I Never Lose!!
Update 382 Terf Month #BeMorePorcupine
There’s lots of news and discussions, dear readers, so I am splitting this into two updates.
Thanks to someone in the comments on another substack for suggesting to me this Terf Month speech where Kellie-Jay Keen, leader of the Party of Women ( see further below) takes on Owen Jones of the Guardian (and formerly of the Labour Party until he resigned recently in a huff). Thanks to Mr Menno for this piece.
“Did you win, Owen?” 😊
Thanks as ever to two wonderful readers for suggesting pieces.
Why We Are Having Terf Month
If you wonder why we are having Terf Month on this substack, I think the three contributions about Pride Month below should assist you 😎
All comments gratefully received.
Kathleen Stock in The Times ( Pride is an increasingly empty religion, and I’m flying the flag for the heretics 01 June) writes:
Pride Month began yesterday. I know what you’re thinking: haven’t we already had it? Perhaps you’re thinking of LGBT+ History month in February. Or maybe you’re remembering the Tolkienesque-sounding IDAHOBIT — otherwise known as International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia — a fortnight ago. Later in the year there will be Ace (asexual) Week and Transgender Awareness Week; and don’t forget the Pride and Trans Pride parades scattered throughout the summer. The Catholic church has fewer holy days of obligation than the modern LGBTQI+ movement, and is arguably a lot less guilt-tripping.
In preparation for the massive metropolitan parade at the end of the month, Regent Street in London is already decked out with Progress flags: a mad visual hotchpotch emblematic of the season. (As several have observed before me, the aesthetic horror of the Progress flag is how you really know that gay men were left behind by the LGBTQI+ people.) Like a football team annually redesigning its kit, activists ensure a steady income stream by frequently inserting new symbolic elements into the old rainbow flag. This year a circle has been added, ostensibly to make proceedings “intersex inclusive”.
Dedicated days, crusader pennants, mystical symbols and elaborate robes: isn’t this all sounding a bit… religious? The advocacy group Christian Concern certainly thinks so. It has started a petition against the Regent Street paraphernalia, arguing that the presence of flags “proclaims a secular religious ideology” and “creates division between those people who do not recognise themselves under the umbrella of its myriad causes and those that do”. While evidence for the first point is strong, I’m not sure the second, about societal division, works, but only because there’s practically no one left on the planet who doesn’t technically count as a member of the LGBTQI+ community.
Just as early Christians made conversion easier by mimicking pagan rituals, so the rainbow gang has relaxed its entry criteria to ensure that straight people feel part of things too. If you once had a funny feeling watching two blokes kiss, then congratulations, you’re queer; if you haven’t thought about sex in months, then you’re officially on the asexual spectrum; if you need an emotional connection with someone to experience romance, you’re probably a demiromantic (and, if so, you have your own week in February — Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week). Go grab those glowsticks, girlfriend, and head to the front of the queue.
What is true, though, is that some people feel unwelcome at Pride parades. Paradoxically, many are lesbians and gay men, ideologically excluded because of their antiquated beliefs about the importance of biological sex to the definition of sexual orientation. For them, a male person can never be counted as a lesbian, no matter how high the heels or pink the lipstick, and even the most hirsute or muscular of female people could not accurately be called a gay man. They believe that stating they are attracted to people of the same sex, not the same gender identity, matters — particularly on behalf of confused young people coming to terms with their atypical orientation.
Yet the organiser, Pride in London, has made it obvious there’s no place for such heinous views at its events. The code of conduct even goes rogue from official Equality Act wording: “gender” and “gender identity” are listed as protected characteristics that may not, it is stressed, be “targeted” by “signage”. In plain terms: lesbians may not march with placards saying things like “lesbian = female homosexual”. The last time a group tried this in 2018, Pride in London denounced them as “shocking and disgusting”, demonstrating “a level of bigotry, ignorance and hate that is unacceptable”.
The full article is here:
And here we have wonderful Rex Landy from New Zealand:
https://rexlandy.substack.com/p/pedo-rights-installers-disgusting
And finally Gays Against Groomers:
https://x.com/againstgrmrs/status/1797350807483855277
The General Election
Good information from Sex Matters to help Terfs navigating this election.
Join the campaign!
Over the next five weeks Sex Matters is replacing our regular weekly email with this election action update. We’re inviting you to join us in taking action to make sure that every candidate standing to be an MP in the next parliament knows that people want them to STAND UP FOR SINGLE-SEX SERVICES.
JK Rowling’s tweet launching the campaign has had over 12,000 likes so far. We need to translate that into real-world conversations. Every single voice counts. Everyone in the UK can take action: talking to canvassers, writing to candidates, asking questions at public meetings and sharing the campaign on social media.
Last week our campaign featured in the Daily Express and Mumsnet released its own manifesto which urges the next government to make the Equality Act clear, and protect single-sex services. As one of our friends – Jenny from Tribunal Tweets – said on Twitter/X: “I never, ever ever want to hear ‘it doesn’t come up on the doorstep’ again, from @Keir_Starmer or anyone else. Because today it just came up on the biggest doorstep in the whole country.”
Get the campaign action guide and more resources at StandUpForSingleSexServices.org:
TAKE ACTION TODAY: Download the action guide, which includes:
a poster to print out
ideas for what to say to canvassers who come to your door (and a handout you can give them)
a template letter to send to candidates
suggestions for questions to ask at hustings.
Suggested Letter
I have adapted the excellent Sex Matters letter, added in a couple of bits from the LGB Alliance post ( see last update) and added in a couple of more bits from me especially concerning the GRA and gender reassignment …and come up with this below. This is, of course, where you need to write to the candidates in your constituency. Obviously please adapt further as you see fit but hope this helps a bit.
Dear…..
[Introductory bit about yourself and confirm you are a constituent and include your address]
While there are many issues of concern in this election, I am particularly concerned about the impact of gender ideology on women’s rights and child safeguarding. Please can you give me a clear, brief answer to the following questions:
Do you recognise that there are two sexes, male and female, and that being a woman (female) is different from being a “transwoman” (trans-identifying male) and that the law should recognise that there are situations where this difference cannot be ignored?
Now that same sex marriage is legal in the UK and that discrimination is unlawful against people on grounds of sexual orientation, please confirm that you agree that the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and ‘gender reassignment’ within the Equality Act 2010 should be repealed?
Do you accept the findings of the Cass Review about the risks of childhood social transition, puberty-blocking drugs and hormones for young people?
4. Do you recognise that LGB young people are under the most threat from gender- identity ideology which tells them they need to change their bodies?
Will you stand up for single-sex services? Do you recognise that single-sex spaces and sports are crucial for women and girls and should be protected?
Do you recognise the dangers in legislating to “ban conversion therapy”, which threatens ethical therapists, parents and teachers with criminalisation simply for having conversations with children about why they ( mistakenly) think they are “trans”?
Do you agree that the Equality Act should provide clear protection against discrimination based on sex and that sex means ‘biological sex’?
Do you agree that socially transitioning children in schools is bad for gender-questioning children and for the wider school population?
Do you agree that the concept of gender identity should not be taught in schools and that there is a need to change the teaching of RHSE to make it age appropriate and to make sure that inappropriate materials and books are removed from schools?
Will you commit not to bring in gender self-ID through the back door, not to loosen the conditions in the current Gender Recognition Act and not to close down freedom of speech about sex and gender?
Will you ensure that the police no longer record non-crime hate incidents, that hate crime laws are not extended and that ‘misgendering’ is not made a criminal offence?
Will you meet with “gender-critical” groups and constituents if you are elected to Parliament?
Thank you for reading this and I look forward to hearing from you soon. [ I would like to request a meeting.]
Party of Women
The brave ladies ( and one very famous lady 😊) who are standing as candidates for PoW in the General Election have to raise £500 deposit to stand and also need money for campaigning materials especially leaflets. Here are some links to fundraisers that are up so far. More to follow. Please give generously if you can. Even if you wouldn’t vote for PoW, they will be bringing this issue to the forefront in their constituencies.
And, if you are in their constituency, please vote for them. I wish I had one in my constituency 😒
Lots of hard work is going on since all candidates need to be registered by 4pm this Friday.
Kellie-Jay Keen - Birmingham Yardley
https://www.givesendgo.com/PartyOfWomenElection
Katherine Longthorp - Oxford East
https://www.givesendgo.com/PartyofWomen-OxfordEast
Una O’Mahony - Kensington and Bayswater
https://www.givesendgo.com/GCME9?s=08
Bernadette O’Malley - South West Hertfordshire
https://www.givesendgo.com/PartyofwomenSouthWestHerts
The Equality Act
A previous Court of Session case in Scotland involving For Women Scotland put the cat amongst the pigeons when it seemed to say that the Gender Recognition Act trumps the Equality Act - see my report on this here:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/water-from-the-well-part-2?utm_source=publication-search
That case is now on its way to the Supreme Court.
This announcement from the Tories is very good but does beg the question: why didn’t you sort this out already when you were in government!!??
David Churchill in The Mail Online ( Rishi Sunak pledges to safeguard girls' and women-only spaces for biological females by re-writing equality laws - if he wins the election 02 June) reports:
Rishi Sunak last night pledged to rewrite equality laws to define sex as biological if he wins the election.
The landmark change would help safeguard girls' and women-only spaces for biological females by stopping sex being conflated with gender identity, the Prime Minister said.
It would effectively rewrite part of the Equality Act so transgender women can be blocked from entering female-only spaces such as single-sex hospital wards, rape crisis centres, prison cells and lavatories, and from competing in women's sports.
This would include transgender women who have had reconstructive surgery and those who have a Gender Recognition Certificate stating that they have changed gender. The new law would apply across the UK.
At present, if organisers try to block transgender women from female-only spaces, they face legal challenges and being sued for discrimination.
Mr Sunak would kick-start the process for new primary legislation to clarify the law within days of a Conservative government being re-elected.
Gender-critical campaigners, including former British Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies, welcomed the pledge as a victory for 'common sense'.
The move is the Tories' latest bid to put clear blue water between them and Labour ahead of polling day on July 4.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has previously suggested that no such law change was needed, having stated in 2022 that 'trans women are women' and that it's wrong to say that 'only women have a cervix'.
Writing in today's Mail, Health Secretary Victoria Atkins says: 'Labour would take this right back to square one. For years, they have aided and abetted those who put ideology above scientific facts.'
In August last year, the Mail revealed how shocking guidance drawn up by NHS chiefs meant patients who only occasionally identify as women are allowed to share female-only wards. This was regardless of whether they had had surgery or legally changed sex.
The project to rewrite part of the Equality Act on the basis of biological sex rather than gender identity was initially proposed by equalities minister Kemi Badenoch.
Last night she said: 'Whether it is rapists being housed in women's prisons, or instances of men playing in women's sports where they have an unfair advantage, it is clear that public authorities and regulatory bodies are confused about what the law says on sex and gender and when to act – often for fear of being accused of transphobia, or not being inclusive.
Writing in today's Mail, Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said that Labour would take us back to square one
'That is why we are today pledging that, if we form a government after the election, we will clarify that sex in the law means biological sex and not new, redefined meanings of the word.'
Mr Sunak added: 'The safety of women and girls is too important to allow the current confusion around definitions of sex and gender to persist.'
In April last year, the Equality and Human Rights Commission backed the proposed change.
Ms Davies, who has been campaigning to ensure trans women can't compete in women's sport, said: 'I'm extremely pleased. There's a very big difference between wanting to be something and actually being something.
'I very much hope if it's clarified we can now go after any and all sporting organisations that are discriminating against biological females by not offering equal opportunities of success in their own competitions, by allowing males in categories for females.'
Stephanie Davies-Arai, of Transgender Trend, said: 'This is a return to common sense and reality from the Government.'
Heather Binning, of the Women's Rights Network, said: 'We welcome any party who pledges to preserve sex-based rights.'
The sex of those with a Gender Recognition Certificate will still align with their acquired gender in law outside the Equality Act, for example marriage law, as is the status quo.
Meanwhile it looked like ( surprise, surprise) the BBC were actively campaigning against the Tories!
Katie Harris in The Daily Express ( Kemi Badenoch clashes with Mishal Husain in fiery BBC Radio 4 Today interview June) reports:
The minister for women and equalities appeared on the flagship show after the Tories vowed to change the Equality Act to define the protected characteristic of sex as "biological sex".
During the combative interview, the senior Tory was asked on what kind of paperwork people would need to show to use single-sex spaces under Conservative plans.
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The paperwork that explains what your legal sex is is your birth certificate."
She was pressed on which version of a birth certificate this means, given that it can be amended after someone's gender change has been legally recognised.
Mishal Husain (depriving a village somewhere of an idiot!) and Kemi Badenoch© BBC
Ms Badenoch replied: "What you are describing is a hypothetical scenario, assuming that when people go into rape crisis centres they're bringing in birth certificates, they're bringing in gender recognition certificates.
"What is happening at the moment is that people come to the centres and they are visibly of a different sex. You don't always need your birth certificate when you're going to the toilet and so on and so forth.
"So the point I'm making is about the everyday scenarios people will be experiencing."
She continued: "This is not a paperwork issue. This is a practical issue."
Elsewhere, Ms Badenoch clashed with the BBC presenter when pressed about Liz Truss appearing on the Lotus Easters podcast set up by commentator Carl Benjamin who once joked about raping Labour's Jess Phillips.
Asked whether it was appropriate for a Tory candidate to appear on the platform, she said: "Carl Benjamin is not standing for election, Liz Truss is.
"It is for her constituents to decide whether she has done a good job or not.
"It is not for you, or me for that matter, to decide which shows she should be able to go on because the presenter may have said something inappropriate before.
"We've had lots of scenarios of BBC presenters saying things that are inappropriate.
"I don't know about the show. I don't know what he said. And I don't like making comments on things like that that I don't know. I think it is trivial, it is unserious."
And JK Rowling puts Alastair Campbell in his place 😊
Matthew Lodge in The Mail Online ( JK Rowling thanks Alastair Campbell for 'highlighting Labour indifference towards the rights of half the electorate' after he accused Tories of trying to 'weaponise trans rights' 03 June) reports:
JK Rowling has 'thanked' Alastair Campbell showing Labour's 'indifference' towards women’s rights after he hit out at new plans by the Tories to ban post-op trans people in women-only spaces.
The Harry Potter author spoke out after the former Labour spin doctor accused Conservative minister Kemi Badenoch of 'weaponising trans rights' this morning.
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Mr Campbell suggested that Ms Badenoch has more interest in 'ideology' than the general election and disparaged her by saying that the gender debate was the 'biggest issue on her agenda'.
However, Ms Rowling, who has been a staunch defender of same-sex spaces and women's rights, accused the intervention by the political podcaster of 'highlighting Labour's complacency' on the topic.
Ms Badenoch had been on television this morning defending the government's plans to overhaul the Equality Act which will make it clear that sex as a protected characteristic refers to biology rather than gender identity.
JK Rowling 'thanked' former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell for highlighting the party's 'indifference' towards women after he accused the Tories of trying to 'weaponise trans rights'. Pictured: Ms Rowling at the premiere of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore in London in March 2022
Alastair Campbell disparaged Ms Badenoch by saying that the gender debate was the 'biggest issue on her agenda'. Pictured: Mr Campbell at the City of London Club on May 8, 2024
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Mr Campbell suggested Ms Badenoch was more interest in ideology than the general election
Harry Potter author JK Rowling hit back at Mr Campbell, claiming he was showcasing the Labour Party's 'complacency' on the topic of gender
While she was appearing on the morning TV shows Mr Campbell, who is now a co-host of The Rest Is Politics podcast, directed his ire towards her on social media.
He wrote: 'I'm sure the world of trade and business will take note that the actual Secretary of State for trade and business has decided that the biggest issue on her agenda on her first big election outing is the weaponisation of trans rights.
'Anyone might be tempted to think @KemiBadenoch has less interest in the general election than the internal ideological s***show likely to follow it.'
This drew a response from Ms Rowling, who pointed out that the topic fell well within her role as Equalities Minister.
She wrote: 'Badenoch is also Minister for Women and Equalities. Thanks once again for highlighting Labour's complacency and indifference towards the rights of half the electorate.'
When some people pointed out that Mr Campbell was not a Labour member, having being expelled from the party after voting for the Liberal Democrats in the 2019 European Elections, she remained undeterred and posted images of Labour MPs Lloyd Russell-Moyle, David Lammy and Barry Gardiner along with quotes of what they have said on the gender debate.
Ms Rowling added: 'His membership status is irrelevant. Just like the still-Labour men below, he appears incapable of understanding what left wing women have been warning about for years.
'He and his ilk have given the right an open goal and they're now irate that the right are exploiting it.'
Gypsies and Travellers
My friend, Dr Siobhan Spencer MBE, a Romani Gypsy and long time campaigner for Gypsies and Travellers, gave a short speech at a Let Women Speak event at Macclesfield on 02 June:
https://x.com/LWSLocals/status/1797277272140861541
Siobhan is writing a piece on the experiences of Gypsy and Traveller families in the face of the gender madness and I hope to publish that on this substack soon.
Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre
I reported on the great result for Roz Adams here:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/sunday-bloody-sunday?utm_source=publication-search
Excellent piece on this by Julie Bindel on her substack:
The scandal of Mridul Wadhwa and his transmaidens
How did a man end up running a Rape Crisis Centre, and why did so-called feminists across Scotland end up supporting and defending him?
JUN 02, 2024
Imagine being so distraught following a sexual assault that you take the plunge and approach a counsellor that specialises in rape? These women have been a lifeline for victims since feminists like me set them up back in the 1970s.
But a recent employment tribunal exposed how transgender activists were ruling the roost across Scotland, and running rape crisis centres, funded by public money, for their own twisted benefit. Distressed rape victims who expected to see female counsellors were told they were bigots and that the service was not for them.
The judge in this case described a “heresy hunt” against a woman who simply asked whether rape victims accessing the service could be told the sex of the counsellor assigned to them.
£1.9m of Scottish taxpayers’ money was handed to Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC) run by a man who spent nine months hounding a female employee for her legally protected beliefs – that biological sex exists, and that it matters.
The details of this case are distressing. Roz Adams, a woman described by those who know her as reasonable, measured and empathetic, was put through hell in a job she had been devoted to.
Adams started as a case worker at ERCC shortly before a new Chief Executive was appointed. Mridul Wadhwa, originally from India, had settled in Scotland in 2009, cut a striking figure in colourful saris and long, flowing hair. But Wadhwa is male, biologically and legally, having never formalised his transgender status by applying for a Gender Recognition Certificate, which is a legal recognition of having changed sex.
That the new CEO was a trans woman did not worry Adams in the beginning. But as the vast majority of sexual violence is perpetrated by men against women, she was aware that clients would not wish to see a male counsellor to talk about sexual assault. This is why rape crisis centres were set up in the first instance: so that women could ask for advice and support from another woman who would better understand her
But in May 2022, a client asked whether a ‘non-binary’ member of staff (referred to as ‘AB’ at the tribunal) who used a man’s name was male or female. Non-binary is an identity, made popular by transgender activists, which means ‘neither male nor female’.
Non-binary wazzocks
She explained to Adams that she “would feel very uncomfortable talking with a man”.
Up until this point, Adams and her colleagues had been told, on this question, to simply tell rape victims requesting female-only care that ERCC “does not employ men”. As far as Wadhwa and many others across Scottish centres, “trans women are women”.
So when the service user asked whether AB was male or female, Adams suggested telling her that AB is female at birth but now identifies as non-binary”.
That well-meaning suggestion brought down a “completely spurious and mishandled” disciplinary process on Adams, which ended in her constructive dismissal. Her offence? Daring to care about a rape victim’s feelings, and doing her best to answer her question without offending AB. But AB, supported by Wadhwa, decided that Adams had revealed personal information about AB to a client, and that she was transphobic.
The full piece is here:
https://juliebindel.substack.com/p/the-scandal-of-mridul-wadhwa-and?r=7ogxh&triedRedirect=true
Thanks to JL on the Glinner Update for supplying me with the outrageous back story with regard to Mr Wadhwa.
As part of a War on Women in October 2020:
https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/a-week-in-the-war-on-women-monday-9c5
In May 2021 (when he was appointed CEO at ERCC):
https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/a-fox-in-the-hen-house
In May 2021 (about his support of 'Jessica' Yaniv):
https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/wadhwa-yaniv-and-the-all-about-me
In August 2021 (breaking the story of the SACRO contract etc):
https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/mridrul-wadha-sacro-and-the-14-million
Great work, JL!!
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
One piece from Free Speech Union’s latest excellent newsletter.
EDI tax research briefing updated with two egregious, real world examples (03 June)
Since its creation in 2020, the FSU has handled over 2,500 individual cases and queries relating to free speech. Of our free speech cases, 46% are in some way associated with the workplace and among these approximately one fifth concern EDI (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) training (approximately 230). In practice, this means that our members are asking whether they’ll get into trouble if they refuse to do the training, or seeking our help because they’ve already got into trouble for challenging it.
These findings are backed up by a representative nationwide poll we recently conducted on EDI and ‘carbon literacy’ training, which revealed that 62% of British workers have had to conceal what they really think about the issues covered in these ‘workshops’, including 22% who have been compelled to say things they don’t believe.
As members and supporters will no doubt recall, our Director of Data, Thomas Harris, discussed these data in The EDI Tax, a research briefing published earlier this year.
However, Tom has now added an eye-popping appendix to this briefing, documenting two egregious, real-world examples of EDI training in which employees are not allowed to challenge the trainers’ ideological biases.
The first is a mandatory training course for any Amazon employees with supervisory responsibilities, which is produced by ‘Glamazon’, the company’s internal LGBT+ affinity group, while the second is a guide produced by The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, a professional association, that’s intended for all speech and language therapists, as well as support workers and students.
You can read the full briefing, including the new appendix, here.
Lesbian Dating App
Jenny Watson is setting up a lesbian dating app using facial recognition technology to stop larping men from joining. Presumably this is the same or very similar technology used by Sall Grover when setting up her women only app, Giggle - see my most recent report on the Tickle v Giggle case:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/the-lady-in-the-van-part-1?utm_source=publication-search
I hope Jenny doesn’t run into the same problems! Best of luck to her.
Sanchez Manning and Sue Reid in The Mail Online ( Lesbian dating app to use facial recognition to exclude trans women from matching with biological females 02 June) report:
The first dating app for lesbians is set to launch – using sex-recognition technology to exclude trans women and ensure only biological females can sign up.
It is the brainchild of feminist campaigner Jenny Watson, who says there are currently no dating apps which cater purely for women who want same-sex relationships.
The current crop of dating apps, she says, are increasingly being used by males who identify as female and who say they too are lesbian.
L'App will use facial recognition technology to verify a person as a biological female.
Ms Watson said would-be users will have to go through a process when they sign up where the app scans their face via their smartphone.
Jenny Watson
The full article is here:
Endpiece
HOORAY!! Whistle the Band are back!
#BeMorePorcupine
Dear readers
Two more PoW fundraisers have now been published.
Please support if you can 😊
Kelly Oliver Dougall
Tynemouth
https://givesendgo.com/Partyofwomennortheast
Catherine Briggs
Doncaster North
https://www.givesendgo.com/GCM9S
Thanks
Dusty
That’s such a good piece from KJK and what a smug little cow pat Owen Jones is.
Well done to your friend Dr Siobhan Spencer and it’s really telling that those children are being kept out of school.
Great pieces from Kathleen Stock and Rex Landy.
Excellent letter Dusty. I’ve already done my version and the only one to reply was the Tory who is a Terf. I despair of Labour. What a creep Campbell is.
Mishal Husain…..depriving a village of an idiot 😆 thanks Dusty.