A Week in the War on Women: Monday 26th September - Sunday 2nd October GOOD NEWS SUPPLEMENT
Here are just a few of the good news stories from the gender beat this week. Enjoy!
The Chickens Are Coming Home To Roost
Following the shocking revelations about Mermaids in press last week, the charity is now facing some long overdue scrutiny and the Charity Commission is launching an investigation.
A spokesman for the Charity Commission said, “Concerns have been raised with us about Mermaids’ approach to safeguarding young people. We have opened a regulatory compliance case and have written to the trustees. We now await their reply.”
The story made it onto BBC News.
And even into The Guardian.
The Daily Mail described “A scandal unfolding before our eyes” in its comprehensive account of the Mermaids situation.
This article points out the tireless work Graham has done in bringing the Mermaids horror show to public attention and quotes him throughout. “‘Mermaids joins a long line of British scandals happening in plain sight’, Graham Linehan adds. "‘It is promoting damaging concepts and interventions for children, and it is doing it publicly time and again. How much more of this do we have to see before it is stopped?’”
He Told You So
And speaking of Graham, with the sunlight now pouring in (the Cass Review, the imminent closure of the Tavistock, the endless revelations about Mermaids…) I sent Newsnight a reminder that the programme owes him an apology.
If you would also like to contact the Newsnight editor, here is my letter template which you’re very welcome to crib in whole or part. (I also emailed a copy to BBC director general, Tim Davie - tim.davie@bbc.co.uk)
Stewart Maclean
Editor of Newsnight
BBC Broadcasting House
W1A 1AA
Dear Mr Maclean,
RE: Newsnight interview with Graham Linehan February 2020
I wrote to you in August about an edition of Newsnight broadcast in February 2020. It featured the writer and director, Graham Linehan, who was interviewed about the danger of gender identity ideology to gender non-conforming children.
From the outset, Mr Linehan was treated with hostility and derision. The presenter constantly interrupted him and spoke over him, thus preventing him from properly explaining his position and imparting important information.
Mr Linehan tried to discuss the urgent situation at The Tavistock & Portman clinic. He explained that untested cancer treatment drugs were being used to halt the puberty of vulnerable children, that gay and lesbian youngsters were being persuaded they need medical intervention and that dozens of concerned clinicians were resigning from the clinic in protest.
Only a few months after this interview, two of Newsnight’s own journalists broke a story about the Tavistock clinic, reporting on leaked documents which revealed the extent to which serious staff concerns over patient welfare were being shut down and dismissed. When Mr Linehan had tried to make these exact points on your programme only weeks earlier, however, the presenter had scoffed at him, dismissed his comments, questioned his evidence and described his views as a ‘ridiculous exaggeration’.
As you are no doubt aware, the Cass Review Interim Report was published in March and highlighted significant concerns about the treatment provided at The Tavistock. It acknowledged the significance of rapid-onset gender dysphoria, the link between childhood dysphoria and co-morbidities, the rapid increase in teenage girls experiencing gender issues, the concerns of the therapists and clinicians, the limitations of an 'affirmation-only' approach, the lack of evidence regarding medication and the woefully insufficient follow-up information on patients.
More recently, the Cass Review has advised that the Tavistock is ‘not a safe or viable long-term option’ for the treatment of gender-confused children and the clinic will close next year.
This week, as I’m sure you know, several newspapers have reported shocking revelations about the charity, Mermaids. Children are being offered potentially dangerous breast binders without parental consent or even knowledge and untested hormone drugs are being presented to children as ‘harmless’ and ‘reversible’ when all the evidence shows they are anything but. The Charity Commission has now opened an investigation into Mermaids’ conduct.
The ever-burgeoning evidence continues to vindicate the views Mr Linehan expressed on Newsnight in February 2020. His warnings about the harm being caused to children by gender identity ideology have been entirely and repeatedly corroborated.
Consequently, I believe that your programme owes Mr Linehan, at the very least, a public apology. Perhaps you could invite him onto Newsnight again in order to affect an apology and allow him an opportunity to speak on these important issues without interruption or derision.
Yours sincerely etc.
Labour of Love
Labour Women’s Declaration hosted a conference fringe event at the Labour Party Conference on Monday 26th September.
The meeting, ‘What Do Women Need From the Labour Manifesto?’, was chaired by Tonia Antoniazzi MP and included speakers Cllr Nina Killen, Judith Green of Woman's Place UK, Paula Boulton of Lesbian Labour, Joan Smith, Cllr Emina Ibrahim and Karen Ingala Smith.
The event was sold out and around 1000 virtual attendees joined online. (If you missed it, you can catch up on YouTube.)
The wonderful Rosie Duffield MP said out loud what everyone in the Labour Party already knows; Eddie Izzard is not a woman.
She told the meeting “I’m absolutely not the only Labour woman MP who will leave the party if Eddie Izzard gets a place on an all-women’s shortlist.”
Primark’s Changing Policy
Primark has finally got the message and is amending its ‘gender neutral’ (ie mixed sex) changing room policy.
“We’ve listened to feedback from our customers and colleagues and you’ll start to see changes in our UK stores in the coming weeks… We will ensure that we offer a dedicated fitting room area for women.”
Of course, it would help to know how Primark defines ‘woman’ but this back track is very encouraging and shows that the influence of gender woo can be undone. It’s a good start. Lets keep up the pressure on M&S, John Lewis, Target etc…
Watch This Space
Standing for Women’s Kellie-Jay Keen is planning to produce a documentary about the experiences of women fighting the harms and influence of gender ideology.
“I want our story to be told and I’m gonna tell it with the help of many, many women.”
ICYMI
Graham being interviewed by Stephen Knight on The Knight Tube:
Maya Forstater on The Jeremy Vine show:
"Mermaids on the rocks" - love it; I'll drink to that! 😉
But good for you on the letter to the BBC about Graham's interview - kind of helps to hold the feet of newsmagazines to the fire - figuratively speaking of course ...
Somewhat apropos of which, you might have some interest in my comment over at GC News - definitely worth a follow - on an article linked there about a court case in the US that turns on “allowing transgender female athletes to compete in women's sports":
https://gcnews.substack.com/p/thursday-september-29-2022/comment/9397160
As I argued in my open letter to the Washington Examiner journalist responsible for that abuse of the Queen's English - now the King's English, they are most certainly NOT "transgender female athletes"; they're male transvestites, guys in drag. About time we started calling a spade a fucking shovel - nice to see Rosie Duffield, among others, doing precisely that.
It is a good news week. Exciting about the Labor women who won't accept Eddie Izzard as a candidate. The man old enough to be a grandfather who refers to himself as a 'boy' or a 'girl' depending on his mood. And the Mermaids news too! More power to our collective international elbow. Emma Watson, perhaps you'd better get on board with the feminists.