling an obvious man to get out of their space]

On the one hand you have Pete, a man, and yes women are allowed to tell Pete to get out of their space, and on the other hand you have Upton, a man, and no women are not allowed to tell Upton to get out of their space because…uh…uh…uh…



Oh golly how would that even work?

Jul 22nd, 2025 5:24 pm | By

It’s about god damn time.

U.S. Olympic Officials Bar Transgender Women From Women’s Competitions

The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee quietly changed its eligibility rules on Monday to bar transgender women from competing in Olympic women’s sports, and now will comply with President Trump’s executive order on the issue, according to a post on the organization’s website.

The new policy, expressed in a short, vaguely worded paragraph, is tucked under the category of “USOPC Athlete Safety Policy” on the site, and does not include details of how the ban will work.

How did the non-ban work? How did the ban work before trans ideology came along and shot holes in everything? What “details” do you need of how men staying out of women’s sports would “work”? Do we need details of how keeping hungry bears out of the Olympics would work?

The committee’s new policy means that the national governing bodies of sports federations in the United States — which oversee sporting events for all ages, from youth to masters’ competitions — now must follow the U.S.O.P.C.’s lead, according to several chief executives of sports within the Olympic movement. The U.S.O.P.C. did not respond to a request for comment.

U.S.A. Fencing, for example, posted a new policy for transgender athletes on Friday, to be effective on Aug. 1. Those new rules still allow trans women to compete, but only in the men’s category. The policy says that nonbinary athletes, transgender men and intersex athletes will also be limited to competing in the men’s category.

Good. It’s about god damn time. It should never have been otherwise.

The International Olympic Committee has been struggling for years with the issue of transgender and intersex athletes in sports, coming up with various rules at various times, including sex testing, in an effort to balance fairness with inclusivity.

This is sports we’re talking about. Sport at the elite level is all about exclusivity. There are winners and losers. That’s how competitive sports work. If they become so inclusive that nobody ever wins, they’re a different kind of thing.



Green gender

Jul 22nd, 2025 11:58 am | By

Big Trans is Watching You.

The Australian Greens’ new ­leader, Larissa Waters, is resisting calls to intervene in the widening row over the minority party’s ­embrace of transgender rights and halt a purge of members who don’t toe the line.

The expulsion of Greens co-founder Drew Hutton has brought to a dramatic head tensions around the alleged hounding of those who question the party’s pro-trans platform.

It’s not all that alleged when we can see it happening in real time.

Mr Hutton said upwards of 30 former Greens members had reached out to him about being expelled for challenging the party’s position on gender. Most were women. Many more quit after being subjected to harassment for voicing reservations about trans people accessing ­normally segregated spaces such as public and school toilets, changing rooms or in sports where transitioning boys competed against girls.

Cheryl Hercus, 70, who ­proudly identifies as a lesbian woman, said she was forced out of the Victorian Greens after posting links to articles that were critical of gender identity theory on social media. She resigned her membership rather than contest the complaints made against her.

“We were basically painted as being fundamentally racist if we believed that biological reality was reality,” she said. “It just became obvious to me that the whole of the party had been captured by this ideology and to try and fight it from within was just huge.”

Sounds all too familiar.



He might be able to realise

Jul 22nd, 2025 10:54 am | By

A poignant bit of the testimony:

Asked why she told colleagues before Christmas Eve that she would speak to Dr Upton directly, Ms Peggie said: “No one appeared willing to speak to Beth on behalf of myself or my colleagues.

“I hoped that by speaking to him personally, he might be able to realise he was making us feel uncomfortable by changing in a female changing area, and the reason why, in the hope he would understand and change elsewhere.”

She said the incident lasted just two minutes and that she hoped the conversation might help Dr Upton understand.

Asked why she didn’t report the matter, Ms Peggie said: “I was hopeful that Beth would accept my concerns and the reasons why I felt uncomfortable.

“I tried to give him an example so he could appreciate the severity of the situation. I told them I had a difficult history with men. I didn’t think it was necessary to speak to anyone, because I was hoping, on reflection, Beth would understand.”

She said she was “upset that the interaction did not seem to have had any influence on the way Beth felt, and I realised from his reaction that he did not seem to care about the stress he was causing me.”

She thought he might understand if she explained it. She thought if he understood he would have some empathy.

But no. He didn’t care. He cared only about his own feelings. The much more reasonable, reality-based, of the earth earthy feelings that women have around men and bodies and menstruation and safety are just so much fluff to him, while his feelings about pretending to be a woman are rock-solid and massively important.



Out loud, in front of a judge

Jul 22nd, 2025 9:57 am | By

Thank fuck some of us know the basics.

https://twitter.com/JournalistJill/status/1947672547572781542

Srsly. A medical doctor, under oath, saying what sex babies are is a “decision” and that she’s not an expert.



That was the extent of the discussion

Jul 22nd, 2025 9:48 am | By

From the Upton/Peggie hearing today:

Dr Searle says she first met Dr Upton in August 2023 and is her “educational and clinical supervisor”. She says she is the main point of contact for junior and resident doctors in her line of management and to support career progression and wellbeing support. She says she has known Ms Peggie since she started working at the emergency department at Victoria Hospital.

Dr Searle says she was not aware that Ms Peggie held gender critical views before the incident on Christmas Eve 2023 or any issues with these views.

That is…Dr Searle says she was not aware that Ms Peggie knew the difference between women and men before Christmas Eve 2023.

Wouldn’t you kind of think all medical staff at a hospital would be expected, or indeed required, to know that? Isn’t it pretty basic information in a medical setting?

Dr Searle is asked about what discussions she had with Dr Upton about using the female changing rooms. She said: “I checked that she knew where the female changing room was and was happy to use it and had used it previously used it in another job. That was the extent of the discussion.”

She then added: “Beth had used the female changing rooms in her previous job as a doctor and was happy and felt comfortable doing so, so I didn’t make any further suggestion.”

Fabulous. As long as the man is happy, it simply doesn’t matter what the women feel. Might they be unhappy? Might they feel not so comfortable? Meh. Doesn’t matter.

Dr Searle said she was “concerned for Beth and her welfare” when she received an email on Christmas Day 2023 about a “very upsetting” incident which had left Dr Upton “distressed”…

She is asked what she thinks of Dr Upton being told by Ms Peggie she cannot be in the changing room because “it’s wrong”. Dr Searle said: “I was very concerned and I knew it was upsetting and distressing for Beth and I knew there was no NHS Fife policy on this.”

She is then asked what she thought of Ms Peggie telling Dr Upton “she wasn’t a woman”. Dr Searle said: “Again I was very concerned for Beth because I knew it was an upsetting thing to say and also under NHS Fife’s hate policy this was verbal harassment for her.”

All the concern is for “Beth.” None of the concern is for Ms Peggie. Why is that? Why is this dogma so massively watertight that not an atom of concern for women is ever allowed to sneak in? How does that work? Would Searle enjoy having to take her clothes off while Upton watched her?

She is then asked if Ms Peggie questioning Dr Upton’s chromosomes was appropriate. Dr Searle said: “I can only imagine how upsetting and invasive a question that would be for Beth and it is not relevant for a colleague to ask another colleague.

“Beth identifies as female and it does not matter what her chromosomes are to her.”

But it does matter to women what sex people are when they’re cozily gathered in a take your clothes off room. What matters to “Beth” is not the only relevant criterion here.

Dr Searle said Dr Upton was “extremely shaken and distressed” when the pair discussed what had happened with Ms Peggie in the changing room. She said they went through the NHS Fife hate incident policy together and agreed that a datix needed to be completed, which Dr Searle and Dr Upton did together. They also discussed reporting this to the policy and Dr Upton said she would think about it. They then looked at Dr Upton’s shift patterns to see if she felt safe to come into work.

I think that must be “They also discussed reporting this to the police” – which is new information to me at least. A new low. Yes go complain to the police that a female nurse doesn’t want a male doctor in the room where she has to take her clothes off. With any luck she’ll resist arrest and they’ll have to get violent. What fun for everyone except her.



Not a good look

Jul 21st, 2025 5:56 pm | By

There was this:

https://twitter.com/joannaccherry/status/1946947343602913534

And then there was this:

(I would suggest the majority in Scotland do) – are ‘right wing bigots’ is not only insulting, it’s probably defamatory, and it is definitely not good politics. I have no idea if Ms Bardell wishes to re-enter politics (she lost her Westminster seat last year) but if she and her party are serious about winning support, then I suggest she stops insulting women who believe in material reality. And FWIW Jo Cherry is one of the smartest, charismatic, empathetic women I know. I may disagree with her on independence, but if I ever needed help I know I could depend on her.

So there.



He/Him

Jul 21st, 2025 11:30 am | By
He/Him

Anything missing?

No mention of women.

So naturally he knows what JK Rowling should be talking about better than JK Rowling does.

Women are in fact allowed to talk about issues and policies that affect women.



Naturally, thanks to cross-sex hormones & surgery

Jul 21st, 2025 11:22 am | By

Nailed it.



Watch where you’re going

Jul 21st, 2025 9:18 am | By

A couple of things

One, who the hell takes a jet plane to MINOT, NORTH DAKOTA? How does Minot, North Dakota even have an airport? We’re not talking Minneapolis here, we’re not even talking Fargo, we’re talking Minot. The one in North Dakota.

Two, more seriously, wtf?

The pilot of a commercial airliner has said he needed to make an “aggressive maneuver” to avoid colliding with a US air force B-52 bomber as it landed in Minot, North Dakota, on Friday.

The SkyWest airlines pilot said he had been cleared to land on a trip from Minneapolis-St Paul (MSP) to Minot when he spotted the vast nuclear-capable bomber on his right side and was told to go around.

Well sure, I’m confident he was more than happy to go around, but he’s supposed to know to do that with plenty of time to spare, not seconds before the two planes collide and everybody dies. I think all parties prefer it that way.

“So, sorry for the aggressive maneuver,” the pilot said. “It caught me by surprise, and it’s not normal at all. I don’t know why they didn’t give us a heads up, because the airbase does have radar, and nobody said, ‘Hey there’s also a B-52 in the pattern.’”

The pilot described the experience as “not a fun day at work”.

I don’t know, maybe all the aircraft control people have been drafted to round up more immigrants.



Echo

Jul 21st, 2025 8:59 am | By

This sounds weirdly familiar

The 92-page report, “‘You Feel Like Your Life is Over’: Abusive Practices at Three Florida Immigration Detention Centers Since January 2025,” documents that people detained at Krome North Service Processing Center (Krome), Broward Transitional Center (BTC), and the Federal Detention Center (FDC) in Miami have been held in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, subjected to degrading treatment, and have not been given access to prompt and adequate medical care…

Since President Donald Trump took office, his administration has driven forward a surge in immigration detention nationally, with ICE data showing that 45 out of 181 authorized detention facilities across the country exceeded their contractual capacity in mid-April.

The number of people detained by ICE in Florida has also surged, driven by federal and state policies that have expanded the scope of immigration enforcement. At Krome, the detained population more than tripled in the first three months of 2025, reaching nearly three times its operational capacity. FDC, a federal prison that in recent years had not been used for immigration detention, began holding hundreds of immigrants in February.

The researchers found that Krome detainees have been routinely held in freezing, overcrowded cells without bedding, denied access to hygiene, and subjected to prolonged and unjustifiable shackling during transportation. People detained at the three centers have been unable to get necessary medical care, including for chronic conditions such as diabetes, asthma, and HIV. Women have been held at Krome, a men’s detention facility, without access to gender-appropriate care or privacy. At least two deaths in custody—one at Krome and one at BTC—may have been linked to medical neglect.

In one particularly degrading incident, detainees at FDC were forced to eat while shackled with their hands behind their backs. “We had to bend over and eat off the chairs with our mouths, like dogs,” said Harpinder Chauhan, a British entrepreneur who had been detained by ICE at a regular immigration appointment. Chauhan, who suffers from diabetes and heart disease, said he was denied insulin at various points during his detention at Krome, FDC, and BTC, including at BTC for nearly a week, after which he collapsed and was taken to a hospital.

The researchers documented widespread overcrowding, with detainees held for days for “processing” in frigid conditions, sitting and sleeping on cold concrete floors in rooms designed to hold far fewer people for much shorter periods. One man described sleeping next to a toilet in a room so crowded that people had to step over each other to move. Another said he was denied access to soap or water for 20 consecutive days. At Krome after processing, some cells held more than double their intended capacity. 

What does that sound like? What does it remind us of?

We all know.



They must call themselves the Trumpy Kneelers

Jul 20th, 2025 5:12 pm | By

Trump is shouting at a football team to change its name back to the racist one they dropped. What a worthy cause!

Trump threatened on Sunday to interfere with a deal to build a new football stadium in Washington, D.C., unless the local NFL team, now known as the Commanders, changes its name back to Redskins.

Yeah fer sher, what right do they have to stop calling themselves “redskins” just because it’s a crude trashy insult?

The American football team dropped the name Redskins in 2020 after decades of criticism that it was a racial slur with links to the U.S. genocide of the Indigenous population.

But Mommmmmmm, Trump grew up watching movies about cowboys and redskins and he loves that old racist vibe.

Trump had called for a return to the name Redskins – and for the Cleveland Guardians baseball team to once again adopt the name Indians – on other occasions, but on Sunday he added that he may take official action.

“I may put a restriction on them that if they don’t change the name back to the original ‘Washington Redskins,’ and get rid of the ridiculous moniker, ‘Washington Commanders,’ I won’t make a deal for them to build a Stadium in Washington,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

What’s ridiculous about Commanders? Apart from the fact that “Commander” is one of Trump’s titles of course.

Anyway it’s none of his business and he should go take a long walk on a short pier.



Hazard a guess

Jul 20th, 2025 10:18 am | By

One or two further thoughts on the “what even is my own sex??” issue.

Isla Bumba, 29, is a senior “diversity officer” at NHS Fife. At an employment tribunal on Wednesday, she was questioned about her advice that a trans woman – that is, a biological male – should be allowed to use a hospital’s female changing room. And, during one extraordinary exchange, she told the tribunal that she doesn’t know what sex she is.

“I would hazard a guess that I would be female,” she said, with all solemnity. “But no one knows what their chromosomes are, or their hormonal composition, unless you’ve had that tested – and I at least have not.”

Wait. And then wait some more.

She would hazard a guess?

What, because she’s never known? Her whole life it’s been up in the air what sex she is? Really? Despite the female-coded hair and clothes? Despite having developed breasts? Despite menstruation? It’s just pure guesswork? It’s a guess she would have to hazard?

Did she never pick up cues in childhood that she was a girl, or that everyone around her considered her a girl? Has she been in uncertainty all 29 years of her life?

She can’t have literally thought she was just guessing, so why say it? Especially in court?

Well, because it’s the dogma. But then what makes the dogma so attractive that she says such a ridiculous thing? Why doesn’t the dogma repel her or make her laugh or both?

She doesn’t really think she’s hazarding a guess that she’s a woman. If she did she wouldn’t dress the way she does or wear her hair the way she does. If she did think that she would hedge her bets in public.

For the billionth time, I can’t make any sense of it. It’s not like campaigning against racism, or war, or xenophobia, or theocracy. It’s like campaigning against your own body, which seems a tad counter-productive.



He refused to leave

Jul 20th, 2025 4:28 am | By

There’s this one bit

Asked about the reference to the Scottish prison story, she said: “It was in the media at the time. I was trying to give [Dr Upton] an example of how I and other women feel.”

Asked whether she treated Dr Upton with dignity and respect, Ms Peggie replied: “Yes, because Dr Upton’s presence there and the board’s decision to permit him to use a female-only changing room was unlawful.

“I felt upset, humiliated and harassed to find him there, particularly when I had a menstrual flood to deal with. I remained as calm as I could, but I felt strongly that he should not be there.”

His presence there was an ongoing thing, but on this particular occasion it was heightened for Peggie because she had bled through. See? Upton’s intrusions were a standing problem but that particular evening his presence was even more intrusive and disgusting because Peggie needed to change out of a bloody uniform. That’s not fun with anyone around, but a man? A higher status man? A taller huger higher status man? A fucking nightmare. And this piece of shit didn’t even have the basic empathy to realize that and get the hell out.

“His insistence that he was entitled to be there meant I felt I had no option but to try different explanations of why his presence made me and many of my colleagues uncomfortable.”

Think about that for a while. There she was, in that humiliating situation, asking him to go away, and he fucking refused. He paid zero attention to her humiliation and discomfort, and focused only on what he wanted – which was to stay in the room with her knowing she wanted him gone. He is a horrible human being. Selfish, ruthless, indifferent to everyone but himself.

The ideology does this to people. Everything else fades out and disappears, and all that’s left is Mai Idenninee. Other people’s wants and needs are so much dust, and only the Trans Person matters, at least if he’s a man.

Who in hell would ever want this guy as a doctor?



Guest post: Because enabling is what they’re doing

Jul 19th, 2025 5:23 pm | By

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Sobbing Upton.

For the moment, let’s set aside NHS Fife’s outrageous contempt for women’s safety that is the central issue of this proceeding. Maybe Upton deserves a little more attention and scrutiny, but not necessarily the kind he’s craving. Let’s pretend that Upton really was as upset as he claims, and as upset as is being claimed on his behalf. Let’s say his sobs weren’t artfully summoned crocodile tears. They don’t say anything good or healthy about him. Clearly his distress wasn’t a matter of his physical safety. Let’s look at the whole question of sex, class, status, and power that Ophelia has been emphasizing here, and his apparent shock at never having been spoken to like that in his entire life. If he’s actually that disturbed and distraught at having his delusional entitlement challenged, maybe he doesn’t have the emotional maturity and stability to be a doctor?

In his professional capacity, he’s supposed to be helping other people, as part of a team of health-care practitioners, not satisfying his own, selfish, fetishistic desires. If he can’t keep the latter out of the former, then perhaps medicine is not the field for him. Maybe both patients and colleagues deserve someone more devoted to the job they’re supposed to be doing, than they are to pleasuring themselves. Maybe NHS Fife should be more invested in protecting their female nursing staff and less in enabling Upton’s kink. Because enabling is what they’re doing if they’re defending and enforcing his “right” to go out of his way, bypassing a more conveniently located changing room, in order to use a space for female nurses, that is never used by female doctors. Without the excuse of a trans “identity”, what Upton did would likely have resulted in a disciplinary procedure against him.

What she did know, however, was that Dr Upton’s right to use the women’s changing room had already been affirmed by senior staff months earlier. Consultants had been told in autumn 2023 that DU—biologically male, in his 20s—was entitled to use the female CR. Yet no similar communication was ever issued to nurses, many of whom used the same space.

Those who granted that permission should be disciplined or sacked, the same for those who failed to communicate this policy to nurses and other female staff who would be subjected to illegal male intrusion as a result.