A Week in the War on Women: Monday 21st August - Sunday 27th August

Monday 21st August - Let Women Speak

KRCR7: A sportswoman trying to defend the integrity of female sport was de-platformed during a presentation at a Californian public library.

Sophia Lorey played college soccer (more usually referred to as football in the UK) at Vanguard University. She was invited to speak at Mary L Stephens Library in Davis, California, as part of an event which was organised by local women and called ‘Forum On Fair And Safe Sport For Girls’.

Before she had even begun her presentation and was still introducing the discussion, Lorey was interrupted by a man in the audience and accused of ‘misgendering’ because she had talked about the physical advantages of male people in female sport. Several others (mostly males) began shouting out that ‘trans women are women’ and one told Lorey that she had to refer ‘transgender women’ as female because Californian law requires it.

Lorey began to share her experience of being a collegiate athlete. She said, “Current 10-year-old girls cannot live out the same dream as long as men are allowed to compete in women’s sports.” Again, she was interrupted by male voices shouting that she was ‘misgendering’. She tried to continue, this time referring to ‘biological males’, but was still shouted over and harassed by people (mostly male) in the audience. She was then beckoned away from the podium by Scott Love, one of the library staff. He told her that she had to leave and threatened to shut down the entire event if she did not.

Riley Gaines commented, “This is ridiculous, but not shocking....a female athlete silenced for calling a spade a spade. They won't even engage in a civil conversation. Props to this gal for sticking her ground”.

Tuesday 22nd August - Lib Dems Through The Looking Glass

THE EXPRESS: The Lib Dems are to debate a motion at the party conference that menstruation isn’t just a women’s issue.

The Liberal Democrats intend to debate a motion at the September party conference stating that menstruation is ‘not just a women’s issue’. The party is to vote on a policy proposal which was put forward by the Young Liberals and a local branch in London.

It states: “Conference notes that… menstruation is not just a women’s issue, and also affects some trans and non-binary people. Conference believes that period products are a human right, not a luxury; nobody should experience period poverty; England’s current free period product provision is not fit for purpose; [and] it is in everyone’s interests for the stigma around periods to be addressed.”

Whilst it is certainly true that trans-identified females, including those who call themselves ‘non binary’, can menstruate, this does not alter the fact that only women menstruate. Only women have uteri, only women have periods and menstruation really is only a women’s issue. To pretend otherwise validates men making decisions about women’s bodies and reproduction rights.

At the Lib Dem’s spring conference in March, a debate concerning women’s representation on internal committees was prevented from being heard.

Apparently, Ed Davey made a special appearance in the hall specifically to vote against the debate.

When the Chair of Liberal Voice for Women, Zoe Hollowood, addressed the conference, trying to discuss the equitable representation of women on internal committees and the fairness of quotas, she was jeered at and heckled by the men in the audience.

It seems the men in the party do understand what women are when it comes to preventing them from having a voice. And that includes Ed Davey who has made clear that he is so contemptuous of women’s rights, privacy and safety, he’s happy for intact males to have full access to female spaces. Davey believes trans-identified males should be housed in female prisons with vulnerable women and has stated unequivocally he thinks that some women can ‘quite clearly’ have a penis.

Apropos of nothing, Ferring Pharmaceuticals is a ‘long-standing’ supporter of the Liberal Democrats and has donated over £1.4 million to the party. Ferring Pharmaceuticals manufactures the puberty blocker Triptolerin.

Wednesday 23rd August - First Do No Harm

THE SPECTATOR: A vulnerable young woman who cannot live independently has been approved for a double mastectomy and cross-sex hormones.

The horrifying case of a vulnerable young woman being cleared for invasive medical treatment for her gender distress made the papers this week following a judgement in the Administrative Court.

The 22 year old, known only as AI to protect her identity, is female but ‘identifies as male’. Through solicitors, she took Wandsworth Council to the High Court for allegedly failing to cater for transgender young people with special educational needs. The court concluded that the council had ‘paid careful attention to AI's requirements’ and rejected her claim. However, the judgement brought to public attention that the Tavistock has authorised this extremely troubled young woman to take cross-sex hormones and undergo surgery in order to ‘treat’ her gender dysphoria.

“The Claimant was assigned female gender at birth, but identifies as male. He [sic] was referred to the Gender Identity Clinic (“GIC”) at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust (“the Tavistock”), when he [sic] was about 14… He [sic] has been approved for testosterone treatment with gender affirming surgery known as a Subcutaneous Mastectomy.”

IMAGE CREDIT: Reuters

AI had what the court has described as a ‘chaotic’ childhood. She frequently witnessed her mother, a recovering addict, using drugs and suffering domestic abuse. She was shunted between her mother and grandmother, living in various locations around the South East. Aged around eleven, AI was placed solely in her disabled grandmother’s care. When she was about thirteen, AI went into the social care system. She had what the court called a ‘long history of disrupted schooling’ and cannot read or write.

Furthermore, AI has a total of fourteen different diagnoses including attachment disorder, emotion dysregulation, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, autism spectrum disorder, severe anxiety and PTSD. The combined impact of these various conditions means that AI is unlikely to be able to live unsupported and will probably require 24-hour support in the near future. In short, AI cannot function as an independent adult but the Tavistock deems her capable of making life-altering decisions which have huge implications for her body and her future health.

As Steerpike writes in The Spectator, “How on earth have we created a system that means a struggling and vulnerable young person who cannot live independently can give consent to life-changing but physically unnecessary surgery and medical treatments, in the name of ‘gender identity’? Don’t expect an answer to that question anytime soon…”

Also Today - Men Make The Best Women

UNHERD: Trans-identified male cyclist, Emily Bridges, has been placed in Vogue magazine’s 2023 ‘powerhouse women’ list.

Emily (formerly Zach) Bridges has been cycling competitively since his early teens.

In 2020, aged nineteen, Bridges began ‘identifying as a woman’ and he started hormone treatment the following year. However, he continued to compete on male teams and in men’s events until very recently. In February 2022 he competed on the men’s team at the University Championships. He won an individual gold medal in the men's points race and a bronze medal in the team pursuit event.

In March 2022 Bridges, who is six feet two inches tall, announced his intention to compete in female events. However, just before his first competition, cycling’s governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), ruled that he is not eligible to race in the women’s division. He has been throwing a tantrum about it ever since.

Emily - then Zach - Bridges photographed in 2018

Bridges claims to be a lesbian and in June last year DIVA magazine pandered to that delusion by making him its Pride Month cover star.

Now Vogue has included Bridges on a list which supposedly “Honours the women defining – and redefining – Britain in 2023”.

As Glosswitch writes, “It is a measure of male entitlement, not female privilege, that Bridges can muscle into a list reserved for women, and not only that, use it to complain about no longer having access to female prizes. Women cannot tantrum their way out of experiencing sexism, or into receiving accolades. This is why we must continue to set aside spaces and prizes just for us”.

Also Today - An Unsporting Chance

SCOTTISH EXPRESS: Players in the Scottish women’s football leagues are being bullied and frightened into keeping silent over having to play with and against a trans-identified male.

The Scottish Football Association (SFA)’s current policy allows trans-identified males to compete in women’s leagues so long as their testosterone levels are within a certain range.

The female players trying to challenge and discuss this policy are being intimidated into silence. One young female player talked to The Express (on the understanding of anonymity). She told the paper she was warned that she would be labelled ‘transphobic’ and risked losing her university place if she spoke out. She said other players share her concerns but are scared of voicing their unease. “We are called transphobic and bullies. It's making us feel like we shouldn't speak out. They are not letting us have a voice”.

The safety issues arising from the SFA’s ‘trans inclusive’ policy were highlighted during a recent SWFA East game played at Peffermill’s 5G pitches in Edinburgh. A trans-identified male was playing on the winning team and, as reported in The Herald, “Hugely influenced the outcome of the game; scored two, set one up”.

The mother of one of the female players attended the match and later contacted the press to express her anxiety. She reported there had been several collisions between the trans-identified male player and the women on the pitch and commented that his ‘physical presence playing against women and girls’ was evident. She said, “I am actually afraid that there's going to be some sort of accident… I feel like that's what we're waiting for. We're waiting for somebody to be horribly injured before the SFA do anything.”

The trans-identified male player at the centre of the controversy wrote a lengthy blog post trying to justify his inclusion in women’s football. His tenuous arguments seem to be that some female players are tall and women’s bodies are too regulated and his team doesn’t even always win and not many girls want to play football anyway and something something transmisogyny and terfs... He singularly fails to address the two most important issues; safety and fairness. He does use the phrase ‘I want’ repeatedly, though. A blog of 1,218 words when just three would have sufficed; ‘me, me, me’.

This blog post was hosted by Leap Sports Scotland, an organisation which describes itself as ‘dismantling LGBTIQ-phobia in sport’. This is the group responsible for organising the recent protest at an elite women’s cycling race in Glasgow because the sport’s governing body, the UCI, barred trans-identified males from competing in women’s events. Protestors proudly displayed a banner reading “Let trans women win”. Saying the quiet part loud, eh?

Incidentally, Leap is funded, at least in part, by the Scottish government.

Thursday 24th August - A Fox In The Hen House

REDUXX: A trans-identified male sports coach undressed in front of a high school girls soccer team and questioned female students about intimate personal matters.

David Yates was hired as a high school tennis coach by the Gettysburg Area School District in 2018. He began identifying as trans and calling himself ‘Sasha’ in 2022. This week both The Gettysburg Times and The Epoch Times reported on Yates’ concerning behaviour towards female pupils.

In autumn 2022 Yates entered the female students’ locker room where members of the girls’ soccer team were getting changed. Yates stripped down to his underwear, ‘a bra and panties’, in full view of female students. The girls reported “It was clear from what they saw that Mr. Yates was still fully a man”.

Reduxx spoke to school board member, Michelle Smyers, who has been able to review the reprimand made against Yates by the administration. This reprimand reveals that Yates was subject to complaints concerning a further troubling incident dating from autumn 2022 during which, again, he used the girls’ locker room. While there, he questioned the female students about their menstrual cycles and asked what sort of underwear they prefer.

David ‘Sasha’ Yates (L) - IMAGE CREDIT: Penn Live

Despite receiving this reprimand, it seems Yates continued to use the female students’ facilities. In April 2023 he attended a school softball game. A 16-year old girl using the female toilet found herself alone there with Yates who attempted to strike up a conversation with her. According to the girl’s father, Steve Carbaugh, she texted her softball coach from the toilet expressing her concern. Carbaugh commented, “When is enough enough? …This is a grown man, going into a bathroom with a juvenile female. That’s a problem”.

Astonishingly, the school board members are debating whether or not to renew Yates’ contract and have postponed making a decision. Of course, those who believe he should not be re-hired are being accused of ‘transphobia’.

Sasha Yates - IMAGE CREDIT: Facebook

Friday 25th August - The Truth Is Transphobic

UNHERD: Trans activists tried to shut down the NYT’s fair and accurate reporting on the rushed medicalisation of vulnerable children at a Missouri gender clinic.

In February 2023, whistle-blower, Jamie Reed, spoke out about her experiences of working at Washington University’s youth gender clinic in St Louis. The former case worker made horrifying allegations that, with the clinic overwhelmed by demand, medical staff were dolling out hormones to children and teens with little examination of the patients’ histories and co-morbidities etc.

Reed’s account prompted Missouri's Attorney General, Andrew Bailey, to launch a multi-agency investigation into The Washington University Transgender Centre at St Louis Children's Hospital.

This week, The New York Times published a balanced and detailed article which corroborates many of Reed’s allegations. Based on proper research - the examination of patient outcomes, staff testimonies and hundreds of clinic documents - its revelations about the clinic are deeply troubling.

“With its psychologists overbooked, the clinic relied on external therapists, some with little experience in gender issues, to evaluate the young patients’ readiness for hormonal medications. Doctors prescribed hormones to patients who had obtained such approvals, even adolescents whose medical histories raised red flags. Some of these patients later stopped identifying as transgender, and received little to no support from the clinic after doing so.”

GLAAD is a hugely influential US-based LGBTQ organisation with a particular interest in the media and entertainment industries. It describes itself as “Leading the conversation. Shaping the media narrative. Changing the culture.” In 2021 we reported on its sinister ‘Accountability Project’, a stasi-style register of those in the public eye who express anything other than slavish adherence to gender identity ideology.

Rather than express concern for the distressed children - many of whom will be gay or lesbian - shoved into the gender macerator at the St Louis clinic, GLAAD have chosen to shoot the messenger. The organisation is attacking the New York Times with a level of vitriol and hyperbole that would be laughable were the subject at issue - the permanent harm of vulnerable children - not so serious and urgent.

On Thursday 24th August, GLAAD parked a van outside the NYT’s Headquarters. It was emblazoned with the demand, “Stop questioning trans people’s right to exist & access medical care”. Posting photographs of this stunt on social media, GLAAD described the (balanced, researched and factual) article as ‘biased’ and ‘anti trans’ and decreed it was holding the newspaper ‘accountable’.

Gender zealot, Jack Turban, is the Director of the Gender Psychiatry Programme at the University of California, San Francisco. He also attacked this NYT article by accusing its author of narcissism and the original whistle-blower of lying.

That’s the same Jack Turban who, in 2019, received at least  $15,000 from Arbor Pharmaceuticals, a firm which manufacturers puberty blockers.

Also Today - The Truth Will Out

BELFAST TELEGRAPH: Newly released records reveal that the impact of gender ideology on women’s rights was discussed and ignored over twenty years ago.

Under the 20-year rule, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), has just declassified a number of government files relating to ‘transsexuals’. They detail the early discussions surrounding government policy on gender identity.

In 1999, under Tony Blair’s Labour government, an ‘interdepartmental working group on transsexual people’ was set up by the then Home Secretary, Jack Straw. Its intention was to consider the legal changes required ‘to address the problems experienced by transsexual people’, particularly with regard to the potential altering of birth certificates.

The subsequent report made clear that human beings cannot change sex. It stated, “Gender reassignment is commonly termed a sex change, but in reality is an alteration only in a person’s physical characteristics. The biological sex of an individual is determined by their chromosomes, which cannot be change”. It acknowledged that, at that time, far more males then females were affected by gender dysphoria.

The report also highlighted issues such as the participation of trans-identified males in women’s sport and the inclusion of trans-identified males in female spaces. No decisions were taken on how to address these concerns.

IMAGE CREDIT: BBC News

Northern Ireland’s then First Minister, David Trimble, and Deputy First Minister, Seamus Mallon, were provided with this report in October 2000. They were informed by memo that Jack Straw decided against a public consultation on changing trans policy and had chosen to publish this report with ‘minimal publicity’.

Saturday 26th August - Leave Them Kids Alone

THE TIMES: A trans lobby group has promoted gender ideology to GOSH staff, even pointing them to scandal-beset charity, Mermaids.

A few weeks ago we reported that the CEO of the Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity, Louise Parkes, had signed a pledge committing to the promotion of gender ideology within the charity sector. The Times has now revealed that speakers from trans lobby group, Global Butterflies, were engaged to speak to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) staff last year.

Established in 2015, Global Butterflies, advertises itself as “a trans and non-binary inclusion training company” which will “help organisations adopt a zero-tolerance approach to trans-phobic behaviour and attitudes”. It is run by CEO and founder, Rachel Reese, and director, Emma Cusdin, both trans-identified males who claim to be lesbians.

We first reported on Global Butterflies over three years ago when an attendee at one of its training sessions described the content for Fair Cop. The session, ‘Beyond the Binary’, involved the usual hyperbolic language about “Unprecedented hostility and danger to trans lives”, some pronoun nonsense, a spiel promoting self-ID legislation, a total misrepresentation of feminist concerns and the standard anti-science rhetoric about sex being a spectrum.

Emma Cusdin (L) and Rachel Reese (R)

It seems their act hasn’t changed and, only last year, Cusdin and Reese were pushing gender woo on the GOSH staff.

The 24-page ‘guide’ they provided claimed that there are150 ways to ‘express gender’ and employed the laughable ‘genderbread person’ diagram. It also recommended scandal-ridden trans charity, Mermaids, which it described as “A great UK charity focused on young people and parents of young people”. In a section about ‘allyship’, the guide claimed that ‘de-transition, rest rooms, puberty blockers’ are ‘fake issues’.

Furthermore, The Times has also seen a recording of a video call to GOSH staff in which Rachel Reese instructed them not to buy newspapers critical of gender ideology. “Don’t buy The Times. Don’t buy the Telegraph. Don’t buy the Daily Mail. They write this trashy stuff”, he said. “Let’s get rid of these terrible rags that are just hatefully attacking not just trans rights but, we’re seeing, LGB rights … They are nasty and insidious.”

That a lobby group is allowed to push such an obvious agenda on a publicly funded NHS hospital is worrying enough. But Great Ormond Street Hospital is set to become one of the new child gender care centres following the closure of the Tavistock clinic.

Stephanie Davies-Arai, founder of Transgender Trend, commented, “Global Butterflies are another version of Stonewall. What they teach is ideology. A children’s hospital should not be talked to by ideologues — it should be based only on research, evidence and hard facts”.

Sunday 27th August - The Laughable Policeman

REDUXX: West Yorkshire Police interrogated a woman in her 70s after she photographed a billboard on display in a public place.

Eve (a pseudonym) is a woman in her 70s who lives in West Yorkshire. In April, while taking a walk in Hebden Bridge, she took a photograph of a sticker on a billboard. The billboard was standing outside local organisation, Happy Valley Pride. It was decorated in the baby pink and powder blue colours of the trans pride flag and bore the words ‘STAND BY YOUR TRANS’. The sticker, which had been placed on the billboard, read ‘Keep Males Out Of Women-Only Spaces’.

It appears that the sticker was one of a range designed and supplied by the Wild Womyn Workshop.

A month later Eve found two policemen knocking on her door, demanding to question her about the photograph she had taken. She says their opening remark was, “We have received a complaint so we have a duty to investigate it”.

Eve invited the officers into her home where, she says, they ‘gave a sermon’ and told her they were investigating a complaint on behalf of Happy Valley Pride because of “The sensitivity… for members of the LGBT community”. The police officers questioned Eve for half an hour, seemingly trying to determine if she had been responsible for placing the sticker onto the trans pride billboard.

The officers told Eve that Happy Valley Pride had supplied them with her personal details, otherwise they would not have been able to locate her. Eve is confused as to how Happy Valley Pride knew who she was and where she lives and surmises that the group may have obtained CCTV footage of her from the Town Hall and then ‘stalked’ her social media account where she sometimes discusses women’s rights. “Of course, this has been denied,” Eve told Reduxx. “So there has been no explanation of who gave my full name, address, and post code to the police.” 

Following their interrogation, the police officers advised Eve that ‘no crime had taken place’. However, thanks to a Freedom of Information request, Eve has discovered that the investigation was catalogued as a ‘non-crime hate incident’. Eve told Reduxx that she feels the police were acting on the behest of the complainant as part of a larger pattern of treatment towards those with gender critical views. “I see this as police intimidation to censor my thoughts and to try and gag any voice of dissent”.

You will remember that only a few weeks ago the West Yorkshire Police force was in the news after officers arrested a deeply distressed 16-year-old autistic girl in Leeds because she’d allegedly made an innocent remark about a WPC looking like her grandmother who is a lesbian.

Of course, vulnerable kids and septuagenarian ladies cannot be allowed to terrorise the public with perfectly legal behaviour like photographing billboards and making harmless comments. But in an area plagued by knife crime, one wonders if West Yorkshire Police has its priorities absolutely right?

See you next week.