A Week in the War on Women: Monday 12th June - Sunday 18th June GOOD NEWS SUPPLEMENT
Plenty of good news from the gender beat this week. Enjoy!
The Era Of ‘No Debate’ Is Over
A historic day in the UK parliament; the Petitions Committee hosted a discussion relating to a clear definition of the word ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010.
Many thanks to @tribunaltweets who did a brilliant job of live-tweeting the entire 3.5 hour debate.
Among the MPs speaking up in favour of clarification and, thus, defending women’s rights and spaces were Ranil Jayawardena, Toni Antoniazzi, Joanna Cherry KC, Miriam Cates, Angela Richardson, Rosie Duffield, Nick Fletcher, Tim Loughton, Andrew Lewer, Jonathan Gullis, Neale Hanvey, Caroline Ansell, Anna Firth, Jess Phillips, Maria Caulfield and Peter Bottomley, the Father of the House.
Providing the comic relief at said debate was the SNP’s Kirsty Blackman. A mother of two children, Blackman maintained, “I have no idea what my chromosomes are. I have an assumption that they are probably XY [Kirsty, I can promise you they’re not!] but I don't know! Not got a clue what my chromosomes are”. Blackman went on to say, “I’ve got a vague of what my genitals look like…”
Nadia Whittome didn’t manage to attend the debate but, with the help of Twitter’s Community Notes, she, too, contributed some absolute hilarity.
A Level Playing Field
A Gallup poll has found that fewer Americans advocate for trans-identified males to be included in female sports than did two years ago.
Gallup’s telephone survey of 1,011 US adults found that 69% of Americans believe trans-identified athletes should only play on sports teams appropriate to their biological sex. That figure was 62% in 2021, an increase of 7%.
Similarly, the poll showed that just 26% of Americans are in favour of trans athletes competing on teams with the opposite sex, compared to 34% two years ago.
Jeff Jones, a Gallup senior editor, commented “It definitely looks like most people see it as a fairness issue. Even Democrats are divided”.
Leaving Lesbians Alone
Johns Hopkins University hastily binned its description of lesbians as ‘non-men’ from a new ‘inclusive language’ guide following a furious backlash.
Jill Rosen, the university’s director of media relations, provided the following comment: “Upon becoming aware of the language in question, we have begun working to determine the origin and context of the glossary’s definitions. We have removed the page from our website while we gather more information”.
Sunlight Continues To Flood In
The British Medical Journal published an article this week about the importance of and need for research into detransition.
“Rigorous and nuanced detransition research is indispensable. Investigating the experiences of people who detransition will provide a better understanding of the development of gender identity, as well as all health and psychosocial outcomes following gender care.”
Leaving Them Kids Alone
The Australian National Association of Practising Psychiatrists (NAPP) has just released new guidelines regarding the treatment of children and teens with gender dysphoria. They warn of the dangers of medical treatment and encourage a cautious and therapy-based approach rather than a ‘gender affirming’ model.
This new guide cautions that puberty blockers “Are not fully reversible and can cause significant adverse effects on physical, cognitive, reproductive and psychosexual development” and it recommends that “Individualised psycho-social interventions… should be first-line treatments for young people with gender dysphoria/incongruence”.
Eye Eye
Kudos to Private Eye for this not-so-subtle dig at Oxfam in its latest edition.
Speaking of Oxfam, CEO, Danny Sriskandarajah, has announced that he’ll be leaving at the end of year for a role at the New Economics Foundation think-tank.
Rather a sudden departure. Wonder what brought that on…?
Karma’s A TERF
The Craft Potters Association and prestigious art college, Central Saint Martin, have been forced to apologise and put their hands in their pockets after ‘cancelling’ ceramics artist, Claudia Clare, over her gender critical views.
In a ‘landmark’ case, both organisations have agreed to settle Clare’s employment tribunal claim. They have made written apologies and will donate £10,000 between them to women@thewell, a women’s sex-based rights charity.
Clare told The Telegraph, “I am thrilled – actions speak far louder than words”.
And Finally…
(Thanks to our friend, Concerned Bloke, for this one!)
Once there is a debate you can really see why they clung on to #nodebate. BTW, did you see Sharon Davies on GMB yesterday? She was bloody amazing. You could see the surprise in the presenters eyes when she demolished their points. The world turns...
This is indeed good news, after the depression of the update! Thank you. Slowly, slowly, peaking occurs, in the general public and in the medical establishment. This goes to show that the hard slog of the foot soldiers, led by the heroes like KJK, Joyce, Forstater, JKR, Bindel, Phillmore, Fair Cop, and soooooo Many others, is working. I'm not sure the war will ever be won. I don't think this genie is going back on the bottle, but I do think that with every frothing screech at women speaking and every fake man boob fondled in public, headway is made to peak the public. I'm amazed at Australia taking a sensible approach medically. I thought they were lost forever. Good news indeed.