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Mahmood supports Rowling

The Trans Agenda #27 – Labour Justice Secretary backs JK Rowling

Lee Hurley
Lee Hurley

The Trans Agenda #27

[25 April 2024]

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Publications known for taking an anti-trans stance are and will be referenced and linked. Often, these are the most comprehensive sources for these stories because of their obsession with trans people. I give a summary for those stories so you can make the choice if you want to click the link or seek out more information elsewhere.

As always, if you have any suggestions, I’m open to feedback and you can contact me using the links on this page near the bottom.

Transgender. How do you know? By Lee Hurley
Transgender. How do you know? By Lee Hurley

The Trans Agenda

NEWS & POLITICS

Man arrested after trans woman found beaten to death outside Miami City Ballet building [Miami Herald]

  • Gregory Fitzgerald Gibert, 53, has been arrested for the brutal murder of Andrea Doria Dospassos, a 37-year-old trans woman, in Miami Beach. Gibert, who was on probation, allegedly killed Dospassos with a pipe while she slept outside the Miami City Ballet. Despite the circumstances, the incident is not currently being investigated as a hate crime. The community and advocates are urging for a hate crime enhancement to the charges.It’s hard to ignore the fact that this happened in Ron DeSantis’s Florida after years of anti-trans hate directly from the State. It also serves of a warning to us here in the UK of the climate the anti-trans movement is trying to instil. It would seem no coincidence that members of Dr Hilary Cass’s team met with Patrick Hunter, architect of Florida’s anti-trans SB 254 Bill, which prohibited gender-affirming care for anyone under 18, as she completed her ‘review’ which recommended the same.

Wales to pause new prescriptions for puberty blockers for under-18s [Pink News]

  • NHS Wales has decided to pause the prescription of puberty blockers for individuals under 18, following in lockstep with NHS England. Current patients will continue their treatment, but new under-18 patients will not be started on PBs.

Labour’s Shadow Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood agrees with JK Rowling’s “gender critical” views [Telegraph]

  • Shabana Mahmood, a key ally of Keir Starmer, says “biological sex is real and is immutable” and said JK Rowling has “lead the fight in this area”. “Hashtag movements are sometimes used to shut down debate and many women have had to often go to court, usually in employment tribunals, in order to clarify their rights to free speech,” Mahmood said. “To clarify their right to believe that, for example, [like] JK Rowling, clarify their right to say that biological sex is real and is immutable – a position that I also agree with. But they shouldn’t be in the position of losing their jobs for having views that are perfectly legal, and that they are perfectly entitled to express.”This is not the first time Mahmood has revealed her troubling views. She has also spoken out against “LGBT-inclusive sex education in schools”.

    Rowling has used Mahmood’s comments to stick up for her chum, Labour MP, Rosie Duffield. You can read more about that in the PAPERS section.

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SNP ministers delay funding to improve gender identity services [The Scotsman]

  • The Scottish Government initially pledged £9m spread over three years but it will now be delivered over five years which works out at £1.8m-a-year, a figure that is so low as to be laughable.

Education secretary: I will not say trans women are women [Telegraph]

  • Gillian Keegan, the UK Education Secretary, has changed her stance on trans rights. Previously supportive in 2020, Keegan has been captured by the Gender Critical Sex Realist Cult who pretend to have concerns about the impact of trans activism on women’s rights. “Since becoming an MP and later a minister I have learnt a huge amount more about this complex and challenging subject,” she said.“At the time of writing that response, I didn’t have any direct experience of this topic and took advice on how best to respond, given the complexities surrounding individual cases. Having now spoken to experts [LOL] and professionals, like many, my understanding has evolved. I have since been crystal clear about my concerns that women are being erased in this debate, and have always been clear that women do not have, nor have ever had, a penis.”

    And who do The Telegraph quote as ‘welcoming’ this move? That well-known ‘expert’, Maya Forstater. You can see the article in full in the PAPERS section below.

The Trans Agenda by Lee Hurley is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

MEDIA & PAPERS

Kathleen Stock comes out against BLM [The Times]

  • In the same week as Helen Joyce found herself railing against the ‘dilemma of our times’ that is a DEI checkbox, Kathleen Stock stood in for the hideous Melanie Phillips in The Times to deliver something Phillips herself would have been proud of. Yes indeed, folks, the tide is turning and “Students are starting to reject pronouns and BLM but ideology is embedded in organisations”. Henceforth, no pronouns will ever be used! Students en-masse aren’t really doing any of the things she claims in her article that’s based on an anecdote from a friend, but it’s good to see that Stock isn’t just upset by the idea that trans people might be treated fairly. Others being treated fairly seems to annoy her, too. Funny how often that happens, isn’t it? You can read her nonsense in the PAPERS section below. There’s no point in telling Stock that tides turn twice a day, she won’t listen as she already believes she knows everything.For good measure, Stock also had a piece in The Telegraph on Wednesday, blathering on about Stonewall.

Susanne Moore almost gets it [Telegraph]

  • Writing in The Telegraph on Tuesday, Susanne Moore calls out a cult that doesn’t exist as she defends the cult she appears to be in. You can read more in the PAPERS section.
Many are in denial about the Cass report – it’s like de-programming a cult The Daily Telegraph23 Apr 2024Suzanne Moore

New documentary to tell ‘shocking’ true story of Miriam Rivera: the world’s first trans reality star [Pink News]

  • “A hard-hitting documentary about Miriam Rivera, recognised as the world’s first transgender reality TV star, is set to air on Channel 4 later this month.”

Neurodiversity: Hidden minority can thrive in news business [Press Gazette]

  • Press Gazette research has revealed that neurodiversity may be more prevalent in the media industry than normies might think.

UK news media rich list 2024: 60 highest-earning execs revealed [Press Gazette]

The Trans Agenda by Lee Hurley is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

THE PAPERS

Tuesday 23 2024 [Total: 6. Publications 4, positive 0, negative 6, written by trans people 0]

The Guardian [0]
  • The Guardian had no articles about trans people in their Tuesday edition.
The Times [3: negative 3, positive 0, written by trans people 0, written by James Beal 2]
Lawyer ‘shared falsehoods’ about Cass trans review James Beal - Social Affairs Editor A transgender civil rights lawyer has been accused of spreading misinformation about the Cass review in a post viewed almost a million times. Dr Hilary Cass, 66, told The Times last week that an activist had begun posting falsehoods about her landmark review of the treatment of trans children even before it had been published. She was referring to Alejandra Caraballo, an American lawyer, transgender woman and instructor at Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic. On April 9, the day before the Cass review was published, Caraballo claimed it had “disregarded nearly all studies” because they were not doubleblind controlled ones. Under double-blind studies, patients are randomly given either medicine or a placebo, with neither the patient nor doctor knowing which. In a post on Twitter/X, Caraballo accused Cass and the review team of holding trans healthcare to an “impossible standard”. This, she said, was because transgender patients could not take hormones “blind”, as the effects of any hormones would become obvious fairly quickly. Her tweets were contradicted by the publication of the Cass review hours later. As part of a systematic review, researchers looking at studies on transgender healthcare found no blind control ones, so used another system to determine study quality. Cass told The Times last week how difficult it would be to use blind control studies in relation to trans patients, for the same reasons identified by Caraballo. As for Caraballo’s claim that the review team had “disregarded nearly all studies”, Cass pointed out that 60 out of 103 studies reviewed had been used for the conclusions. They were studies deemed to be of moderate and high quality on the effects of puberty blockers and hormone treatment. Caraballo’s post has been viewed 871,000 times and has not been deleted. In response to Cass’s interview with the Times last week, in which she revealed that she had been told to stay off public transport, Caraballo claimed the physician was making herself a victim. She shared online: “Trans teens have been viciously attacked and murdered in the UK and Hilary Cass wants to make herself the victim here after taking away their healthcare.” Cass’s review, submitted to NHS England, found that an entire field of medicine aimed at enabling children to change gender had been “built on shaky foundations”. Other false theories spread in the wake of the review’s publication by figures including Dawn Butler, the Labour MP, claimed that 100 studies had been rejected from the report. Butler told the House of Commons: “There are around 100 studies that have not been included in this Cass report and we need to know why.” Last night Butler corrected the record in the Commons over her statement on the Cass review, blaming Stonewall, the LGBT lobbying group, for her mistake. She said on Twitter/X: “Last week I inadvertently misled the House by quoting a figure from a Stonewall briefing. I’m grateful for conversation with Dr Cass and am happy to correct the record because that’s what politicians should do.” Caraballo said last night: “I stand by my original statement, which described how the Cass review excluded 43 studies from the synthesis while several moderate-quality studies showing positive outcomes were referenced in the results section but were ignored entirely in the conclusion.”
NSPCC captured by gender ideology, says whistleblower James Beal - Social Affairs Editor An NSPCC whistleblower has left the charity, claiming that it is at risk of “grooming” children with aggressive transgender ideology. Julia Marshall, 62, who had volunteered with the organisation for more than 30 years, said that it had been “completely captured” by Stonewall, the LGBT lobbying group. She said that, along with other school volunteers, she had been told to ask primary-age pupils their pronouns when giving assemblies and workshops. The former police officer and mother of three said volunteers had been put under pressure to affirm children’s gender identities, even where this had nothing to do with protecting them from abuse. She claimed she had been ostracised for speaking out. Marshall had been fundraising for the NSPCC since the early 1990s, but in 2012 she became a school visitor, helping with the “Speak out, Stay safe” campaign, aimed at empowering children to report abuse. In 2022, after the pandemic, volunteers were asked to attend refresher training. Marshall and about 15 others went to a university campus in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, where she found “a very different NSPCC to the one I’d known”. She told The Daily Telegraph: “They had a whole session on pronouns and transgender children. I was astounded because we were talking about primary school children under 11. I said, ‘What on earth is going on?’ Everyone was like, ‘No, this is a thing, this is happening, it’s normal.’ “I said, ‘How can you not see as a charity that this is a safeguarding risk?’ The reaction was, ‘Well, you’re weird.’ ” Marshall said she had tried to debate the issue with her supervisors but had been “blanked”. She said: “At that stage, I hadn’t seen what [trans advice] was on their website, but then I looked and thought they’d really lost the plot. I thought I can’t work for this charity. It’s been completely captured by Stonewall.” Last year Childline, which is under the NSPCC umbrella, was accused of allowing third parties to “hijack” its advice website to promote breast binding and puberty blockers to girls as young as 14. In response, the Charity Commission opened a compliance case against the NSPCC. This was closed in September after the commission was satisfied Childline had implemented recommendations from an independent safeguarding team report. The NSPCC said it had no formal partnership with Stonewall but engaged with the group “to hear from communities that are often under-represented.”
Turn of the woke tide will leave many stranded Students are starting to reject pronouns and BLM but ideology is embedded in organisations Kathleen Stock Kathleen Stock It is a cliché that when the US sneezes, the world catches a cold. Thankfully, when it comes to the phenomenon of wokeness — loosely understood as a box set of holier-than-thou attitudes about race, gender identity and sexual minorities, with accompanying punishment beatings for dissenters — many now appear to be reaching for the antivirals. A friend of mine who teaches in a famous North American liberal arts college, full of achingly cool rich kids, tells me her undergrads are “so over” pronoun rounds, eye-rolling whenever staff try to introduce them in the classroom. Taste-making East Coast broadsheets are dipping nervous toes in the water on subjects such as unfair male advantage in women’s sport and the experimental status of medicalised child transition, having avoided or spiked such stories for years. The once ubiquitous hashtag #BlackLivesMatter has fallen out of favour with many, after accusations that the founders of the namesake organisation misused donations and enriched themselves. Meanwhile in Britain, football players taking the knee are an increasingly rare sight. Organisations such as Sports England and the Arts Council are quietly exiting Stonewall’s Diversity Champions scheme, and the once-ebullient charity no longer feels confident enough to advertise the list of members on its own website. Free speech societies are forming with renewed vitality in British universities; and last week even saw those bellwethers of middle-class humour, the blokes on Have I Got News For You, pluck up courage to make a tentative joke about gender identity flags in NHS hospitals. Activist-sanctioned holy days are observed by blue-chip managers So can the rest of us — the ones who knew all along that wokeness was a pseudo-progressive hobby for guilty rich people, role-playing as meaningful political action — relax? Unfortunately not yet. For I’m afraid the demise of woke won’t be like the end of tooth brush moustaches, indie folk music or any other temporary behaviour supercharged by the whims of the young and the hip, then dropped without consequence. Wokeness, in contrast, is a bit like a hulking great boulder launched into the middle of a calm lake: waves will be crashing on the shoreline long after the epicentre bears no trace. The most obvious difference between wokeness and other passing fashions is that nobody working in HR ever decreed that moustache-wearers or indie folk-listeners be considered uniquely oppressed minority groups. In contrast, thanks to wild and unevidenced claims made at the height of wokemania by lobbying groups, thousands of organisations have been left with unfair, illiberal and sometimes even illegal policies that blatantly cater to the special interests of a few: rules about how social spaces can be accessed and by whom; what data can and cannot be collected; what conversations are allowed and which are not. Policies tend to dictate organisational behaviour long after those who first championed them move on ideologically; and especially when propped up by a raft of specially created career positions, whose occupants have a financial interest in maintaining the momentum. And alongside such policies, superficially moralised gestures have become embedded in many workplaces, embraced by senior figures for no better reason than they think everyone else is doing it too and by junior figures because the boss is doing it. Students at liberal arts colleges may no longer be listing their pronouns but the head of MI6 currently has his in his Twitter/X bio. Activist-sanctioned holy weeks and days are carefully observed by blue-chip managers. Hospitals, construction sites, police stations, council buildings, banks and hotels are festooned with the visual monstrosity that is the Progress flag. None of this happened with the craze for platform shoes or Agas. In effect, the storm-surge of wokeness throughout British institutions from 2020 onwards was what the political scientist Cass Sunstein has called a “reputational cascade”: a relatively small number of people started acting in a certain way, each for roughly independent reasons; then at a certain point, a wider group of people started observing the behaviour of the smaller group and copying them, each privately assuming their reputations would be damaged if they did not. Before long, this pattern expanded exponentially, helped by the odd bit of public witch-burning. Here again is a difference with more benign aesthetic crazes: if you don’t keep up with the moral version, you risk losing your social circle or even your job. But the reputational cascade that was wokeness didn’t just deter dissent from those frightened to swim against the perceived tide. It also incentivised opportunists, who actively used the surging tide to swim further ahead than their competitors. Many organisations latched on to it as a positive marketing strategy, thereby creating workplace structures and habits that, from the inside, now seem very difficult to unpick. Perhaps, though, we shouldn’t be too gloomy. For of course, the existence of a reputational cascade doesn’t require sincere belief in the rectitude or wisdom of whatever behaviours you are copying, only the sincere belief that nearly everybody else thinks such behaviours are good ones. And, while no doubt depressing as a fact about human nature, this also has an upside: it only takes widespread realisation that other people don’t actually believe what you thought they believed for a reputational cascade to collapse. As organisations start to cotton on properly to the fact the tides of fashion are turning, it will be interesting to see what happens next.
Daily Mail [0]
  • The Daily Mail had no articles about trans people in their Tuesday edition, although they did have a double page spread on the ‘crisis in our prisons’ which was removed for ‘editorial or legal reasons’.
Telegraph [3: negative 3, positive 0, written by trans people 0]
Scots pupils urged to wear pronoun badges The Daily Telegraph23 Apr 2024By Daniel Sanderson SCOTTISH CORRESPONDENT SCOTTISH school pupils have been encouraged to wear “pronoun badges” amid claims that activist groups are being allowed to promote damaging transgender ideology in classrooms. Teachers in Edinburgh, including in some primary schools, have been urged to celebrate “International Pronouns Day” and give lessons in which pupils are taught how harmful it is to assume a person uses he/him or she/her pronouns based on their appearance. Instead, children are presented with an array of 40 terms including “neo-pronouns” such as “perself ”, “xyr”, “vis” and “eirself” in teaching materials developed by the SNP government-funded charity LGBT Youth Scotland. In the lesson it is suggested pupils “make name and pronoun badges to share”. LGBT Youth Scotland provided schools with pronoun name badge templates which it suggests can be displayed on school uniforms if a child feels comfortable doing so. It also provides pronoun signs for teachers to be placed outside their classroom doors, with hundreds of schools signed up for the charity’s charter scheme. Stephen Kerr, the Tory MSP, will this week challenge the Scottish Government to overhaul schools guidance after publication of the Cass Report, which urged caution in affirming a child’s self-declared gender. He said transrights zealots were being allowed to spread harmful propaganda in Scottish schools with the celebration of pronouns day only the latest example. “Rather than educate, some of Scotland’s schools are welcoming in political activists to indoctrinate children,” he said. “It needs to stop and those responsible for it need to be held to account. In years to come we will consider this to be what it is; child abuse by institutions that are there to protect and educate, not indoctrinate and confuse.” Edinburgh council, which previously funded secondary schools to join the LGBT Youth Scotland charter scheme, promoted the pronoun teaching resources in a newsletter in 2022. A council spokesman said it aimed to “work with our diverse community to respect and support one another”. An LGBT Youth Scotland spokesman said: “We share the Scottish Government’s ambition to create the best country for young LGBTQ+ people to grow up in.” Article Name:Scots pupils urged to wear pronoun badges Publication:The Daily Telegraph Author:By Daniel Sanderson SCOTTISH CORRESPONDENT Start Page:2 End Page:2
Mahmood supports Rowling The Daily Telegraph23 Apr 2024By Genevieve Holl-allen POLITICAL REPORTER THE Labour shadow justice secretary has said she agrees with JK Rowling that “biological sex is real and is immutable”. Shabana Mahmood expressed support for women who express gender critical views, saying they should not be “stigmatised”. Ms Mahmood, who took up the role in September, used her first major speech to warn of the dangers of “the rule of the mob”. Asked about whether she had broader concerns about freedom of speech on social media, particularly regarding debates on gender, Ms Mahmood said: “Hashtag movements are sometimes used to shut down debate and many women have had to often go to court, usually in employment tribunals, in order to clarify their rights to free speech. “To clarify their right to believe that, for example, [like] JK Rowling, clarify their right to say that biological sex is real and is immutable – a position that I also agree with. “But they shouldn’t be in the position of losing their jobs for having views that are perfectly legal, and that they are perfectly entitled to express.” Last night, Ms Mahmood added: “In this era of social media, that’s been a real challenge for people to hold onto what we would consider legal norms.” The MP for Birmingham Ladywood said that “some of those issues are being resolved now” but said that “it’s taken us far too long to get to this point”. Article Name:Mahmood supports Rowling Publication:The Daily Telegraph Author:By Genevieve Holl-allen POLITICAL REPORTER Start Page:2 End Page:2
Many are in denial about the Cass report – it’s like de-programming a cult The Daily Telegraph23 Apr 2024Suzanne Moore I suppose if I had been cheering on a vast medical experiment on children that was now shown to be extremely harmful, I might be keeping my head down. If I needed other people’s small children to prove my very “existence” as an adult, I might keep rather quiet. Indeed, the reaction to the Cass Review has been notable in that many who have previously intoned trans rights slogans have just changed the subject. Their silence is deafening. The other reaction is almost Trumpian in its delusion. When presented with the biggest survey of the evidence by a top paediatrician, some zealots come out with their own “alternative facts”. The disinformation they have spread has meant Dr Cass has been threatened and advised not to travel on public transport. These people disgust me. One, Patrick Harvie, the Scottish Greens co-leader, was asked five times on the Today programme whether he accepted Cass’s findings and he would not answer. Thankfully, he is not in charge of NHS Scotland, which has now also paused the prescription of puberty blockers and won’t give cross-sex hormones to new patients under 18. Harvie keeps repeating the rubbish that we saw some of our MPs expressing last week: that Cass ignored certain evidence (she didn’t), that no one should debate the existence of trans people (we are not), that a four-year review of medical care is somehow in itself evidence of transphobic attitudes (you what?). Dawn Butler, Ben Bradshaw and Lloyd RussellMoyle embarrassed themselves. Stella Creasy wanged on about the “trans children” on waiting lists. But where do all these “trans children” come from? At some point this cult has to ask itself this, surely? Even Kirstie Allsopp and Billy Bragg have to question whether giving drugs that castrate sex offenders to children is “kind”. But no, they prefer self-righteous and deliberate ignorance. Nothing that Cass said has not been voiced before: the whistleblowers, the detransitioners, the clinicians who left in droves let us know. Puberty blockers were not used until 2011, but 10 years ago the prescription age was dropped to 11. Private doctors were giving them to nine-year-olds. What happened since? Well, part of the problem is lack of records and refusal to hand over data. This is either incompetence or a cover-up from the adult clinics. But even with this data, it is now obvious that because the gender cult defended all this as “genderaffirming” care, as about “identity” rather than psychology, they won’t back down. Their very existence depends on these growing numbers of “trans children”. One of the “pluses” of blockers for girls is that they will not grow the breasts that will later have to be cut off, and for boys they will be less masculine and therefore “pass” more easily. So this is not “a pause” but a one-way ticket to a life of hormones and surgery. Lobbyists have spread the idea that unless kids conform to regressive stereotypes (the trans flag is pink and blue), they may, in fact, be the opposite sex. Parents and teachers have gone along with this rather than be cast out of this new world of “inclusivity”. How does anyone who has enforced this row back? How do we de-programme a cult? Cult thinking involves unquestioning commitment; thinking one is on a special mission to save humanity; an “us versus them” mentality; peer pressure that may induce It was never about the children for them; it was about proving their own purity guilt or shame; the cutting of ties with family and friends; and being very fearful of ever leaving. Anyone who has questioned the gender cult has been deemed “far Right” or transphobic, but Cass has put a spanner in the works. Neither she nor people like me want to take away the right for adults to transition. Either cult members accept there is a difference between adults and children, and begin to understand safeguarding, or they will have to operate a dark, underground web of selling drugs to children. They may continue to worship at the altar of “gender identity”, but they can no longer expect all public institutions to go along with their dodgy faith. Instead, this new religion should assume its rightful position among the many strange but unscientific beliefs we co-exist with: astrology, reiki, and past-life regression, for instance. You can’t stop folk believing weird stuff, but when something is harmful to women, to gay people, to children, then we have every right to refuse this faith in the public sphere. Until fairly recently, it has been heresy to do so. Those still defending the sterilisation and mutilation of children are exposing themselves daily. They are squirming because it was never about the children for them; it was about proving their own purity to the other cult members. The kids were just collateral damage in a culture war we were told was not actually real. Article Name:Many are in denial about the Cass report – it’s like de-programming a cult Publication:The Daily Telegraph Author:Suzanne Moore Start Page:9 End Page:9

Wednesday 24 2024 [Total: 4. Publications 4, positive 0, negative 4, written by trans people 0]

The Guardian [0]
  • The Guardian had no articles about trans people in their Wednesday edition.
The Times [1: negative 1, positive 0, written by trans people 0, written by James Beal 1]
Census data on trans people ‘deeply flawed’ James Beal - Social Affairs Editor The first official data on the size of the transgender population is “seriously flawed”, a sociologist has claimed. Michael Biggs, an associate professor at the University of Oxford, questioned the 2021 national census findings, which said there were 262,000 trans people in England and Wales. Writing in the journal Sociology, Biggs said that the census question about gender identity was remarkably similar to one proposed by a transgender campaign group in 2007. That question was rejected by another research group because of feedback that “non-trans people would not understand” it, especially if English was not their first language. The London boroughs of Newham and Brent recorded the highest proportion of transgender people in the 2021 census. Both boroughs have a large number of residents who speak English as a second language, prompting concerns that the question may not have been fully understood. Maya Forstater, head of the Sex Matters campaign group, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS) had used a question “invented by trans lobbyists”, which was known to confuse people. “Michael Biggs’s painstaking work has exposed that figures produced by the ONS on the transgender population are totally unreliable,” she said. “The statistics regulator is investigating, and we hope it will declare that the figures on gender identity are not fit to be recognised as ‘national statistics’.” The 2021 census explored gender identity for the first time. It asked: “Is the gender you identify with the same as your sex registered at birth?” Of the 262,000 people who indicated they were transgender, 118,000 did not provide further detail. About 48,000 people, or 0.1 percent of the population aged 16 and over, identified as a trans man, and 48,000 as a trans woman. About 30,000 identified as non-binary, and a further 18,000 people wrote in a different gender identity. But another ONS data release showed that those who spoke English “not well” or “not well at all” were five times more likely to be counted as transgender than those whose main language was English or Welsh. Biggs’s article, published last week, revealed that the census question was similar to one proposed in 2007 by Press for Change, a transgender campaign group. Its wording was: “Is your gender identity the same as the gender you were assigned at birth?” The question was tested by NatCen, a not-for-profit research organisation, on behalf of the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2011. One respondent in a transgender focus group derided the question for its “ridiculous trans lingo” and it was eventually rejected as confusing. Biggs said: “The ONS must have known, or should have known, that this question was completely unsuitable.” The ONS said: “It is especially challenging to design a question when it involves a concept that may not be familiar to all. We go through a rigorous and thoughtful process ... to help achieve the best results possible, setting out our findings transparently.”
Daily Mail [0]
  • The Daily Mail had no articles about trans people in their Tuesday edition
Telegraph [3: negative 3, positive 0, written by trans people 0]
Rowling insists Labour should apologise to MP investigated over ‘transphobic’ stance The Daily Telegraph24 Apr 2024By Genevieve Holl-allen Political reporter JK ROWLING has said Labour must apologise to an MP who was investigated over allegations of transphobia, after a frontbencher said she agreed with the author’s stance on biological sex. Shabana Mahmood, the shadow justice secretary, last night said she supporte d JK Rowling’s vi ew t hat “biological sex is real and is immutable”, prompting Rowling to call on Labour to say sorry to Rosie Duffield. The Canterbury MP was investigated by Labour over a complaint that she had been transphobic for liking a tweet by author Graham Linehan, 55, the Father Ted creator and now a gender-critical campaigner. The party dropped its year-long investigation into Ms Duffield earlier in 2024 but she has spoken about feeling “isolated” among Labour MPS for her views. Those with gender-critical views believe that a person’s sex cannot be changed and are generally opposed to the idea that gender identity is more important than biological sex. Following Ms Mahmood’s comments on Monday night, the Harry Potter author wrote on X: “If senior opposition figures agree with me that sex is real and immutable, I hope we’ll soon see an apology to [ Rosie Duffield], who believes exactly what I believe.” Speaking after her first major speech in the role, the former barrister said: “Hashtag movements are sometimes used to shut down debate and often many women have had to go to court, usually in employment tribunals, in order to clarify their rights to free speech. To clarify their right to believe that for example because you referenced JK Rowling, clarify their right to say that biological sex is real and is immutable – a position that I also agree with. “But they shouldn’t be in the position of losing their jobs for having views that are perfectly legal, and that they are perfectly entitled to express.” Ms Duffield said that Ms Mahmood’s intervention was “great news”, adding: “Perhaps there’ll be fewer investigations from now on into the only Labour MP cast aside for holding the same views?” Ms Mahmood also said she believed that “in this era of social media, it’s been a real challenge for people to hold onto what we would consider are normal legal norms”. The MP for Birmingham Ladywood said that “some of those issues are being resolved now” but she believed “it ’s taken us far too long to get to this point”. ‘If opposition figures agree with me that sex is real and immutable, I hope we’ll soon see an apology’ Article Name:Rowling insists Labour should apologise to MP investigated over ‘transphobic’ stance Publication:The Daily Telegraph Author:By Genevieve Holl-allen Political reporter Start Page:10 End Page:10
‘Don’t make it easy to change gender,’ urge Dutch MPS The Daily Telegraph24 Apr 2024By James Crisp europe editor A LAW to make it easier for teenagers to change the gender on their passport should be shelved, the Dutch parliament has said. A majority of MPS in the lower house of the parliament backed a resolution calling on the government to ditch the so- called “transgender law”, which allows people under the age of 16 to change their gender legally on documents for the first time. It also removes the requirement for people over 16 to have an expert’s statement before they can legally change their gender on passports, and on the registry of births, marriages and deaths. The Netherlands currently has a caretaker government, which has been in place since the ruling coalition, which introduced the legislation three years ago, collapsed in a row over migration last year. The transgender law is among several that were voted too controversial for a caretaker administration to implement after the fall of the last government. Geert Wilders, the Right-wing firebrand, won a surprise victory in the general election last November but has failed to form a coalition government in the months of negotiations since. That has meant the caretaker government, essentially the previous administration but bound not to propose new laws, has remained in charge. Some 73 MPS supported the motion to withdraw the transgender l aw, including Mr Wilders’ Freedom Party, the BBB farmers’ party and the “radical centrist” New Social Contract (NSC). Those three parties are in coalition talks with the pro-business VVD, which voted not to withdraw the bill and was the dominant party in the last government. Meanwhile, 70 MPS voted against ditching the bill. The caretaker government will now have to decide what to do about the motion brought by NSC, which was formed just before the election, and the Reformed Political Party. The outgoing minister in the caretaker government had called the motion “not proper” in a parliamentary debate last month. “We are absolutely not against changing sex,” Nicolien van Vroonhoven, the NSC MP who submitted the motion, said earlier this month. But it should not be too easy either. There are real risks to women’s safety. In England, for example, men are suddenly given access to women’s prisons, and that is not something we should want.” The VVD said it had expressed concerns over the law but disagreed with bringing the motion at this stage. Other MPS argued it would make more sense for the bill to be properly debated later when a new government was in place. Article Name:‘Don’t make it easy to change gender,’ urge Dutch MPS Publication:The Daily Telegraph Author:By James Crisp europe editor Start Page:13 End Page:13
Truth about Stonewall is finally being exposed The organisation sought to shut down debate and pose as the real ‘experts’. Now its credibility has crumbled The Daily Telegraph24 Apr 2024Kathleen STOCK Kathleen Stock is a contributing writer at Unherd, and co-director of the Lesbian Project It has not been a good week for Stonewall. First, the charity was blamed in the Commons by MP Dawn Butler for leading her astray about the methodology of the Cass Review. As she apologised for having “inadvertently misled” the House about the number and quality of studies surveyed in Cass’s final report, she explained she had been “quoting Stonewall’s briefing”. Meanwhile, web administrators were seemingly making changes to the organisation’s own published response: parts that had originally cast doubt on Cass’s survey vanished. And just as Butler blamed Stonewall, a briefing of theirs now appeared to blame others, describing “early analyses of the Cass Review” as having made it “unclear how and why research had been graded”. Last week, other analyses were being spread by amateur transactivists on X/ Twitter. Subsequent investigations by health journalists in the US have traced the source of the misinformation back to two social media accounts, one British and one American. Neither of them has a professional medical background. Still, a much higher standard is expected of an organisation only recently considered to be the leading expert in Britain on transgenderism. Some will find it grotesque that it inherits its position on complex medical research about children from unclear “early analyses”. But for seasoned observers, this comes as no surprise. For years, Stonewall has placed itself in a bubble, obdurately ignoring concerns and demonising reasonable critics, and so leaving it vulnerable to the credulous acceptance of nonsense emanating from fellow tribe members. The only surprise is that it now looks as if it might finally be held to account. While the organisation has embraced the full gamut of transactivist causes – self-id and puberty blockers included – those who challenged it were dismissed by activists as “transphobes”. Surfing a tide of public goodwill, public money, and strong government connections, those in charge of the organisation apparently saw no need to win the debate, instead opting for the strategy of saying there wasn’t one to be had. But it was in 2018 that this strategy really took off. Urged on by Stonewall, the Government launched a public consultation about updating the Gender Recognition Act in favour of self-id. When grassroots campaigning organisation Transgender Trend published a schools pamphlet prefiguring much of the cautious approach to social and medical transition of children now endorsed by Cass, Stonewall Scotland branded it “dangerous”. Also in 2018, when BBC Woman’s Hour attempted to run a series of debates on the tensions between transactivist demands and women’s rights, then head of trans inclusion at Stonewall refused to be in the same interview as her proposed sparring partner, journalist Helen Lewis. Later, the next head of trans inclusion, Kirrin Medcalf, was writing to the chambers of lesbian barrister Allison Bailey – someone concerned about placing males in women’s prisons, and the fate of young lesbians caught up with gender ideology – accusing her of “actively campaigning for a reduction in trans rights and equality”. Appearing at Bailey’s subsequent employment tribunal, Medcalf requested the soothing presence of his mother and a support dog, and claimed, the term “terf ” could not be a slur because it was used by a powerless minority group, trans people, about those (feminists and lesbians), who they deemed transphobic because they “deny trans people’s lived reality”. It is astonishing that this stark insight into the cult-like mentality at the heart of Stonewall did not destroy its credibility on the spot. But it seems that the world is finally catching up. Former Stonewall boss Ruth Hunt recently said in an interview that the only regret of her tenure was “trusting the experts” on child transition. And yet for more than a decade, politicians, media figures, university leaders and healthcare professionals have insisted to the UK public that it is Stonewall who is the real expert in the room. Let us fervently hope they know better now. Article Name:Truth about Stonewall is finally being exposed Publication:The Daily Telegraph Author:Kathleen STOCK Kathleen Stock is a contributing writer at Unherd, and co-director of the Lesbian Project Start Page:16 End Page:16

Thursday 25 2024 [Total: 10. Publications 5, positive 0, negative 10, written by trans people 0]

The Guardian [0]
  • The Guardian had no articles about trans people in their Thursday edition.
The Times [0]
  • The Times had no articles about trans people in their Thursday edition.
Daily Mail [2: negative 2, positive 0, written by trans people 0]
Senseless census Daily Mail25 Apr 2024Social Affairs Correspondent By Alex Ward OFFICIAL figures on the size of the UK transgender population are too high and ‘ totally unreliable’, critics claim. University of Oxford associate professor Michael Biggs said the 2021 national census findings, which identified 262,000 trans people, were based on a flawed question. Professor Biggs, writing in the journal Sociology, added that the question used by the Office for National Statistics was similar to one proposed by trans campaigners in 2007. It was rejected by researchers because ‘non-trans people would not understand’ its meaning, especially if English was not their first language, The Times reported. The census had asked: ‘Is the gender you identify with the same as your sex registered at birth?’ Among those who said their gender identity was different to their birth sex and did not write in their own definition, such as ‘transgender woman’, 13 per cent did not speak English well. Of the 262,000 who indicated they were transgender, 118,000 did not provide further detail. Maya Forstater, chief executive of the Sex Matters charity, said Professor Biggs’s work had ‘exposed that figures produced by the ONS on the transgender population are totally unreliable’. ‘The statistics regulator is investigating, and we hope it will declare that the figures on gender identity are not fit to be recognised as “national statistics”.’ The London boroughs of Newham and Brent recorded the highest proportion of transgender people. Both have a large number of residents who spoke English as their second language, adding to concerns that the question may have been misinterpreted. The ONS said previously: ‘There were clear patterns of trans identification being higher for people born outside the UK and people with lower proficiency in English.’ Professor Biggs said the census question was similar to one proposed in 2007 by Press for Change, a transgender campaign group. When tested, a focus group respondent called the question ‘ridiculous trans lingo’. Professor Biggs said: ‘The ONS must have known, or should have known, that this question was completely unsuitable.’ The ONS said: ‘The question went through a testing process which involved trans and nontrans people and, through the 2019 census rehearsal, people who did not have English as their main language, before the final wording was confirmed through legislation.’ THe census is the bedrock of statistics. errors in the data inevitably impede the Government’s ability to plan public services. The 2021 survey was the first to ask about gender identity. Yet an Oxford don has warned the number of people declaring as transgender may be overstated. The figures showed 262,000 trans people. But curiously, those who spoke english as a second language were far more likely to identify as such. The problem seems to be that the Office for national statistics, after pressure from the LBGTQ+ lobby, asked an absurdly convoluted question that confused non-native speakers. as a result, this critical data can no longer be relied upon. In future, maintaining the integrity of the census must be more important than pandering to trans activists. Article Name:Senseless census Publication:Daily Mail Author:Social Affairs Correspondent By Alex Ward Start Page:14 End Page:14
Trans population ‘not as high as the census findings suggest’ Daily Mail25 Apr 2024Social Affairs Correspondent By Alex Ward OFFICIAL figures on the size of the UK transgender population are too high and ‘ totally unreliable’, critics claim. University of Oxford associate professor Michael Biggs said the 2021 national census findings, which identified 262,000 trans people, were based on a flawed question. Professor Biggs, writing in the journal Sociology, added that the question used by the Office for National Statistics was similar to one proposed by trans campaigners in 2007. It was rejected by researchers because ‘non-trans people would not understand’ its meaning, especially if English was not their first language, The Times reported. The census had asked: ‘Is the gender you identify with the same as your sex registered at birth?’ Among those who said their gender identity was different to their birth sex and did not write in their own definition, such as ‘transgender woman’, 13 per cent did not speak English well. Of the 262,000 who indicated they were transgender, 118,000 did not provide further detail. Maya Forstater, chief executive of the Sex Matters charity, said Professor Biggs’s work had ‘exposed that figures produced by the ONS on the transgender population are totally unreliable’. ‘The statistics regulator is investigating, and we hope it will declare that the figures on gender identity are not fit to be recognised as “national statistics”.’ The London boroughs of Newham and Brent recorded the highest proportion of transgender people. Both have a large number of residents who spoke English as their second language, adding to concerns that the question may have been misinterpreted. The ONS said previously: ‘There were clear patterns of trans identification being higher for people born outside the UK and people with lower proficiency in English.’ Professor Biggs said the census question was similar to one proposed in 2007 by Press for Change, a transgender campaign group. When tested, a focus group respondent called the question ‘ridiculous trans lingo’. Professor Biggs said: ‘The ONS must have known, or should have known, that this question was completely unsuitable.’ The ONS said: ‘The question went through a testing process which involved trans and nontrans people and, through the 2019 census rehearsal, people who did not have English as their main language, before the final wording was confirmed through legislation.’ THe census is the bedrock of statistics. errors in the data inevitably impede the Government’s ability to plan public services. The 2021 survey was the first to ask about gender identity. Yet an Oxford don has warned the number of people declaring as transgender may be overstated. The figures showed 262,000 trans people. But curiously, those who spoke english as a second language were far more likely to identify as such. The problem seems to be that the Office for national statistics, after pressure from the LBGTQ+ lobby, asked an absurdly convoluted question that confused non-native speakers. as a result, this critical data can no longer be relied upon. In future, maintaining the integrity of the census must be more important than pandering to trans activists. Article Name:Trans population ‘not as high as the census findings suggest’ Publication:Daily Mail Author:Social Affairs Correspondent By Alex Ward Start Page:23 End Page:23
Telegraph [4: negative 4, positive 0, written by trans people 0]
Trans child abductor serving time as man The Daily Telegraph25 Apr 2024 A transgender butcher who sexually abused a primary schoolgirl after luring her into a car while dressed as a woman is living as a man in prison. Andrew Miller, who was known as Amy George when he ran a butcher’s shop in the Scottish Borders, is serving a 20-year sentence for abducting the girl and abusing her in February last year. He kept her captive for 27 hours and subjected her to what a judge called a “nauseating” ordeal. The judge who sentenced him in October was told Miller had been living as a woman for “many years”. A prison source told the Scottish Sun: “Miller insists on being called Andrew, looks like a man, and there’s nothing feminine about him.” Article Name:Trans child abductor serving time as man Publication:The Daily Telegraph Start Page:2 End Page:2
Keegan will not say ‘trans women are women’ as she did in the past About-turn follows fears the Education Secretary has been too weak on trans activists in schools The Daily Telegraph25 Apr 2024By Daniel Martin DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR Ms Keegan has learnt a ‘huge amount’ about the issue since becoming an MP GILLIAN KEEGAN will no longer use the phrase “trans women are women” saying her understanding of the issue has “evolved”. The Education Secretary made the statement that “Trans women are women” in 2020 in response to a question from an LGBT forum in her constituency of Chichester, adding that trans people should have equal access to “safe spaces”. But now she has told The Telegraph that she has since “learnt a huge amount more about this complex and challenging subject”. It comes just weeks after Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said he had been wrong to use the phrase “trans women are women, get over it”. His about-turn came in the wake of the Cass Review, which found that much of gender medicine was built on shaky foundations and warned against the use of puberty blockers for children and young people. Ms Keegan’s mea culpa follows Whitehall concern that she has not been strong enough as Education Secretary in standing up to the influence of trans rights activists in schools. Four years ago, Ms Keegan responded to the Chichester LGBT Forum to say: “I recognise that more must be done to help transgender people with the unique and difficult challenges that they face. “Trans women are women and trans people deserve equal and fair access to healthcare, safe spaces, and opportunities, as well as to live their life with dignity.” But she has now told The Telegraph that she has changed her position. “Since becoming an MP and later a minister I have learnt a huge amount more about this complex and challenging subject,” she said. “At the time of writing that response, I didn’t have any direct experience of this topic and took advice on how best to respond, given the complexities surrounding individual cases. Having now spoken to experts and professionals, like many, my understanding has evolved. I have since been crystal clear about my concerns that women are being erased in this debate, and have always been clear that women do not have, nor have ever had, a penis.” The move was welcomed by the women’s rights group Sex Matters. Chief executive Maya Forstater said: “This change in position by Gillian Keegan is a welcome development and sets an example for other politicians to start using clear, serious language rather than transactivist slogans. “For several years, transactivist lobby groups pushed the use of phrases such as ‘transwomen are women’ as a tactic to silence debate and fair questions about how gender self-identification ‘Transactivist lobby groups pushed phrases such as “transwomen are women” as a tactic to silence debate’ clashes with women’s rights. Many didn’t recognise the dangers of these slogans early on, including politicians who doubtless thought they were simply supporting a good cause. It takes guts to publicly change your mind.” In December, Ms Keegan published draft guidance to schools which said pupils should only be allowed to change pronouns in rare circumstances and consult parents on their child’s wishes to change their gender identity. However, teaching unions and trans rights groups reacted angrily to the guidance, which is now out for consultation. There are concerns in Whitehall that Ms Keegan may water it down in response to the negative comments. There are also worries that the Department for Education’s long-awaited relationships and sex education guidance for schools has still not been published. Last week The Telegraph revealed that Victoria Atkins, the Health Secretary, had met Stonewall in 2018, when she was Equalities Minister, despite castigating the charity over its role in the puberty blockers scandal. Stonewall has been a keen supporter of the use of the drugs by young people who want to change gender. Article Name:Keegan will not say ‘trans women are women’ as she did in the past Publication:The Daily Telegraph Author:By Daniel Martin DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR Start Page:8 End Page:8
Complaints as trans teacher explains gender identity to Year 2 The Daily Telegraph25 Apr 2024By Daily Telegraph Reporter ‘I think it was a bit much for Year 2 children and it can be very confusing for them’ ‘We have reaffirmed the school’s expectations for what we expect supply teachers to deliver’ PARENTS at a Church of England primary school have complained after a transgender supply teacher discussed their gender identity with Year 2 pupils. The children were said to have been left “confused” when the teacher, who was wearing women’s clothing, discussed the topic with them at the start of an English lesson. Bitterne Church of England Primary School in Southampton said it had not been aware that the subject would be raised in class. According to the parent of a seven-year-old pupil, the teacher allegedly said: “If you’re wondering why I’m so gorgeous, it’s because I’ve put make-up on and had a shave.” Rachel Bennet, whose daughter was in the class, has complained to the school. She said: “I think it’s a bit much for Year 2 children and can be very confusing for them.” They added: “You could understand more if it was a PSHE [personal, social, health, education] lesson but then the parents should have been notified beforehand.” She added: “We have strong religious values, and you have to question whether it’s something the children need to be exposed to at this age.” In response, Jen Johnson, the head teacher, sent a letter to parents and guardians. It said: “I want to make it very clear that whilst we were not aware that the supply teacher would be sharing this information related to their gender identity ahead of teaching the lessons, we are a tolerant and respectful school. “Moving forward, and having spoken to the supply agency, we have reaffirmed the school’s expectations for what we expect supply teachers to deliver.” In a statement, a spokesman for Southampton city council said: “Our schools, including Bitterne Cofe Primary School, use supply teacher agencies who apply rigorous checks to deliver high quality teaching staff and safeguard students. “The supply teacher in question is well regarded and the quality of the teaching was of a high standard. “In class, the supply teacher introduced themselves and then responded to a small number of questions about their gender quickly and without detail, before moving on swiftly to deliver the lesson in a professional manner. “Bitterne Cofe Primary School, like many schools in Southampton, has a policy of inclusion and the school has written to parents and the letter has been positively received, with many parents offering supportive feedback.” Article Name:Complaints as trans teacher explains gender identity to Year 2 Publication:The Daily Telegraph Author:By Daily Telegraph Reporter Start Page:8 End Page:8
J K Rowling is right: Labour must apologise for its snivelling trans cowardice The Daily Telegraph25 Apr 2024Michael Deacon Now that the tide finally seems to be turning in the gender wars, it feels like a good moment to ask the following question. Who deserves the most contempt? Is it the “trans rights” bullies who tried to get women sacked from their jobs, merely for having the temerity to suggest that males shouldn’t compete in women’s rugby, and that rapists shouldn’t be placed in women’s prisons? Or is it the many high-status people who privately agreed with those women – but chose not to speak up, for fear of seeming out of step with fashionable opinion? Increasingly, I think it’s the latter. Fanaticism is bad. But cowardice is worse. And, throughout this wretched row, no one has displayed greater cowardice than the Labour Party. Since the publication, two weeks ago, of the Cass Review into the use of puberty-blocking drugs on vulnerable children, you may have noticed that some Labour MPs are growing a tiny bit braver. On Monday night, Shabana Mahmood, the shadow justice secretary, said she agrees with JK Rowling that “biological sex is real and immutable” (ie women don’t have penises) – and added that women shouldn’t be punished for saying so. A step forward, yes. But that doesn’t mean we should let Labour off the hook. Because, as Rowling herself so rightly pointed out in response, a major apology is in order. After all, now that senior party figures like Mahmood are at last plucking up the courage to speak out in defence of women, when is Labour going to say sorry for its appalling treatment of Rosie Duffield? Duffield is a backbench Labour MP who has always been clear that biological sex is “real and immutable”. For this sole reason, she has spent the past five years being relentlessly abused, smeared and accused of “transphobia” by Labour activists – and even some Labour MPs. Yet, in all that time, senior party figures haven’t lifted a finger to defend her. Indeed, according to Duffield, Sir Keir Starmer has never offered her a word of sympathy, either in public or in private. Like the rest of Labour’s frontbenchers, he left her to the wolves. Why? I think the reason is obvious. Sir Keir and his team are snivelling, spineless weaklings who would rather appease the bullies than support their colleague. Of course, some people may feel that Sir Keir was in a difficult position. After all, he’s already Sir Keir and his team are weaklings who’d rather appease the bullies than support their colleague kicked the anti-Semites out of his party. If he has to kick out the misogynists as well, the Labour Party will have hardly any members left. Even so, his cowardice throughout this whole affair should worry voters – and not just feminists. After all, Sir Keir is almost certainly our next PM. And how can we expect him to stand up to Putin if he hasn’t even got the guts to confront his own activists? To have any hope of persuading voters that he isn’t as weedy as he seems, Sir Keir must make a public apology to Ms Duffield, on behalf of the entire Labour Party. And, to prove that he means it, he must add her to his frontbench team: specifically, as shadow secretary for women. Since 2021, the occupant of that role has been Anneliese Dodds. Sadly, though, I’m not sure she’s quite right for it. On International Women’s Day 2022, she was repeatedly asked, on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, to define the word “woman”. And she floundered. “There are different definitions legally,” gibbered Ms Dodds, helplessly. “I think it does depend on what the context is…” A spokeswoman for women who doesn’t know what a woman is. Just give the job to Ms Duffield, and end this farce now. Article Name:J K Rowling is right: Labour must apologise for its snivelling trans cowardice Publication:The Daily Telegraph Author:Michael Deacon Start Page:7 End Page:7
Private Eye [4: negative 4, positive 0, written by trans people 0]
The text is a critical commentary on recent events involving Novara Media and its reporters, touching on sensitive political topics and the ensuing social media reactions. It details a controversy surrounding a tweet, implications of it, and the varying opinions of those associated with Novara Media, including the resignation of a contributor in protest. The passage reflects on the impact of public statements on reputations and legal considerations within the realm of counterterrorism and political alignments.
The text is a critical commentary on recent events involving Novara Media and its reporters, touching on sensitive political topics and the ensuing social media reactions. It details a controversy surrounding a tweet, implications of it, and the varying opinions of those associated with Novara Media, including the resignation of a contributor in protest. The passage reflects on the impact of public statements on reputations and legal considerations within the realm of counterterrorism and political alignments.
a full page article from MD on Cass in which he takes everything she claims at face value

THIS WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

Thursday 25 April – Friday 26 April

House of Commons

  • Thursday 25 April 2024
    • Debate on a Motion on Lesbian Visibility Week [more details here]
  • Friday 26 April 2024
    • Private Members’ Bills including:
      • Liz Truss’s Health and Equality Acts (Amendment) Bill: Second Reading (zero chance of making it to the floor)

Westminster Hall

  • No business that fits the focus of this newsletter

House of Lords

  • No business that fits the focus of this newsletter

Grand Committee

  • Thursday 25 April 2024
    • Short debate – UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association [more details here]

Committees

  • No business that fits the focus of this newsletter

AROUND THE WORLD

Over 90% of trans youth live in states pushing anti-trans legislation [The Advocate]

  • A study from the Williams Institute at UCLA indicates that 93% of transgender youth, approximately 280,300 minors, reside in US states enacting or considering anti-trans laws.

Melania Trump hosts LGBTQ+ Republican event [Gay Today]

  • Melania Trump hosted an LGBTQ+ Republican event, stirring questions about her political involvement and support for LGBTQ+ rights.

LGBTQ+ individuals face heightened climate change risks [Gay Today]

  • Studies indicate that LGBTQ+ people are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change due to social and economic factors.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott: ‘We want to end’ trans and gender nonconforming teachers [The Advocate]

  • Texas Governor Greg Abbott has openly expressed his intent to ban transgender and gender nonconforming teachers from classrooms.

Disadvantages for trans women athletes [LGBTQ Nation]

  • New research suggests that trans women athletes may face competitive disadvantages compared to cisgender women, again challenging common perceptions in sports debates.

Megan Rapinoe, Sue Bird, and others urge NCAA to stand up for trans players [The Advocate]

  • Prominent athletes including Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird have signed an open letter to the NCAA urging stronger support for transgender athletes’ rights to compete under their gender identity.

Campaign focuses on anti-trans rhetoric [LGBTQ Nation]

  • A Republican gubernatorial candidate centres his campaign on opposition to transgender rights, particularly targeting transgender youth in educational settings.

Louisiana defies new trans-inclusive rules [LGBTQ Nation]

  • Louisiana instructs schools to disregard the Biden administration‘s new Title IX rules that are inclusive of transgender students’ rights.

Japan: Male hippo in Osaka zoo found to be female [BBC]

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ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Italy to let anti-choice activists harass women in abortion clinics [Telegraph]

  • Italy has passed a law that will allow anti-abortion activists into clinics to ‘appeal’ to pregnant women, in a win for right wing, anti-choice prime minister Giorgia Meloni. In other words, they have just legalised the harassment of pregnant people at one of the most vulnerable times of their lives.

The UK’s first memorial for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender armed-forces personnel is to be built at the National Arboretum [BBC]

An Arizona grand jury has indicted 18 allies of Donald Trump for their efforts to subvert the 2020 election, including Rudy Giuliani [Politico]

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has announced a “public history” project, giving five historians full access to UK state archives to carry out an “independent and authoritative examination” of the government’s approach to Northern Ireland during the Troubles [Politico Playbook]

Get your Ferrets for trans rights stuff here

COMING UP

Thursday 25

  • Victoria Atkins and Wes Streeting at RCP conference
  • Channel 4 hosts local elections debate
  • Quarterly crime statistics (England and Wales)
  • Safety in custody and offender management statistics
  • Sickness absence in the UK labour market

The Supreme court will hear arguments over Donald Trump’s claim of immunity.

Friday 26

  • Global Youth Service Day
  • 30 years ago: 1994 South African general election began

Saturday 27

  • White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner

Sunday 28

  • International Workers’ Memorial Day
  • World Day for Safety and Health at Work

TRANSWRITES YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED

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