A Week in the War on Women: Monday 30th October - Sunday 5th November GOOD NEWS SUPPLEMENT

Nov 08, 2023

A Pocketful of Posies, San Francisco, USA - IMAGE CREDIT: @WomenAreReals @mellow_yellow & @RevfoXXUS

Yet again, our cup runneth over with good news stories from the gender beat this week. Enjoy!

A Level Playing Field

The Submission Fighting World Federation (ADCC) has announced a strict new policy preventing the participation of trans-identified males in female competitions with ‘no exceptions’.

Posting on its Instagram account this week, the ADCC made its new regulations perfectly clear:

1) Athletes are required to register and compete in the division corresponding to their biological sex as assigned at birth.
2) No exceptions. ADCC’s policy does not allow exceptions to the biological sex classification.
3) Enforcement. Any violation or attempt to circumvent will result in a lengthy suspension or possible ban from all ADCC sanctioned events.

The Countess Is In The House

Our feminist sisters in Ireland are making tremendous progress with their initiative to keep males out of women’s prisons.

Earlier this year we reported on the The Countess’ brilliant new campaign to legislate for the country’s prisons being single sex. The intention is to amend the GRA 2015 and prevent males from being accommodated in the Irish female estate. (More information here.)

This week the Gender Recognition (Amendment) (Prisons) Bill 2023 was lodged in the Dáil (the lower house of the Irish parliament) by Peadar Tóibín, leader of Aontú. This means that a debate will now take place in the Dáil on the issue of housing trans identified males in women’s prisons. Nine other TDs (ie elected members of the lower house) have signed the bill.

Brava to The Countess and everyone involved in this initiative. Excellent news!

Read All About It

Despite all the odds and the vitriolic attempts to undermine her candidacy, Julia Williams has been elected to the board of the Society of Authors.

Gender critical and a free speech advocate, Julia’s election is a massive victory for SoA members who believe in the freedom of expression and open debate.

To Err Is Creative…

On the subject of freedom of expression in the arts, Rosie Kay and Denise Fahmy have launched a fantastic new initiative to support those working in creative professions.

Freedom in the Arts is a 5-year project established “To tackle the culture of fear and intimidation artists are facing for expressing their legal views, to slow down and halt institutional capture, and to question imposed ideological decision making”.

It’s three key aims are:

To protect freedom of speech and to offer artists all levels of support to protect their rights.
To protect freedom of expression and make sure that the arts are the place where difficult ideas can be addressed, explored and discussed.
To uphold the mission of institutions that serve the arts and the public, to make sure they maintain impartiality and are non-ideologically driven.

Rosie and Denise have been supported by various creative professionals who have signed an open letter condemning the ‘culture of self-censorship and groupthink’ which is ‘fundamentally damaging’ to the arts. (You can add your signature here.)

Furthermore, Rosie was interviewed in the theatre industry publication, The Stage, about her new organisation.

For more information about Freedom in the Arts and to make a donation to support its work, please see their website.

First Do No Harm

The UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) has issued guidance on the respecting of gender critical views which also clarifies unequivocally that exploratory therapy for gender dysphoria is a mainstream psychotherapeutic practice and should never be conflated with conversion therapy.

After stating that psychotherapists and psychotherapeutic counsellors who hold ‘gender critical’ views must not be discriminated against, the guidance goes on to say, “Exploratory therapy should not in any circumstances be confused with conversion therapy”.

The document also contains a quote from UKCP Chair, Dr Christian Buckland: “It is imperative that all underlying aspects to someone’s dysphoria are given the attention and exploration they deserve through professional psychotherapies, in order that the overall risks can be appropriately assessed prior to considering medical intervention.”

And while we’re on the subject of so-called ‘trans conversion therapy’, it looks like plans to outlaw it have been shelved, at least for now.

One Whitehall source told The Daily Mail, “Realistically, there is no chance of it becoming law this side of an election”.

Pupil Power

A group of high school students in Loudon County, Virginia, USA, walked out of their class this week to protest the district’s ‘inclusive’ bathroom and locker room policies.

A group of around 100 pupils from Woodgrove High in Purcellville, Virginia, walked out of school this week. They were protesting Loudoun County Schools Board policy 8040 which allows students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice based on self-declared ‘gender identity’ rather than sex. One female student told ABC 7 News “I think it's people finally stepping up and just being sick of it”.

More power to the students standing up for their rights.