A Week in the War on Women: Monday 11th December - Sunday 17th December GOOD NEWS SUPPLEMENT

IMAGE CREDIT: Ginette Hardwick (@Gardencomet)

A handful of the good news stories from the gender beat this week. Enjoy!

Sex Matters In Hospital

A private hospital group has altered its policies on same-sex intimate care.

Last year we reported on a courageous woman called Teresa Steele. London’s Princess Grace Hospital cancelled her life-saving surgery at the last minute after she requested that her aftercare be provided by female nurses only.

Since then, Teresa Steele has campaigned for the hospital’s parent company, HCA, to change its policy regarding same-sex intimate patient care.

HCA has now rewritten its policies and promised that patients will be provided with intimate care by a staff member of the same sex rather than the same gender. This means that trans-identified males will not provide personal care to a female patient unless that patient has given her express consent for him to do so.

According to The Telegraph “The move has led to pressure on the NHS to do the same”.

And while we’re on the subject of the importance of same-sex care, may we draw your attention to this excellent website, Caring About Dignity, which collects testimony from people about their experiences.

Queen Kemi

Kemi Badenoch was on spectacular form, yet again, when she appeared before the Women and Equalities Select Committee this week.

She reiterated her commitment to defending female-only spaces and protecting gender-confused children. And she was clearly taking no prisoners when she gave Kate Osborne a ‘delicious dressing down’ after the Labour MP tried to make false allegations about her comments around dysphoric children.

Badenoch told her, “As legislators we should be the grown-ups in the room... I am not going to shy away from this. We cannot create a chilling effect on politicians and clinicians or anyone else raising concerns. That is not what our job is”. Brava!

A Sporting Chance

Female athletes in Connecticut have been given the opportunity to pursue a lawsuit over the inclusion of trans-identified males in female sporting categories.

In 2017 the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference adopted a policy that allows trans-identified to compete in girls’ categories. As a result, female athletes were cheated out of records, medals and opportunities. Four female athletes consequently brought a legal action against the state of Connecticut. In 2021 their case was dismissed by a Connecticut judge with that decision later affirmed by three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit a year ago.

However, this week a rare full meeting of all active judges on the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan reinstated the lawsuit. This means that the case - Soule v. Connecticut Association of Schools - can now proceed to the federal district court. We wish Selina Soule, Alanna Smith, Chelsea Mitchell and Ashley Nicoletti every success with this legal action.

Could The Jig Be Up In Ireland?

Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTÉ, blew the lid off so-called ‘transgender healthcare’ for dysphoric children on its flagship programme.

RTÉ’s Primetime programme featured Ireland’s two most experienced clinicians in ‘transgender healthcare’, Professor Donal O’Shea and psychiatrist Dr Paul Moran. They have made a formal complaint to the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) about the Health Service Executive's (HSE) treatment of children with gender identity issues. They spoke to the programme about the reasons for their legal action, the harm caused to children by gender affirmation medical intervention and the undue influence of trans lobby groups on clinicians.

Furthermore, the programme featured testimony from detransitioners.

This seems like a seismic shift in the coverage of this issue by RTÉ and sunlight is now pouring in.

The Countess Is In The House

More great news from Ireland; our feminist sisters from The Countess are making tremendous progress with their initiative to keep males out of women’s prisons.

We have reported previously on the The Countess’ excellent campaign to legislate for the country’s prisons being single sex. The intention is to amend the GRA 2015 and prevent males from being accommodated in the Irish female estate. (More information here.)

In November the Gender Recognition (Amendment) (Prisons) Bill 2023 was lodged in the Dáil (the lower house of the Irish parliament) by Peadar Tóibín, leader of Aontú and nine other TDs (ie elected members of the lower house) have signed the bill.

This week the bill successfully passed the first stage and Peadar Tóibín gave a barnstorming speech to the Dáil, describing the impact of gender ideology on all aspects of Irish life.

Congratulations and good luck to The Countess and everyone involved in this proposed legislation.

The Future Is Brighton

Eddie/Suzy Izzard has failed in his attempt to be selected as the Labour candidate for Brighton Pavilion.

Brighton's local Labour Party voted for musician and activist, Tom Gray, to be the party’s candidate for the Brighton constituency.

Anyone care to have a guess where Izzard might pop up next, claiming to have a close personal bond with the area?? @moleatthedoor has a few ideas…

IMAGE CREDIT: Moley

Glinner Of Hope

There’s still time to buy a copy of Graham’s book, Tough Crowd, for yourself or as a Christmas gift. It is now available in the US and Australia!

Tough Crowd is available from Amazon, The Express shop, Lightning Eye, Waterstones, Blackwells and all other discerning outlets. (There are also audio versions available on Audible and Spotify too.)

Many apologies but, due to the pressures of the season (and the probability of my being in a cheese and wine induced coma), there will be no GNS next week. But order will be restored in the new year!

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and every happiness for 2024.

And Finally…