A Week in the War on Women: Monday 14th June - Sunday 20th June
Monday 14th June - The Clocks Were Striking Thirteen In Canada
A female academic in Edmonton, Canada, is facing accusations of ‘transphobia’ from her own union.
Kathleen Lowrey is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Alberta. Last year she lost her associate chair position when students complained about her gender critical views. Since then her faculty union has been pursuing a grievance on her behalf.
That union, however, is now charging her with creating a ‘discriminatory work environment’ on campus due to comments she made on an internal discussion forum.
One such comment was “But that women should give up very hard won rights and spaces to accommodate the feelings of some men seems to me the very essence of misogyny”. Her other transgressions involved making statements that, according to her union, ‘characterized the gender identity of transgender people as a matter for academic debate’.
The Women’s Human Rights Campaign:
“When universities forbid academics to ‘question the validity [of] transgender identity’ and the faculty unions that are the final line of defence of academic freedom do so as well, the danger to feminist inquiry could hardly be more serious. That is the situation in Canada today, a situation which is replicated throughout much of the world as academics who do not believe in gender ideology are smeared by students and fellow academics, face the loss of their livelihoods and have their personal safety threatened by violent activists.”
Also Today - Follow The Money
TAX PAYER ALLIANCE: Between 2015-2016 and 2018-2019 Stonewall received over £2.5 million in grants from government bodies.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Welsh government gave £660,028 and £552,326 respectively but The Department for Education provided the largest total grant over the period, shelling out £934,424.
Jonathan Slater was the Permanent Secretary for the Department for Education between May 2016 and August 2020. He was the department’s ‘LGBTI champion’, he promoted the introduction of ‘gender neutral’ toilet facilities in departmental offices and in 2019 he won Stonewall’s Senior Champion award. He has a trans-identified child from whom he says he learns an ‘enormous amount’.
As John O’Connell writes in The Spectator, "When an organisation is receiving almost three-quarters of its grants from the very policymakers it’s trying to influence – with all the resources, legitimacy and access that provides – something is going wrong."
Tuesday 15th June - The Secret LGBT+ Policeman
THE CRITIC: Harry Miller of campaign group, Fair Cop, reports on the stasi-like tactics of the National LGBT+ Police Network.
The National LGBT Police Network appears to be working with other similar groups in Europe to impose unquestioning adherence to gender identity ideology by criminalising any challenge to it.
Just as sinister is the secrecy that enshrines the network. It is almost impossible to find out who is involved; The College of Policing insists enquiries go via the network but the network won’t even acknowledge requests.
Earlier this year the network expressed support for allowing trans-identified males to compete in women’s sports and, not surprisingly, many people challenged this view. In response, the network described perfectly reasonable and legal comments as ‘hateful’ and, more worryingly, ‘reported’.
As Harry says, “It’s amazing what the police can get away with in the name of human rights.”
Also Today - Just Self-Identify As An Oscar-Winner
The Edinburgh International Film Festival announced the launch of Script Starter, a new programme for up to eight ‘under-represented writers in Scotland’.
The organisers are ‘committed to a minimum of 50% of selected applicants identifying as women’.
Applicants cannot ‘identify’ into any of the other groups mentioned and there is already a LGBTQIA+ category to cover trans people.
But it seems in this brave new world, eight males could be chosen for this programme and we’d call that ‘representation’.
Wednesday 16th June - Title IX No Longer Fit For Purpose
Legislation established to protect female rights has just been exenterated by the Biden administration.
Title IX, passed as part of the 1972 Federal Education Amendments, prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded education programmes.
The US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has just issued a Notice of Interpretation which states that Title IX’s protection from discrimination will now be enforced on the basis of sexual orientation and on ‘gender identity’.
This of course, will be devastating to female participation and opportunities in sport and for previously single-sex spaces and facilities.
There is no point having a sex discrimination law that isn’t based on sex.
Thursday 17th June - Drag Classes For School Kids
A community arts group in Southern Scotland is offering a ‘drag school’ for children as part of its summer programme.
Big Burns Supper is advertising a ‘drag school’ for children as young as twelve.
“We aim to give young people a working knowledge of the art of drag; learning the culture and history, making costumes, applying makeup, creating performance art and contextualising the role of drag in modern society. This programme is a really exciting way to bring drag in all its forms to young people, and to give them a safe space to explore their identities”.
“A safe space to explore their identities...”
Or as it is more accurately described, grooming.
Friday 18th June - Women Not Among The Values Of The Royal Academy
THE TIMES: The Royal Academy has removed a female artist’s work from its gift shop over complaints that she holds ‘transphobic’ views.
Jess de Wahls is a feminist embroidery artist whose work was sold at the Royal Academy until she fell victim to a campaign to ‘cancel’ her. After receiving a handful of complaints from trans activists alleging that Jess is ‘transphobic’ (she isn’t), the RA removed her work from its shop. It issued a statement on Instagram that “The RA is committed to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and does not knowingly support artists who act in conflict with these values”.
Jess de Wahls wrote a 2019 blog in which she expressed her view that being a woman is a matter of biological reality, not an ‘identity’, and has been hounded by gender zealots ever since. She’s received hate mail and online abuse and was forced out of her part-time job at The Soho Theatre. When trans activists discovered her work was stocked at the RA gift shop, that’s where they turned their attention. And the RA capitulated immediately.
The RA still celebrates the work of sculptor, Eric Gill, a pervert who abused his own daughters. Last year it hosted a large-scale exhibition of the work of Paul Gauguin, a paedophile who abused the native girls he painted when he lived in Polynesia, and it still exhibits the work of murderer, Michelangelo da Caravaggio.
But when a feminist artist expresses opinions about the reality of being a woman, she is acting in conflict with Royal Academy values, apparently.
If you would like to support Jess de Wahl’s brilliant work, you can do so here.
If you would like to contact the Royal Academy, you can do so here.
Saturday 19th June - Under His Aye
THE HERALD: Kevin McKenna writes about the ‘political elites’ in Scotland where ‘they’ve cancelled women and have state-approved misogyny’.
McKenna describes a ‘dystopian experiment in government group-think’ in which women are being ‘cancelled’ and their sex-based rights erased through the manipulation of language, the criminalising of resistance, the demonization of dissenters and even the distortion of reality.
“This abduction by stealth of what it means to be female has all happened because the police; the judiciary and certain sections of the press have been complicit in it…
The very concept of womanhood is being slowly eroded here by men. All the protected characteristics of women are disappearing, including the words exclusive to them - especially those specific to reproduction, sex and sexual health. These are being replaced by an ugly suite of contrived portmanteaus designed specifically to erode much of what wakes women women. If a government can successfully do this then the rest is easy…
It’s not about the rights of transgender people. It’s about power and how to cling to it in perpetuity. This is not equality; this is a kind of fascism.”
Sunday 20th June - Trans Widows Speak Out
THE TELEGRAPH: ‘Trans widows’, the wives of men who transition, could be trapped in a marriage they never bargained for if there is a change in gender laws.
In English and Welsh law a change of status to a marriage contract requires agreement from both parties. Consequently, if one partner transitions, thus altering the contract, the other must consent to that change before a full Gender Recognition Certificate can be issued. If consent is not given, the marriage must be dissolved by divorce or annulment prior to a GRC being granted.
This is erroneously known as the ‘spousal veto’ but it is not a veto, just an opportunity for a partner to withdraw from a relationship / contract to which they never agreed. It is particularly important for women whose husbands transition as they are far more likely to be impacted financially and it is a vital safeguard for women whose faith or culture mean they are not able to easily exit their marriage
Trans lobby groups like Stonewall are urging the government to scrap this vital lifeline but a number of ‘trans widows’ have spoken to The Telegraph about its importance. They describe being branded ‘transphobic’ for wishing to end their marriage, their spouse becoming a total stranger after starting hormone treatment and the lack of any support available to the women in their unenviable position.
Also Today - Transing The Gay Away At The Tavistock
THE TIMES: A gay psychologist who used to work at GIDS spoke of his fears for the clinic’s gay patients.
Sonia Appleby’s employment tribunal against the Tavistock and Portman Clinic began last week. A social worker with decades of experience, she is the clinic’s Safeguarding Lead for Children. She believes that, after she raised concerns about the treatment of GIDS patients, staff were prevented from reporting safeguarding issues to her.
Dr Matt Bristow, a former psychologist at GIDS, provided the tribunal with a witness statement in which he voiced his fears about the gay children who seek help to change sex there. He was one of several gay staff members who expressed concerns that gay children are being put on a pathway to transition without their sexuality or potential issues around bullying being explored. They were ignored.
In his exit interview, Bristow told the clinic that gay staff ‘had to keep sexuality on the agenda, as otherwise it was completely ignored as a topic’ and he said that GIDS was offering ‘conversion therapy for gay kids’.
See you next week.
Time for a new entry in the Uxbridge Urban Dictionary!
transgression
noun
a technique developed by misogynists in the early 21st century to continue oppressing women
A lone irl protest at the RA on Saturday:
https://twitter.com/ArtistX75123818/status/1406230596452589573?s=19