Links - 18th June 2020 (2) (Trans Mania)

'Human Ken doll' Rodrigo Alves comes out as transgender and admits 'I always felt like Barbie' - "He was known as the human Ken doll after spending over £500,000 to change his looks.But today Rodrigo Alves bravely comes out as a transgender woman.Posing in a dress and heels, the Celebrity Big Brother star said: “It feels amazing to finally tell the world I’m a girl.“I’m known as Ken but inside I’ve always felt like Barbie.”... she has changed her looks beyond recognition with more than 70 operations and has been dubbed the human Ken doll and the “face of plastic surgery”.Last year docs removed her fake six-pack and inserted it into her bum for a bum lift – in an op shown on a German TV documentary."
And just like that, wanting to be a Human Ken was no longer a mental illness

What are Lesbians to do with the Left? - "When we politely explain that, ‘as I lesbian I don’t do penis,’ we are denounced as ‘transphobic,’ which may result in being ejected from a club or bar or whatever the social space may be - perhaps even a shared house if these are the norms of the social group... This situation is bad for all lesbians but it hits young lesbians hardest. That all too brief moment when lesbians could get out and about, go to clubs, enjoy their new found sexual freedom, is long past. Young lesbians seeking lovers face a very different reality, their most intimate behaviour and feelings are constantly policed - and reported and commented upon, often on social media - by the trans-Stasi and their allies. Little wonder then that so many teenage girls that reject feminine gender-stereotyping and notice a sexual preference for other girls, decide they must be ‘transmen’ and opt for the transition route. If this sounds vaguely familiar to older readers, that’s because it is familiar. It is conversion therapy rebranded. If breast-binding – practised by girls transitioning to boys/men - sounds familiar, that too is because it is – think foot binding or corsets – and breast binding is at least as harmful as the corset was, often more so. These may turn out to be insignificant compared to the as yet unknown long term effect of hormones to suppress puberty, and the cross-sex hormones which follow. Even if these young women do not go as far as full double mastectomy and the removal of healthy body tissue, possibly resulting in a life time of hospital visits for one reason or another, they will still have to deal with the effect of a barbaric drug regime, one which is not even properly tested for this kind of use... ‘Transmen,’ or female to male, (FtM) transsexuals do not aggressively or otherwise approach gay men demanding sex. Analysing this behaviour among ‘transwomen’ is deemed ‘transphobic’ because it requires an honest discussion of biological sex and behaviour, which itself requires the assertion that sex is real not imagined and, again, there is a price to pay for this apparent transgression – now classed as a belief, rather than an inescapable material reality. Once you decide that biology is not real, that sex does not exist, that a man who feels like a woman can legally call himself a woman - at which point many otherwise protected women’s spaces are then under pressure to accept ‘her,’ even if ‘she’ is male-bodied – all bets are off. What then is a lesbian? If we can no longer agree a legal definition of ‘woman,’ what is a lesbian?"

Trans Rights Activist: “Misgendering” of Trans People Worse Than Mutilation of Women - "Peter Frederiksen, a 58-year-old Danish gun store owner in South Africa, lured women and then sedated them before mutilating their bodies.Frederiksen stored the severed clitorises of his female victims in a freezer, and kept a diary logging each of the mutilations.Frederiksen was turned in to authorities by his wife, Anna Matseliso Molise, who told investigators that her husband had drugged her and pierced her genitalia. Frederiksen was arrested and charged with sexual assault, intimidation and domestic violence. Via her Twitter account @ztsamudzi, transgender advocate Zoé Samudzi declared that the worst part of the news release on the mutilation of women’s vaginas is the “cissexism” that is “inherent” in the reporting... According to adherents of gender identity ideology, it is bigotry to associate the vulva with women and girls"

The Absurdity of the Claim That Women Make “Trans Women” Unsafe - "'Male-to-females had a significantly increased risk for crime compared to female controls, but not compared to males. This indicates that they retained a male pattern regarding criminality. The same was true regarding violent crime'...
Few of the men who murder trans persons kill them over transgender status.The vast majority of male transgender persons who are murdered are in prostitution, and most of these are brown men in Central and South American nations, followed by black men in the US. These murders are due to the dangers of the sex trade, which often involve organized crime and necessitate individuals meeting up with shady men who see them as a collection of orifices to rent for temporary pleasure. Being alone with a man who does not respect your humanity can be dangerous. Prostituted women are murdered at high rates, too – higher than the rate at which male transgender persons in the sex industry are killed.The fact that white trans-identified men are rarely murdered shows that being transgender is not the murder risk."
Strange how biological sex is a myth, but MTF transsexuals have at least the same pattern of crime as men, but not FTMs

Sex offender Gordon Pike helped set prison trans rules by Andrew Gilligan - "Some 48% of transgender prisoners are sex offenders, the Ministry of Justice said in a freedom of information answer earlier this year, compared with less than 20% of the prison population as a whole... Gender surgeons and prison governors have said that some male-born sex offenders are transitioning in order to gain access to women prisoners, or to appear less dangerous in the hope of earlier parole.Ministry of Justice figures show the number of women in prison for sex offences has risen by 40% in three years, from 93 in 2015 to 130 this year. The figures do not distinguish between biological women and trans women."

Transgender Activists Protest Law That Bans Flashing of Genitals in Restrooms, Locker Rooms, Changing Rooms - "Under existing law in the state of Tennessee, a person may be found guilty of the criminal offense of indecent exposure if, while in a public place, he intentionally exposes his genitalia to others, or has a reasonable expectation that his bare genitalia will be seen and offend the viewer.Now a Tennessee lawmaker is seeking to expand this protection to such facilities as locker rooms and changing rooms... Transgender activists claim that the indecent exposure bill would have the effect of criminalizing transgender individuals’ use of restroom, locker room, changing room and public shower facilities designated for the other sex... The proposal comes at a time when there have been a number of incidents of men who identify as transgender women exposing their nudity in public facilities designated for women and girls... “Nazi!” one of the angry transgender activists screamed at Rep. Ragan as he exited the Tennessee General Assembly by a private entrance."
Strange, trans activists claimed that it was a myth that this would happen. Besides empirical reality of what has happened, why fear a law that criminalises what supposedly isn't happening?

Logic, Empathy, Honesty - Posts - "Humans have 206 bones.There are some people who have more bones, and some people who have fewer.This does not mean those people aren't human.It does not mean we need to reclassify humans as having an undetermined number of bones.It means that the description is based on the 99.9 percent average, and that some deviation in biological systems always occurs.People with a basic grasp of language and science understand this concept.We are not denying that people exist outside of the category, merely that the category is a way of describing the norm, so we have a baseline of comparison when discussing deviations from it.People that deviate from the norm are, by definition, abnormal.It's okay to be abnormal. It's not an insult or an attack, it's just an aspect of reality for some people, perhaps all people, in some way.People who are abnormal should not fight to change the definition of normal, they should become comfortable with being different and learn how to still be confident, productive and happy.A life spent trying to make reality conform to your beliefs will be a life of misery. You can blame the people who recognize you are different, or you could accept that difference is okay.#Only2Genders"

Andrew Sullivan: When the Ideologues Come for The Kids - "Like any religion, wokeness understands the need to convert children... I was moved but not particularly surprised by George Packer’s tale of a progressive school banishing separate restrooms for boys and girls because this reinforces the gender binary. The school did not inform parents of this, of course... As an analogy for the price of progressivism, it’s close to perfect. Authorities impose an ideology onto reality; reality slowly fights back. The question is simply how much damage is done by this kind of utopianism before it crumbles under its own weight. Simple solutions — like a separate, individual gender-neutral bathroom for the tiny minority with gender dysphoria or anyone else — are out of bounds. They are, after all, reinforcing the idea that girls and boys are different. And we cannot allow biology, evolution, reproductive strategy, hormones, chromosomes, and the customs of every single human culture since the beginning of time to interfere with “social justice.”It’s also vital to expose children to the fact of their race as the core constituent of their identity. Here is an essay written by a woke teacher about the difficulty of teaching “White boys”... Children, in other words, are being taught to think constantly about race, and to feel guilty if they are the wrong one. And, of course, if they resist, that merely proves the point. A boy who doesn’t think he is personally responsible for racism is merely reflecting “white fragility” which is a function of “white supremacy.” QED. No one seems to have thought through the implications of telling white boys that their core identity is their “whiteness,” or worried that indoctrinating kids into white identity might lead quite a few to, yes, become “white identitarians” of the far right. One of the key aspects about social-justice theory is that it’s completely unfalsifiable (as well as unreadable); it’s a closed circle that refers only to itself and its own categories... The forces involved — “white supremacy,” “patriarchy,” “heterosexism” — are all invisible to the naked eye, like the Holy Spirit. Their philosophical origins — an attempt by structuralist French philosophers to rescue what was left of Marxism in the 1960s and 1970s — are generally obscured in any practical context. Like religion, you cannot prove any of its doctrines empirically, but children are being forced into believing them anyway. This is hard, of course, as this teacher explains: “I’m trying. I am. But you know how the saying goes: You can lead a White male to anti-racism, but you can’t make him think.”The racism, sexism, and condescension in those sentences! (The teacher, by the way, is not some outlier. In 2014, he was named Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year!) Having taken one form of religion out of the public schools, the social-justice left is now replacing it with the doctrines of intersectionality. Last week, I defended drag queens reading stories to kids in libraries. I don’t take back my words. Getting children interested in reading with costumed clowns strikes me as harmless. But when I was directed to the website of Drag Queen Story Hours, I found the following:
[DQSH] captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models. In spaces like this, kids are able to see people who defy rigid gender restrictions and imagine a world where people can present as they wish, where dress up is real.
However well-meant, this is indoctrination into an ideology, not campy encouragement for reading and fun. And then there is the disturbing “social justice” response to gender-nonconforming boys and girls. Increasingly, girly boys and tomboys are being told that gender trumps sex, and if a boy is effeminate or bookish or freaked out by team sports, he may actually be a girl, and if a girl is rough and tumble, sporty, and plays with boys, she may actually be a boy.In the last few years in Western societies, as these notions have spread, the number of children identifying as trans has skyrocketed... one reason to worry about the new explosion in gender dysphoria is that it seems recently to be driven by girls identifying as boys rather than the other way round. Female sexuality is more fluid and complex than male sexuality, so perhaps girls are more susceptible to ideological suggestion, especially when they are also taught that being a woman means being oppressed.In the case of merely confused or less informed kids, the consequences of treatment can be permanent. Many of these prepubescent trans-identifying children are put on puberty blockers, drugs that suppress a child’s normal hormonal development, and were originally designed for prostate cancer and premature puberty. The use of these drugs for gender dysphoria is off-label, unapproved by the FDA; there have been no long-term trials to gauge the safety or effectiveness of them for gender dysphoria, and the evidence we have of the side effects of these drugs in FDA-approved treatment is horrifying. Among adults, the FDA has received 24,000 reports of adverse reactions, over half of which it deemed serious. Parents are pressured into giving these drugs to their kids on the grounds that the alternative could be their child’s suicide. Imagine the toll of making a decision about your child like that? Eighty-five percent of gender-dysphoric children grow out of the condition — and most turn out to be gay... I sure worry about gay kids in this context. I remember being taunted by some other kids when I was young — they suggested that because I was mildly gender-nonconforming, I must be a girl. If my teachers and parents and doctors had adopted this new ideology, I might never have found the happiness of being gay and comfort in being male... the extremism of the new transgender ideology also risks becoming homophobic... There’s a reason why Iran is a world leader in sex-reassignment surgery, and why the mullahs pay for it... Adults are increasingly forced to obey the new norms of “social justice” or be fired, demoted, ostracized, or canceled. Many resist; many stay quiet; a few succumb and convert. Children have no such options.Indoctrinate yourselves as much as you want to, guys. It’s a free country. But hey, teacher — leave those kids alone.

Actor felt forced to quit musical after man was cast as trans woman - "A transgender actor has spoken of her disappointment and tears after she felt forced to withdraw from a high-profile musical because the main role of a trans woman was given to a cisgender man.Kate O’Donnell was to play the mother in Breakfast on Pluto, an adaptation of the Booker prize-shortlisted novel which tells the story of a trans woman’s escape from rural Ireland at the height of the Troubles.But after the lead role of Patrick/Pussy Braden was given to a cisgender man, the Northern Irish actor Fra Fee, O’Donnell decided she had no choice but to drop out of the production. The show’s producers and hosting theatres have defended the casting. They said they had reached out to the Irish transgender community through multiple channels, and auditioned a number of performers who identified as transgender for the role."
So much for diversity meaning you widen the talent pool
Moral of the story: diversity is a losing strategy since you open yourself up to even more angles of attack

Transphobia row leaves Scottish poetry scene in turmoil - "A bitter conflict is escalating in the Scottish literary scene with the Scottish Poetry Library (SPL) standing accused of “institutional transphobia” after it said that it would not support “bullying and calls for no-platforming of writers”... more than 200 writers including author Lionel Shriver and comedian Graham Linehan put their names to an open letter of support for the “unequivocal stance” of the SPL: “From universities to arts organisations, libraries and government departments, the no-platforming and bullying of anyone holding views not actively endorsing extreme gender ideology is destroying our cultural life,” says the letter, although the SPL had mentioned not gender. “Scotland has always been an example of progressiveness in arts, education and culture, and we are proud that the first stand against this aggressive chilling of intellectual debate and thought has been taken by Scotland’s national poetry library.”The writers of Wednesday’s open letter say that many of them have been forced to sign the letter anonymously or under pseudonyms because “we are afraid for our reputations, our jobs, our livelihoods … This is how deeply this ideology has already travelled, that to speak against it is a danger”"
Freedom of speech and freedom of conscience are transphobic

Sexual norms erode in wake of gay marriage rulings - "Same-sex marriage advocates told the public that they sought only the “freedom to marry.” Same-sex couples were already free to live as they chose, but legal recognition was about the definition of marriage for all of society. It was about affirmation — by the government and everyone else.It’s unsurprising that once a campaign that used to cry “live and let live” prevailed, it began working to shut down Catholic adoption agencies and harass evangelical bakers and florists. This shows it was never really about “live and let live” — that was a merely tactical stance... if marriage is about romantic connection, why require monogamy? There’s nothing magical about the number two, as defenders of “polyamory” point out. If marriage isn’t a conjugal union uniting a man and a woman as one flesh, why should it involve or imply sexual exclusivity? If it isn’t a comprehensive union inherently ordered to childbearing and rearing, why should it be pledged to permanence? Marriage redefiners could not answer these questions when challenged to show that the elimination of sexual complementarity did not undermine other marital norms. Today, they increasingly admit that they have no stake in upholding norms of monogamy, exclusivity and permanence... Already, we see respectable opinion-makers mainstreaming “throuples,” “ethical nonmonogamy” and “open relationships.” This was predictable; we and others predicted it.Something we didn’t predict are the headlines about transgender and nonbinary “identities.” A decade ago, few Americans had given much thought to the "T" in "LGBT." Today, transgender identity seems to dominate the discussion of sexuality and sexual morality... Nearly unthinkable a decade ago, certain medical professionals tell children experiencing gender dysphoria that they are trapped in the wrong body, even that their bodies are merely like Pop-Tarts foil packets, as one expert explained... These changes weren’t grassroots movements. They’ve come from people wielding political, economic and cultural power to advance sexual-liberationist ideology. The change has been top down — from Hollywood’s portrayal of LGBT characters to business executives boycotting states over religious-freedom laws. Having lost at the ballot box over and over — even in California — activists found new avenues: ideologically friendly courts, federal agencies, big corporations. Having secured a judicial redefinition of marriage, they pivoted to the “T,” with the Obama administration redefining “sex” to mean “gender identity” and imposing a new policy on all schools. And having won government support, activists turned to eliminating private dissent. Former presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke wants to yank the tax-exemption of noncompliant churches. Megadonor Tim Gill vows to spend his fortunes to “punish the wicked.” Who are “the wicked”? Those who refuse to accept the new sexual orthodoxy."
So much for the 'myth' of the slippery slope

Study finds transgender people are more conservative than cisgender men - "lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, and asexual people are significantly more liberal than their cisgender heterosexual counterparts.Compared to cisgender men, cisgender women are more liberal, even within the LGBTQ community.Within the LGBTQ community, bisexual people are less liberal than lesbians and gays.But perhaps the most surprising finding is that transgender-identified individuals are less liberal than their fellow LGBTQ community members and even than cisgender men.Conversely, non-binary individuals — who are often lumped in with transgender people under the “T” — are significantly more liberal than either trans men or trans women"

bletchley punk is masked up on Twitter - "She says “Dress however you please” and “Call yourself whatever you like”. At first glance it sounds supportive, but it isn’t. It’s disengagingShe is taking a very real and concrete issue (the acceptance of trans people as humans with full rights and respect in society), minimizing it to some surface level features (appearance and names), and then abdicating any responsibility
She is purposefully mischaracterizing trans people as adults playing dress-up and then claiming to be fine with that...at a distance
The language she uses is similar to language used to minimize gay people
“You can kiss whoever you want behind closed doors!”
It’s also similar to the old favorite “I don’t care if you’re black, white, or purple!”
Purple people don’t exist, but now they’ve minimized the issue of racism and swept it away while claiming to be supportive
All of these phrases add up to the same message: “I support you, as long as you don’t change my experiences or inconvenience me in any way.” And that’s not actual support
These phrases are said by people who don’t know any trans, gay, or Black people. They say them because they know their communities won’t be impacted and their lives won’t change. As soon as their lives *are* impacted, their support becomes conditional.
Beware people who offer blanket support at a distance. As soon as that distance decreases, they will feel threatened. They will push back.
Look for people who engage with systemic issues, who dig into the nuances, who question their own beliefs, who have empathy when they don’t have to."
Grievance mongering can never rest
So much for the "myth" of the slippery slope. Equal rights aren't enough because activists will always push for more