A Week in the War on Women: Monday 15th July - Sunday 21st July

Monday 15th July - Leave Them Kids Alone #1

THE LA TIMES: California has just passed a law which allows teachers to conceal from parents that their child has a trans identity and/or is socially transitioning.

On Monday, the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, signed into law the so-called ‘Safety Act’, AB 1955. This law prevents the state’s schools from adopting any policy that would force them to disclose “Any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to any other person without the pupil’s consent.” In other words, if a child adopts a new ‘gender identity’ and/or changes their name and pronouns etc, school staff must keep this a secret from the child’s own parents.

The law also prohibits schools from taking disciplinary or punitive action against any staff member found to have ‘supported a pupil’ in pursuing a new gender identity and social transition. Furthermore, this legislation also requires the California Department of Education to offer resources to parents and students about how to ‘manage conversations about gender and identity privately’.

It's basically a groomer's charter.

Michael Shellenberger, the award winning journalist and author and CBR Chair of Politics, Censorship, and Free Speech at the University of Austin, posted on social media to explain the potential risks of this new legislation.

“It makes children vulnerable to irreversible and lifelong medical abuse and mistreatment. And it is all based on the pseudoscientific idea that some children are born into the wrong bodies and that we can change a person’s sex through drugs and surgery…

The new law creates the grave risk that activist teachers, students, and outside groups will convince their children that they were born into the wrong body, and hide their ‘social transition’ from parents, which will lead to harmful medical mistreatment. As such, the law that Newsom just signed is the opposite of what both children and their parents need.

We need schools to immediately warn parents if their children think they are the opposite sex. After all, this is a diagnosable psychiatric condition known as ‘gender dysphoria’. And if your child has a psychiatric disorder, whether anxiety, depression, an eating disorder, or gender dysphoria, you have a right to know. And schools must stop teaching children, or allowing other people to teach children, the pseudoscientific and dehumanizing ideas that it’s possible to be born into the wrong body and possible to change one’s sex.”

Writing in The Free Press, Abigail Shrier points out, “Child predators follow a common playbook: target the victim, gain their trust, fill a need, and, crucially, isolate the child from her parents. For several years, this has also been standard California state protocol with regard to schoolchildren questioning their gender identities. On Monday, this scheme became law”.

Also Today - Meet The New Priests

THE DAILY MAIL: The Church of England’s proposed school’s guidance will push gender identity ideology onto children.

The Church of England has produced an anti-bullying guidance document called Flourishing For All which is set to be issued to thousands of C of E faith schools. Supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, this guidance encourages teachers to dispense with so-called ‘outdated’ (ie factual) terms and pushes the language of gender identity ideology.

The document refers to a ‘transgender man’ as someone “Who was assigned female at birth but identifies and lives as a man”, and to a ‘transgender woman’ as someone “Who was assigned male at birth but identifies and lives as a woman”.

There are currently 4,630 Anglican schools, teaching around one million pupils. These children could soon be subjected to the C of E’s new doctrine of gender. This will conflict with the Department for Education's draft guidance which states that pupils must not be taught about the ‘concept of gender identity’.

Stephanie Davies-Arai of Transgender Trend commented, “Biological reality is not 'outdated', and it is worrying that the C of E thinks it is. Knowing that sex can't be changed is not an old-fashioned idea, but basic reality”.

Tuesday 16th July - First, Do No Harm #1

THE TIMES: The number of trans-identified young women in Scotland who are taking testosterone has increased almost fifty-fold over the last decade.

In Scotland, the number of females prescribed testosterone has soared in the last ten years, due in large part to the shocking amount of young women who take cross-sex hormones due to issues with their ‘gender identity’.

NHS figures show that the number of young women in their twenties who take testosterone rose dramatically from just 47 in 2013 to 2,194 in 2023. For girls under 19, prescriptions have rocketed from just 20 in 2013 to 484 in 2023.

SOURCE: Public Health Scotland

There is limited research into the taking of testosterone by women. Clinicians have said that greater research is needed into its effect on the female body and that improved clinical guidelines are needed. One GP, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Times that cross-sex hormones “Could result in significant harm to the lives of young people who may only realise the reality of their life-changing decisions as they mature”.

The potential side effects of women taking testosterone can include permanent hair loss, deepening of the voice and the growth of facial and body hair, breast atrophy, vaginal atrophy, infertility, increased aggression or irritability, nausea and vomiting, liver disease, the increased risk of blood clots, the increased risk of certain cancers, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular issues such as stroke and heart attack.

Sinèad Watson is a 33 year old detransitioner from Glasgow who took testosterone for five years. She told The Times, “I feel heartbroken for other girls going on testosterone because I have been on their journey, I know what they feel. They think it is going to feel better, they think it is going to solve all the problems they have. I totally sympathise with them, but I know where it is going to lead.”

Wednesday 17th July - Men Can Be Women, Says EHRC

SEX MATTERS: The EHRC has issued guidelines stating that trans-identified males with a GRC can be included in female-only restricted categories.

Under the Equality Act 2010, it is usually illegal to restrict services and employment to people with a particular protected characteristic (eg age, race, sex, religious belief). However, there are certain circumstances - when the service or job involves safety, bodily privacy, or is limited to those of a particular age or faith, for example - when such restrictions are permitted. 

Schedule 9 of the Equality Act provides an exception under which employers can restrict employment to people with a protected characteristic, provided the application of the requirement is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. This is known as an ‘occupational requirement’. There are, of course, a number of roles that are limited to women, mainly for reasons of safety, privacy, and dignity.

This week, the EHRC has issued updated guidelines on ‘discriminatory adverts’ and stated that when a role is advertised as ‘female only’ this can include trans-identified males who have a Gender Recognition Certificate.

The guidance goes on to say “Schedule 9 also permits an occupational requirement to exclude transgender persons where it is objectively justified, and this can include those who have obtained a GRC”. However, as Sex Matters point out, this is only going to cause confusion and will lead to trans-identified males applying for and even taking roles which are entirely inappropriate for any male - regardless of the documentation he may hold - to be undertaking.

“Given the pressures that are now being placed on employers and service providers, we think that the EHRC must be absolutely clear in explaining that organisations can continue to put up signs and adverts that ordinary people can understand, where there is objective justification for a rule, without having to resort to complex legal small print or confusion about everyday language. 

If a man who identifies as a woman (and who or may not have a gender-recognition certificate) sees a sign or other advertisement for a job or service that says it is for women only – perhaps it is a job vacancy for a counsellor in a rape-crisis centre, a breastfeeding support worker or a menopause counsellor – he should understand that he is not a suitable candidate.”

Also Today - First, Do No Harm #2

THE NEW STATESMAN: BMA Council members voted on whether or not to ‘publicly disavow’ The Cass Report.

The ground-breaking Cass Report was published over three months ago. The British Medical Association (BMA), the doctors’ trade union, has yet to issue any formal response, meet with Dr Hilary Cass or hold any significate discussion about the report’s findings.

This week Hannah Barnes reported that BMA Council members intended an imminent vote on whether or not to ‘publicly disavow’ the Cass Report. Furthermore, the motion calls on doctors to “Lobby and work with other relevant organisations and stakeholders to oppose the implementation of the recommendations made by the Cass Review” and to “Lobby the government and NHS in all four nations to ensure continuity in provision of transgender health care for patients younger than 18 years old”.

As Hannah Barnes writes, “For an official medical organisation to even consider rejecting one of the most in-depth, evidence-based reviews of an area of healthcare ever undertaken – by one of the most respected and experienced doctors in the country – might seem extraordinary. But this is gender medicine… The normal rules don’t apply”.

Following the publication of Hannah Barnes’ article in The New Statesman, the BMA’s press office released a statement claiming that it was ‘misleading’, an allegation Barnes refutes. The statement did not reveal the result of the BMA Council vote on whether or not to ‘publicly disavow’ the Cass Report.

You may wonder why on earth British doctors, who should be supporting and advocating for evidence-based medicine, could even consider renouncing a meticulously researched an hugely important document like the Cass Report…

Dr Emma she/her Runswick is the BMA’s Deputy Chair.

Months after the publication of the Cass Report and despite the ever-burgeoning evidence to the contrary, she commented on social media that “Puberty blockers are not irreversible”.

She has also tweeted that Wes Streeting’s resolution to uphold the ban on puberty blockers is ‘a terrible political decision’.

And she cites the WPATH guidelines as if she’s entirely unaware of the huge and shocking scandal surrounding them.

Laura ‘she/her’ Russell is currently the BMA’s Head of Regulation, Education and Training but previously worked for Stonewall for two and a half years. Russell was one of the Stonewall employees cited in the legal action brought by Allison Bailey.

David ‘he/him’ Lock KC is one of the lawyers involved in the current legal challenge to the government’s ban on puberty blockers. He also advised former Mermaid’s boss, Susie Green, on the setting up of a new gender clinic which is intended to dodge the puberty blocker ban. Until last year he was a member of the BMA Ethics Committee, a position he held for an entire decade.

What a small world.

Thursday 18th July - This Never Happens

THE TELEGRAPH: Sexual predator, Cameron Downing, accessed Edinburgh’s supposedly women-only rape crisis centre by claiming a ‘non-binary’ identity.

We have written previously about 24-year-old Cameron ‘he/they’ Downing who identifies as ‘non-binary’. Two years ago he was appointed the SNP Equalities Officer at the party’s London branch.

Downing is the subject of a portrait by photographer, Craig Waddell, which hangs in Scotland’s National Gallery. The blurb on the website reads, “We can use our outward appearance to express our identity as much or as little as we want”.

Cameron Downing - IMAGE CREDIT: Craig Waddell (photographer)

In October 2022, The Daily Record and The National Scot reported on Downing threatening violence against women, using misogynistic language and insulting feminists in his posts on social media.

The now-deleted comments dated from September and October 2020. In one of the tweets, Downing stated, “I’m in the mood to beat the fuck out of some terfs and transphobes today”. In another, he declared, “I fucking hate terfs and transphobes with such a passion they make me want to SCREAM !!!!!”

Forced into making a half-hearted apology, Downing told The Daily Record, “I apologise for these tweets and for any offence caused to the LGBTQ+ community”. No apology for the women he threatened to ‘beat the fuck out of’, though.

The same weekend as the stories about Downing’s disgusting comments appeared in the press, he was photographed with Nicola Sturgeon, at the SNP annual conference.

IMAGE CREDIT: @themikehannon

Last month, at Edinburgh’s High Court, Downing was convicted of sexually and physically assaulting six young adults. The court heard that Downing preyed on his victims at various locations across Scotland, beginning when he was just 16-years-old and continuing until February 2023. Downing ‘repeatedly blackmailed’ one of his victims, threatening that he would make false rape allegations against him if the young man did not do what he wanted.

A female victim told the court that Downing assaulted her when she was a teenager and drunk at a party. She remembered Downing taking her to the bathroom when she was feeling sick and telling her that she needed a shower. Later, after she had woken up naked and in bed, Downing entered the room and snarled in her face that he was being forced to leave the party and that everything was her fault. The following day she discovered that she was ‘covered in bruises’ as if she had ‘been battered’.

After two days of deliberation, the jury found Downing guilty of sexual and physical assault. Earlier this week, he was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh. He will serve six years in prison and then remain under supervision for three years. He will also be placed on the Sex Offenders Register.

In passing down his sentence, Judge Alison Stirling referred to an interview Downing gave to a court-appointed social worker during which he continually insisted that he had done nothing wrong. She told him, “You have shown no compassion or insight into how your behaviour has affected the well-being of your victims. Your risk cannot be managed in the community and custody is the only appropriate disposal.”

But the case of Cameron Downing doesn’t end there. This week it was reported that, despite being male, Downing was allowed access to the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre because of his so-called non-binary identity. (One of those opportunities when “We can use our outward appearance to express our identity as much or as little as we want”?) In a video recording dating from January 2022, Downing - who falsely accused one of his victims of rape - spoke about using the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC) services and claimed that he could not “Put into words how much they’ve helped me.”

Of course, we have written frequently in the past about ERCC and Mridal Wadhwa, its trans-identified male (currently suspended) CEO. Wadhwa concealed his true sex to work in the women’s sector, he believes that women who’ve suffered male violence are ‘bigots’ who need to ‘reframe their trauma’ if they request a female-only space in which to heal and he objected to legislation which allows rape victims to choose the sex of the medical clinician examining them. As was revealed in a recent successful legal action against ERCC, Wadhwa actively tried to sack or force out the centre’s staff members if they advocated for female-only services.

Mridul Wadhwa

On Wadhwa’s watch, a conscientious employee was subject to a ‘heresy hunt’ for trying to ensure safeguarding for vulnerable victims. Meanwhile, a man who made public his desire to ‘beat the fuck’ out of women and was subsequently convicted of numerous sex offences was welcomed to ERCC with open arms.

Wadhwa is currently suspended from his CEO role pending the outcome of an investigation. Let’s hope he never returns. However, the problems at ERCC, and Rape Crisis Scotland as a whole, do not start and end with Mridul Wadhwa, as a recent article by former MSP, Joan McAlpine, makes very clear.

Rape Crisis Scotland is the umbrella organisation which overseas various centres, including ERCC. As Joan McAlpine writes “The leadership of Rape Crisis Scotland has been a cheerleader for the removal of women’s sex-based rights”. Indeed, it fully supported the Gender Recognition Reform Act and endorses the idea one can self identity one’s own ‘gender’. However, it failed to support Johann Lamont’s amendment to the Forensic Services Bill which ensures that victims of sexual assault can decide on the sex (not gender) of the clinician who examines them.

When she was still an MSP, Joan McAlpine contacted Rape Crisis Scotland on behalf of several women who had all suffered male sexual violence and were extremely concerned about accessing genuinely female-only care. She organised a meeting with these women and Sandy Brindley, the chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland. As Joan McAlpine points out, “It was a sensitive undertaking. These were distressed women. Most had not met each other in person”.

Sandy Brindley, CEO Rape Crisis Scotland - IMAGE CREDIT: BBC

The meeting took place in the ERCC offices. Sandy Brindley and the ERCC representatives gave their full names and job titles. The women used first names only and shared their traumatic stories. One woman introduced herself simply as ‘Sharon’ and it was assumed that she, too, was a survivor of male sexual violence. However, Sharon became extremely vocal, insisting to attendees that it is illegal to stipulate one’s rape counsellor is biologically female. (This is untrue and contradicted by the Equality Act 2010.) It was subsequently revealed that this woman was Sharon Cowan, a professor of Feminist and Queer Legal Studies and a prominent trans activist.

“Bringing a third-party campaigner to a meeting of such vulnerable women without asking their permission, or even offering an introduction, was and remains astounding to me”, writes Joan McAlpine. “It shocked me then as it still does now, that given 100 per cent of rapes in Scotland are committed by men this appeared to not be an issue for the head of Rape Crisis Scotland… Rape Crisis say sex self-ID causes no problems. But what I can’t forget is that I was in the room when its CEO heard those women, saw their distress, and knew they were self-excluding from a service they needed.”

Greta is the mother of a girl who, aged 14, was gang-raped by four men in 2014. She attended the meeting at ERCC organised by Joan McAlpine. In October 2022, Greta and the other women present wrote of their experiences at that meeting in a report for the Scottish parliament.

“When the mother of a daughter gang-raped in 2014, who was also present at the meeting, explained how traumatising it was when her local rape crisis centre refused to guarantee her child a female counsellor, Ms Brindley did not acknowledge that this should never have happened. Our member was in tears at sharing her experience… Ms Burrell [Caroline Burrell, then CEO of ERCC] responded to this by elaborating on the pain suffered by men with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment on being rejected by female survivors.

Sandy clarified that any male who claims a trans identity would be treated as a woman by the service, including those who present as male, have made no changes to names or pronouns and who would be unequivocally perceived as men by all. Sandy confirmed for instance that a male-born person could work on their phone counselling line, as long as that person identified as a woman… Sandy told us that if a woman asked for a female counsellor, she could theoretically be assigned to a male-born person identifying as female, and that they would not be told in advance of the status of this person.”

Mridul Wadhwa was facilitated by and is indicative of the pernicious policies of ‘inclusivity’ at Rape Crisis Scotland, but he was not the cause of them. The rot set in long before he arrived and, unless serious changes are made, Rape Crisis Scotland will continue to fail the traumatised women it was set up to serve.

Friday 19th July - What Fresh Hell is This?

INEWS: Former Mermaids boss, Susie Green, is setting up a new ‘loophole exploiting’ gender clinic to push puberty blockers on vulnerable children.

We have reported on Susie Green in the past. She was the Chair of disgraced charity, Mermaids, from 2011 until 2015 and then the CEO of Mermaids from 2016 until her sudden departure in November 2022. She famously took her young son to Thailand to undergo so-called ‘sex reassignment surgery’ on his sixteenth birthday, circumventing the age limit of 18 for such surgeries dictated by UK law. She would later give a TED Talk in which she openly admitted that having a feminine little boy who liked playing with ‘girls’ toys’ made her husband extremely uncomfortable.

There is also video footage of Green laughing about the fact that the puberty suppressants taken by her son in childhood meant there ‘wasn’t much to work with’ when he underwent genital surgery having just turned sixteen.

After leaving Mermaids, Green went on to work for the notorious GenderGP, an offshore private gender clinic of very dubious reputation which has been caught out supplying hormones to minors online without their parents’ knowledge or consent.

Now Green is launching a private gender clinic of her own which, she says, will “Exploit a legal loophole” to bypass the ban on puberty blockers. Anne Health, which was due to open at the weekend, will supply puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones “To transgender people of all ages”. It has no lower age limit.

The legal loophole Green plans to exploit is an omission in the law which allows the importation of puberty blockers from other countries. Having taken legal advice from David Lock KC and Jolyon Maugham KC - two barristers seemingly hugely invested in the medicalisation of gender non-conforming children - Green subsequently devised a route by which she can supply these drugs to minors.

Although Anne Health is based in the UK, Green is hiring clinicians who are located in the European Economic Area. Regulated by their own medical bodies, her staff will be free to issue prescriptions for children in mainland Britain. Then, because the ban on puberty blockers applies to England, Wales and Scotland but not to Northern Ireland, the prescriptions will be despatched to addresses in Northern Ireland from where they can be collected.

Green has no training or background in any medical field. Prior to taking up her paid appointment as Mermaids’ CEO, she was an IT manager. Yet she remains rabidly determined to push vulnerable children into becoming lifelong medical patients.

Saturday 20th July - Leave Them Kids Alone #2

REDUXX: A family from Maryland has taken legal action against a children’s hospital, alleging that it forced their autistic teen to adopt a trans identity.

Parents in the USA, who are known only as Mr & Mrs Doe to protect their anonymity, are taking legal action against Maryland’s Children’s National Hospital, alleging that staff there encouraged their sixteen year old autistic son to adopt a trans identity. The boy was subsequently removed from the couple’s care because they refused to validate his new ‘gender identity’ and participate in his transition.

The troubled teenager was admitted to the hospital in November 2021 after he had attempted to take his own life. The Doe’s lawsuit claims that, although he had never previously expressed any gender issues, the hospital staff began to insist that their son was ‘transgender’. They allege that their son was influenced by the hospital’s chaplain, Lavender Kelley, a woman who identifies as ‘non-binary’. Kelly has posted on social media, advocating for the medical transitioning of children, spreading the ‘trans kids’ suicide myth, and claiming that ‘gender affirming therapies for children and adolescents’ (ie puberty blockers) are 100% reversible.

IMAGE CREDIT: Facebook

At the beginning of 2022, the Does attended a Child Protective Services hearing. They were told that their son would only be returned to their home if they affirmed his ‘gender identity’ and stopped reading ‘particular passages’ of the Bible to him. They could not agree to these conditions.

Originally, the boy was placed in the home of a foster carer who, it is claimed, was one of Lavender Kelley’s close friends. The lawsuit alleges that this foster parent had previously been charged with assault and exploited the Doe’s son by posting photographs of him, presenting as female, to her social media account. In the summer of 2022, the teenager attempted suicide and was hospitalized again.

When the foster mother died suddenly, the boy was re-housed. This time he was placed in the home of the hospital chaplain, Lavender Kelly, herself.

In June 2023, at which time, according to the case, the Doe’s son was living with her, Lavender Kelley posted a photograph to her Facebook page. In this photograph, she is posing with the US Assistant Health Secretary, Rachel Levine a trans-identified male and vociferous advocate for the medicalisation of gender confused children.

Lavender Kelly (L) attending an event in Washington with Rachel Levine, June 2023 - IMAGE CREDIT: Facebook

The Does claim that their son is still currently living with Lavender Kelley, even though he turned 18 in March last year. In August 2023, a judge ruled that the abuse charges brought against the Does by the Children’s National Hospital were unsubstantiated. Nevertheless, their son has never been returned to them.

Sunday 21st July - Let Women Speak

A feminist event in Brisbane was disrupted by aggressive and abusive trans activists who were determined to prevent women from speaking.

Australian women’s rights group, Woman Up Queensland, held a Speakers Corner event in Brisbane this Sunday. Inevitably, the meeting was besieged by (mostly male) trans activists. They barged into the area where the group had set up their equipment and disrupted the women speakers, shouting abuse, insults and insane hyperbole.

One huge and strapping male, who had blue hair and brandished a trans flag, seemed to be the ringleader. He shouted at the women, “You hateful spineless bigots are trying to hurt people. Children are killing themselves because of your rhetoric. People are being bashed in the streets because of your rhetoric.” He went on to claim that the women assembled are all fascists and that the Stonewall Riots were started by ‘trannies like us’.

Another trans activist, a male with long purple hair, yelled at one of the women speakers, “You’re more of a man than I am, c*nt! Look at yourself!”

The trans activists occupied the area where the women - who had a permit to be there - were trying to speak. The police in attendance did nothing to move them on. When officers were asked why they couldn’t remove the mob, one replied, “It’s very hard for us, they’re there now…” He said that the women - who had a permit to be there - should be the ones to move. Which they did. And they continued to be besieged and abused by the trans activists who chanted “Who do we hate? Terfs!” at them and drowned out the speakers with their constant noise.

The presence of the police did nothing to deter the trans activists from their intimidatory behaviour, especially the blue-haired ringleader whose aggression spilled over into violence when he pushed over one of the women in attendance.

As the meeting came to an end, the trans activists taunted the women speakers. The ringleader leapt around, grinning inanely, while the mob chanted “Terfs go home!” and “We’ll be be back!” Of course they will.

Both sides, eh?

See you next week.