A Week in the War on Women: Monday 2nd December - Sunday 8th December
Monday 2nd December - This Never Happens
MATT GODWIN SUBSTACK: A whistle-blower has provided James Esses with yet more evidence of the total ideological capture of the Scouts Association.
First founded in 1910, the Scout Association is a global organisation for young people. The UK branch is the largest national scout organisation in Europe and provides activities to around 444,700 children aged 4–18. The programme involves various age-specific groups; Squirrels (aged 4–6), Beavers (aged 6–8), Cubs (aged 8–101⁄2), Scouts (aged 101⁄2–14), and Explorer Scouts (aged 14–18).
A few weeks ago we reported on the Scouts website which includes a game for its young members - ‘pronoun pairs’ - that promotes and normalises gender ideology.
This week, writing on Matt Goodwin’s Substack, James Esses, discussed how the Scouting movement has ‘completely lost its way’. “By pandering to regressive gender ideology”, he says, “The Scouts now pose a threat to children’s safety and wellbeing”.
James Esses was contacted by a Scout leader (wishing to remain anonymous for obvious reasons) who has become so worried about the organisation’s adherence to radical trans ideology that he felt compelled to speak out:
“As a leader at our local scouting group, I am particularly shocked and concerned that the Scouts organisation has elected to use their privileged position to push radical gender ideology on to children, under the cloak of inclusivity… It’s entirely appropriate to teach compassion and tolerance, but to push the unscientific belief that you can be born in the wrong body, and can change your gender, is very dangerous, and tantamount to a safeguarding risk. Children should not be coerced into applying use of preferred pronouns, nor subject to confusion anxiety that will inevitably result from this activity, in order to appease a zealous fringe element of society. I fear the Scouts organisation is losing sight of what it was set up to do.”
The scout leader shared a range of policy documents and activities with James, demonstrating the extent to which children are being indoctrinated into gender ideology and proving that basic safeguarding protocols are being ignored.
To begin with, Scout leaders are told that, “Trans young people should be able to use the toilets or facilities of the gender they identify as”. This also applies to overnight residential trips during which children, away from their parents and in the care of adult scout leaders, share sleeping quarters and bathroom facilities.
Ironically, the policy stresses that a ‘trans’ young person must be afforded their privacy and should not be made to feel ‘uncomfortable or unsafe’. Clearly such sentiments do not extend to the girls who may be forced to share showers, toilets, or changing facilities with boys.
The organisation’s policies also instruct Scout leaders to keep a child’s ‘gender identity’ a secret from parents if the child tells them they are ‘trans’. “If a young person tells you that they are trans or think they might be trans, it’s usually a positive sign that they trust you. Reassure the young person that you will not share this personal information with others (including volunteers, members, parents/carers).”
As James points out, encouraging children to keep secrets from their parents is ‘the antithesis of safeguarding’. Furthermore, can the Scouts Association really be ignorant of the Cass Review which states that social transition is ‘not a neutral act’?
It doesn’t end there; shockingly, the Scout Association facilitates and normalises the wearing of breast binders by young girls who are taking part in activities.
Facilitating the wearing of breast binders is not only irresponsible, it is potentially dangerous. The harmful effects of breast binders were documented in a 2015 study that detailed 28 potential negative outcomes. The side effects of wearing a breast binder include compressed or broken ribs, punctured or collapsed lungs, back pain, compression of the spine, damaged breast tissue, damaged blood vessels, blood clots, inflamed ribs, breathing problems and even heart attacks.
In addition to these deeply concerning policies, the Scout Association encourages children to participate in Pride-related activities. This includes ‘recruiting’ (their word) children to attend Pride events on behalf of the Scouts. The Scouts’ online pride shop is available all year round and young members can purchase items such as pronoun badges and scarves, flags, socks, t-shirts and lanyards in the trans flag colours.
As James Esses writes, “This looks more like a cult than the Scouting movement we once knew”.
Tuesday 3rd December - There is No Such Thing as ‘Trans Joy’
THE MIRROR USA: A trans-identified woman who worked in the pornography industry has died unexpectedly and heart-breakingly young.
Forest (formerly Hannah Lynn) Harader was a trans-identified woman from Los Angeles. Describing herself as ‘trans masculine’, she was a pornography creator and performer known in the industry as Apollo Moon.
Recently, Forest had been posting comments on her X/Twitter account announcing her retirement from the porn industry and stating that it had taken a considerable toll on her mental health.
Tragically, Forest died this week aged just twenty-six. The cause of her death has not been disclosed. According to Los Angeles Blade, she suffered an ‘injury’ at the end of November after which she was hospitalised in the ICU and her health declined.
In her thread about Forest’s online presence, Exulansic points out that her social media content indicates she was deeply troubled and unhappy.
In her final TikTok post, Forest stated that her masculinity was not honest or authentic, but often a performance based on the expectations of others and borne out of a need for acceptance. “I made a huge mistake when I first transitioned and to this day I still find myself making that mistake”, she said. “I was performing masculinity in a way that wasn’t actually true to myself so after coming out as trans, people were congratulating me on living my truth but I was still unhappy”. She urged young ‘trans guys’ not to make the mistakes she made, to express their feelings, to be ‘soft’ and not to ‘feel so trapped’.
These are the final posts from Forest’s X/Twitter account.
We extend our sincere condolences to Forest’s family and friends.
Very sadly, Forest is one of several high-profile young trans-identified women who have died in recent months.
In July, for example, Griffin Sivret passed away after spending almost half of her life as a medical patient. She was prescribed puberty blockers at 13 and cross-sex hormones at 15. She underwent a double mastectomy at 17 and a hysterectomy at 19. Aged 21, Griffin underwent phalloplasty surgery to create a faux penis with a skin graft from her thigh. Unsurprisingly, she became addicted to her prescription pain medication before turning to harder substances.
During 11 years of so-called ‘gender affirming’ medical treatment, Griffin underwent a total of nine major surgeries, most of which were attempts to rectify the problems and complications arising from her phalloplasty. She endured an episode of deep vein thrombosis during which she almost lost a leg. She had to undergo dialysis after her kidneys failed and she suffered a heart attack, multiple organ failures, and, finally, a brain haemorrhage.
She was just 24 years old when she died.
In September, 35-year-old Liam Johns died, leaving her two children without a mother. She ‘transitioned’ in 2009, took testosterone for several years and had undergone a double mastectomy. At the time of her death, she was undergoing dialysis due to kidney failure and she was on the transplant list, waiting for a donor kidney and pancreas.
May they rest in peace. Again, our thoughts and sympathies to their families.
Wednesday 4th December - This Unsporting Life
ASSOCIATED PRESS: A trans-identified male power-lifter is still continuing his five-year legal battle to compete in the female division.
JayCee Cooper is a trans-identified male who has always had sporting ambitions. As a teenager he played on the USA’s junior national curling team, he competed in track and field events in high school and in college he rowed competitively. Of course, in all cases, he competed in the men’s divisions.
In 2015, Cooper began identifying as ‘trans feminine’ and started taking cross-sex hormones. He took up powerlifting in 2018 and competed in his first event - in the female category - in September that year. He then applied to compete in further female competitions. USA Powerlifting (USAPL), the sport’s governing body, quite rightly, prevented his inclusion in the women’s division saying that their policy did not allow trans-identified males to participate in female competitions as they have a ‘direct competitive advantage’.
In 2019 Cooper filed a discrimination claim against USAPL with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. In 2021 he then filed a lawsuit against USAPL in state court, alleging that the organization had violated the Minnesota Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination against people “Having or being perceived as having a self-image or identity not traditionally associated with one's biological maleness or femaleness”.
In March 2023, following a two-year legal battle, the district court ruled that USAPL did discriminate against Cooper when barring him from women's competitions and instructed the sporting body to “Cease and desist from all unfair discriminatory practices based on sexual orientation and gender identity and revise its policy related to these issues within two weeks”.
However, the Minnesota Court of Appeals then sent the case back to the trial court, stating that there were ‘genuine issues of fact’ about whether USAPL excluded Cooper because of his trans identity and whether the organization had a ‘legitimate business reason’ for rejecting him.
Determined to force his way into women’s sport, Cooper then took his suit to the state Supreme Court and the case was heard this week. Cooper’s lawyer, Christy Hall, erroneously claimed that USAPL’s policy “Holds that stereotypes about people's bodies as a group may legitimately be used to discriminate against individuals” and tried to suggest that barring males from female sports categories is the same as saying that “Women can't be firefighters because firefighters need to be strong and women as a group aren't as strong as men”. Ansis Viksnins, UASPL’s lawyer, told the court, “I would suggest there would be a serious, chilling effect on women's sports' if Cooper's arguments prevail”.
This legal battle has now rumbled on for five years. Cooper really doesn’t like being told ‘No’, does he?
Thursday 5th December - This Never Happens
REDUXX: A trans-identified male convicted paedophile was moved to a women’s prison where it is alleged he exposed himself to a female inmate.
Daniel Patrick Benz is a 38-year-old paedophile from St Louis County, Minnesota. In 2007, he was convicted of criminal sexual misconduct with a victim under the age of 13. He had sexually abused a 6-year-old girl on multiple occasions.
Despite receiving the maximum 25 year prison sentence, it appears that he was released around 2012. In 2017, Benz was arrested for the theft of a motor vehicle. The police records filed at the time state that Benz had ‘active warrants’ for ‘failure to register as a predatory offender’ in addition to a domestic assault report. He was convicted of car theft in 2018 and sent back to prison.
While incarcerated, Benz developed a trans identity and claimed to suffer from gender dysphoria. In February 2023, he filed a civil rights complaint facilitating his transfer to MCF Shakopee, Minnesota’s minimum security women’s prison. He then legally changed his name to Danielle Marie Whitebird in June 2023 and was supplied with a ‘replacement birth record’ which lists his sex as ‘female’.
Reduxx has been contacted by a female inmate at MCF-Shakopee who alleges that, while he was incarcerated there, Benz exposed his penis to her. The woman, a survivor of sex trafficking, said she reported the incident to prison officials but that no action was taken. She said, “We just want to be protected here and not abused or taken advantage of. Most of us come from a background of abuse and we shouldn’t allow it here. We should be safe and protected, but they are allowing abusers in”.
In September, Benz was released from prison and, thanks to his legal change of sex, he now has access to all the supposedly female-only spaces which are supposed to keep women and girls safe from men like him.
Friday 6th December - The Clocks are Chiming 13 on Campus
THE TELEGRAPH: A student was suspended from Leeds University campus radio station after a complaint was made about her expression of gender-critical views.
Connie Shaw is a Philosophy student at Leeds University. A few weeks ago we published her account of the institution’s complete ideological capture and its Stasi-style enforcement of gender woo on campus. This week, The Telegraph reported that Connie has been removed from her role as head of daytime at Leeds Student Radio (LSR) over her gender-critical beliefs.
Connie received a ‘notice of suspension’ by Leeds University Union in October following a complaint to the radio station. She was informed that an investigation had been launched into the allegations made against her. It was claimed that she failed to uphold ‘a duty of care to all society members’, violated the student union’s ‘values, ethos and expectations’, and had brought the university ‘into disrepute’. The letter suggested that the allegations involved her social media activity, but no specific details were provided until she attended a meeting the following week.
At that meeting on 6th November, Connie was told that the complainant had raised concerns about the blog post published on this site which she had written the previous month. In addition to her critique of Leeds University’s adherence to gender ideology, the article linked to an episode of Connie’s own podcast in which she spoke to Charlie Bentley-Astor, a prominent detransitioner. She had also interviewed our own Graham Linehan for her podcast during the Battle of Ideas festival in October.
Last week, Leeds student union concluded that Connie had brought the radio station into disrepute due to her social media activity and it suspended her from the radio station committee. She will remain barred from the committee unless she sends a written apology to the LSR membership and attends an e-learning course.
The Free Speech Union is acting on Connie’s behalf and will be appealing her suspension.
Saturday 7th December - All Aboard the Grooming Train
THE TELEGRAPH: Rail operator, LNER, accused a passenger of ‘transphobia’ after she submitted an FoI request about its ‘pride train’.
London North Eastern Railway (LNER) operates most rail routes along the east coast. In 2018, following years of poor performance, it was taken into government ownership and is operated by the Department for Transport. In recent years, the company has outraged passengers by adding £100 to the cost of some fares and advertising London-Newcastle fares for £783, roughly double the cost of an airfare for the same journey.
In June last year, LNER unveiled its pride-themed Azuma train which, the company says, “Celebrates LNER’s support of Pride activities on the LNER route as well as a long-term commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion initiatives”. Liveried in the progress pride flag colours, the train cost £58,000 to produce.
Rail passenger, Carol Fossick, subsequently submitted a Freedom of Information (FoI) request to LNER about this train, asking about its cost. She also requested information about LNER’s diversity initiatives and the composition of the panel which decided on the train’s pride re-brand. LNER revealed the cost of the train but refused to disclose any further information so Ms Fossick asked the company to reconsider its decision.
A senior LNER manager then responded to Ms Fossick, accusing her of being ‘vexatious’. As a state-owned body, LNER is subject to the Freedom of Information Act, meaning it has a duty to respond to requests from members of the public. So-called ‘vexatious requests’, however, can be ignored.
“Since you submitted your internal review, your subsequent social media posts have demonstrated views that indicate a bias against transgender individuals”, the letter read. “Given the content of your recent tweets, we believe continuing to engage with your request could lead to harmful discourse and cause distress to our transgender employees and the people that the Pride Train represents. The repeated focus on these specific topics, coupled with the use of transphobic language and alignment with anti-trans figures, suggests a potential motive beyond simply seeking information.”
It appears that, following her FoI request, LNER investigated Ms Fossick’s social media activity and, because she expressed her (perfectly legal) gender-critical views, it branded her ‘transphobic’. LNER had highlighted four tweets from Ms Fossick’s X/Twitter output which it deemed ‘transphobic’ and said indicated ‘a bias against transgender individuals’. The first expressed criticism of Dawn Butler MP’s claim that a baby is born without a sex. The second was a defence of women’s sport from what Ms Fossick termed ‘cheating males’.
The third post was on the subject of puberty blockers and stated “No one is born in the wrong body”. It also included a reference to our own Graham Linehan and used the hashtag #GlinnerWasRight. The fourth supposedly ‘transphobic’ post was a defence of women’s single-sex spaces.
Maya Forstater told The Telegraph, “LNER’s refusal to respond to an FoI request on the basis that the requester had expressed views that challenge gender ideology was disgraceful and discriminatory… This attempt at thought-policing passengers for blaspheming against the rainbow suggests a corporate culture that is more akin to a medieval church than a modern business. The fact that LNER even felt entitled to refuse to respond to an FoI on that basis suggests that staff and managers within the business must have accepted a stultifying culture of fear and obedience.”
Sunday 8th December - The Clocks Are Striking 13 In Europe
REDUXX: Two stories published by Reduxx this week demonstrate the extent to which certain countries adhere slavishly to gender ideology.
In November, Germany’s Self Determination Act came into effect. The law enables German citizens to change their name and legal sex - even having the gender marker removed altogether - by making a simple declaration at a registry office. There are no formal requirements and neither medical diagnosis nor physical alteration are necessary.
Allowing legal sex to be based purely on self-identification, removing the previous judicial and medical requirements, means that any man in Germany can now fill out a bit of paperwork and be legally regarded as a woman. (If he changes his mind, he can go back to being male in a year’s time.) Furthermore, the law prevents any disclosure of his true sex. Those intentionally disclosing a trans-identified individual’s ‘dead’ (ie former) name and/or their true sex will face fines of up to €10,000 (around £8,000).
The new law also allows children as young as 14 to change their legal sex and name, even against their parents’ wishes if their application is approved by a family court. Parents can apply to legally change the sex of children under the age of 14.
Reem Alsalem, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, expressed her alarm at the enacting of this legislation. “The Gender Self-Determination Act lacks the needed safeguards to prevent abuse of the process by sexual predators and other perpetrators of abuse and violence, including in single-sex spaces.”
Katja Adler and Linda Teuteberg are the only two female politicians in Germany’s Free Democratic Party (FPD) who voted against this legislation. Furthermore, both have spoken openly about the dangers of gender ideology on women’s rights and safety. They now face being ousted from the German parliament.
Katja Adler was elected to the Bundestag in the 2021 German federal election. She voted against and opposed the Self-Determination Act, making a personal statement that the law would result in women having fewer rights to single-sex spaces. She also expressed concerns about the implications of the law on children.
In Adler’s federal state of Hessen, she has already been dismissed from the FDP and has lost her place on the voting list, which would have guaranteed her return as a member of the German Bundestag.
Linda Teuteberg, who represents the state of Brandenburg, also voted against the self-determination law and has spoken out about her concerns for women’s sex-based rights. the FDP is seeking to replace Teuteberg with Matti Karstedt, a politician who supports the self-determination law and has expressed her view that ‘truly liberal women’ do not feel threatened by trans-identified males.
In another story published by Reduxx this week, an Icelandic gay rights activist is being investigated for ‘hate speech’ over his gender critical social media posts.
Eldur Kristinsson is the Chair of Icelandic organisation, Samtökin 22. It is the only group in the country dedicated solely to the support and defence of lesbians and gay men. The group speaks out against the danger of gender identity ideology to vulnerable children and its harmful effect on the rights of gay men and lesbians.
In the recent Icelandic parliamentary elections, Kristinsson stood as a candidate for the Northwest constituency representing the centre-right Democratic Party. During the election, Iceland’s national broadcaster, RÚV, conducted an interview with the leader of the Democratic Party, Arnar Þór Jónsson. The interviewer interrogated Jónsson about Kristinsson’s membership and repeated an unsubstantiated and defamatory claim that Kristinsson had once been removed from a school by police for making rude comments about a trans person’s genitals and for photographing pupils and staff. These claims are entirely and demonstrably false but RÚV refused to issue Kristinsson an apology beyond attaching a brief ‘correction’ to its coverage.
The day after the broadcast, Kristinsson was contacted by the police and informed that he is subject to a criminal investigation for ‘hate speech’ regarding certain of his social media posts. A formal complaint had been filed against him by Samtökin '78. The Icelandic member organisation of ILGA Europe, it is a sort of Stonewall-Mermaids hybrid which describes itself as “The National Queer Association of Iceland – for all queer persons regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, sex characteristics or gender expression”. The group listed seven of Kristinsson’s posts, some dating back to November of 2022, claiming that they constitute ‘hate speech’.
Among the social media posts reported to police by Samtökin '78 were comments Kristinsson made regarding the existence of autogynephilia, a paraphilia in which trans-identified males are sexually aroused by themselves mimicking women. The group also listed two of the posts in which Kristinsson criticised news outlets for defending the trans-identified males who chemically induce lactation to satisfy their desire to ‘breastfeed’ babies.
Facing potential criminal court proceedings and hoping to pursue a case against RÚV and Samtökin '78, Eldur Kristinsson has launched a fund-raising page to help finance his legal action. If you would like to make a donation, you can do so here.
By the way, if the name Samtökin '78 sounds familiar, you may remember that, two years ago, we reported on its then-chair being accused of rape and of sexually harassing minors.
Þórhildur Sara Sveinbjörnsdóttir is a 33-year-old male who identifies as a lesbian. In November 2022, when he was Chair of Samtökin '78, Frettins.is reported on allegations that Sveinbjörnsdóttir had sexually harassed a 13-year-old girl and sent inappropriate messages to other children. Screenshots of interactions between him and minors as young as 14 were circulating on social media at the time. In one of these exchanges, a vulnerable young man with cognitive issues accused Sveinbjörnsdóttir of raping him in a toilet.
Reduxx also reported on this story back in November 2022. According to Genevieve Gluck, it was Eldur Kristinsson who alerted Reduxx to the allegations about Þórhildur Sara Sveinbjörnsdóttir’s at the time.
And now Kristinsson is facing allegations of hate speech following a complaint lodged by the same trans lobby group of which Sveinbjörnsdóttir used to be chair.
What a coincidence.
See you next week.
Everyone’s dumbstruck that we’re still doing this after all these years.
Thanks JL. I’m sure it’s going to end one day and you can do a keep fit or wine making substack instead. I know which I’d go for. 😁
Why can't "Scout Pride" just mean that one takes pride in being a Scout?
It's time to take the word "pride" back. It was loaned out a few years ago, and its return to normal use is overdue.