I got so much paid work done yesterday and this morning that I am able to do an early post today 😎
This is a long post with lots of images so let me know if you have any problems in receiving it all.
In the speech that I feature below from the wonderful Ireland Uncensored conference in Dublin, Helen Joyce says that, if the hate crime bill becomes law, she will come back to Ireland and say again all the things she is saying now. In Update 235 we talked about ‘courage’ and in Update 236, Radhwa Evans-Clare said:
All that needs to happen is to stop pretending and refuse to begin doing it again when instructed to. Tell these tyrannical ideologues and chancers to fuck right off. What are they going to do? Pursue huge numbers of people who got up off their knees?
We all need to stand up and say: ‘I am Spartacus’ (Kirk Douglas as Spartacus).
Belgian Protests
Great to see Canadian style protests now taking place in Belgium.
AFP ( Protests against sex ed classes in Belgian schools 30 September) report:
© Simon Wohlfahrt
Dozens of demonstrators took to the streets of Brussels on Saturday to protest sex education courses in schools, which have sparked controversy in the French-speaking part of the country.
Shouting "don't touch our children", protesters sought to challenge the French-speaking authorities' move to introduce an annual two-hour course for two age groups, intended to answer pupils' questions on sensitive subjects.
However, since the start of the new school year the programme has sparked a backlash on social media and protest calls from ultra-conservatives [ Dusty - this is AFP’s description which I think I would take with a pinch of salt!] , including Islamic associations and Civitas, a far right party of mostly ultra-traditional Catholics.
In mid-September, the Belgian courts opened an investigation into "arson", after fires broke out in four schools targeted by opponents of the courses.
"Talking publicly to children about sexuality can frustrate them. It's up to parents to talk about sexuality, not the state", Gregory Bourguignon, one of the demonstrators, told AFP.
The course -- presented by French-speaking Education Minister Caroline Desir as a two-hour lecture by accredited outside speakers -- is aimed at pupils in the sixth year of primary school (aged 11-12) and the fourth year of secondary school (aged 15-16).
Compulsory since 2012, until now it has not been systematically provided due to a lack of resources.
Its aim is to "reassure pupils about issues that they may have difficulty understanding".
Its aim is to "reassure pupils about the questions they ask themselves at adolescence" and to "protect them from potentially dangerous or problematic situations", the minister said.
She gave "sexism, sexual violence and gender stereotypes" as examples.
An initial demonstration was held on September 17, but it failed to prevent the final adoption of the text by the French-speaking Belgian region.
What Is Mr Starmer Up To?
Keir Starmer has talked about the need for a separate race equality act ( see link below)!! Given that race discrimination is already fully covered by the Equality Act 2010 it is not at all clear why a new act would be required! However he has provided no further details as yet! Watch this space but…I don’t trust him!
https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1708361097693249731
Ireland Uncensored
Here is Helen Joyce’s excellent speech.
Feminism Between The Right And The Left
The University of Austin in Texas seems to be becoming a new and exciting platform for gender critical discussion. In this interesting ( of course) speech by Kathleen Stock, who is now a lecturer there, she looks at the so called ‘radical feminists’ on the left and the so called ‘reactionary feminists’ on the right. Both groups are opposed to gender ideology. How can they both take the fight forward in opposing this pernicious ideology? I certainly don’t understand the so called ‘fourth wave feminists’ who are in favour of the anti-women activists ( the ‘handmaids’ as we call them). How are they even feminists?
Peter Boghossian is also a lecturer at the University of Austin.
The Infinite Pride Calendar
It's always Pride O'Clock somewhere.
02 September
A really marvellous and entertaining post on his substack from Arty Morty.
As regular readers will know I sometimes protest against the ridiculous number of days and months for (basically) the T and the Q by having a day of visibility for an animal (why shouldn’t animals get a look in!?).
Today I will be doing Hawk Day of Visibility.
A purity spiral is taking over the entire calendar:
In 1971 it was Gay Pride Day.
By the mid-1990s it was Gay and Lesbian Pride Week.
By the turn of the millennium it began to be called Pride Month — now for much more than gays, and for many more days.
By 2022 the Canadian government had officially declared all of summer, from June to September, “Pride Season.”
But why stop there?
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion busybodies have decided to extend the season yet again, through the end of October. This year, they’re heavily pushing October as 2SLGBTQ[Q]IA+ History Month.
This will jussst about get queer people safely to the end of the second week of November, which is the start of Transgender Awareness Week (Nov. 13 - Nov. 19). And the day after that is of course the hallowed Transgender Day of Remembrance (Nov. 20).
In case you’re worried about that two-week prideless interlude after the end of October during which people have the nerve to memorialize World War I soldiers instead of the real heroes — the Rainbow People — there’s Intersex Remembrance Day on November 8th.
However, many believe that’s still not enough queer remembrance for November, so there’s an active campaign to ensure the whole month of November is celebrated as Trans Awareness Month, spearheaded by (where else) the City of San Francisco.
But what about earlier in the year? For those who can’t wait until the season formerly known as “summer” kicks off to express their pride, on May 17th we’ve got the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia (formerly known as “IDAHO,” the International Day Against Homophobia, and which will no doubt soon be renamed again to erase any mention of homosexuals, or to at least relegate them to the end of the list instead of the start).
And if that’s not early enough in the year for you, there’s International Asexuality Day on April 6th.
Next year you won’t even have to wait until April, because Sunday March 31st will mark the holiest and most important day of the year: Trans Visibility Day, otherwise known to the unenlightened cisheteronormative folk as Easter.
Oh! Speaking of Jesus: south of the Equator, Mardi Gras has already become Australia’s gay pride celebration season.
And back up here, the sick cishet display known as “Valentine’s Day” gets some much-needed counterprogramming with Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, for the seven days following February 14th. It’s symbolized by a heart striped in the colours of bile. That’ll show ‘em!
What’s left?
Pride started out as a single day near the end of June, but lately it has stretched all the way forward to the end of November, and all the way back to the beginning of February. There’s just the wintry depths of December and January left in the calendar for the unrainbowed holdouts.
Christmas, New Year’s, and in the U.S., Martin Luther King Jr. Day, remain shamefully unqueer.
But I’m sure GLAAD and Justin Trudeau will team up and make a plan to fix those holidays, too. For one thing, the “+” doesn’t even have a single day yet, let alone a week or a month!
Here, for free, are some suggestions:
Instead of shortening Christmas to “xmas” in your emails and texts, write it as “+mas” (pronounced “plus-mas”) instead, as a way to remind everyone of your virtue and inclusiveness.
Then ring in the new year with New Year’s Resolution to End All Queerphobias Eve.
And finally, leading up to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, celebrate All Kings & Kweens Matter Week.
(This post was originally posted, slightly modified, at Butterflies & Wheels.)
What Is Mr Trudeau Up To?
Mr Trudeau has made a proposal that Kim Jong Un would be proud of. Jordan Peterson has something to say about it 😂
https://twitter.com/jordanbpeterson/status/1708180204219154645
The Royal Navy
This is a real FFS one care of the wonderful Feminist Legal Clinic.
Royal Navy’s official trans guidance tells personnel to use pronouns in introductions ( 01 October)
A guide for Royal Navy personnel on “Trans and Non-Binary Awareness” tells staff: “Introducing yourself with your pronouns at the start of meetings and interactions is a good way to be inclusive.”
The Navy trans guide also displays a “trans umbrella” that features different gender identities, including “gender neutral”; “two spirit”, which often refers to a gender expression some north American indigenous communities proport; and “pangender”, defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “a gender identity [that] encompasses multiple genders, which may be experienced simultaneously or in a fluid, fluctuating manner”.
The guide boasts of the Royal Navy being a “Stonewall top 100 employer” last year.
Source: Royal Navy’s official trans guidance tells personnel to use pronouns in introductions
Statistics
Ben Riley-Smith in The Telegraph ( Science Secretary to review public bodies collecting data on self-identified gender rather than biological sex 01 October) reports:
The Science Secretary will on Tuesday unveil a review into the “utter nonsense” of public bodies being urged to collect data on self-identified gender rather than biological sex.
Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference, Michelle Donelan will sound the alarm at what she calls the “denial of biology and the steady creep of political correctness”.
Ms Donelan has been moved to act by examples such as the NHS sometimes using a person’s stated gender rather than their biological sex in data records.
The review will last six months and be headed up by Prof Alice Sullivan, the head of research at UCL’s Social Research Institute.
It will analyse the collection of research and statistics by all public bodies on sex and gender, with specific recommendations to be made at the end.
‘Utter nonsense’
Ms Donelan will say in her speech on Tuesday: “To those who think they have the right to impose this utter nonsense on science, let this message go out from this conference hall today… We are safeguarding scientific research from the denial of biology and the steady creep of political correctness.”
About time too!!!
And finally…
As promised, and since two hawks (albeit they are not Red Tailed ones) have moved into our local park, here is Red Tailed Hawk Day Of Visibility.
Thanks for another marathon Dusty.
Helen Joyce and Kathleen Stock, brilliant. I’d certainly join Helen in saying those things in Ireland. Anger has made me much braver and I only stick to my TT name now because I’ve become rather fond of it, although my husband prefers it! He keeps expecting a police visit.
I didn’t realise there were so many special days but the ‘lest we forget’ could not be more offensive. I’m glad my dad isn’t alive to see that.
Lucky you to have local hawks. 😁