In yesterday’s episode of The Mess, when referring to their guest, Australian MP Moira Deeming, Helen Staniland referred to ‘true heroism.’ I think we need our heroes and sheroes like Moira to inspire us and to help us keep battling on. I don’t think I need to name them all 😎
Therefore, as you know, dear readers, I do like a good hero in a film standing against evil, even when, as with Popeye Doyle ( Gene Hackman - what an amazing performance!) in The French Connection, that hero is a little bit scuffed around the edges 😎
Kellie-Jay Keen
And here is one of our sheroes in an excellent interview with Peter Boghossian on his channel. Peter throws in some interesting devil’s advocate curve balls.
Sex Matters
Shout out as ever to Sex Matters whose latest Memo (newsletter) is out. Just one piece from there, a useful piece about the For Women Scotland judgment:
On Wednesday, the Scottish Court of Session dismissed the appeal by For Women Scotland against the Haldane judgment that a gender-recognition certificate changes a person’s sex for the purposes of the Equality Act.
The judgment concludes that: “A person with a GRC in the female gender comes within the definition of ‘woman’ for the purposes of section 11 of the Equality Act, and the guidance issued [by the Scottish Government] in respect of the 2018 Act [Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland)] is lawful.”
Sex Matters intervened in the case to support FWS. While we were disappointed with the outcome, there is some scope for optimism in the judges’ finding that “those without a GRC remain of the sex assigned to them at birth and therefore would have no prima facie right to access services provided for members of the opposite sex”.
The judgment leaves many issues unresolved, and Sex Matters has joined 30 other organisations in sending an open letter to the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Minister for Women and Equalities Kemi Badenoch calling on them to take action now to fix the law on sex and gender to protect women's rights.
We are calling on them to
commit to pushing through the amendment to clarify the meaning of sex in the Equality Act
support post-legislative scrutiny on the Gender Recognition Act by a select committee
hold a public inquiry and call for evidence on the erosion of single-sex services, and accurate data on sex and the impact of this on safeguarding.
The letter can be read here. It was endorsed by more than 30 organisations.
You will see the link above to the excellent letter to the Prime Minister and Kemi Badenoch. Amazing work getting this organised in such a short timeframe!
There is one potentially good result from the judgment. As Michael Foran wrote in Unherd about the ongoing challenge of the Scottish Government to the Westminster Government’s blocking of the Gender Recognition Reform Bill ( see link in yesterday’s update):
This case clarifies that a GRC [ Gender Recognition Certificate] is unequivocally not a mere administrative document. Possession of a certificate has wide ranging consequences under the Act. It is therefore increasingly likely that a court will conclude that a Scottish bill seeking to dramatically modify who can obtain one of these certificates does modify the operation of the Equality Act and therefore may engage Section 35. While not exactly a victory for Westminster, the removal of the right to association for women will inevitably inspire a strong political response.
Feminist Legal Clinic
Two reports today from wonderful FLC.
UKCP guidance regarding gender critical views ( 03 November)
Following recent case law, and the publication of the interim Cass Review report, the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) is today issuing a statement on the law regarding gender-critical views and its implications for the practice of psychotherapy and psychotherapeutic counselling. This statement is also being made to highlight the fact that exploratory therapy must not be conflated with conversion therapy.
Case law has confirmed that gender-critical beliefs (which include the belief that sex is biological and immutable, people cannot change their sex and sex is distinct from gender-identity) are protected under the Equality Act 2010. Individuals who hold such beliefs must therefore not be discriminated against.
Psychotherapists and psychotherapeutic counsellors who hold such views are likely to believe that the clinically most appropriate approach to working therapeutically with individuals who present with gender dysphoria, particularly children and young people, is exploratory therapy, rather than medicalised interventions such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or reassignment surgery.
The exploratory approach can, of course, be taken whether or not the practitioner has sympathy with gender-critical views, with effective UKCP practitioners not allowing their own personal views to impede or bias an open, genuinely exploratory approach.
Source: UKCP guidance regarding gender critical views
James Esses has also tweeted about this:
https://twitter.com/JamesEsses/status/1720212123878306026
This is, of course, excellent news. No doubt lobbying from Thoughtful Therapists had an influence on this I should imagine.
South Australia court calls for use of preferred gender pronouns ( 03 November)
South Australia is the latest state to endorse the use of preferred gender pronouns in the courtroom, saying it is a “matter of respect” to address parties by their chosen pronouns, and integral to “ensuring public confidence in the proper administration of justice”.
SA follows the lead of Victoria and Queensland as jurisdictions that this year released edicts requiring court attendees to refer to parties by the pronouns they indicate being most comfortable with, such as they/them.
Source: South Australia court calls for use of preferred gender pronouns | The Australian
I find it even more alarming than with other organisations when courts go off with the Woo!! Presumably this applies to rapists, murderers, sex offenders etc!!
Irish Government Funding
Dr Matt Treacy in Gript ( MORE FUNDING FOR TENI AND BELONGTO DESPITE CONTROVERSIES 01 November) reports:
Perhaps the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth believed that announcing another round of handouts to activist NGOs might go unnoticed if he did so on Halloween – especially given the current reports of internal Cabinet tensions over his generosity on our behalf to others.
The latest tranche in the giveaway is €985,482 and 52 cents to 25 “LGBTI+ Community service-based projects.”
Welcoming his own decision, the Minister expressed his delight at how this will help to “support LGBTI+ persons in a range of ways, including health, counselling services, and celebrating Pride.”
Which is all very well and good if you believe that the state, via the pockets of the taxpayer, ought to be financially supporting political activism, which is what this mostly is.
The fact is that not only is the state funding this activism, it is facilitating it by seemingly pushing for a whole range of state departments and subsidiary bodies to host groups such as BeLongTo and the TransGender Equality Network (TENI).
As we have previously reported, these events, apart from having a clear ideological intent, have in at least one instance been the occasion for activists to make highly contentious statements. Both BeLongTo and TENI have again been successful in attracting funding from this new pot where they provide “training” to a seemingly large range of bodies.
BeLongTo has netted €70,000 to promote the “LGBTQ+ Quality Mark for Schools”, despite the controversy surrounding the revelation that the State funded organisation produced a handbook for teachers and youth workers which specifically instructs those professionals to lie to parents/guardians about their children.
What is the Quality Mark then? It would seem that it is another means by which people, in this case schools, teachers and pupils, are effectively compelled to participate in a programme and which is another invention of activists in other countries which has been adopted here. It appears to have begun in Britain within local authorities in 2012.
Incidentally, one of the key movers in all of this here was the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN) – the recipient of more than $4 million from Atlantic Philanthropies – and which was effectively forced to close down in 2017 following revelations over the misuse of state funding.
Another item that jumps out is the €59,718.42 given to TENI for “Trans Inclusion – Sport for All.” There is already a Sport Ireland policy that seeks to support “transgender and non-binary participation in sport and physical activity,” and concerns have been expressed by women involved in sports including women’s gaelic football that Ireland will witness similar attempts to force the opening up of women’s sports to biological males as has happened in other countries.
TENI itself makes it quite apparent that it supports moves in that direction. Which it is perfectly entitled to. However, others are entitled to know why the state ought to be supporting an organisation which is pushing this agenda. The state does not fund, much less invite them to train state employees, groups which wish to preserve the integrity of women’s sports.
TENI’s reference to “gold standard” training, and the fact that so many state departments and public bodies appear to be obliged to accept being “trained” by TENI and others raises another spectre. Will such training and certification as we have seen with Athena SWAN become a Trojan Horse in which extremist ideology is smuggled into such bodies? Will TENI’s approval be necessary to ensure funding, or even appointments?
Who would then be the targets of this? Will schools be obliged to accept training from TENI?
Will your local GAA club or women’s soccer club or athletics club be compelled to accept that biological men should be allowed tog out [ Dusty - appears to be a typo here] with women and girls? Because, that is exactly what “transgender participation in sport” means. There is nothing preventing someone with gender dysphoria from playing any sport that is graded according to biological gender.
Also included in the list of successful grantees is Children’s Books Ireland who get a cheque for €10,000 for compiling another list of books for their Pride Reading Guide. It will be recalled that earlier this year that Children’s Books Ireland removed Juno Dawson’s This Book is Gay from that list [ Dusty - see further below]. They reviewed the decision to include the book after complaints from parents and others, and agreed that much of the content was unsuitable for the age groups at which the list was directed.
There was a time when outgoing governments used to appoint lots of party loyalists to plum jobs for two purposes. First of all, it would ensure that said loyalists would remain loyal and perhaps ensure their re-election. Secondly, it would also ensure that even if the governing party or parties were to lose the election that their influence in key areas would continue.
Both of those considerations remain of course, but the increasing power of the NGOs means that looking after them has acquired a major significance. The massive funding of this sector, and particularly the prominence of the advocacy groups, will mean that no matter who wins any election that their power will remain.
This is especially the case given that not only are they receiving large amounts of public funding, but that they have been fully incorporated and embedded into the policy making and even administration of large parts of the state, from Government departments to schools.
Another part of this appears to have been revealed by a Parliamentary Question from Rural Independent TD for Laois/Offaly, Carol Nolan. Following a series of inquiries regarding the engagement of various government Departments with advocacy NGOs, Deputy Nolan received a response from SOLAS, the state agency which operates under the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.
SOLAS informed Deputy Nolan that BeLongTo had conducted a webinar last February as part of an ‘Engaging with Diversity’ series. They also said that TENI had taken part in their ‘Civil Society Validation process.” That is a new one on me, I have to say.
Apparently this validation process forms part of a Public Sector Duty Implementation Plan. This has to do with government departments and agencies striving to eliminate discrimination and ensure equality and such like. All very well good, but why does any public body require that what they do be “validated” by an activist NGO?
We shall be making further enquiries
Great work by Gript as ever and outrageous that these grants are being given out in this way and to this extent. With regard to the book mentioned above, This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson is said to be for children aged 12 and up. Fatima Gunning of Gript recently did a reading from it ( you only need to listen to a short bit to get the drift!!). Warning: there is explicit content!!
https://gript.ie/gript-examines-this-book-is-gay/
The Mess
Hopefully you have caught up with it but, just in case, great episode yesterday with special guest, Moira Deeming.
Endpiece
One of my readers and fellow substacker, Pearl Red Moon has published an excellent piece with a short early biography and a wonderful piece of art by her called Still Life from 2012.
Still Life (2012) Pearl Red Moon