A Week in the War on Women: Monday 30th January - Sunday 5th February GOOD NEWS SUPPLEMENT
Well, what a week! So much good news from the gender beat. Here are just a few of the stories Enjoy!
The Wheels Are Coming Off
The whole sorry mess which saw double rapist, Adam Graham (aka Isla Bryson), accommodated in a female prison has helped to focus media scrutiny on the incoherence of Scotland’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill. This week saw many news outlets pouring scorn on the bill and its chief architect, Nicola Sturgeon.
The Telegraph reported that “Nicola Sturgeon’s controversial trans laws were in disarray” with the Isla Bryson situation demonstrates demonstrating just how dangerous the legislation will be.
“The reality is that Nicola Sturgeon wants to make it easier for brutes like this to legally change gender for their own cynical ends.”
Peter Smith interviewed Nicola Sturgeon for ITV News and asked her if all trans women are women. The resultant bluster and floundering were simultaneously cringeworthy and hilarious.
The Telegraph reported that “Sturgeon’s gender ideology is imploding in real time” and described this TV interview as not so much a car crash but a seven-vehicle pile-up at a monster truck rally.
“Expertly reeled in by ITV’s Peter Smith earlier this week about the prisons debacle – the logical conclusion of a policy of gender self-ID, in which people can self-declare which gender they belong to – the First Minister equivocates, unable to reconcile two conflicting positions. Trans women are women, she insists, while essentially admitting that some trans women might pose a danger to women.”
Writing in The Scotsman, Murdo Fraser, referred to the gender bill as being Nicola Sturgeon’s ‘poll tax moment’.
“The Gender Recognition Reform Bill has led to the demonisation of the vulnerable trans people it claimed to champion. Tragically, their cause is now synonymous in the public eye with rapists getting access to women’s jails. The First Minister was warned… In just one week, our fears have been shown to be daily realities.”
Channel 4’s Ciaran Jenkins challenged Sturgeon over her inflammatory remarks that those who oppose the bill are misogynists, racists and homophobes.
“Where have you seen these things? Where are these a fact? Don’t you think you’re somewhat obliged to substantiate that sort of comment? You’ve always said take the heat out of this and now you’re saying some people are racists. homophobes and misogynists.”
The Scotsman published a scathing leader article on ‘Sturgeon’s disgraceful attack on Gender Bill critics’ and suggested that she has ‘lost the plot’.
“Humiliated over the case of the transgender rapist sent initially to a women’s prison then, following public uproar, moved to a men’s one, the First Minister should be reflecting seriously on her mistakes… Instead of being the target of disgraceful slurs by the First Minister, the feminists and others who have raised potential problems with self-ID deserve to be given a hearing and taken seriously.”
The Scottish Express even suggested that things are going so gloriously badly for the First Minister that she is ‘on the verge of quitting’.
“Nicola Sturgeon may be set to resign before the next General Election, according to an insider. It comes as a rumour is circulating that the public backlash to the SNP's gender policy and recent trans inmate controversy is the final straw for the SNP leader.”
The Sunday Times reported that “Support for the SNP, for Nicola Sturgeon and for Scottish independence has fallen sharply as the party’s crisis over transgender rights deepens”.
The latest YouGov poll found that Sturgeon’s approval rating has slipped into negative territory, from +7 to -4, since October. In the space of a month, support for the SNP in the next Scottish parliament election has fallen from 50% to 44% in the constituency vote and from 40% to 36% in the regional vote.
Former SNP deputy leader, Jim Sillars, commented, “It may infuriate Nicola Sturgeon, but it seems that JK Rowling’s political judgment is superior: the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill will be Sturgeon’s poll tax”.
Writing in the Scotsman, Euan McColm highlighted the way Sturgeon dismissed suggestions that predatory men would exploit her gender bill and then made her about-face statement that Isla Bryson is ‘almost certainly’ faking his trans status.
“When she said concerns were ‘not valid’, she must have meant they were ‘perfectly valid’, I suppose. Backed into a corner, Sturgeon threw her flagship policy under a bus. It was as shameless a performance as the Scottish Parliament’s debating chamber has ever seen.”
Sunak’s Sex Talk
British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has stated unequivocally, “I know what a woman is. It is an adult human female… I am married to one and have two daughters, and it is really important that they grow up in a society where their needs are respected.”
In an interview with Piers Morgan, Sunak also praised the veto of Scotland’s gender bill, describing it as one of his greatest achievements of his premiership thus far.
“When it comes to these questions, biological sex matters. We can and will have compassion and tolerance and understanding for everybody who is thinking about transitioning and changing their identity or gender but, you know, for me, when it comes to whether it’s sex, whether it’s women’s spaces, whether it’s prisons, biological sex really matters.
“Actually we saw that recently with what’s going on in Scotland. When you say ‘what else have you done in 100 days and what’s bold?’ We took action that hadn’t been taken before because the bill that was passed in Scotland.”
Sportswomen Won’t Wheesht
More leading sportswomen are speaking out against the unfairness of World Athletics’ proposed policy of allowing trans-identified male athletes to compete in the women’s categories.
Eilish McColgan, one of the UK’s foremost long-distance runners, said that even just a one per cent advantage over female competitors would be ‘too much’.
“I’m more than happy for transgender athletes to be included… but the fairest way with regards to women being a protected category of born women.”
Scottish discus star, Kirsty Law, also spoke out this week. “I am not against transgender people at all. I just don’t think they should be allowed to compete in women’s sport. My big thing is fairness. It’s not fair. No matter how much you reduce the testosterone levels it still isn’t comparable with a woman.”
Law was also active on social media, discussing the unfairness of allowing male pupils to compete in the female categories at school athletics competitions.
“I want to make clear here that being trans is not the problem… being male and competing in a female category is.”
A Level Playing Field
More good news from the world of sport, UK Athletics is defending the women’s category and seeks to ensure that it is reserved for female competitors only.
The governing body is advocating an ‘open category’ in which trans-identified males can compete, reserving the female categories purely for actual females. UKA said it had a responsibility to ‘ensure fairness’ in women’s competitions.
And better still, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has clarified the law regarding trans-identified males in women’s sports.
The ‘sporting exemption’ set out in section 195 of the Equality Act 2010 means that even Gender Recognition Certificate holders can be lawfully excluded from sex-based categories.
“It is therefore likely to be lawful for a sporting body or organisation to adopt a trans exclusive policy in relation to gender-based sporting competition where they can evidence that it is necessary to do so in order to secure fair competition or the safety of competitors.”
Leave Them Kids Alone
The US state of Utah has banned the medical transition of minors.
Utah has banned the medicalisation of children who struggle with gender dysphoria. This week Governor Spencer Cox signed a bill that will prohibit doctors from providing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or so-called ‘gender affirming’ surgeries to anyone under 18 years of age.
Landmark Victory For Bristol Feminists
A landmark legal precedent has been set meaning that trans-identified males can be excluded from university feminist societies.
In February 2021 Bristol SU’s feminist society, Women Talk Back, excluded trans-identified males from a discussion about rape and sexual assault. Bristol SU took action against the group, demanding that its president, Raquel Rosario Sanchez, stand down and ordering members to undertake an ‘equality, diversity and inclusion’ course.
In response, four members of WTB took legal action against Bristol SU, arguing that it had denied their rights under the Equality Act and discriminated against them. In a humiliating climb-down, Bristol SU has been forced to admit that “Affiliated clubs and societies may lawfully offer single-sex services and be constituted as single-sex associations” under the Equality Act 2010.
This landmark outcome sets a legal precedent for universities across the UK. As Raquel Rosario Sanchez commented, “We’ve inspired the first recognition of single-sex societies as lawful in academia.”
A Tale Of Two Cities
Two huge feminist events took place over the weekend and, despite attempts by trans activists to spoil the fun, both were a resounding success, boasting hundreds of attendees and boundless support.
On Saturday, the ‘Education for Women’s Liberation’ conference organised by UCL Women’s Liberation Sig and Woman’s Place UK took place. It was held at UCL’s Institute of Education in London.
On Sunday, Kellie-Jay Keen, aka Posie Parker, held one of Standing for Women’s now legendary ‘Let Women Speak’ events in Glasgow.
Glinner Of Hope
Don’t miss Our Graham being brilliant on BBC Radio 4’s Unsafe Space.
Flipping heck Graham’s been allowed to be heard on radio 4! things must be moving in the right direction. and those sturgeon clips are so funny, it would be easier for her to defend a policy enforcing the use of shit in school meals. A moment of relief ! thanks JL
I'm still not over Nicola Sturgeon saying that people who aren't for trans rights (i.e. insane, dangerous demands) tend not to be for other people's rights too.
That we're bigots.
BULL. SHIT.