Plenty of good news stories from the gender beat this week. Enjoy! Girls On Film In the latest episode of the Giggle Podcast, Sall Grover speaks to the brilliant feminist documentary maker, Vaishnavi Sundar, about her new film, an exploration of the lives and experiences of ‘trans widows’.
Thank you for the good news which has some truly momentous news.
Wes Streeting apologising to Rosie Duffield is of course welcome, but he was not the worst. Did he not (with reservation) accept the adult human female definition?
It's that bully boy Lloyd Russell-Moyle who should publicly and unreservedly apologise to both Rosie Duffiled and Tory MP Miriam Cates, for trying to intimidate them.
The whole civil service is ruled by "diversity and inclusion" officers which ensure policy is "inclusive" and ensures the official line is adding pronouns to signatures etc. Most people are oblivious and do as they are told or do as they are told as they are afraid to go against the official line but there are many that resist but that is pretty much all we can do unless we are in a position to influence things and those people are senior. Basically it is captured and the ones at the top of the tree are mostly older men who see no harm but are oh-so-eager to virtue signal how inclusive they are so no-one notices how pale, stale and male they are up there. Many are still part of the Stonewall Champions scheme. Those ties must be severed.
Post the AGP song on your workplace messaging system/ slack. Kemi Baddenoch is working on something about this bo****** - hopefully whatever it is will help
Fingers crossed! As for posting things on any official forums - that would result in a formal reprimand or dismissal. There are many who quietly resist and go about the business of peaking others though.
What about someone who is leaving sending it to reputational risk address (not sure what it is called in civil service) with a question eg
“have you seen this and do we need to be concerned?” Act innocent.
I did something similar before leaving a job - they all ran round like headless chickens. Chipping away at such a delusional position is being kind really - they sound like a bunch of cheque cashers. Little wonder everything is in a mess
Yes! Thankfully those of us not allowed to bring "our whole self" to work have a community. Whatever happened to bringing your professional self to work?
The 'whole self to work' thing is just so ironic really. As a woman in a male dominated profession, I worked really hard to bring only my A-game professional self to work for years, knowing that anything less would be a show of weakness.
It twists a brilliant campaign 'Hello, my name is...' which boils my blood even more. How many of these totally pointless 'managers' are now heading teams writing this endless coercive twaddle and 'training' staff in emptiness which means NHS policies break the law? We have somehow allowed a tiny proportion to seemingly be the only ones now employed in certain teams and levels of NHS management. And of course the NHS 'confederation' are at this too.
Having looked at a few sources - including the Dail Mail - this is one corker:
"In one training scenario, a female objects to doing so as it is 'obvious' what her pronoun is. But the team leader urges her to 'keep in mind that while many people associate 'he' and 'she' as meaning men and women, this isn't always the case'."
Many people 'associate' that usage as it is the correct usage. Any other is wrong. It's been a polite fiction to assuage the coercive needs of people and let them if it makes them feel better. It's ALL about making some people feel better at the expense of others. FFS this is really driving me mad. I thought all the nonsense 'training' by empty heads had been exposed then stopped. That patronising 'keep in mind'! No, don't, don't fill your head with this untrue rubbish. And the misuse of caveats. It'd be like sitting in a room with someone who states 'no it's not' to every fact. How is this thought to be learning or training when you're more stupid and know less at the end of a session.
Thanks for that - so who at Health 'Education' England is doing this? It's relentless. They are told to stop then the morons write yet more shit for the NHS to follow. Or did they get another of these 'external consultants' at 500 an hour to 'create' this 'new direction' to reflect their blah di blah.
Oof that is remarkable. His 'tone' was it? A masterclass of layers of a typical empty political non-apology. He stands by his words does he - so was it his frothing, face-pulling jabby fingers, and physical threat he was apologising for? Just that time? That weird seat shuffling and moving to intimidate her from a few metres away and the crazed staring which caused another male MP to go to sit by her. That man also knew exactly what was happening. Lloyd is even 'grateful' as it means he can 'take this opportunity' and cautions 'hon. Members of the importance of good temper and moderation in contributions from all sides' and 'to have moderate and temperate language going forward'. He's got the gall to use his 'apology' to shift blame and tell others what to do yet again, which suggests he doesn't understand what an apology is or why he needed to make one. He crossed a few boundaries and is still unaware? I don't buy this deflection at all. Is he this unware that this is the usual deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender - with his 'passion and anger' being his excuse? Miriam is clearly passionate and angry and never behaves like this - I wonder what it is about his male-pattern behaviour and specifically his threatening and aggressive behaviour that looked totally unhinged to us all that he fails to see? It was scary as far too many have been on the receiving end of this and are attuned to spotting it a mile away. It's used as the standard excuse for their aggression and threats at every single protest and every time a woman or women attempt to speak or meet. It was an indication of what stalking is played out on camera in her workplace, with the public watching.
Lloyd keeps doing this - and it's always his 'passion' and blah blah that he appears to believe excuses it. He has been seen photographed meeting with others like Alan 'Sarah Jane' Baker who threaten and encourage threats to women, which he then tried to deny and pretended to be unaware of too. Over years. And he employs the baby shouter. Come on maaate! That woman was also aggressive and unable to contain herself from losing it and at a man holding a baby. They seem unusually stuck in their bubble unaware how any of their actions look like from outside it.
Yes and it's pretty incredible that it was all done in public too: in the Commons and televised. It reminds me that Blanchard says the misogyny of these men -- the ones LRM and his office staff are so "passionate" about and identify with -- arises from their narcissism, rather than from systemic patriarchy. But in practical terms, where's the difference? And a clinical psychologist specialising in domestic abusers (mostly male) says it's their VALUES that sustain their violence: their anger isn't even the real problem. Like total dismissal of the views, feelings and objective sex-based vulnerability of females, because only "oppressed and vulnerable" trans-identified males (or transactivists frothing with rage on their behalf) have any rights even to be heard, in the competition for biggest victimhood. Their DARVO really stinks.
And yes, apparently utterly unaware of how they appear to anyone who isn't equally blinded by self-righteous rage.
Narcissistic rage is what we're witnessing. I used to see it a lot at home when I was a child. It means walking on eggshells scared of triggering it. And inspiring this fear (or trying to) seems to be the key threat used by verbally or physically violent transactivists to silence, intimidate and manipulate people who inconveniently want their own values and needs to be considered too.
I think both he and Wes Streeting have been following the Rachel Parris training programme for public apologies. There are lots of different options to choose from: https://youtu.be/c_ZgqpGB9iI
Actually, that's why I would like to publicly say that he was wrong to try and stop either Rosie Duffield and Miriam Cates from speaking without caveat.
Here's a link to one of Vaishnavi Sundar's trailers for Behind the Looking Glass, her documentary chronicling the stories of 18 trans widows, including yours truly. I've now collected data on the experiences of 47 trans widows, updated on and off on my YouTube channel, Trans Widow Ute Heggen. Here's the most recent trailer at Lime Soda Films YT channell:
Always been a Father Ted fan but recently discovered Black Books (thanks to John Rogers london walker YT channel) and cackled through the first 6 episodes yesterday. Brilliant!
Love that song. We need these lifts to prevent despair. One thing that is never addressed and maybe some on here have inside knowledge - are these trans people costing the state much on disability payments and NHS treatments? I recall Willoughby saying in a tweet he got £121 or thereabouts a week as a transgender. He is not known for truth or accuracy so this is not reliable but an area for research by those who can access this info.
I was thinking, the taxpayers pay for bits to be lopped off and all the medication that goes with it but the underlying causes are still there. The ongoing costs could last a lifetime yet if the psychological issues were addressed in the teenage years the person might become a fulfilled and useful member of society. Different set up of course when it is an adult demanding transition. Surely some economist should be doing an analysis of this.
Absolutely. We need someone the equivalent of Nigel Farage /banking scandal lobby to collect the info. Is it true that alcohol misuse attracts state payments? Someone told me that years ago but I’m unsure if true. Sounds similar though
It depends how directly you mean. If there is attached illness or disability that may mean someone is unable to work or receives other benefits. Alcohol misuse can lead to lifelong impacts (and for children) and needs to be addressed on a public health scale.
There is constant deflection from the causes of many of these health issues - there's a lot of self-medicating to address distress, lack of support, illness, housing instability, lack of education, unemployment, isolation or poverty and to fill the gaps in a dysfunctional NHS which isn't set up for prevention and many fall through known gaps.
The NHS uses drugs rather than psychotherapy (unless for exceptional cases) because they are cheaper, faster and easier -- in the short term at least. But the waiting list for a UK gender clinic is currently four years. And many UK psychotherapists will not take on gender dysphoria patients because conventional therapy for treating "comorbidities" (anxiety, depression etc) is demonised and branded as "conversion therapy" -- with the threat of losing their licence to practice.
The absence of followup of gender clinic patients (of whom many disappear, particularly detransitioners) would be the biggest hindrance to any economist studying the cost efficiency of this dysfunctional situation.
Yes. And with some unusual efficacy that seems to reduce when parts of treatment plans or delivery don't happen aka why isn't this working when the numbers or policy say it should. Talking therapy and combined approaches are often recommended then access to the talking part or one key aspect of an MDT approach is denied, despite being recommended as best practice. Why services have clung to the pretence of that for so long leads to further erosion of trust. Waiting lists for many services are often longer, then the clock is reset, or patients are lost in the process, denied through odd reasoning or by error, let alone after lost to follow up, not receiving any actual 'treatment' as they flip or are signposted between services. Then lots of assessment stages, with no outcome in sight. People are parked and no wonder systems are in permacrisis. Children then 'age out' of services and it's a free for all. Some excellent care, some appalling. We have built a system where professionals are allowed to signpost and no one is properly following patients between services.
The rollout of CBT was the magic cure in mental health and health full stop for a while. Lots of co-morbidities mixed in. Yet many were saying, then screaming, look at the evidence, for what and on what sample sizes. Then please, look at outcomes. One size cannot fit all. We would save money and distress for staff and patients by getting this right.
We can model the gaps though and that reflects on weighting of where investments could go. Part of my joy and frustration in doing research has been the list of things, or unknowns, that I'm curious about. That are needed, like the evaluation you mention. When I've seen how projects start it's this - identifying an issue, asking questions, then seeing if others are and trying to get to an answer, then others giving input, criticism or adding to it. Sometimes I've sat in between government and academia to get things funded as it's a simple process where we know it needs doing. Then many years before you see results.
I always gave services the respect that someone in some team must know or be collecting data on what they were doing. To find out, nope, no idea, no clue, no follow up. Let's just lie and avoid scrutiny, then hearing from those within services who've been asking those questions has been salutary if not terrifying. I heard Hannah Barnes and others speak recently - there were again psych profession students or those in training in the audience saying I'm a lone or marginalised voice, this is all still being pushed in universities and by professional bodies who know there is no, limited, or evidence suggesting extreme caution if not total cessation of current 'affirmation'. Of course professionals will therefore be more cautious if not avoidant or will rush to the easier or the only solutions they are allowed to provide. Susie Green ensured that pipeline was there and she and this lobby totally captured so many services. We're only at the start of unpicking that and meanwhile everyone seems to be left wondering (and wandering).
Yes, I've thought this. The trials with a few mental health presentations, like depression (all dysphorias). A few I knew in the use of drugs sector have been very angry that for the past few decades research into beneficial uses has been debated or stalled and not done. I am aware of those who advised government on various aspects who were incredibly frustrated and would often say 'if only the public knew' in meetings.
Also some possibly interesting things happening with these 'weight loss' drugs, not only in side effects but on temporary or lasting changes to the brain after stopping. Back to gut, gut changes, gut health and diet again, but again, more research needed. I've seen mention of cravings and 'addictive' aspects of appetite being altered. The social contagion aspect of 'trans' is so powerful and look what's modifying that (and how).
Inside Health on R4 on the BBC covered that today TSBBL. Some cases of people on diet drug also giving up smoking or vaping. Seems to affect the addictive part of the brain.
Who'da thunk it, Andrew Neil, eh? If someone of his standing has seen fit to raise his head above the parapet, this must surely signal some kind of seachange that can only be positive. He's a shrewd operator is old 'Three Weetabix' (old joke about his tonsorial arrangement) and he wouldn't have come out as a terf if he didn't think there was probably no way he could be cancelled. I think we're witnessing a shift in momentum. But although we're winning battles, the war is very much still on. But there is light at the end of the tunnel, finally. And it's not the afterglow from Chernobyl.
Definitely a shift toward the light and not a Chernobyl afterglow BUT I'm worried sick about what lies ahead for all those who've been persuaded to maim themselves, to irretrievably damage their health and/or life prospects in so many ways. Imagine having to face those realisations because what you were told is crumbling around you, and alongside realising there's no road back, not fully. Especially for those on the spectrum or otherwise not likely to be well-equipped to deal with the consequences of having been fed such a pack of life-stealing lies.
Yes, some are only starting to admit this enormous problem is a problem let alone who it is harming and who will address that or how. It would surprise me if clever bods aren't totting up how much this is and will cost in rectifying the unrectifiable. Who will or won't pay - in literal and wider costs. To skip the long drawn-out process of getting answers like so many inquiries. Seeing as it's the same mistakes and oversights time and again I wish they'd get on with it. Add in the policing costs to allow violent men in masks to attack women. Add in personal loss and of public trust in so many services then the impact on politics. Add in all the active and passive harm.
JL brings us some good news after the horrors of the tra insanity. JL, I think you are amazing and must have great patience! Until flipflap starmer apologies to Rosie Duffield in public and makes that absolute horror Lloyd Russell moles the ginger finger jabber, does the same labour are not to be trusted. An apology from wes was welcome, but it needs to go further. The civil service need to forcibly be removed from any allegiance to stonewall and any rabid tras removed, paid off if need be, trust me it will be cheaper in the long run, they have made workplaces toxic to the sane. The trailer for behind the looking glass is great, but why has it been allowed to come to this? Pandering to the delusional is not healthy for society at large. Andrew neil???? But I'm a little wary of his conversion at this late stage. Wasn't he aware of ciara Bell, tulipaR, sinead? If not, why not? Ali Bee and her guitar are great thanks fir that but of joy JL 😊
Thank you, JL. It is a great roundup of good news. If Wes Streeting can apologise to Rosie Duffield, where is Starmer?? Lead the way, be a man, and others will follow. Not holding my breath, though, life is too precious.
I'm still a bit suspicious of Andrew Neil's Damascene conversion, but it's looking good so far. After reading his column, and his reading list, I dare to hope that we may have another well-connected ally.
Andrew Neil's involvement is definitely good news. There's the question of how someone so well-informed on current affairs is only now realising that a massive medical & safeguarding scandal has been raging for the last few years, but that's probably a question for another time. Also maybe one day Starmer will share the moment he discovered that men don't have a cervix.
In the wacky world of gender ideology, powerful people in politics and media acknowledging reality (for whatever reason) is progress. Thanks for the round-up JL. Definitely some grounds for (cautious) optimism in the air.
Maybe it's the framing. And who is listened to. It's been neatly sidelined as a 'feminist' meaning niche issue for many years. Many women also now dislike that term feminism and wouldn't call themselves one. It's almost a badge of lunacy and extremism in some sectors. So many 'serious' men (and women) really did just cast their eyes over and beyond it. That's very easy to do. Particularly in and around politics. It's been a war raging in women's and children's lives, and those maybe already on more of the margins. So let's just ignore it and they'll settle down. For people who've viewed themselves as far too busy with 'serious' politics it's very far down their list of priorities. This used to shock me, but as I've spent my professional life aware of it, I'm less so now. It's often only when an MP or their staff member meets a constituent that they 'suddenly' realise that issue they didn't think was very important actually is. And may affect a 'secret' few many millions more if not all of us in some way.
I've been in meetings discussing infrastructure at a cost of billions and anyone mentioning someone navigating a buggy (or other mobility impairment or age) got politely thanked and then we moved on. I've even had men say, I don't have kids, so I don't care. Out loud. Or 'take a different route' when there isn't one. Look at the difference in travel patterns and places, and why. Where do they think grown adults spring from? Ah, the invisible 'caring' not serious hard 'work' space we were in. The number of my female colleagues who just disappeared and it turns out they'd had kids! My male colleagues did stay in post.
Look at how 'women's issues' are spoken and written about, almost as if we're a bunch of silly hare-brained wisps unable to string a sentence together. Reframing social and societal issues like that keeps them at arm's length. Keeping us out and not in debates has meant others have been left to debate what they want.
I’m probably thick as pig shit , but looking from the outside , it seems to me that it’s all handmaiden stupid wee lassies ( for god knows what reason ) and predatory men jumping on to this wagon
Apart from grifters like the mulvaney twat obviously
I’m late to the party but 🌹 as always
Still shite up here in scottishland
I’ll go through comments when I’ve time but no doubt will like and agree with all
Yes, it's a pretty disgusting and threatening pattern of behaviour. With an "apology" that's hardly worth the name. I wonder what he wrote to Miriam Cates. Presumably much the same.
He also seems to be among a shrinking number of LGB people still defending "trans" excesses -- and in a particularly aggressive way -- while many others (exemplified by Dennis Kavanagh, Allison Bailey and others) are doing their best to dissociate themselves from the T. And are receiving all the usual hateful transactivist flak for being "transphobes" and "traitors" -- despite having NO intrinsic connection to a cult that denies the reality of biological sex -- what same-sex attraction is based on!
Russell-Moyle jumped on the grievance bandwagon in ignoring this fundamental difference when, in the Commons debate, he made a false parallel between Section 38 (to block the SNP's GRR enabling gender self-ID) and Section 28 (to prevent homosexuality being mentioned in schools).
I marched against Section 28 with a gay man & me holding a Green party banner (made by me!). But I applaud Section 38 of the Devolution (Scotland) Act to prevent the abuse of allowing any predatory male to self-declare as "trans" for unobstructed access to female spaces.
What is most on display in all this is consistent misogyny and narcissism: totally ignoring women's point of view based on our objective, sex-based vulnerability to male violence and sexual assault. And exhibiting extreme anger and physically threatening behaviour -- in public view, the most incredible aspect! -- to a female who dares to voice any such objective reason for protection from predatory males.
The Guardian still can’t say anything honest about Genderism. Rosie Duffield didn’t ‘feel’ ostracised; she WAS ostracised...along with all those who were thrown from the party for speaking truth about this regressive ideology.
“Heartstopper season two review – this LGBTQ+ teen drama is even sweeter and lovelier than before
Following season one’s fairytale ending, what’s next for Nick and Charlie? The show continues to tackle the complexities of adolescence – teenagers and adults will adore it”
Interesting about that smugly prophetic “teenagers and adults will adore it”.
What is also interesting is that the content of this “heart-warming coming of age drama” is centred on a male gay couple and yet is pitched as “LGBTQ+ drama” and indeed one of the characters “comes out as transgender”. Thus transgenderism sneaks its way in again on the back of a gay romance. This is necessary because the script writers well know that a full on “transgender romance” (apart from being an oxymoron) would fail to “move” viewers sufficiently.
Thank you for the good news which has some truly momentous news.
Wes Streeting apologising to Rosie Duffield is of course welcome, but he was not the worst. Did he not (with reservation) accept the adult human female definition?
It's that bully boy Lloyd Russell-Moyle who should publicly and unreservedly apologise to both Rosie Duffiled and Tory MP Miriam Cates, for trying to intimidate them.
The fly in the ointment is the NHS new guidelines on declaring pronouns. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/declare-pronouns-to-each-new-patient-nhs-training-advises-527xmj06z It's time the NHS management of idiots were challenged.
Also, love Ali Bee!
The whole civil service is ruled by "diversity and inclusion" officers which ensure policy is "inclusive" and ensures the official line is adding pronouns to signatures etc. Most people are oblivious and do as they are told or do as they are told as they are afraid to go against the official line but there are many that resist but that is pretty much all we can do unless we are in a position to influence things and those people are senior. Basically it is captured and the ones at the top of the tree are mostly older men who see no harm but are oh-so-eager to virtue signal how inclusive they are so no-one notices how pale, stale and male they are up there. Many are still part of the Stonewall Champions scheme. Those ties must be severed.
Post the AGP song on your workplace messaging system/ slack. Kemi Baddenoch is working on something about this bo****** - hopefully whatever it is will help
Fingers crossed! As for posting things on any official forums - that would result in a formal reprimand or dismissal. There are many who quietly resist and go about the business of peaking others though.
What about someone who is leaving sending it to reputational risk address (not sure what it is called in civil service) with a question eg
“have you seen this and do we need to be concerned?” Act innocent.
I did something similar before leaving a job - they all ran round like headless chickens. Chipping away at such a delusional position is being kind really - they sound like a bunch of cheque cashers. Little wonder everything is in a mess
The new Sex Equality and Equity Network in the Civil Service Intranet is catching on: https://seen-network.uk/
Yes! Thankfully those of us not allowed to bring "our whole self" to work have a community. Whatever happened to bringing your professional self to work?
The 'whole self to work' thing is just so ironic really. As a woman in a male dominated profession, I worked really hard to bring only my A-game professional self to work for years, knowing that anything less would be a show of weakness.
I found this when I was trying to find the pronoun policy and work out who produced it: https://www.england.nhs.uk/blog/wearing-our-pronouns-with-pride-small-words-big-impact/
It twists a brilliant campaign 'Hello, my name is...' which boils my blood even more. How many of these totally pointless 'managers' are now heading teams writing this endless coercive twaddle and 'training' staff in emptiness which means NHS policies break the law? We have somehow allowed a tiny proportion to seemingly be the only ones now employed in certain teams and levels of NHS management. And of course the NHS 'confederation' are at this too.
Having looked at a few sources - including the Dail Mail - this is one corker:
"In one training scenario, a female objects to doing so as it is 'obvious' what her pronoun is. But the team leader urges her to 'keep in mind that while many people associate 'he' and 'she' as meaning men and women, this isn't always the case'."
Many people 'associate' that usage as it is the correct usage. Any other is wrong. It's been a polite fiction to assuage the coercive needs of people and let them if it makes them feel better. It's ALL about making some people feel better at the expense of others. FFS this is really driving me mad. I thought all the nonsense 'training' by empty heads had been exposed then stopped. That patronising 'keep in mind'! No, don't, don't fill your head with this untrue rubbish. And the misuse of caveats. It'd be like sitting in a room with someone who states 'no it's not' to every fact. How is this thought to be learning or training when you're more stupid and know less at the end of a session.
Thanks for that - so who at Health 'Education' England is doing this? It's relentless. They are told to stop then the morons write yet more shit for the NHS to follow. Or did they get another of these 'external consultants' at 500 an hour to 'create' this 'new direction' to reflect their blah di blah.
Russell-Moyle did later "apologise" to Miriam Cates -- all about himself, and justigfying what he'd said. Some "apology".
https://www.ukpol.co.uk/lloyd-russell-moyle-2023-personal-statement-on-comments-made-to-miriam-cates/
Oof that is remarkable. His 'tone' was it? A masterclass of layers of a typical empty political non-apology. He stands by his words does he - so was it his frothing, face-pulling jabby fingers, and physical threat he was apologising for? Just that time? That weird seat shuffling and moving to intimidate her from a few metres away and the crazed staring which caused another male MP to go to sit by her. That man also knew exactly what was happening. Lloyd is even 'grateful' as it means he can 'take this opportunity' and cautions 'hon. Members of the importance of good temper and moderation in contributions from all sides' and 'to have moderate and temperate language going forward'. He's got the gall to use his 'apology' to shift blame and tell others what to do yet again, which suggests he doesn't understand what an apology is or why he needed to make one. He crossed a few boundaries and is still unaware? I don't buy this deflection at all. Is he this unware that this is the usual deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender - with his 'passion and anger' being his excuse? Miriam is clearly passionate and angry and never behaves like this - I wonder what it is about his male-pattern behaviour and specifically his threatening and aggressive behaviour that looked totally unhinged to us all that he fails to see? It was scary as far too many have been on the receiving end of this and are attuned to spotting it a mile away. It's used as the standard excuse for their aggression and threats at every single protest and every time a woman or women attempt to speak or meet. It was an indication of what stalking is played out on camera in her workplace, with the public watching.
Lloyd keeps doing this - and it's always his 'passion' and blah blah that he appears to believe excuses it. He has been seen photographed meeting with others like Alan 'Sarah Jane' Baker who threaten and encourage threats to women, which he then tried to deny and pretended to be unaware of too. Over years. And he employs the baby shouter. Come on maaate! That woman was also aggressive and unable to contain herself from losing it and at a man holding a baby. They seem unusually stuck in their bubble unaware how any of their actions look like from outside it.
Yes and it's pretty incredible that it was all done in public too: in the Commons and televised. It reminds me that Blanchard says the misogyny of these men -- the ones LRM and his office staff are so "passionate" about and identify with -- arises from their narcissism, rather than from systemic patriarchy. But in practical terms, where's the difference? And a clinical psychologist specialising in domestic abusers (mostly male) says it's their VALUES that sustain their violence: their anger isn't even the real problem. Like total dismissal of the views, feelings and objective sex-based vulnerability of females, because only "oppressed and vulnerable" trans-identified males (or transactivists frothing with rage on their behalf) have any rights even to be heard, in the competition for biggest victimhood. Their DARVO really stinks.
And yes, apparently utterly unaware of how they appear to anyone who isn't equally blinded by self-righteous rage.
Narcissistic rage is what we're witnessing. I used to see it a lot at home when I was a child. It means walking on eggshells scared of triggering it. And inspiring this fear (or trying to) seems to be the key threat used by verbally or physically violent transactivists to silence, intimidate and manipulate people who inconveniently want their own values and needs to be considered too.
I think both he and Wes Streeting have been following the Rachel Parris training programme for public apologies. There are lots of different options to choose from: https://youtu.be/c_ZgqpGB9iI
Actually, that's why I would like to publicly say that he was wrong to try and stop either Rosie Duffield and Miriam Cates from speaking without caveat.
Lots of good news! Thank you so much 😊
I don’t think I could cope with ‘The war on women’ without the good news supplement 😀
😊
Here's a link to one of Vaishnavi Sundar's trailers for Behind the Looking Glass, her documentary chronicling the stories of 18 trans widows, including yours truly. I've now collected data on the experiences of 47 trans widows, updated on and off on my YouTube channel, Trans Widow Ute Heggen. Here's the most recent trailer at Lime Soda Films YT channell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH4XQ6Ie8O0
She’s fantastic. Looking forward to seeing this.
You’ve had a busy week JL, thanks for all your excellent work.
Thank you! 😘 x
Always been a Father Ted fan but recently discovered Black Books (thanks to John Rogers london walker YT channel) and cackled through the first 6 episodes yesterday. Brilliant!
Always great to get the Good News supplement after the usual horrors. Thanks ,JL.👏👍❤️x
My pleasure, Susan! 😘 xx
Yey! Just what I needed on this awful rainy day! 🥰☺️👍🏾
Love that song. We need these lifts to prevent despair. One thing that is never addressed and maybe some on here have inside knowledge - are these trans people costing the state much on disability payments and NHS treatments? I recall Willoughby saying in a tweet he got £121 or thereabouts a week as a transgender. He is not known for truth or accuracy so this is not reliable but an area for research by those who can access this info.
An FOI request should reveal that number.
AGP allowance for tights and stuff 😵💫
I was thinking, the taxpayers pay for bits to be lopped off and all the medication that goes with it but the underlying causes are still there. The ongoing costs could last a lifetime yet if the psychological issues were addressed in the teenage years the person might become a fulfilled and useful member of society. Different set up of course when it is an adult demanding transition. Surely some economist should be doing an analysis of this.
Absolutely. We need someone the equivalent of Nigel Farage /banking scandal lobby to collect the info. Is it true that alcohol misuse attracts state payments? Someone told me that years ago but I’m unsure if true. Sounds similar though
It depends how directly you mean. If there is attached illness or disability that may mean someone is unable to work or receives other benefits. Alcohol misuse can lead to lifelong impacts (and for children) and needs to be addressed on a public health scale.
There is constant deflection from the causes of many of these health issues - there's a lot of self-medicating to address distress, lack of support, illness, housing instability, lack of education, unemployment, isolation or poverty and to fill the gaps in a dysfunctional NHS which isn't set up for prevention and many fall through known gaps.
The NHS uses drugs rather than psychotherapy (unless for exceptional cases) because they are cheaper, faster and easier -- in the short term at least. But the waiting list for a UK gender clinic is currently four years. And many UK psychotherapists will not take on gender dysphoria patients because conventional therapy for treating "comorbidities" (anxiety, depression etc) is demonised and branded as "conversion therapy" -- with the threat of losing their licence to practice.
The absence of followup of gender clinic patients (of whom many disappear, particularly detransitioners) would be the biggest hindrance to any economist studying the cost efficiency of this dysfunctional situation.
Yes. And with some unusual efficacy that seems to reduce when parts of treatment plans or delivery don't happen aka why isn't this working when the numbers or policy say it should. Talking therapy and combined approaches are often recommended then access to the talking part or one key aspect of an MDT approach is denied, despite being recommended as best practice. Why services have clung to the pretence of that for so long leads to further erosion of trust. Waiting lists for many services are often longer, then the clock is reset, or patients are lost in the process, denied through odd reasoning or by error, let alone after lost to follow up, not receiving any actual 'treatment' as they flip or are signposted between services. Then lots of assessment stages, with no outcome in sight. People are parked and no wonder systems are in permacrisis. Children then 'age out' of services and it's a free for all. Some excellent care, some appalling. We have built a system where professionals are allowed to signpost and no one is properly following patients between services.
The rollout of CBT was the magic cure in mental health and health full stop for a while. Lots of co-morbidities mixed in. Yet many were saying, then screaming, look at the evidence, for what and on what sample sizes. Then please, look at outcomes. One size cannot fit all. We would save money and distress for staff and patients by getting this right.
We can model the gaps though and that reflects on weighting of where investments could go. Part of my joy and frustration in doing research has been the list of things, or unknowns, that I'm curious about. That are needed, like the evaluation you mention. When I've seen how projects start it's this - identifying an issue, asking questions, then seeing if others are and trying to get to an answer, then others giving input, criticism or adding to it. Sometimes I've sat in between government and academia to get things funded as it's a simple process where we know it needs doing. Then many years before you see results.
I always gave services the respect that someone in some team must know or be collecting data on what they were doing. To find out, nope, no idea, no clue, no follow up. Let's just lie and avoid scrutiny, then hearing from those within services who've been asking those questions has been salutary if not terrifying. I heard Hannah Barnes and others speak recently - there were again psych profession students or those in training in the audience saying I'm a lone or marginalised voice, this is all still being pushed in universities and by professional bodies who know there is no, limited, or evidence suggesting extreme caution if not total cessation of current 'affirmation'. Of course professionals will therefore be more cautious if not avoidant or will rush to the easier or the only solutions they are allowed to provide. Susie Green ensured that pipeline was there and she and this lobby totally captured so many services. We're only at the start of unpicking that and meanwhile everyone seems to be left wondering (and wandering).
Sounds like almost total chaos: you must have a very frustrating job!
Yes, I've thought this. The trials with a few mental health presentations, like depression (all dysphorias). A few I knew in the use of drugs sector have been very angry that for the past few decades research into beneficial uses has been debated or stalled and not done. I am aware of those who advised government on various aspects who were incredibly frustrated and would often say 'if only the public knew' in meetings.
Also some possibly interesting things happening with these 'weight loss' drugs, not only in side effects but on temporary or lasting changes to the brain after stopping. Back to gut, gut changes, gut health and diet again, but again, more research needed. I've seen mention of cravings and 'addictive' aspects of appetite being altered. The social contagion aspect of 'trans' is so powerful and look what's modifying that (and how).
Inside Health on R4 on the BBC covered that today TSBBL. Some cases of people on diet drug also giving up smoking or vaping. Seems to affect the addictive part of the brain.
Yeah, all that makeup.
😊
Who'da thunk it, Andrew Neil, eh? If someone of his standing has seen fit to raise his head above the parapet, this must surely signal some kind of seachange that can only be positive. He's a shrewd operator is old 'Three Weetabix' (old joke about his tonsorial arrangement) and he wouldn't have come out as a terf if he didn't think there was probably no way he could be cancelled. I think we're witnessing a shift in momentum. But although we're winning battles, the war is very much still on. But there is light at the end of the tunnel, finally. And it's not the afterglow from Chernobyl.
Definitely a shift toward the light and not a Chernobyl afterglow BUT I'm worried sick about what lies ahead for all those who've been persuaded to maim themselves, to irretrievably damage their health and/or life prospects in so many ways. Imagine having to face those realisations because what you were told is crumbling around you, and alongside realising there's no road back, not fully. Especially for those on the spectrum or otherwise not likely to be well-equipped to deal with the consequences of having been fed such a pack of life-stealing lies.
Yes, some are only starting to admit this enormous problem is a problem let alone who it is harming and who will address that or how. It would surprise me if clever bods aren't totting up how much this is and will cost in rectifying the unrectifiable. Who will or won't pay - in literal and wider costs. To skip the long drawn-out process of getting answers like so many inquiries. Seeing as it's the same mistakes and oversights time and again I wish they'd get on with it. Add in the policing costs to allow violent men in masks to attack women. Add in personal loss and of public trust in so many services then the impact on politics. Add in all the active and passive harm.
I can only agree.
With heavy heart.
JL brings us some good news after the horrors of the tra insanity. JL, I think you are amazing and must have great patience! Until flipflap starmer apologies to Rosie Duffield in public and makes that absolute horror Lloyd Russell moles the ginger finger jabber, does the same labour are not to be trusted. An apology from wes was welcome, but it needs to go further. The civil service need to forcibly be removed from any allegiance to stonewall and any rabid tras removed, paid off if need be, trust me it will be cheaper in the long run, they have made workplaces toxic to the sane. The trailer for behind the looking glass is great, but why has it been allowed to come to this? Pandering to the delusional is not healthy for society at large. Andrew neil???? But I'm a little wary of his conversion at this late stage. Wasn't he aware of ciara Bell, tulipaR, sinead? If not, why not? Ali Bee and her guitar are great thanks fir that but of joy JL 😊
Thank you so much for your kind words, Trudie. Much appreciated 😊
Well deserved too JL
Hi JL
Great relief as ever to get the Good News 😎
Great to get heavyweights like Dawkins and Neil joining Terf Club 😎
I more and more think that the supposed Labour U turn was cooked up with Stonewall!
Love Ali Bee😎
Thanks as ever
Dusty
More than welcome! 😊
Thank you, JL. It is a great roundup of good news. If Wes Streeting can apologise to Rosie Duffield, where is Starmer?? Lead the way, be a man, and others will follow. Not holding my breath, though, life is too precious.
Yeah, don't see it happening!
Thanks for the link to Ali Bee.
I'm still a bit suspicious of Andrew Neil's Damascene conversion, but it's looking good so far. After reading his column, and his reading list, I dare to hope that we may have another well-connected ally.
He’s getting ahead of the wind-change and ensuring he won’t go down on the wrong side when this thing collapses for good.
Andrew Neil's involvement is definitely good news. There's the question of how someone so well-informed on current affairs is only now realising that a massive medical & safeguarding scandal has been raging for the last few years, but that's probably a question for another time. Also maybe one day Starmer will share the moment he discovered that men don't have a cervix.
In the wacky world of gender ideology, powerful people in politics and media acknowledging reality (for whatever reason) is progress. Thanks for the round-up JL. Definitely some grounds for (cautious) optimism in the air.
Maybe it's the framing. And who is listened to. It's been neatly sidelined as a 'feminist' meaning niche issue for many years. Many women also now dislike that term feminism and wouldn't call themselves one. It's almost a badge of lunacy and extremism in some sectors. So many 'serious' men (and women) really did just cast their eyes over and beyond it. That's very easy to do. Particularly in and around politics. It's been a war raging in women's and children's lives, and those maybe already on more of the margins. So let's just ignore it and they'll settle down. For people who've viewed themselves as far too busy with 'serious' politics it's very far down their list of priorities. This used to shock me, but as I've spent my professional life aware of it, I'm less so now. It's often only when an MP or their staff member meets a constituent that they 'suddenly' realise that issue they didn't think was very important actually is. And may affect a 'secret' few many millions more if not all of us in some way.
I've been in meetings discussing infrastructure at a cost of billions and anyone mentioning someone navigating a buggy (or other mobility impairment or age) got politely thanked and then we moved on. I've even had men say, I don't have kids, so I don't care. Out loud. Or 'take a different route' when there isn't one. Look at the difference in travel patterns and places, and why. Where do they think grown adults spring from? Ah, the invisible 'caring' not serious hard 'work' space we were in. The number of my female colleagues who just disappeared and it turns out they'd had kids! My male colleagues did stay in post.
Look at how 'women's issues' are spoken and written about, almost as if we're a bunch of silly hare-brained wisps unable to string a sentence together. Reframing social and societal issues like that keeps them at arm's length. Keeping us out and not in debates has meant others have been left to debate what they want.
Been in this muck since 2015. I made up a Niemoller paraphrase at one point:
First they came for the Feminists...
But yeah, f_ck them hairy legged b_tches anyway.
We called it though. And that it was not going to get shut down until enough men noticed it was going on.
We still don't get credit, LOL.
I’m probably thick as pig shit , but looking from the outside , it seems to me that it’s all handmaiden stupid wee lassies ( for god knows what reason ) and predatory men jumping on to this wagon
Apart from grifters like the mulvaney twat obviously
I’m late to the party but 🌹 as always
Still shite up here in scottishland
I’ll go through comments when I’ve time but no doubt will like and agree with all
Take care 😊
And you 🙂
Yes, it's a pretty disgusting and threatening pattern of behaviour. With an "apology" that's hardly worth the name. I wonder what he wrote to Miriam Cates. Presumably much the same.
He also seems to be among a shrinking number of LGB people still defending "trans" excesses -- and in a particularly aggressive way -- while many others (exemplified by Dennis Kavanagh, Allison Bailey and others) are doing their best to dissociate themselves from the T. And are receiving all the usual hateful transactivist flak for being "transphobes" and "traitors" -- despite having NO intrinsic connection to a cult that denies the reality of biological sex -- what same-sex attraction is based on!
Russell-Moyle jumped on the grievance bandwagon in ignoring this fundamental difference when, in the Commons debate, he made a false parallel between Section 38 (to block the SNP's GRR enabling gender self-ID) and Section 28 (to prevent homosexuality being mentioned in schools).
I marched against Section 28 with a gay man & me holding a Green party banner (made by me!). But I applaud Section 38 of the Devolution (Scotland) Act to prevent the abuse of allowing any predatory male to self-declare as "trans" for unobstructed access to female spaces.
What is most on display in all this is consistent misogyny and narcissism: totally ignoring women's point of view based on our objective, sex-based vulnerability to male violence and sexual assault. And exhibiting extreme anger and physically threatening behaviour -- in public view, the most incredible aspect! -- to a female who dares to voice any such objective reason for protection from predatory males.
The Guardian still can’t say anything honest about Genderism. Rosie Duffield didn’t ‘feel’ ostracised; she WAS ostracised...along with all those who were thrown from the party for speaking truth about this regressive ideology.
From the Guardian:
“Heartstopper season two review – this LGBTQ+ teen drama is even sweeter and lovelier than before
Following season one’s fairytale ending, what’s next for Nick and Charlie? The show continues to tackle the complexities of adolescence – teenagers and adults will adore it”
Interesting about that smugly prophetic “teenagers and adults will adore it”.
What is also interesting is that the content of this “heart-warming coming of age drama” is centred on a male gay couple and yet is pitched as “LGBTQ+ drama” and indeed one of the characters “comes out as transgender”. Thus transgenderism sneaks its way in again on the back of a gay romance. This is necessary because the script writers well know that a full on “transgender romance” (apart from being an oxymoron) would fail to “move” viewers sufficiently.
More “instruction” for the upcoming generation.