A Week in the War on Women: Monday 26th April - Sunday 2nd May
Monday 26th April - Blessed Be The Fruit
A supposed women’s charity is silencing those who refuse to supplicate themselves to trans ideology.
Chwarae Teg is a charity based in Cardiff which advertises itself as “Building a Wales where women achieve & prosper”. Sadly, this does not seem to be the case. We have reported previously on its slavish adherence to gender identity ideology.
Last week Chwarae Teg held an online hustings event with candidates from four main political parties. Several members of Welsh feminist group, Merched Cymru, attended. A discussion on gender stereotypes prompted a couple of politely worded questions and comments about gender identity in the ‘chat’. Chwarae Teg administrator, Helen Antoniazzi, intervened and stated that “Anyone using the chat to post comments that are divisive or offensive will be removed from the event”.
One attendee asked, “Are you telling me that I do not have freedom to discuss issues relating to women and girls without your approval (as a publicly funded organisation) where I may have a different opinion to yours?” She was immediately removed from the event.
Tuesday 27th April - The Tail Wags The Dog
Two Oregon educators are facing attempts to hound them out of their jobs after they discussed sex-based spaces in an online video.
Rachel Damiano is the assistant principal and Katie Medart is a teacher at North Middle School in Grants Pass, Oregon. In late March they set up a website and posted a video to YouTube in which they discussed proposed federal legislation allowing ‘gender identity’ to supersede biological sex in the use of school bathrooms and changing rooms etc.
They advocate assigning such facilities on the basis of being 'anatomically male' and 'anatomically female' instead of by self-declared ‘gender identity’. They also disagree with the mandated use of ‘preferred pronouns’.
Immediately after their video was posted, they faced a barrage of complaints and accusations of ‘transphobia’. Grants Pass School District placed them ‘on leave’ and issued a statement stating that the matter was being investigated.
One of the 8th grade pupils at the school is campaigning to get Damiano and Medart fired. She is displaying the transgender flag, has messages on her clothing and writes her preferred pronouns on her forehead. She is even making media appearances and told local news station, KTLV, "If someone is seriously so concerned by what's in between your legs, about what bathroom you're going in, then I think that we have a complete different issue that needs to be addressed rather than blaming it on the transgender community."
She is thirteen years old.
And has already been brainwashed into giving up her rights.
And now this pupil has set up a petition to get Damiano and Medart forced out of their jobs. In it she writes, “Administrative leave is not enough! Permanently remove these teachers from our district.”
Meanwhile, the school board has hired an external investigator to gather data on Damiano and Medart whose future employment still hangs in the balance.
Wednesday 28th April - Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been…?
Classicist and TV presenter, Mary Beard, fell foul of the gender stasi on Twitter.
In a now deleted tweet, an anonymous account made a comment about the gender critical feminists that Mary Beard is following.
This led to the inevitable outrage and accusations of bigotry and transphobia.
And of course the usual hyperbolic comparison with Nazism.
And if you’re an academic who wants to undermine a rival? Just accuse them of being a witch, or the currently fashionable alternative, a ‘TERF’.
Thursday 29th April - Disappeariamus!
A New Zealand book festival has cancelled its planned Harry Potter quiz because of JK Rowling’s so-called ‘controversial viewpoints’.
The organisers of the sixth annual Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival have decided not to include their usual Harry Potter quiz on this year’s programme because of ‘alleged transphobic comments’ made by the books’ author, JK Rowling.
Festival board chairman, Peter Biggs, said the decision was reached after consultation with the ‘LGBTQ+ community’ and added, “There was a risk around causing distress to particular members of the community”.
Because nothing is more upsetting than a domestic violence survivor standing up for herself.
Friday 30th April - Boys & Girls Don’t Come Out To Play
THE METRO: The headteacher of a primary school in Birmingham has instructed staff not to use the phrase ‘boys and girls’.
Sarah Hewitt-Clarkson, head of Anderton Park Primary School, says calling pupils ‘boys and girls’ is a “Slightly strange way of dividing a group of people” and wants staff to use language that is more ‘inclusive’. She describes herself as an ‘equality warrior’.
Two years ago, her school was in the news when parents staged a series of demonstrations against its teaching of the 'No Outsiders' curriculum.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain earlier in the week, Mrs Hewitt-Clarkson referenced the rising numbers of child abuse and grooming cases and said her new measures were intended to combat sexism, abuse and bullying. Quite how that will be accomplished by blurring the lines between the sexes and erasing the language children need to describe themselves and others remains unclear.
Saturday 1st May - It’s Really NOT That Simple
The BBC reported on Elliott Page’s recent interview with Oprah Winfrey in this irresponsible article.
The BBC ended the piece by publishing Page’s comment, “If you're not gonna allow trans kids to play sports, children will die. And it really is that simple”.
This sensationalist reporting not only contravenes the BBC’s own rules and Samaritan guidelines on suicide reporting, it could have a dangerous effect on vulnerable and suggestible children. Furthermore, linking sports inclusion to suicide is entirely unfounded and there is no evidence to support such a claim.
If you would like to submit a complaint to the BBC, you can do so here.
Also Today - The Clocks Are Striking Thirteen In Academia
THE TELEGRAPH: University staff are being trained in ‘cis privilege’ and banned from expressing certain ideas or phrases so that they don’t offend trans people.
Edinburgh University has drawn up a list of ‘microinsults’ which staff are banned from using. The verboten phrases include, ‘All women hate their periods’ and ‘I wanted to be a boy when I was a child’. According to the guidelines, these ‘microaggressions’ "Negate or nullify the thoughts, feelings or lived reality of trans and non-binary people".
Furthermore, the guidelines instruct staff to step in if they hear students making such remarks. They are expected to ‘disarm the microaggression’ and ‘educate the offender’ by teaching them to ‘recognise their biases’.
Elsewhere at other Russell Group universities, academics are being told they have ‘cisgender privilege’. Newcastle University’s diversity training tells staff that, "Being cisgender comes with social privilege. That's even for people who are socially disadvantaged in other ways." Imperial College and the LSE instruct lecturers to use their ‘cis’ and ‘gender-straight privilege’ to be trans allies.
Professor of Sociology, Frank Furedi, branded Edinburgh University’s new guidance "Indoctrination rather than education". He told the paper, "If you’re able to convince people that the issue of gender neutrality is a foundational norm then you’ve eliminated the age-old historical distinction between a man and a woman”.
Sunday 2nd May - How GIDS Tried To Shoot The Messenger
THE OBSERVER: An interview with Dr David Bell.
Psychiatrist Dr David Bell worked at the NHS Tavistock and Portman clinic from 1995 until his retirement earlier this year. In 2018 he wrote a report raising serious issues about the treatment of the child patients at the clinic’s gender identity development service (GIDS).
He told The Observer that he had no choice but to act after around 10 of the clinic’s staff came to see him, unsolicited and independently, with grave concerns.
In September 2018 the report was complete and supplied to Paul Jenkins, the trust’s senior staff. Within months Dr Bell was threatened disciplinary action and, in early 2020, disciplinary action procedures were set up to be taken against him. He was also told not to contact Sonia Appleby, the trust’s director of child safeguarding who is bringing a whistleblowing claim. He was prevented from emailing other staff members and was even instructed not to write or speak in public about any subject not directly related to his NHS employment.
Speaking more generally, Dr Bell told The Observer that he is shocked by the reluctance of the left to engage with the issue, particularly its unwillingness to examine the influence of big pharmaceutical companies. “Mermaids and Stonewall have made people afraid even of listening to another view.”
“I hate the weaponisation of victimhood, the fact that the fear of being seen to be transphobic now overrides everything… This is about light and air. It’s about free thinking, the kind that will result in better outcomes for all young people, whether transgender or not.”
See you next week.
Thanks, JL for keeping us up to date!
Thanks JL, for your sterling and depressing work. This has been a bad week. Again. But the David Bell interview in the Observer is superb, well worth a read. I'm surprised it was even published, tbh. Maybe the tide is turning, just a little? Here's a quote:
[Bell] had long believed a case would be brought against the trust, though he thought the most likely scenario was that a former patient would sue for damages (Keira Bell instigated a judicial review). “It was inevitable,” he says. “I warned the trust of this.” But the Keira Bell judgment has done little to alleviate his concerns. Whatever the outcome of the appeal, he believes more questions must be asked, particularly about the rise in the number of girls presenting at the clinic (three-quarters of patients are now girls; the gender balance used to be closer to 50:50). “We do not know why this is happening.” He worries that too much emphasis is placed on gender and not enough on sexuality – “the children are often gay” – and he continues to be anxious about co-morbidities such as anorexia, autism and history of trauma in its patients. “Some of the children are depressed. It’s said that it’s their gender that is the cause of this, but how do we know? And why don’t we try to treat that first?”
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/may/02/tavistock-trust-whistleblower-david-bell-transgender-children-gids