A Week in the War on Women: Monday 22nd February - Sunday 28th February
A Week in the War on Women: Monday 22nd February - Sunday 28th February
Monday 22nd February - Do They Still Stock 1984?
Amazon has removed from sale a best-selling book which offers a critical examination of the transgender movement.
When Harry Became Sally was first published three years ago. It was both an Amazon and a Washington Post best-seller, appearing on Amazon’s best seller list before it was even released.
But now Amazon has withdrawn it from sale without informing either the author, Ryan T Anderson, or his publisher.
You may remember that back in June we reported on Amazon attempting to block the promotion of Abigail Shrier’s book, Irreversible Damage.
Publishing company, Regnery, claimed that Amazon suspended a paid ad campaign for the book because of its 'objectionable content'. And now they have removed Anderson’s book from sale altogether.
Just what is it they don’t want us to know?
Tuesday 23rd February - Lesbian Erasure By The National Broadcaster
CBeebies is the BBC’s children's television network which broadcasts programmes targeted at children aged 2–6. It has a Facebook page intended for parents.
On Tuesday it posted a video to its facebook page about a ‘lesbian’ couple who’ve just had a baby. This ‘lesbian’ pair comprises one woman and one trans-identified male. So a heterosexual couple in other words.
That’s CBeebies. Get em young, I guess.
Also Today - Women Don’t Matter
Nicki Norman, acting CEO of Women’s Aid, spoke about the domestic violence charity, Rise, losing its funding.
RISE is an independent charity based in Brighton which supports victims of domestic violence, offering services that range from helpline advice to refuge accommodation.
Last week, Rise lost its £5million public contract with Brighton council because it is not ‘gender neutral’. The council said it wants to focus on ‘Inclusive service provision’, offering more support to men, and that Rise is mostly a women-only service.
Of course it is. Because domestic violence victims are mostly women. 91% of domestic abuse committed is against women and women are far more likely to be seriously hurt or killed than male victims. Two women are killed by a former or current male partner every single week.
But still Brighton Council has seen fit to withdraw its contract from this vital service.
To sign the petition protesting this travesty and to make a donation to Rise, you can find all the details here.
Wednesday 24th February - Déjà Vu
Yet another vital service for women who’ve suffered domestic violence lost its funding.
For over 40 years Monklands Women’s Aid has provided specialist domestic abuse services to women, children and young people in Lanarkshire.
But North Lanarkshire Council has withdrawn its funding and is awarding its new £1.4 million contract to an organisation called Sacro. Apparently, Sacro’s tender offers ‘better value for money and will better help male victims’.
Sacro is not a specialist in domestic violence nor local to the Lanarkshire area. It is a Scotland-wide community justice organisation which “Provides a wide range of services spanning all aspects of the community justice continuum… from conflict resolution to supporting prisoners on release”.
If you would like to make a donation to help fund Monklands, you can find their GoFundMe page here. And you can find the petition protesting NLC’s decision here.
Writing in The Times on Saturday, Janice Turner makes the point that, under the 2010 Equality Act, refuges can operate single-sex services but are scared of doing so.
“Many refuges are afraid to remain openly single-sex. They know activists make undercover phone calls to overwhelmed helplines to detect transphobia which they can deploy in social media attacks: refuge workers are reported to trustees for tweets supporting JK Rowling; landlords are pressed to evict women-only groups… ‘The constant threat hanging over you’, says a refuge CEO, ‘is like being in an abusive relationship’”.
Also Today - The Laughable Policeman
The National LGBT+ Police Network celebrated the erasure of women’s sports.
A national police network is publicly extolling a decision which will devastate women’s sports and which they must surely know is extremely contentious.
As Delyth points out in this excellent thread, to make such comments is entirely at odds with the police’s duty to be impartial.
When people tried explaining how desperately unprofessional and inappropriate their tweet is, The National LGBT+ Police Network doubled down with threats about reporting ‘hateful comments’.
Women objecting to the erasure of their sports is ‘hate’ now, apparently.
But then the National LGBT+ Police Network are ‘inspired’ by drag, a form of entertainment which relies on highly sexualised and offensive parodies of womanhood. They’ve made it perfectly clear whose corner they’re fighting.
Thursday 25th February - Leave Them Kids Alone
This should chill us all to the bone.
One of President Joe Biden’s first actions in office was to nominate a trans-identified male to be his Assistant Secretary of Health. Rachel (née Richard) Levine is a paediatrician and a father of two who transitioned in 2011 at the age of 53.
During a Senate confirmation hearing for Dr Levine, Senator Rand Paul asked him some rather tricky questions about his views on the transing of children.
“Do you believe that minors are capable of making such a life changing decision as changing their sex?”
Levine responded with some vague generalities about transgender healthcare being complex and nuanced but totally failed to answer the question.
So Rand Paul tried again.
“Do you support the government intervening to override the parent’s consent to give a child puberty blockers, cross sex hormones and/or amputation surgery of breasts and genitalia?”
Levine gave exactly the same woolly non-answer.
Of course Rand Paul has been heavily criticised for making these enquiries. But he was right to do so. Anyone who cannot give an unequivocal “NO” when asked “Can minors make the decision to amputate their breasts and genitalia?” should not be allowed to hand out band aids, let alone be appointed the Assistant Secretary of Health.
Friday 26th February - A Get Out Of Jail Free Card
THE IRISH EXAMINER: A trans-identified male sex offender is appealing the ‘severity’ of his six year prison sentence.
The male in question cannot be named in order to protect the anonymity of his victim.
For two years he sexually abused his girlfriend’s little boy who was only four years old when the abuse began.
At his trial in 2019, the court heard that he started to experience issues with his gender identity around the same time as committing the offences.
What a convenient coincidence.
He is now appealing his six year sentence. His lawyer told the Court of Appeal that the sentencing judge did not pay sufficient regard to the difficulties he would face in prison ‘as a transgender woman’.
He’s serving his sentence in a women’s prison.
Saturday 27th February - These People Should Be In Jail
THE TELEGRAPH: Offshore gender clinic, Gender GP, is supplying cross-sex hormones to minors without their parents’ knowledge.
GenderGP was originally set up by disgraced doctor, Helen Webberley. In 2018 she was found guilty of providing healthcare services illegally after operating an unlicensed gender clinic which prescribed hormones to children as young as twelve. She remains suspended by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service and is due to face a “substantive” General Medical Council hearing in July. Webberley still features on the GenderGP website and is listed as a ‘non-medical advisor’.
Last year we reported on Gender GP using a loophole in the law to prescribe puberty blockers and hormones to underage patients in Britain without ever meeting them and without requiring any regulation in the UK.
A Telegraph investigation has found that GenderGP is prescribing powerful cross-sex hormones to children behind the backs of their parents and after only a cursory consultation.
An undercover reporter posed as a 15 year old girl and had only three Skype appointments with GenderGP staff before being prescribed a four month supply of testosterone. The drug, ‘Testogel’, causes permanent facial hair growth and deepening of the voice. Even the drug’s manufacturer warns against prescribing it for minors.
GenderGP Staff did not request any parental consent or involvement. A single email from the girl’s 20-year-old half-brother, confirming that he would pay for her treatment, was the only contact with an adult which they required.
The Telegraph highlighted that children obtaining GenderGP prescriptions have been swapping messages on a chat forum hosted by Mermaids which is supposed to be monitored by moderators. Although Mermaids deny any connection with GenderGP, we reported on a number of links between them in our article last October.
Sunday 28th February - Dirty Tricks Done Dirt Cheap
THE DAILY MAIL: Census chiefs have launched the survey a month early in what looks like an attempt to thwart legal action from feminist campaigners.
In recent months we have reported on the ongoing saga of the forthcoming national census.
The 2021 census will include a voluntary question about gender identity in addition to recording the subject’s legal sex. However, it has been revealed that people can answer this question on sex based on documents such as passports and driving licences which do not record legal sex. It will, in effect, allow people to answer the question according to their preferred ‘gender identity’.
Media reports have suggested that civil servants ‘caved in’ to pressure from trans activists and lobby groups regarding this issue.
Last week, campaign group, Fair Play for Women, launched a legal action to challenge the ONS policy. Three days later census organisers made the survey live a month early.
On Wednesday, ONS solicitors wrote to Fair Play For Women’s legal team to say the legal action could not be brought because “All ONS systems to complete the Census are now live (as from 3pm on 22 February) and people can now complete the return.”
Nevertheless, FPFW continue to fight and have lodged papers with the High Court seeking an interim order to remove the ONS guidance on the sex question and an urgent hearing for a ruling on its lawfulness.
See you next week.