The Good News Supplement: Monday 18th November - Sunday 24th November

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

Holding the Line on Capitol Hill

Courageous South Carolina Congresswoman, Nancy Mace, has made it abundantly and unequivocally clear that she intends to defend women’s sex-based rights and spaces. This week she made a start in the Capitol Building, the seat of the United States Congress in Washington DC.

On Monday, Rep Nancy Mace, filed a resolution to protect women’s bathroom facilities at the US Capitol, barring trans-identified males from using them and ensuring that they are restricted to female use only.

She said in a statement: “The sanctity of protecting women and standing up against the left’s systematic erasure of biological women starts here in the nation’s Capitol. We are standing up for women, protecting their spaces, and restoring a bit of sanity to Capitol Hill.”

Capitol Hill, Washington DC

Her resolution sought to amend the rules of the US House to prohibit members, officers, and employees from using single-sex facilities that are ‘designated for the opposite biological sex’.

It proved immediately successful.

Only a few days later, Speaker, Mike Johnson, announced that the bathroom facilities in the Capitol would be designated strictly according to biological sex. (Under the House rules, Speaker Johnson has ‘general control’ of the facilities in the chamber, giving him the authority to issue this policy on bathroom use.)

In a statement, Speaker Johnson confirmed that “All single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings — such as restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms — are reserved for individuals of that biological sex”. He added, “Women deserve women’s only spaces”.

A few hours later he told reporters, “For anyone who doesn’t know my established record on this issue, let me be unequivocally clear: a man is a man, and a woman is a woman, and a man cannot become a woman.”

Throughout the week, Rep Nancy Mace - a rape survivor - was deluged by violent threats and accusations of transphobia and bigotry. She has, nevertheless, remained fearless and resolute, repeating her unapologetic defence of women’s rights and her unshakeable intention to protect female spaces.

Mace told The Daily Mail, “I'm not seeking to limit anyone's rights – I'm seeking to affirm the rights of women. That’s why this House rule is only the beginning. The US Capitol is the seat of our democracy. It must set the standard. I am now introducing legislation to expand the same-sex bathroom policy across federal property nationwide and in schools funded by the federal government. Women and girls deserve more than to have their needs ignored and protective boundaries erased”.

Not all heroes wear capes.

The Women Who Won’t Wheesht

Talking of indomitable women, there was a great article in The Times this week, speaking to and about the founder members of For Women Scotland.

And staying in Scotland, the Scottish secretary, Ian Murray, has confirmed that he will not lift the Section 35 Order blocking of the Scottish Parliament’s gender reform law.

Appearing before the Commons’ Scottish Affairs Committee for the first time in his capacity as a minister this week, Murray said the courts had ruled the former government’s use of a section 35 order on the Gender Recognition Reform Act was lawful.

Balls to the FA

The 17-year-old female football player on whom the Football Association imposed a six-match ban for challenging the presence of a bearded male on a women’s team is appealing the FA’s decision with the help of the Free Speech Union.

A couple of weeks ago we reported on a 17-year-old girl, currently on the assessment pathway for autism, who plays for a local women’s football team. During a pre-season friendly against another team, concerned for her own safety, the girl questioned the presence of a bearded trans-identified male opposition player.

The girl’s comments were reported to the FA via sports watchdog, Kick It Out, and she was subjected to a traumatic investigation process culminating in a six-game ban.

The girl and her family are now appealing her punishment with the help of the Free Speech Union. The FSU has appointed leading barrister, John Jolliffe, to fight the guilty verdict imposed by an FA national serious case panel.

See You In Court

Utah State University has filed a petition hoping to join a lawsuit regarding a trans-identified male being allowed to play women’s college volleyball.

As we have reported previously, a group of sportswomen are taking legal action against the Mountain West Conference and officials at San Jose State University over the presence of a trans-identified male player in the women’s game.

The San José State University women’s volleyball team has been much in the news recently over its inclusion of Blaire Hamilton, the 6ft 1in tall trans-identified male player who has been accused of conspiring to injure his own team captain for expressing her concerns about his inclusion.

Last week twelve women filed a federal law suit against the Mountain West Conference and its commissioner, Gloria Nevarez, San Jose State University, its head volleyball coach, Todd Kress, and two school administrators, and the trustees board for the California State University system. They allege that the school and the conference violated the US Constitution and Title IX by allowing a trans-identified male to play for a women’s sports team and by suppressing the right to freedom of speech of those who protested his presence.

This week Utah State University (USU) has moved to file a petition in order to join the lawsuit.

Kaylie Ray, USU women’s volleyball co-captain, told The Post Millennial, “Until today, college women athletes have stood alone against the combined discrimination of the NCAA and every college athletic conference in the country that follows the NCAA’s misguided policies that allow men to compete against women in college sports. I am proud that Utah State University has intervened on the side of the Plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the Mountain West Conference, becoming the first University in the country to intervene in a lawsuit to support the rights of women in college sports. Hopefully, Utah State’s action will motivate a flood of schools and college athletic conferences to renounce the NCAA’s anti-women policies”.

We wish them the very best of luck.

Sex Matters v BTP

Sex Matters have instigated legal proceedings against the British Transport Police over its policy of allowing trans-identified males to strip search female suspects.

Earlier this week we reported on the British Transport (BTP)’s policy of allowing trans-identified male officers to perform intimate searches of female suspects if they have a GRC and/or have legally changed their birth certificate. This contravenes the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) which stipulates that an officer carrying out a search “Shall be of the same sex as the person searched”.

Last week Sex Matters sent a pre-action letter to the British Transport Police challenging is search policy. The letter also names the National Police Chiefs’ Council as an interested party and is the first step towards taking the BTP to court for a judicial review of the policy. 

It is on.

And Finally…