Links - 11th April 2019 (3) (Trans Mania)

India Willoughby: Is it discriminatory to refuse to date a trans woman? - "The argument started on UK reality television show Celebrity Big Brother... Some viewers claimed Ginuwine rebuffing the notion of dating a trans woman was discrimination or transphobia - dislike or fear of transgender people... "The majority of straight men are worried about what society thinks of them if they date a trans woman," she says. "Toxic masculinity makes them violent and rude about their attraction""
Is it discriminatory for lesbians to refuse to date men?

Women who used to identify as transgender men explain why they detransitioned - "The experience of the girls in desiring to be men is similar - from begging their parents to let them start on testosterone, the conviction that they wouldn't regret it, to feelings of isolation and confusion around their sexuality and self-identity. They also agreed that in hindsight, it would have been better to take things more slowly rather than rushing into medically and socially transitioning. Jesse, who was on testosterone for around a year-and-a-half until the age of 19, said that transitioning to be a man was almost like a 'forbidden fruit'. 'I completely regret jumping into it, I should have just chilled out,' she said... the support of her parents might have even encouraged her further down the path of transgenderism... 'As soon as you start to maybe move away from a trans identity or start to voice things, they call you a TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) or they instantly ostracise you and call you a traitor and fake, so it's very hard to voice doubts and that contributes to not allowing you to voice that or realise that about yourself'... Asked whether there were any pros or cons to their experience of transitioning, the girls admitted that for them at least, it had been overwhelmingly negative.Jesse said it only compounded her existing mental health issues and was even 'psychologically damaging' as it prevented her from properly addressing her symptoms as she became increasingly fixated with her trans identity. She also recalled feeling a 'pseudo sense of liberation' that she could live in the world as her true self."
On Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD)

Essex County Council removes 'bigoted' transgender image - "A council has been accused of "institutionalised bigotry" after using a picture of a person removing a wig to depict transgender people... The image was provided by a company that specialises in producing easy read versions of documents for the government and NHS England, according to the council.The questionnaire asks participants about their gender, with boxes for male and female.A third box, labelled transgender, has an image of a man removing a long wig... A spokeswoman for the council said: "This image was specifically chosen to help communicate with people with learning disabilities."

Judge temporarily sentences male transsexual to Changi Prison to serve alongside male inmates - "Teo was born a female but underwent gender-reassignment surgery in 2017 to remove his breasts and womb. However, Teo did not remove his original female genitalia"
Is it transphobic for the criminal justice system to treat trans people like the gender they want to be?

Facial Recognition Software Regularly Misgenders Trans People
It's almost as if objective reality is a thing

Pose star Indya Moore: Trans women's penises are biologically female - "“Regardless [of] the biological makeup of the trans woman—she remains a woman with her biology, therefore defining her as a biological woman.”Moore, who came out as poly last year, backed up her point by posting an explanation by Grace Pokela, a biology teacher from New York whose explanation of gender went viral in 2017. Pokela wrote at the end of her post: “Don’t use science to justify your bigotry. The world is way too weird for that s**t.”... The star compared those who look down on gender non-conforming people to racists.She tweeted: “cis people characterising gender variant traits as abnormal is synonymous to white people saying melanin is abnormal or melanated people saying that the absence of melanin is abnormal.“Your effort to delegitimise the biology of trans people is inherently narcissistic.” Moore also said that cisgender people “stole and appropriated the word biological.” She even tweeted a direct message to cis readers, writing: “Dear cis people, I hope you one day evolve beyond penises and vaginas.“But ya can’t even get passed being a**holes… so idk (I don’t know). #prayforcis.”"
Lysenko would be proud

The rules on trans athletes reward cheats and punish the innocent - "McKinnon has vigorously defended her right to compete, pointing out that, when tested, her levels of testosterone, the male hormone, were well within the limits set by world cycling’s governing body. Nevertheless, at 6ft tall and weighing more than 14 stone, she appeared to have a substantial advantage in muscle mass over her rivals... a man can decide to be female, take hormones if required by whatever sporting organisation is concerned, win everything in sight and perhaps earn a small fortune, and then reverse his decision and go back to making babies if he so desires. It’s insane and it’s cheating. I am happy to address a transgender woman in whatever form she prefers, but I would not be happy to compete against her. It would not be fair.Simply reducing hormone levels — the prescription most sports have adopted — does not solve the problem. A man builds up muscle and bone density, as well as a greater number of oxygen-carrying red blood cells, from childhood. Training increases the discrepancy. Indeed, if a male were to change gender in such a way as to eliminate any accumulated advantage, he would have to begin hormone treatment before puberty. For me, that is unthinkable. Hundreds of athletes who have changed gender by declaration and limited hormone treatment have already achieved honours as women that were beyond their capabilities as men, especially in sports in which power rather than skill is paramount. McKinnon is just one example. That may uphold the International Olympic Committee’s charter, which holds that “the practice of sport is a human right”, but it is surely unfair on women who have to compete against people who, biologically, are still men... Let me make a critical distinction between transgender and transsexual athletes. Transsexuals have decided to change their gender and have had the deed done, surgically. They have made the full commitment. They are few in number and rarely enjoy a competitive advantage... I also deplore what seems to be a growing tendency among transgender activists to denounce anyone who argues against them and to label them all as “transphobes”. That’s just another form of tyranny. I’m relatively tough and was able to stand up for myself in my Twitter exchange with McKinnon, but I worry that others may be cowed into silence or submission.Here’s how I concluded my Twitter spat: “Rachel, you may be an expert on all things trans, but you are one nasty human being. Attack, attack, attack. I will not take it from you. You did not engage; you bullied. Not blocking you [though I later did, because who wants all that negativity], but enough already. All I want is fairness.”"

Child sex-change charity Mermaids handed £500,000 by national lottery - "A transgender charity that campaigns for children to be given prohibited sex-change treatment has been awarded £500,000 by the national lottery. The payment to Mermaids has angered MPs, feminists and women’s organisations, who accuse the charity of bullying doctors, promoting falsehoods and using “emotional blackmail” to pressure parents to support life-changing medical interventions for their children... The chief executive of Mermaids, Susie Green, who took her son for a now illegal sex-change operation in Thailand when he was 16, believes medical intervention is “absolutely vital” for children unhappy with their biological sex. Her view is disputed by NHS gender specialists who say intervention is not always right.Mermaids also wants to overturn an NHS ban on under-16s being treated with cross-sex hormones, which cause permanent body changes and compromise fertility; those taking them require lifelong medical support. Clinicians say children are too young for such a step. Green has said the refusal by the NHS to give children the hormones can make them “self-harming and suicidal”, and claimed attendees at the main clinic that treats gender-dysphoric youngsters, the Tavistock Centre, in north London, have a “48% suicide attempt risk”. The clinic says the true rate is less than 1%... Green, an IT consultant, has no medical training. Responding on Twitter to an NHS psychiatrist who accused her of “making stuff up”, she wrote that “you need to f*** off. You know nothing.” In the absence of NHS treatment, Mermaids has referred parents to a private GP, Helen Webberley, who prescribed cross-sex hormones to children as young as 12. Mermaids recommended Webberley even after she was convicted of operating an illegal gender clinic. The number of children seeking NHS treatment for gender dysphoria has risen by 700% in five years. Michele Moore, of the Patient Safety Academy at Oxford University, blamed Mermaids and other groups for the rise, as they were “not just supporting transition but promoting it”. Stephanie Davies-Arai, of the parents’ group Transgender Trend, accused Mermaids of blackmailing parents and said: “Funding this agenda will lead to more young people who regret such life-changing harms to their bodies.”"

Biological sex shapes tumour evolution across cancer types
Nature is Transphobic

Whether the donor and recipient are male or female influences transplant rejection rates—investigators explore why

Parents Outraged After Man Who Identifies As Woman Assaults 10-Year-Old Daughter In Women’s Bathroom, Gets Slap On The Wrist - "In Scotland, an 18-year-old male who identifies as a woman was given a slap on the wrist by authorities earlier this month after assaulting a 10-year-old girl in the restroom... Rather than being sent to jail, Dolatowski has been banned from having contact with children and given community service and electronic tagging... Not only did Dolatowski admit to sexually assaulting the 10-year-old girl, he also admitted to following another girl into a bathroom at the Asda Halbeath supermarket in Dunfermline on February 8 and holding his mobile phone over the bathroom stall to film her urinating"

Top Twenty-Five Stories Proving Target's Pro-Transgender Bathroom Policy Is Dangerous to Women and Children - "there are dozens of such stories over the last 16 months or so highlighting the problem with setting policies that would make access to public restrooms easier for predators.First up are five incidents in which predatory men were discovered committing criminal actions in public restrooms. Some of these men were arrested while dressed as women; others claimed to be transgender women."
Maybe the response can take a leaf from gun lovers - criminals don't obey laws anyway, so there's no point restricting people of the opposite sex from toilets (ignoring the point that criminals can take advantage of laxer laws)

Unisex changing rooms put women at danger of sexual assault, data reveals - "The vast majority of reported sexual assaults at public swimming pools in the UK take place in unisex changing rooms, new statistics reveal.The data, obtained through a Freedom of Information request by the Sunday Times, suggests that unisex changing rooms are more dangerous for women and girls than single-sex facilities... Unisex facilities account for less than half the changing areas across the UK, but the number is on the rise - doing away with separate male and female changing rooms and toilets is seen as a way to cut staff costs and better cater for transgender people."

Heather E Heying on Twitter - "I’m accused of fearmongering, due to my concerns about the effects of trans-activism (not “true trans” people) on research, specifically that which seeks to reveal differences between the sexes. How could science & society be affected by such abject silliness? How indeed:
Hundreds of scientists recently signed a letter to Nature—one of the two leading science journals in the world—which claims that science has neither a definition, nor a reliable test, for sex... This excellent piece by @SwipeWright describes, in part, “a chilling effect that causes scientists to self-censor,” due to this ideology. Reasonable people are ever more quiet on basic issues of fact...
Recognizing biological reality does not make a person transphobic. Yes, intersex exists. Yes, even human chimeras exist (!). No, those facts do not put the lie to binary sexual reproduction. There are two types of gametes in animals (“anisogamy”): eggs and sperm... The more prevalent this kind of thinking is on college campuses, the more power the ideology has in hiring decisions on campus, on training of teachers for the K12 system, and on the larger world. What happens on campus does not stay on campus... This ideology has oozed off campus, into high schools & grade schools, into cubicles & theater troupes & retail establishments. I’ve seen signs advising me not to address cashiers by gender. It’s a madness that celebrates fragility, and denies reality.
A U.S. congresswoman has petitioned for trans-women’s rights to compete against women in powerlifting. If natal males are allowed to compete against natal females, the natal males will win. In contact sports, they will also hurt women in the process."
"Thank you! I work in STEM and these ideologies are polluting all we do. The sad reality is that none of these “scientists“ want to discuss or understand actual facts on these topics. eg. Suggesting that gender discrimination is not behind disparities in STEM can get you fired"