# data[].attributes.body
This series of interactive Truth About Drugs courses has been designed so you can learn the truth about drugs at your own pace. Find out what drugs are, what they are made of, their short- and long-term effects, and view real stories from real people about each of the most popular drugs of choice. To begin, choose one of the courses from the list below.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This series of interactive Truth About Drugs courses has been designed so you can learn the truth about drugs at your own pace. Find out what drugs are, what they are made of, their short- and long-term effects, and view real stories from real people about each of the most popular drugs of choice. To begin, choose one of the courses from the list below.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This series of interactive Truth About Drugs courses has been designed so you can learn the truth about drugs at your own pace. Find out what drugs are, what they are made of, their short- and long-term effects, and view real stories from real people about each of the most popular drugs of choice.

# data[].attributes.body
Explore worldwide events, festivals, funny, weird, and national days on this day!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The ultimate guide to world's weird, funny, wonderful, unknown and bizarre national holidays.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore a collection of styles for AI Image Generator

# data[].attributes.headline
The Science of Persuasion: NLP Techniques for Effective Influence

# data[].attributes.subject
The Science of Persuasion: NLP Techniques for Effective Influence

# data[].attributes.body
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) offers a set of powerful techniques that can significantly enhance your persuasive abilities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Science of Persuasion: NLP Techniques for Effective Influence

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore NLP techniques to enhance influence and persuasion, including rapport building, language patterns, and ethical considerations.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Winning Mindset is a series of regular seminars allied with your own work that explores this phenomena and provides a rootkit for untangling the more complicated elements of our social and cultural development.

# data[].attributes.subject
The Winning Mindset is a series of regular seminars allied with your own work that explores this phenomena and provides a rootkit for untangling the more complicated elements of our social and cultural development.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Overview - The Winning Mindset - Creating Warriors

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Winning Mindset is a series of seminars and directed activities that you will engage with to create a toolkit of your own and begin to understand how we deprogram those captured by Critical Social Justice. You will join others like you on a program that is being shaped in real time and reacts to developments as they happen. You will be helping create something new and exciting where holding fast on the values of the enlightenment, the scientific process and equality of opportunity as central to our success in the future.

# data[].attributes.body
Why spend a fortune on expensive Christmas decorations and gifts, when you can make your own? Better still, you can rid your home of all those extraneous yoghurt pots, toilet roll holders, coat hangers and pipe cleaners in the process.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Why spend a fortune on expensive Christmas decorations and gifts, when you can make your own? Better still, you can rid your home of all those extraneous yoghurt pots, toilet roll holders, coat hangers and pipe cleaners in the process.

# data[].attributes.headline
30 Best Mary Whitehouse Quotes With Image

# data[].attributes.subject
30 Best Mary Whitehouse Quotes With Image

# data[].attributes.body
Freedom without responsibility is anarchy.

Mary Whitehouse

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
30 Best Mary Whitehouse Quotes With Image | Bookey

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
1.Freedom without responsibility is anarchy.2.I am not a prude, I am a realist.

# data[].attributes.headline
Teenagers, screens and social media: a narrative review of reviews and key studies

# data[].attributes.subject
Teenagers, screens and social media: a narrative review of reviews and key studies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teenagers, screens and social media: a narrative review of reviews and key studies - Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Introduction In light of growing concerns about an increasingly digital adolescence, the academic field investigating how digital technologies affect adolescents’ psychological well-being is growing rapidly. In the last years, much research has amassed, and this has been summarised in over 80 systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Materials and Methods Systematic reviews, meta-analyses and key studies are reviewed to provide insights into the state of current research linking digital technology and social media use to well-being; possible future directions and improvements are discussed. Results When examining the reviews, it becomes evident that the research field is dominated by cross-sectional work that is generally of a low quality standard. While research has highlighted the importance of differentiating between different types of digital technology use many studies do not consider such necessary nuances. These limitations aside, the association between digital technology use, or social media use in particular, and psychological well-being is—on average—negative but very small. Furthermore, the direction of the link between digital technology use and well-being is still unclear: effects have been found to exist in both directions and there has been little work done to rule out potential confounders. Conclusions Reviewing the last decade of reviews in the area, it is evident that the research field needs to refocus on improving transparency, interpreting effect sizes and changing measurement. It also needs to show a greater appreciation for the individual differences that will inherently shape each adolescent’s reaction to digital technologies.

# data[].attributes.headline
Teenagers, screens and social media: a narrative review of reviews

# data[].attributes.subject
Teenagers, screens and social media: a narrative review of reviews

# data[].attributes.body
Reviewing the last decade of reviews in the area, it is evident that the research feld needs to refocus on improving transparency, interpreting efect sizes and changing measurement. It also needs to show a greater appreciation for the individual differences that will inherently shape each adolescent’s reaction to digital technologies.

# data[].attributes.headline
The History and Faults of the Body Mass Index and Where to Look Next: A Literature Review

# data[].attributes.subject
The History and Faults of the Body Mass Index and Where to Look Next: A Literature Review

# data[].attributes.body
BMI does not properly assess body fat percentage and muscle mass or distinguish abdominal fat from gluteofemoral fat, which is important to note because abdominal fat is associated with insulin resistance, metabolic disease, and cardiovascular complications.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
✉
Suzanne Riskin sriskinnova.edu ✉Corresponding author.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The History and Faults of the Body Mass Index and Where to Look Next: A Literature Review

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Body mass index (BMI) is an anthropometric index that is commonly used in the medical setting and is a factor in assessing various disease risks but its origins are unknown by many. More importantly, BMI does not properly assess body fat percentage…

# data[].attributes.headline
Using Humour as a Method to Cope with Life’s Trauma

# data[].attributes.subject
Using Humour as a Method to Cope with Life’s Trauma

# data[].attributes.body
Life’s toughest moments often leave scars, whether it’s battling addiction, enduring a divorce, or losing a loved one. Everyone finds their own way to cope. For many of us, humour becomes an unexpected lifeline. It’s not about trivializing the seriousness of these events, but about offering a momentary escape from the heaviness. This allows us to survive and, in time, heal.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Using Humor as a Method to Cope with Life’s Trauma

# data[].attributes.headline
"The truth is, over recent years, the Labour party has shifted almost beyond recognition. It has abandoned its founding principles and is now fixated on identity politics at the expense of voters who care about women's safety, child safeguarding and freedom of speech."

# data[].attributes.subject
"The truth is, over recent years, the Labour party has shifted almost beyond recognition. It has abandoned its founding principles and is now fixated on identity politics at the expense of voters who care about women's safety, child safeguarding and freedom of speech."

# data[].attributes.body
100% accurate analysis!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
During 'Pride Month' in 2021, Sir Keir Starmer recorded a video addressed to the LGBT+ community.

The Labour leader boasted: 'We're committed to updating the GRA [Gender Recognition Act] to introduce self-declaration for trans people.'

Fast forward two years and Anneliese Dodds, Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, has unequivocally backtracked on this controversial policy, which would have allowed any biological male to self-identify as a woman.

In a Guardian article on Monday outlining Labour's new approach, Dodds - who has refused to submit to questioning from the media about this policy shift - wrote that 'sex and gender are different'.

She stressed that formal medical diagnosis would still be needed for trans people to receive gender-affirming treatment on the NHS if Labour wins the next election.

Calculating

The U-turn prompted Women and Equalities minister Kemi Badenoch to call upon Sir Keir to 'apologise' for his 'hypocrisy', demanding: 'Will he tell us why he has changed his mind? Will he admit that he was wrong?'

At first glance, you could be fooled into thinking that Labour's U-turn was a positive intervention - a triumph for feminists who have long pointed out the obvious dangers that self-ID poses to women-only spaces such as prisons and rape centres, and indeed to women's sport.

But dig beneath the surface, and it's clear that the Labour party will still push a regressive and divisive ideology should it ever win power.

Dodds's own language made this clear. She still took time to lambast the 'calculating cynicism' of 'desperate' Tories who, she said, were trying to 'descend into the gutter' over transgender issues.

I find Dodds's doublespeak deeply troubling as someone who has been a victim of gender ideology at its most toxic.

In 2021, then three years into my five-year Masters' degree in Psychotherapy at the 'Metanoia Institute', accredited by Middlesex University, I received an email expelling me from my course.

The reason? I had lodged a public petition, which subsequently received 10,000 signatures, raising concerns about the medicalisation of children with gender dysphoria.

This petition attracted a vicious backlash on social media from the trans-rights lobby, and my career plans were extinguished overnight. I am currently fighting enormously expensive and time-consuming litigation on the basis of discrimination against my beliefs, protected under the Equality Act 2010.

So I am highly sceptical that Labour's proposals to 'reform' trans rights will help anyone, like me, who has been cancelled by this vociferous lobby - including countless feminists who have lost their jobs and been cast out.

Let's look briefly at the details of Labour's proposals. Dodds plans to abolish the current system, under which a panel of independent doctors decides on whether or not to award a 'Gender Recognition Certificate' (GRC) to someone with gender dysphoria. Crucially, under these rules, the applicant does not know the identity of the doctors, which allows them to make their decision fairly and in private.

Under Labour, a single doctor chosen by the applicant, and a registrar instead of a panel, could award the certificate.

This gives all the power to the person who wants a GRC.

It also means an applicant could simply attend one of Britain's many private gender clinics (often run by self-professed trans activists) and pay a few hundred pounds to receive a diagnosis, possibly even after a single telephone conversation.

Given the granting of a GRC is used to justify biological men entering female-only spaces, the stakes are incredibly high.

Currently, the legislation requires applicants to have lived in their 'acquired gender' for at least two years. This is to ensure applicants are genuine and have no ill-motive. Labour proposes to remove this requirement altogether and replace it with a 'reflection period' of unspecified length. Once again, vital safeguards are being diluted.

Labour has further pledged to scrap the requirement for 'spousal consent', on the grounds that this is 'outdated'. Currently, a full GRC cannot be awarded to an individual without their spouse's consent, unless and until any existing marriage is annulled or ends in divorce. (An 'interim certificate' can still be granted.)

This important provision upholds the dignity of the spouse. Without it, they might not even be aware of the application. A wife could wake up and find she was married to another 'woman' - without knowing about it.

There's a final issue that deeply troubles me. There is no mention whatsoever of children's welfare - save for Anneliese Dodds re-emphasising Labour's support for 'transition-related healthcare'.

Given growing evidence of irreversible physical and emotional harm caused to some children through medical 'transitioning' for gender dysphoria, this shows scant concern for youngsters' wellbeing.

Ploy

Yes, Labour's U-turn is welcome. But, if the Labour Party has indeed now rowed back from 'self-ID', it is as clear as day that this is not in moral defence of biological reality and women's rights. Instead, it is a nakedly political ploy.

Dodds and Starmer have no doubt studied the SNP's attempts to force through 'self-ID' north of the border - a bizarre decision that helped to precipitate Nicola Sturgeon's downfall. Self-ID was a disastrous policy in Scotland - clearly opposed by the majority of the Scottish people. The Labour Party knows it wouldn't stand a chance in an election if it ran on a similar ticket.

But the unfortunate truth is, despite the new U-turn, the Labour Party has been captured by an ideology with minimal respect for women's rights.

Last month, Starmer and Dodds met with senior figures from Stonewall (the controversial charity that is in my view hell-bent on pushing gender ideology, often to the detriment of women, children and gay people) to discuss 'inclusion'.

In April, Starmer stated that '99.9 per cent of women . . . haven't got a penis,' implying that one in 1,000 women does. He has never rowed back on this extraordinary claim.

Hounded

At a 2022 LGBT awards ceremony, Starmer, in a keynote speech, pledged to introduce tougher 'hate crime laws' which could end up criminalising someone for 'misgendering' another person.

The evidence continues. Labour has refused to defend robustly its own MP, Rosie Duffield, after she spoke out against the dangers of gender ideology.

In April, Duffield said she felt 'isolated, hounded and harassed' after speaking out for women's rights - and added that there had been an 'absolute lack of support' from her own colleagues, including many who privately agreed with her, during years of 'toxic' abuse.

Yet the party has continued to indulge MPs like the Corbynista Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who in January snarled at the Tory MP Miriam Cates in Parliament, calling her 'transphobic'. (The same man who told parents who see their children according to biological reality that they are guilty of 'abuse' and 'forcing a sex on their child'.)

All this from the party that has the audacity to accuse others of waging 'culture wars'.

The truth is, over recent years, the Labour party has shifted almost beyond recognition. It has abandoned its founding principles and is now fixated on identity politics at the expense of voters who care about women's safety, child safeguarding and freedom of speech.

Dodds's shoddy new bid might be dressed up as reform. But the truth is - it's a dangerous and sinister step.

James Esses is a writer, commentator and co-founder of Thoughtful Therapists. A version of this article previously appeared on spectator.co.uk

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
JAMES ESSES: Don't be fooled by Labour's cynical 'U-turn' on gender ID

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
JAMES ESSES: During 'Pride Month' in 2021, Sir Keir Starmer recorded a video addressed to the LGBT+ community. The Labour leader boasted: 'We're committed to updating the GRA.'

# data[].attributes.headline
MADNESS!! Transmen should stay on hormones despite risk to baby, researchers say!

# data[].attributes.subject
MADNESS!! Transmen should stay on hormones despite risk to baby, researchers say!

# data[].attributes.body
What a vile way to view in utero development!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Pregnant transmen shouldn't be pressured to stop taking testosterone despite the risks it poses to babies, researchers have controversially claimed in a Government-funded study.

Current maternity care guidance for transmen - biological women who identify as the opposite gender - recommends they stop hormone treatment in pregnancy.

The NHS warns it could 'affect the baby's development', with some studies linking exposure to the male sex hormone in the womb to genital abnormalities.

Testosterone is listed as a 'category X' substance in pregnancy in the US because of the dangers it poses to a foetus.

But a panel of experts, including three from Britain, said the current advice centres too heavily on preventing babies from developing birth defects.

Objections against the use of testosterone in pregnancy are too focused on creating 'normal' babies, they argued.

Instead, the team - given a £500,000 grant by a subsidiary of Britain's UK Research and Innovation to conduct research on trans male experiences - suggested NHS guidelines should be shifted to better support trans men to live out their gender identity.

The three British experts were sociologists hailing from the universities of Sheffield, Westminster and Glasgow.

American bioethicists Jennifer Lahl and Kallie Fell called the findings 'insane'.

Writing for the website Reality's Last Stand, they said: 'Abiding by their paper's guidance would land us in a vacuum devoid of medical ethics and a seismic shift away from the importance of scientific research and medical evidence in favor of activist directed healthcare.'

Testosterone is considered teratogenic, meaning that it has been linked to birth abnormalities.

Female foetuses are particularly vulnerable to the effects, scientists believe.

High levels of the hormone in the mother's body have been linked to problems with genital development, a process called masculinisation.

Studies suggest this can lead to incontinence and infertility, and trigger subsequent psychological consequences later in life.

Writing in the journal SSM - Qualitative Research in Health, the researchers, which consisted of experts from the US, Australia and Italy, argued such concerns should take a backseat compared to the harms trans men might experience from not taking their hormones.

'Both patients and providers tend to pursue precautionary, offspring-focused treatment approaches,' they wrote.

'These approaches reinscribe binarized notions of sex, resulting in social control in their attempts to safeguard against non-normative potential future outcomes for offspring.

'These offspring-focused risk-avoidance strategies and approaches are, we argue, part of the gendered precautionary labour of pregnancy and pregnancy care itself, and not without potentially-harmful consequences for trans people.'

They based their arguments on a survey of 70 trans people, as well as answers from 22 health care providers who worked with trans people.

Most trans men they quizzed had fears about ceasing testosterone treatment during pregnancy, it was claimed.

Worries included the fear of losing facial hair, change in voice and being mistaken for a woman.

Other feared being misgendered, which could result in 'increased levels of body dysphoria and depression'.

Some volunteers described their opposition to ceasing testosterone while pregnant, explicitly stating they had wanted to be a 'pregnant man'.

Healthcare providers offered mixed answers in what guidance they provided.

But most offered a 'precautionary' approach, warning trans men about the potential risk testosterone posed to their baby.

The authors were critical of this approach, writing stating such advice 'may not take into full consideration the degree to which some trans people's sense of self and wellbeing is linked to continuing testosterone therapy'.

A UK Research and Innovation spokesperson told the MailOnline the project was funded by its its Economic and Social Research Council.

They added: 'The Economic and Social Research Council invests in a diverse research and innovation portfolio. Decisions to fund the research projects we support are made via a rigorous peer review process by relevant independent experts from across academia and business.'

Trans men are biological females who identify as men. They can still get pregnant - provided necessary organs, like the womb, haven't already been removed.

Many take an artificial version of testosterone, which can shrink breast tissue, stop their periods and trigger facial hair to grow on their face, to help them live out their new gender identity.

This helps address feelings of gender dysphoria, the distress they experience from being in a body that doesn't match their gender identity.

The medical community is still uncertain over the full extent of the risk testosterone poses to a developing foetus and how factors like dosage, or levels of other natural hormone levels are involved.

This is partly due to the relatively rarity of trans men having children, with little known about the long term impacts of children whose parents took testosterone during pregnancy.

The NHS advises that taking testosterone during pregnancy isn't recommended as it 'may affect the baby's development'.

However, it adds that trans men should speak to their doctor before stopping as 'you may find being pregnant triggers feelings of gender dysphoria'.

In its controversial 'chestfeeding advice' section, officials also caution that the hormone can enter breastmilk but doesn't go as far as recommending against it.

'It is unclear what, if any, effect this could have on your baby,' it states.

The US Food and Drug Administration classifies testosterone as a 'Category X' while pregnant.

In summary, this means there is evidence it poses a danger to a foetus and that 'the risks involved in use of the drug in pregnant women clearly outweigh potential benefits'.

Testosterone can also make it more difficult for trans men to get pregnant in the first place.

This leads to many opting to pause their treatments while trying to conceive.

Such was the case for trans man Caleb Bolden, from Chatteris, who decided to become pregnant with a sperm donor after his partner discovered she couldn't have children.

Mr Bolden, 27, started transitioning six years ago - at the same time as he began trying to have a child via sperm donor with his partner Niamh Bolden, 25.

But Ms Bolden suffered three miscarriages and a stillbirth of twins at 23 weeks and 27 weeks before being told she'd likely never have kids.

While private fertility treatments were an option, the couple were told it could cost £70,000.

Instead, Mr Bolden stepped up halting his daily testosterone treatments to help the couple achieve their dream of starting a family.

Six months later he got pregnant using a sperm donor he found on social media and Isla-Rae Bolden was born in May.

Despite enduring nasty comments from strangers and suffering gender dysphoria while pregnant, the store manager said he loves being a dad - and plans to do it again.

'Coming off testosterone was a rocky road as I had so many hormones going around my body,' he said.

'It was soul destroying. Transitioning was something I knew I wanted to do from a young age.

'But I knew for myself and my partner it was something we had always wanted and I wanted to give it a shot.

'When it's age appropriate, I will tell her the things that are relevant. I want other trans people to know it's OK to carry a child.

'We're no different to any other person, just because we were born a biologically different sex, it doesn't mean we should have to worry or lock ourselves away.'

Trans women, people who are biologically male but identify as a woman, cannot get pregnant, though some scientists claim it's only matter of time before this becomes possible.

The topic of trans women taking hormones during breastfeeding was recently thrust into the spotlight after Mika Minio-Paluello, a former Labour special adviser, shared a photo of her breastfeeding her child on a bus.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Transmen should stay on hormones despite risk to baby, researchers say

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Taxpayer funded experts have controversially claimed medics are too heavily prioritising the health of the foetus in pressuring pregnant trans men to give up their gender bending hormones.

# data[].attributes.headline
17 Ridiculous Dating Etiquette Rules from the 1950s

# data[].attributes.subject
17 Ridiculous Dating Etiquette Rules from the 1950s

# data[].attributes.body
Editors of Reminisce
Updated: Feb. 09, 2023

Here’s a look back at some dos and don’ts that show why spending a Saturday night with your sweetheart during the '50s was the cat’s meow.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
17 Ridiculous Dating Etiquette Rules from the 1950s

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Here's a look back at some dos and don'ts that show why spending a Saturday night with your sweetheart during the '50s was the cat's meow.

# data[].attributes.headline
Boxing champ says trans women should be barred from combat sports: 'Banned and outlawed'

# data[].attributes.subject
Boxing champ says trans women should be barred from combat sports: 'Banned and outlawed'

# data[].attributes.body
By Ryan Gaydos | Fox News Former boxing champion Carl Froch spoke out against transgender participation in women’s sports in a recent interview, echoing some of what women's pro boxer Ebanie Bridges said last month about the issue.

Froch, a former super middleweight champion, said in an interview with SafeBettingSites.com on Monday that he thinks it’s "ridiculous" and "disgraceful" to have a transgender woman participate in combat sports.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Boxing champ says trans women should be barred from combat sports: ‘Banned and outlawed’

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Former boxing champion Carl Froch said in a recent interview that he doesn’t think transgender women should be permitted to fight against biological women in combat sports.

# data[].attributes.body
Bev Jackson....LGB Alliance is still celebrating our recent victory. Our legal battle with trans-youth charity Mermaids came to an end last week, when the case against us was dismissed. This was an important triumph over the gender lobby, but the journey here was far from easy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The gender lobby's campaign to shut us down has backfired spectacularly.

LGB Alliance is still celebrating our recent victory. Our legal battle with trans-youth charity Mermaids came to an end last week, when the case against us was dismissed. This was an important triumph over the gender lobby, but the journey here was far from easy.

From the very first day we were founded, LGB Alliance has been called every name under the sun. For defending the rights of gays, lesbians and bisexual people, we were branded a 'cishet, right-wing-driven group of cranks'. We were apparently no different from the KKK. Above all, we were supposedly a 'hate group'. SNP MP John Nicolson even called us 'sinister'. We got used to the name-calling. Then, in 2021, we found ourselves under a concerted legal assault.

In the vanguard of this attack were Mermaids and the LGBT Consortium, a gathering of over 500 LGBT organisations. Stonewall, the UK's largest LGBT group, also initially took part, but later withdrew. The legal action was whipped up and sponsored by tax lawyer Jolyon Maugham, who runs the so-called Good Law Project. Together they mounted a legal challenge to the Charity Commission in an attempt to have LGB Alliance's charitable status revoked.

When we were awarded this charitable status in April 2021, our detractors were incandescent. They launched a wave of petitions against us and bombarded the Charity Commission with complaints. Maugham then excitedly tweeted that he had discovered an effective way to get our charitable status revoked. He would find an organisation he thought might possibly have 'standing' - a legal right - to launch an appeal against the Charity Commission for registering us as a charity. To do this, Maugham found Susie Green, then CEO of Mermaids, who has since left the organisation. Together, they launched an appeal that led to a remarkable tribunal. Last week, over two years after the appeal was launched, we received the judgement. Mermaids' appeal was dismissed because it didn't have standing, which ought to have been obvious from the start. Meanwhile, LGB Alliance is alive and well, and ready to fight another day.

So, what was all this about? What does LGB Alliance stand for and why do gender ideologues hate us so much?

LGB Alliance is the UK's only charity dedicated to defending the rights of same-sex-attracted people. The new LGBTQ+ crowd, like the homophobes of old, find that distasteful. They say people are not attracted to others because of their sex, but because of their 'gender identity' - a subjective, inner feeling that no one is allowed to question or criticise. This means that a bloke who 'identifies' as a woman can call himself a lesbian. And anyone who dares to disagree is a bigot. Or a fascist. Or, in the stunning words of outgoing Stonewall CEO Nancy Kelley, any lesbian who doesn't want to have sex with him is a ' sexual racist '.

At LGB Alliance, we don't buy it. And that is not because we are ' rights-hoarding dinosaurs ', as shadow foreign secretary David Lammy might put it. We've come to this conclusion because we are constantly speaking to young people who are suffering under the gender-identity regime. Some of the most affected are young women and girls. They tell us 'lesbian' is a dirty word at school, but to be 'trans' is awesome.

Some young men and women tell us they opted for medical and surgical transition because they thought it would improve their mental health. In fact, it did the opposite. Now they are furious that their mental-health struggles were not properly explored by those who they had trusted to help them. They wish they had received proper care when they were in their teens, instead of being encouraged to transition. Many of these young people are gay, lesbian or bisexual and had difficulties coming to terms with their sexual orientation.

LGB Alliance wants young people to feel good about their sexual orientation, rather than feel like they have to change their bodies. We'd like them to have inspiring gay and lesbian role models. We know the vital importance of puberty as a key process in human development. We think that blocking it - except in extreme medical circumstances - is unforgivable. We believe that what is euphemistically called 'gender-affirming healthcare' - giving puberty blockers, hormone treatments and surgeries to young people - will eventually be revealed as a major medical scandal. Those promoting and celebrating these irreversible interventions naturally feel we are undermining their mission. They're right - we are.

LGB Alliance also champions the right of lesbians to have separate spaces and dating sites. We should be allowed clubs and groups that exclude people with penises. This right of association is guaranteed under the Equality Act. The same principle applies to gay men and their spaces.

All this makes gender ideologues furious. They call us 'biological essentialists' for pointing out that men are male and women are female. They tell us we should stop ' obsessing over genitals '. They call us bigots, while they themselves promote a form of thinly veiled homophobia.

For a clear illustration of what we are up against, just look at some of the things that were said during our tribunal by Mermaids' witnesses. John Nicolson, for example, told the court that 'you are a lesbian if you declare yourself one'. This is not just bonkers - it is also a profound insult to women who are attracted to other women. Paul Roberts, chief executive of the LGBT Consortium, said that LGB Alliance was refused membership of the LGBT Consortium because it is ' transphobic ' of us to believe a person with a female body can't be a gay man. Here Roberts perfectly demonstrated the near total ideological capture of the LGBT movement.

When LGB Alliance was founded in 2019, our message was clear. We are lesbians, gay men and bisexuals who reject gender-identity dogma, along with the whole kit and caboodle of preferred pronouns, gender self-identification and the dismantling of child safeguarding. In making this statement, we exposed the cuckoos in the gay-rights nest. No wonder these LGBT activists wanted to strangle us at birth.

As it turns out, the gender fanatics had no idea what happens when you try to crush a couple of old dykes. We were joined by hundreds, then thousands, of more dykes of all ages. Then by gay men, bisexuals and straight and trans allies, too. Together we are tearing up the script. We are reviving the LGB-rights movement. And however many swipes our detractors take at us, we are confident we will prevail.

To enquire about republishing spiked's content, a right to reply or to request a correction, please contact the managing editor, Viv Regan.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The gender lobby's campaign to shut us down has backfired spectacularly.

# data[].attributes.body
https://reason.com/2022/02/04/characteristics-of-white-supremacy-culture-washington-university/

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11295299/NHS-staff-warned-NOT-promote-transgender-Mermaids-charity-latest-blow-charity.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11293125/Biological-sex-just-concept-says-trustee-trans-charity-Mermaids.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12270317/BREAKING-Trans-charity-Mermaids-LOSES-bid-strip-gay-LGB-Alliance-charitable-status.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11302231/Parents-children-used-trans-charity-call-probe-worker-posed-explicit-images.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11269581/Mermaids-advises-16-year-olds-change-names-without-parents-knowledge.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11260169/Trans-charity-Mermaids-scandal-unfolding-eyes.html

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2023/jul/06/mermaids-v-lgb-alliance-whos-involved-in-tribunal-ruling

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/17/mermaids-why-has-the-trans-charity-been-in-the-news

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/02/mermaids-transgender-charity-formal-investigation/

https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/10/04/another-shocking-scandal-at-mermaids/

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/where-did-it-all-go-wrong-for-trans-charity-mermaids/

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/mermaids-loss-is-a-victory-for-a-free-society/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Regulator announces statutory inquiry into Mermaids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into Mermaids, after identifying concerns about its governance and management.

# data[].attributes.body
Dr Em writes articles anonymously, mostly on feminism, sexism, and gender.

PayPal (PLEASE ADD NOTE 'FOR DR EM') : UGMLtd

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Donovan Cleckley holds a BA in English and Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Montevallo and an MA in English from Tulane University. His research focuses on the relationship between women's rights and gay rights, literature and sexual politics, and the social and political implications of transgenderism as an ideology, an industry, and an institution.

# data[].attributes.headline
Dr EM, 🤬 Culture and Transgenderism By Dr Em / 02/08/2023

# data[].attributes.subject
Dr EM, 🤬 Culture and Transgenderism By Dr Em / 02/08/2023

# data[].attributes.body
https://youtu.be/TfqXDmsnKqs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
- Uniting for Equality: Empowering Women in the Forth Valley

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
You are about to learn why I'm never allowed access to the projector. In all honesty, this isn't really a topic you can joke about, it isn't a topic where I can use polite language either so content warning. Tally ho
Tanya, the former porn performer known as Jersey Jaxin who specialised in 'teen' and 'barely-legal' categories, describes how as a performer your work day is

'Guys punching you in the face. You have semen from many men all over your face, in your eyes. You get ripped. Your insides can come out of you. It's never ending. You're viewed as an object and not as a human with a spirit'.
Jersey Jaxin

Similarly, the exited performer Regan Starr spoke of how

"I got the shit kicked out of me. I was told before the video - and they said this very proudly- that in this line most of the girls start crying because they're hurting so bad . . . I couldn't breathe. I was being hit and choked. I was really upset, and they didn't stop. They kept filming. You can hear me say, 'Turn the f*cking camera off', and they kept going'.
Regan Starr

These two women haven't been unlucky, the violence and degradation is the point of porn, and porn happens to real women and girls.

Alexa Milano detailed how in 'My first movie I was treated very rough by 3 guys. They pounded on me, gagged me with their penises, and tossed me around like I was a ball! I was sore, hurting and could barely walk. My insides burned'.

20-year-old current porn performer Michelle has recounted the day she met her then fiancé on a porn set:

It began charmingly but when they started filming... the tone changed. Without any prompting, Vidal got rough during the sex, slapping Michelle's face violently from side to side, and choking her.

Afterward, she looked shaken, her face reddened and her eyes watery. But she insisted she was OK. "I look torn up - can you tell?," Laughing and wiping her eye, she turned away and said without conviction, "I took a beating today, and it was great."

Michelle highlights one way violence against women and girls operates in porn. Women are heard and seen having a positive, often 'orgasmic', reaction to being slapped and choked, their orifices stretched by double, sometimes triple penetration, for those unaware of what that is it is multiple penises same orafice same time, and punches from fists. This normalises the idea that women want to be hurt, that women get off on male abuse.

Well, erections aren't magical, they don't turn pain into pleasure lads.

The other way violence works in porn is that it is the explicit point of it. So split screens are frequently used in 'Painal' - one screen shows the penis pounding the women's anus while the other shows her tears, agony and screaming.

A quick search of 'Pain' on Pornhub delivers in under a second '"OMG That's the wrong hole! It hurts!!!!" - Accidental anal with creampie - 23.4 million views', 'UNPREPARED RAW ANAL! (too thick) MILF cant handle PAIN but HE KEPT GOING - 9.4 million views', 'ONLYFANS LEAK - Latina gets roughed up, SLAPPED, SPIT ON, FUCKED UNTIL SHE CRIES - 3 million views'.

'Messy sloppy deepthroat, destroyed my face - 2M views' - the Pornhub thumbnail advertising the film is an image of a teenage girl in a school tie with mascara and make up smeared over her face from crying, her own vomit mixed in as she was repeatedly sick as she was being choked. You get the idea, I don't think I need to press this point further.

Pornhub, to use Laila Mickelwait's apt description, is a crime scene.

Micklewait launched and manages the hugely successful TraffickingHub campaign.

Within a year of the campaign Pornhub had deleted 80% of the site totaling 10 million videos because it contained child sexual abuse videos or other illegal content, lost all payment processing (MasterCard, Visa, Discover and PayPal), upended its business model and is now a global pariah-facing 7 major lawsuits and under investigation by multiple governments for child sexual abuse, sex trafficking, and other illegal activity.

Even women who enter porn supposedly freely, although abuse backgrounds, poverty, and a culture of sexual objectification do complicate this choice, are coerced into doing sex acts that they have explicitly said they are unwilling to do. This is rape.

If women don't go through with what the producer demands then no-one gets paid. Those 3 - to 22 hours of previous gruelling degradation she has just endured will not be paid. What would you choose?
So, that is porn and we live in the porn era.
Statista compiled data which showed that Pornhub had a total number of visits of just under 10.2 billion. If videos and images had no impact on behaviour, why is the global advertising industry in 2022 calculated to be worth 808 billion U.S. dollars?

In terms of global trends, 'The Transgender category grew by +75% to become the 7th most popular category worldwide'. As the porn grows in consumption we can see the legislation ripping through parliaments and women's rights worldwide.

A 2019 survey of 10,000 Brits showed that 38% of men say they watch porn every day, while 74% of men watch porn at least four times a week. Ofcom did a survey in 2020 which suggested that half of all UK adults watch porn. Note the 'sex neutral language' the consumption of this violent material is presented in by Ofcom. We know it's not women wholesale getting off to this stuff.
Now, for Scotland's Porn Habits
Pornhub, proud of its data and market share, has allowed a closer look. Pornhub obscures the fact that we are talking about men and male sexual consumption by calling them visitors, like johns are called clients.

Lesbian was the most viewed category of videos on Pornhub accessed by men in Scotland.

Pornhub data revealed that 'Glaswegians love to watch porn at work, men from Stirling like to view pissing porn and those in Edinburgh are more likely to watch interracial clips.

A note, watching porn at work constitutes sexual harassment if female staff witness it. Also, to me that is such a male thing to dominate their space. I have never known a woman go into work and start wanking.

Pornhub data shows that Scottish men are 41% more likely to watch fetish videos, so the even more extreme violence against women and girls - beatings drawing blood, metal hooks up the arse, that kind of thing - and 42% more likely to watch bondage compared to the rest of the UK.

Patriotically, 'Searches for "Kilt" are 892% more popular in Scotland compared to the rest of the world'.

Pornhub tells us that on average men from Stirling spend 8 seconds less than men from Aberdeen viewing material on each visit.

Visitors, aka men, from North East Scotland are 171% more likely to search "chav", the North West are 73 % more into "chubby" porn, lower down the country have a 77% bigger taste for 'big beautiful women '.

Stats from the web giant in 2022 reveal 'visitors', that word again, from Scotland aka men are 55% more likely to search "pegging" than those elsewhere in the UK.

Pegging is when a woman inserts a strap-on dildo into the anus of a man. This isn't about 'femdom', this is often more about coercing a woman into doing sexually something she doesn't want to do.

The transwidow Philomena: 'It was not my idea of womanhood. In fact, his version offended me. It was degrading and violent. He clearly thought being a woman meant wanting to be raped and tortured. I told him wearing strap-ons was very sore on my c-section '

Philomena has shared how 'He accused me of trying to shame him when I gagged at the smell of his silicone toys mixed with alkyl nitrate fumes and bodily fluids '.

In March 2022 it was reported that a 'Record number of Scots were seeking help for 'escalating' porn addiction '.

But Hannah Witton speaking on the BBC wanted men to know she's a cool girl, and not like those nasty feminists when she stated that she 'thinks there's still a way to go in removing the stigma of watching porn for everyone, whether single or in a relationship' and porn was about introspection of one's sexuality. If I wasn't wearing my glasses you would be able to see just how hard I'm rolling my eyes here.

Porn is destigmatised, it is presented as a legitimate form of male entertainment - that isn't new, Series 4 of Friends in 1998 had the episode 'The One with the Porn', the High Street used to sell Playboy bunny branded tops to teen girls, Marks and Spenser stocked a 'Porn Star Martini' until challenged by Object, Ann Summers partnered with Pornhub until I, pointed out the errors in their thinking.

Porn isn't about introspection, it is about domination and control. It is in our institutions, it is in our policing, government, homes and schools.

'Inspectors spoke to more than 900 children and were told that boys are sharing "nudes" among themselves like a "collection game" on platforms such as WhatsApp and Snapchat, while some girls were "touched up" regularly in crowded corridors.

Girls said this behaviour was so commonplace, they did not see the point of reporting it and they just saw it as a "part of life ".

The website Everyone's Invited has been like the MeToo movement for schoolgirls to document the sexual harassment and rape they face at the hands of their male peers. In 2021 'More than 120 schools across Scotland had been named in connection with allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment '.

In fact, 17 primary schools in Scotland were identified, I wonder if this correlates to the average age of first viewing porn being 9-to-11 year olds? Although new research by the British Board of Film Classification puts first viewing age at 7 years old. It is accidental, it is one click way, or it is a friend showing you, on their internet connected smart phone. 71% of visits to Pornhub from Scotland are from smartphones.

MSPs have known about this problem, Scottish children's access to harmful material, for at least 16 years. Dr Ray Wyre presented research to a committee of MSPs on this topic in 2007 and argued for legislative action.

I don't think the legislative action he wanted was for MSPs to remove all girl's safe spaces, particularly when they are vulnerable. To tell our girls that men and boys get to define them.

We repeatedly see British police officers facing sanction for sharing porn and rape jokes on Whatsapp. It came as no surprise to feminists that the police officer, Wayne Couzens, who abducted, raped and murdered Sarah Everard was a porn addict.

In mid-January the Met police officer David Carrick admitted to 49 offences, including 24 counts of rape, used similar language to describe women. Told colleagues and victims how he was a dominant and got off on humiliating them. He liked to urinate on women after he had raped them. Carrick isn't trans-identified, well yet - many men discover their trans identity in prison on sex offences don't they.

Over 1000 police officers and staff in just the Met are under investigation for abuse.

'At a meeting last November of the Scottish Police Authority it was revealed that 410 sexual allegations were recorded between January 2017 and October 2021 against police officers and staff'.

If crimes against women, particularly sexual crimes, do make it to court, how many members of the jury are masturbating to the idea that all women want it, even when they say no, and they want it rough?

Politicians and candidates are similarly awash with porn.

Up in one end of the country, Paul Wright, SNP to contest the Brechin and Edzell ward, admitted posting extreme pornography' on Twitter as part of an argument, porn posted as a weapon to win a point.

Representing a Devon constituency at almost the other end of the country, the Conservative MP Neil Parish, was found watching porn on his phone in the Commons chamber, he admitted to twice accessing porn from parliament claiming once he was looking for tractors.

It is across all parties, it is from Scotland to Devon, this consumption and use of sexual violence against women.

In 2018 data showed over 24,000 attempts to access porn sites from parliamentary computers in just under 4 months. That's not all Neil Parish and his 'tractors'. I don't think it is possible to have that many tabs open.

But, yet again, the press presents it like the computers are doing it on their own, that no man is sat behind the keyboard.

Holyrood has not been forthcoming on its porn access data.

How can they pass laws that view women as equal while consuming this material?

Is that how these batshit laws that define women as holes and fetish fodder for men have passed through parliaments so quickly and with such ease?
Indeed, I think porn is at the root of Transgenderism.
In 1981 Andrea Dworkin published her work Pornography with the sub-heading 'men possessing women'. Her thesis was that porn was propaganda in the war upon women and based on control, domination and abuse of women and girls. I can think of nothing more possessive than wearing a woman's skin, taking her rights, language and definition of herself.

Tanya, the exited performer whose words opened this talk, underlined how 'they treat you as though we are just a piece of meat. That we don't have a mind and our body is everybody's and we have no soul ".

That comment by Tanya strikes me as how transgenderism defines women. It makes sense, these adult men aren't born in the wrong body, they are porn addicts.

In the list of 'Five Sissy Girl Essentials', number one outlines how a girl is a:

'Whore, slut, cumguzzling bitch'

A woman according to trans identified men is 'a submissive horny slut. She likes to be dominated, used as a vessel for pleasure, and fucked until her asspussy is gaping and wet. She is submissive '.

If your rage was not at boiling point, well, it continues 'Her Hole is Well Trained for Cock'... 'a shameless and filthy cum receptable'.

A man calling himself slut Chloe posted on reddit in 'girls school' about being a girl because he had been fucked by a man and how he 'just want[ed] [to] take it all like a good girl'.

Another man claimed that, since he had identified as a girl, he was now 'excited and nervous to be a slut' and wanted 'to taste cock for the first time, experience pleasing a cock with my mouth and ass, can't wait to swallow a load of cum too'.

There are over 34 thousand members of this reddit community.

On Thought Catalogue a trans identified man writes about becoming a girl thus:

'You love cum. You want to be a girl... You are a sissy bimbocumslut '.

The conceptualisation of women as submissive holes for dick is so common now that it even features on Wikipedia. A guide for men to be a girl describes 'the practice of dressing a submissive partner as a woman '.

Arthur Long Chu has finally admitted that feminists were right. Thank you, Arthur. I'm always right. Chu stated in his work 'Did Sissy Porn Make Me Trans' that

'Sissy porn is a radical feminist's worst nightmare...The [men pretending to be women] in these images... are then represented to ... have been feminized through being forced to... sexually submit themselves to "cock," [and] are expected to open their holes in worshipful surrender'.
Arthur Long Chu

Surrendering holes, that's what a woman is according to these porn-riddled perverts.

Think of the term 'front hole' which transgenderism uses to describe female genitals, this is found in school teaching guides, guidance for health professionals. Jo's cervical cancer trust recommends to use the term 'front hole', don't like that? Then the trust says you can also call it a bonus hole.

Transwidows, the women who were intimate with these men, all describe their husband's escalating porn addiction as a key component in their journey to womanhood.

Internet forums are awash with men and boys talking to each other about how porn addiction led them to identify as trans. One user said that 'When I was 14 or 15 and had just discovered porn, I was really into lesbian stuff. I was so addicted to it that it made me fantasize about being a woman '.

Women know that criticisms of transgenderism on platforms such as Twitter will lead to a deluge of angry anime profiles. Although they claim the anime is art, they are indulging in it as a porn category, as hentai, and particularly futunari - where the character has female curves but a giant penis.

We can see the pornification in the insults feminists receive for daring to speak or attend events. We are frequently told to choke on a dick, I was sent a photo of a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire and told that I should be raped to death with it.

It is in books promoted to schoolchildren. The book Wonderland, marketed for age 12 plus and written by the trans identified male Juno Dawson, who is invited into schools alongside Peter Thatchell to talk to children, is pornified. It is set in St Agnes, an all-girls' boarding school where the students are presented as 'riddled with STIs'. Alice, Dawson's trans-identified male teenage protagonist tells its child audience to "let them use your body and get fucked both ends like a little piggy," and describes himself as "a fucking cum slut. Worthless tranny whore ".

'One of the men the Scottish parliament applauded as it introduced self ID enjoys 'anal play' with 'disabled clients', particularly if they're dressed as children' according to his profile on adultwork.com. A perspective client asked him to dress up as and pretend to be 'a little sissy schoolgirl' for a sex session, he was happy to oblige.

The trans hashtag 'Girls like us' is full of adult men acting out pornified versions of 'girlhood', often including the sexualisation of school uniforms.

When we look at transgenderism and actual teen girls, it is no wonder we are seeing a huge increase in girls identifying as boys, who wouldn't want to identify out of the sexual harassment, being conceptualised as a submissive hole? Trans for girls is the wrong answer to a very real problem.

Watch online

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Dr EM, Porn Culture and Transgenderism -

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
You are about to learn why I'm never allowed access to the projector. In all honesty, this isn't really a topic you can joke about, it isn't a topic where I can use polite language either so content warning.

# data[].attributes.headline
https://twitter.com/letshearthetru    On my feed you will find out how #AmberHeard is connected to #ChessyProut #MicheleDauber #LauraLDunn #TinaTchen #TimesUp #NWLC #SKDK #PrecisionStrategies #ACLU #KnowYourIX and the political sham behind her. My research started with NH v Owen Labrie...:

# data[].attributes.subject
https://twitter.com/letshearthetru    On my feed you will find out how #AmberHeard is connected to #ChessyProut #MicheleDauber #LauraLDunn #TinaTchen #TimesUp #NWLC #SKDK #PrecisionStrategies #ACLU #KnowYourIX and the political sham behind her. My research started with NH v Owen Labrie...:

# data[].attributes.body
"Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides: Who covers faults, at last shame them derides" - King Lear
NH v #OwenLabrie DCL #TitleIX #MarsysLaw #NHPolitics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Read writing from Claire Best on Medium. Every day, Claire Best and thousands of other voices read, write, and share important stories on Medium.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Scandal of Owen Labrie and the #MeToo Movement Updated: Oct 7, 2022

# data[].attributes.subject
The Scandal of Owen Labrie and the #MeToo Movement Updated: Oct 7, 2022

# data[].attributes.body
False Allegations Watch (FAW)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights is working hard to push through new regulations for Title IX. It's an appropriate time to reflect on the White House and New Hampshire's partnership and role in the kangaroo courts of the last decade; in particular the criminal trial of New Hampshire versus Owen Labrie, which set a chilling tone for the nation for how sexual assault in high schools should be prosecuted.

Early headlines surrounding the August 2015 high profile trial of Owen Labrie (St. Paul's School, Class of 2014) included such terminology as "Rape Culture on Display", "Elite Prep School", "Decades old Tradition of Sexual Conquest Game "Senior Salute". St Paul's School was portrayed as a den of misogyny, emblematic of the "patriarchy". Labrie himself was described as a Harry Potter look-a-like who used the "nerd defense". He was described as privileged and arrogant.

Facts matter. Statements by public officials and journalists matter because they become the public record. When those are knowingly false, lives are put in danger, laws are passed under false premise and the public is duped.

Owen Labrie's accuser's family (Alexander & Susan Prout) donated $100,000 to St Paul's School in the Spring of 2013 before Chessy Prout, started that fall. Her sister, Lucy Prout, was entering her senior year and applying to college. Lucy Prout had dated Owen Labrie. She also gave him a black eye before graduation while telling police who interviewed her (and documented) that Chessy had actually stated regarding Owen: " I have never said he raped me". Fifteen months later Chessy stated on the witness stand: " I was raped, I was violated in so many ways". The statement came after courtroom witnesses had seen victims' advocates tapping the shoulder of the prosecutor to say " She needs to cry more".

Labrie's divorced parents' combined annual income approximated $100,000. He attended St Paul's School on a full scholarship and had been offered the same by Harvard College. Few of these details ever made it into the news media. I later discovered why: St. Paul's School was targeted and Owen Labrie framed by the very same group of people who were behind the Rolling Stone's November 2014 "A Rape on Campus" story which resulted in the defamation suit: "Eramo v Rolling Stone". That group was The White House "Not Alone" task force formed on January 22, 2014.

The "personal representative" who appeared on TV during the trial for the "victim's family" - Laura L Dunn - was in fact an advisor/member of this White House "Not Alone" task force who was advising Concord Police for their investigation into St Paul's School and Owen Labrie. That investigation's budget was approved by the City of Concord Council whose chair of public safety is Amanda Grady Sexton, Director of Public Affairs for the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence. Sexton was also on Senator Jeanne Shaheen's re-election campaign committee. Shaheen introduced the Victim's Bill of Rights in 2016. One of the ambulance-chasing attorneys Laura Dunn had introduced to the Prout family 5 months before trial, Steven J Kelly Esq, had lobbied the Senate Judicial Committee in May 2015 for the bill. He had argued that victims should be consulted throughout the process of a criminal investigation, prosecution and sentencing. In the abstract, I wouldn't necessarily disagree, but Kelly has described himself as a "one-stop-shop" for the "not the perfect victim" who trains witnesses, investigators and prosecutors. Receiving 35% of any settlement he negotiates for "Doe" suits against a school such as St Paul's, you can see his financial incentive for lobbying for the bill.

Amanda Grady Sexton's husband, Adam Sexton, a political director and reporter for WMUR, reported the arrest of Owen Labrie on July 16th 2014 just one day after Laura L Dunn and members of the White House Task Force had spoken at Dartmouth Sexual Assault Summit introduced by Congresswoman Ann Kuster.

It is my belief, eight years later, as Owen Labrie having just completed several years of probation, eight months incarceration including two months in solitary confinement, endured a failed retrial hearing and two appeals, that both students were used by the White House Task Force. A task force that was working in cahoots with the University of New Hampshire (promoting "Bringing in the Bystander" and "Know Your Power" training paid for via federal grants) and local New Hampshire public officials.

My growing suspicions were validated in November 2019 when I met S. Daniel Carter, another advisor to the White House "Not Alone" task force who described Laura Dunn as his "mentee". He had co-founded non-profit SurvJustice with Dunn in 2014 shortly before Labrie's arrest. He admitted to me that the use of publicity in the case was insensitive and problematic. More concerning was an assertion that his understanding of Dunn's attendance at the trial was tied to a White House interest in St Paul's School as opposed to Labrie himself.

SurvJustice, according to its IRS Form 990's, was directly tied to the White House "Not Alone" directive and listed as a resource on its site. Dunn had also made a public statement in September 2014 when Emma Watson became the ambassador for UN Women and the campaign. An excerpt from Rewire News group's "Power" section by Emily Crocket reads:

Dunn said that another big part of this shift, especially on the issue of campus sexual assault in the last few years, is due less to celebrities speaking out than to survivors like herself telling their stories to the media, sometimes coming out with their full names and faces. They were no longer anonymous Jane Does but real women demanding real justice, which made some people start to sympathize with them and share their outrage (see: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2014/09/24/us-emma-watson-white-house-efforts-change-culture-womens-rights/).

Amanda Grady Sexton of the NHCADSV, according to the Concord Monitor, attended the Labrie trial to " keep tabs on the media". A motion by the Prouts' representatives (which included Laura Dunn and Steven J Kelly) managed to restrict media access to those journalist who were taking the bait from NHCADSV, police, prosecutors, Dunn and Kelly. Sexton described it as " an opportunity" (see: https://www.concordmonitor.com/Archive/2015/08/LabrieMedia-CM-082315).

When reports of Labrie's appeal regarding the computer felony conviction surfaced (the computer felony conviction requires lifetime tier 2 sex offender registration), Amanda Grady Sexton penned an op-ed in the Concord Monitor in which she mentioned both her official titles for the NHCADSV and City of Concord Council but failed to report her organization's financial interest in seeking sex offender registration for Labrie. Since 2014, New Hampshire has received close to $1 million under the Adam Walsh Act for Sex Offender Registration. On the same day that the White House's "Not Alone" paper was published, April 29, 2014, the Department of Justice announced a new grant incentive under the Adam Walsh Act for "Campus Sex Offenses". The NHCADSV is in charge of the State of New Hampshire's sex offender registration management.

The "compliance" officer for the Diocese was Monsignor Edward Arsenault. The police officer involved in the Diocese of Manchester investigation which resulted in the arrest and prosecution of Father Gordon MacRae, was James F. McLaughlin who was given a lifetime achievement award in 2016. At the same ceremony, Police Detective Julie Curtin, the officer involved in the St. Paul's and Labrie investigations, received an award for her work and "justice for the victim".

Edward Arsenault pled guilty to defrauding the Diocese between the years of 1999 and 2009. He shook hands with Assistant Attorney General Jane Young (now US Attorney for New Hampshire) before going to Concord Men's Prison where he was quickly transferred to Keene County Jail in 2014. He was later released on home confinement and is now free working for non-profit ReServe under the name Edward Bolognini. His restitution - amounting to almost $300,000 - was miraculously paid off while he was incarcerated.

James F McLaughlin's name appeared on a list of police officers with credibility issues published earlier this year. He has been known to the New Hampshire Courts for dishonesty since 1985 - a full 9 years before Father Gordon MacRae was targeted, prosecuted and convicted for crimes for which many around the world believe he was framed. MacRae is in his 28th year in Concord men's prison. He was denied the right to a retrial in 2014 by Judge Larry Smukler who presided over the Labrie trial in 2015. Smukler similarly denied Labrie a retrial in 2017 and claimed "justice for the victim" in December 2018 as he ordered Labrie back to Merrimack County jail, after his appeals, to complete his one year sentence for misdemeanor sexual assault convictions.

Assistant Attorney General Geoffrey Ward deleted the names of 28 corrupt police officers shortly before a New Hampshire bill went into effect this year which would have made them public. Detective Julie Curtin no longer works for the City of Concord. She is employed by Epping Police Department. Numerous requests for an investigation into her tainted investigations, witness and evidence tampering have gone unanswered.

Lyn Rosenthal of the Department of Justice Office of Violence Against Women said upon leaving office in 2015 that the reason the Obama administration focused on campuses was because if they got it right there they would influence generations to come. In 2016, she became president of SurvJustice which lost a lawsuit to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos over due process in Title IX campus sex discrimination. On the board of SurvJustice with Laura Dunn and S. Daniel Carter was Meg Garvin of the NCVLI which also rewarded Detective Julie Curtin for her work in the St. Paul's and Labrie investigation.

Lyn Schollett, Executive Director of the NHCADSV is on the board of directors for Soteria Solutions Inc which markets " Bringing in the Bystander" and " Know Your Power" training to schools, colleges and universities around the world. It was recognized by the White House for entrepreneurship using federal grants.

Federal grants to New Hampshire for sexual assault and related research have increased exponentially since 2014, the year that St Paul's School was targeted and Owen Labrie framed.

Claire Best heads Claire Best & Associates, an international talent agency representing some of the most respected names in the entertainment industry for film, television, and commercials that was established in 2010. She had 16 years of experience in the agency business as an owner, C.E.O. and C.O.O. before Claire Best & Associates. Prior to becoming an agent in 2002, Claire was a production executive at New Line Cinema and Fine Line Features where she oversaw the production of many well-known domestic and international feature films from 1996-2001. Claire has also produced and executive produced a number of award winning and critically acclaimed features, shorts, and documentaries. She is a voting member of B.A.F.T.A. and the Television Academy (see: clairebest.net).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Scandal of Owen Labrie and the #MeToo Movement

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Owen Labrie The US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights is working hard to push through new regulations for Title IX. It's an appropriate time to reflect on the White House and New Hampshire's partnership and role in the kangaroo courts of the last decade; in particular the criminal trial of New Hampshire versus Owen Labrie, which set a chilling tone for the nation for how sexual assault in high schools should be prosecuted.

# data[].attributes.headline
TRANS INCLUSION MEANS MUSLIM EXCLUSION by The Countess Team July 11, 2022

# data[].attributes.subject
TRANS INCLUSION MEANS MUSLIM EXCLUSION by The Countess Team July 11, 2022

# data[].attributes.body
https://thecountess.ie/the-countess-calls-for-rethink-on-introduction-of-mixed-sex-toilets-in-irish-schools/

https://thecountess.ie/category/articles/UK/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
With Islam's strict rules on modesty and segregation of the sexes, single-sex spaces matter to Muslim women. If Muslim women no longer have a private, female-only space, they will be forced to self-exclude from sports, public changing rooms and toilets, and even domestic violence shelters. This article, originally published in 5Pillars, a Muslim community media platform, is republished here with the kind permission of the author, Catherine Heseltine. Women's rights activist Catherine Heseltine says that the demands of the increasingly assertive trans rights lobby will come at the expense of Muslims.
On June 23 last year a group of women, including a young girl, were enjoying a day out at a spa in Los Angeles when they saw a naked man in the women's changing area. When one of the women went to complain to staff at the spa she was told that the individual with their male genitalia exposed was a "trans woman" and that the law in California forbids discrimination on the basis of "gender identity."

A video that the distressed woman later posted online of her confrontation with spa staff went viral leading to protests in support of her complaint and counter-protests in support of "trans rights." It wasn't until September 2021 that it emerged the person who had exposed his genitalia to the women in the spa was a registered sex offender with a history of indecent exposure charges.

The law in California allows any man who claims to be a woman to be legally recognised as female (and vice versa) through a process of "self-ID" - a simple declaration that they identify as the opposite sex. The SNP government in Scotland is currently proposing to introduce a similar law for "gender self-ID" after the Conservative government in London dropped its previous commitment to reform the 2004 Gender Recognition Act to align with the demands of the trans rights lobby.

Trans rights activists led by organisations such as Stonewall and Mermaids say single-sex spaces should be replaced by "trans-inclusive" spaces that allow individuals to access facilities that match their "gender identity" rather than their biological sex. But women's groups are protesting that female single-sex spaces such as changing rooms, toilets, hospital wards, refuges, rape crisis centres, women's prisons and also sports teams must be protected.
Muslim voices absent
With Islam's strict rules on modesty and segregation of the sexes, single-sex spaces matter to Muslims even more than most. Yet the voices of Muslim women are notably absent from the growing grassroots women's movement to protect single-sex spaces (with the exception of a few individuals such as children's author Onjali Rauf).

"We just need to pray" may not sound as catchy and universal as the popular slogan in support of trans-inclusive mixed-sex toilets, "we just need to pee," but it is a very real problem for Muslim women who no longer have a private female-only space in which to perform wudu. And the implications for Muslim women who will increasingly be forced to self-exclude from sports and exercise and even domestic violence shelters are far reaching.

Perhaps nowhere are the demands of the trans rights lobby more alarming to Muslims than in schools. This came to a head in 2019 at Parkfield Primary in Birmingham. Mariam Ahmed, who has two children at the school, told the Birmingham Mail: "My little girl is four, she's in reception and she came home asking me if it's ok to be a boy instead of a girl."

Teaching children that they can be "born in the wrong body" is especially dangerous in the context of a medical system that prescribes puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to under-18s, leaving many such individuals sterile, lacking sexual function and with life-long health problems. Yet the protests of Muslim parents were easily portrayed as straightforward bigotry and old-fashioned homophobia.

This is where it's important for Muslims to understand the difference between the LGB (lesbian, gay and bi-sexual) and the T (transgender) in the LGBT lobby. Over the course of the last decade the agenda of what used to be the gay-rights lobby has pivoted dramatically to focus on trans rights demands for gender self-ID laws, trans inclusion and the provision of "sex reassignment surgery" and medical transition services on the NHS.

British Muslims generally "live and let live" in relation to the lesbian, gay and bi-sexual community. Unfortunately no such approach is sustainable when it comes to the demands of trans rights activists. The objectives of gay rights campaigners did not take away any rights from heterosexual people, whereas trans rights activists are demanding nothing less than the complete restructuring of society on the basis of "gender identity" instead of biological sex.

Opposing the demands of the trans rights lobby is not about supporting the hate that is undoubtedly directed towards the trans-identifying minority in society. However we cannot stay silent when single-sex spaces are being taken away and gender-confused children are being put on a pathway to "medical transition."

Many Muslims are understandably reluctant to put themselves in the line of fire by speaking out against the demands of the trans lobby. And anyway, who is going to listen to us "backward Muslims" against such a "progressive" cause? But this is where we as Muslims must join hands with the diverse and growing group of women (and male allies) who are standing up against the insanity of gender identity ideology. Many excellent campaigning organisations have sprung up and are beginning to win significant victories in the push-back against the trans lobby.

Organisations like Sex Matters, Transgender Trend and the Women's Rights Network deserve our support in this fight. And I hope that as more Muslims join the ranks of activists fighting in this cause it will also be a golden opportunity to build important alliances and help dispel the stereotype that Muslim women are passive, oppressed and unable to speak up for our rights.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
With Islam's strict rules on modesty and segregation of the sexes, single-sex spaces matter to Muslim women. If Muslim women no longer have a private, female-only space, they will be forced to self-exclude from sports, public changing rooms and toilets, and even domestic violence shelters.

# data[].attributes.headline
Earl Shilton Town Council v Ms K Miller: [2023] EAT 5 - http://GOV.UK“Women were provided with inadequate toilet facilities in comparison with men.”New direct sex discrimination appeal decision - well worth the read:

# data[].attributes.subject
Earl Shilton Town Council v Ms K Miller: [2023] EAT 5 - http://GOV.UK“Women were provided with inadequate toilet facilities in comparison with men.”New direct sex discrimination appeal decision - well worth the read:

# data[].attributes.body
Lady Justice @RadFemLawyer

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Skip to main content

Cookies on GOV.UK

We use some essential cookies to make this website work.

We'd like to set additional cookies to understand how you use GOV.UK, remember your settings and improve government services.

We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services.

Accept additional cookies Reject additional cookies View cookies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Earl Shilton Town Council v Ms K Miller: [2023] EAT 5

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Skip to main content We use some essential cookies to make this website work. We'd like to set additional cookies to understand how you use GOV.UK, remember your settings and improve government services. We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services.

# data[].attributes.body
Breaking the cornerstone of gender theory

An Idiot Jan 30

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Hello dear reader. I hope life is treating you well.

I have been embroiled in many small encounters on Twitter over the past few months sharpening my ideas around the understanding of gender theory. If you've read my previous article you will be aware I believe gender theory is a non-theistic region.

In the following article I will be explaining how I came to my current position on the concept of gender.

After many hours of deliberation, I have come to a conclusion about gender theory, the entire field of gender theory, to the best of my knowledge gained though discussion, debate and research, is not able to be objectively derived from observable reality. The whole theory, and resulting research into the field is a series of baseless assertions stemming from one singular flawed theory. Therefore, gender theory as a whole, can be dismissed.

The entire existence of gender theory hangs upon the assertion that a human consciousness can be gendered. This assertion is made without evidence, it is quite simply impossible to prove that human consciousness is gendered. No matter which way the concept of a gendered mind is referred to, be it the 'gendered soul', 'trapped in the wrong body', 'I feel like I have a man/woman/boy/girl mind'. The statements made are untestable, and not actual evidence of the existence of a gendered mind. This is the problem of the spaghetti monster/teapot orbiting Jupiter. I tell you it exists, but there is no evidence, and my word alone, or the word of others I convince, is not actual evidence.

Nobody can ever truly fully know the mind of another person. No matter how intelligent we are, no matter how similar our thoughts may be, not even identical twins will have the exact same neural pathways and brain structure. Much like your fingerprint, no two brains are alike and so no two human consciousnesses will ever be alike. So we can never verify any information pertaining to the nature of the consciousness of a person other than ourselves. So we are relegated to faith and trust. Faith and trust however are not hard evidence. Just because two people agree on a theory does not make it any more real or evidence based - see flat earthers.

It's often been joked that you are a brain piloting a meat mech. This joke is surprisingly appt but unsurprisingly largely oversimplifies the situation. You are your body's entire nervous system. There have been some rather fascinating instances where people have received heart transplants and taken on some of the personality traits of the person whose heart they received. Your consciousness is a product of your body, therefore it is completely impossible for your mind to be disconnected from your body.

Your mind can however, under certain circumstances become detached from reality. If we now return to the statements of the mind being gendered differently than the body, the true statement being made becomes more clear, 'The non-physical part of me, my mind, is unthread from my physical body. It is free to be whatever it wants to.' Knowing that the mind is a product of the body, we understand this isn't true. Our minds are free to wonder, even into scenarios which our limited physical forms could not achieve, but our mind is still limited by the body that produces it.

So now that we realise our limitations, we are free to realise the truth, 'there is no spoon', it is only yourself that bends. We have been fooled, though no fault of our own, into placing our mind into the box that is gender identity. The modern concept of gender is one based on social roles, this is a direct cause of gender theory. The social roles are imaginary categories created within our minds to explain real patterns of behaviour we view in the world. The problem is these patterns of behaviour can more easily be attributed to behavioural sexual dimorphism than the unprovable concept of a gendered consciousness. It is not reality that bends, only our perceptions of it that are warped. The reason being the flawed tools we are currently using to view reality, tools which were fashioned in the twisted mind of John Money who was sure he could bend reality to fit his imaginary form of categorisation. These twisted tools have slowly found their way into the mainstream, and now, it is our duty to find them, and dismantle them before they do others more harm. This does leave one final problem.

My proposal for a replacement of gender theory is simple, re-adoption of gender as it was understood prior to John Money sinking his claws into the terminology. Gender is a biological classification system used to combine the one's sex and reproductive status. You are a man - adult human male, woman - adult human female, boy - human male child, girl - human female child or castrated man ( historically eunuch), and castrated woman ( no historic name as the practice is modern).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Hello dear reader. I hope life is treating you well. I have been embroiled in many small encounters on Twitter over the past few months sharpening my ideas around the understanding of gender theory. If you've read my previous article you will be aware I believe gender theory is a non-theistic region.

# data[].attributes.headline
Gender critical author HELEN JOYCE accuses her son's prestigious sixth form of risking safety by allows trans pupils to use girls' toilets and play for female teams

# data[].attributes.subject
Gender critical author HELEN JOYCE accuses her son's prestigious sixth form of risking safety by allows trans pupils to use girls' toilets and play for female teams

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I had already decided to complain to my son's school before his first lesson.

Over the summer, as he was preparing to transfer to Hills Road sixth-form college in Cambridge, a friend pointed me to the ' transgender policy' on the school's website.

It was full of breaches of government regulations and equality law. Worst of all, it drove a coach and horses through child safeguarding.

I knew other parents with children at the school who, unlike my son, suffered from gender-related distress and confusion. Those parents were convinced that the trans inclusion policy, far from helping their children, would make it harder to sort out their issues.

They feared that any complaint to the school would put a target on their children's back. Or that the children would side with the school, and learn to see their parents as enemies.

I've written a book about the problems caused by transgender ideology right across society, especially in schools. I understand the law on sex and gender. I'm not afraid of being labelled a troublemaker: transactivists call me worse. I decided I was in a good position to act.

I drafted a polite email to the head teacher, Jo Trump, setting out the policy's flaws. I explained that other parents agreed with me, but had to remain anonymous for the sake of their children. I offered to talk through the issues in person. With luck the school would take our concerns on board without further harming vulnerable families.

'Students feel completely safe in college'

I sent the email at the beginning of term. In it, I pointed out that allowing trans-identified pupils to use facilities matching their claimed gender identity breached Government regulations requiring single-sex toilets and changing-rooms in schools. That the policy discriminated against girls, who need single-sex facilities more than boys do, and against pupils from religions that mandate separation of the sexes in private situations.

I moved on to sports. The policy said that trans-identified pupils could be included in events and teams for the sex they identified as. That meant boys who identified as girls playing and competing against girls.

This is sex discrimination too. If they're forced to compete against peers who were built by male puberty to be bigger, faster and stronger, girls lose out.

Then I tackled the school's description of 'misgendering' - that is, referring to trans-identified people by the pronouns that match their sex - as harassment or bullying. That, I explained, was yet more discrimination, this time on grounds of 'religion or belief'.

The central tenet of trans ideology - that people are the sex they say they are, never mind their biology - is a bizarre recent invention of academic gender theorists. Hardly anyone else believes it. Making us all pretend we do is like forcing atheists to say that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Saviour, or barring Christians from bearing witness to their faith.

And finally, I laid out the risks. Schools are meant to be places where children's safety comes first. Safeguarding procedures are intended to avoid catastrophic errors, and to reduce predators' room for manoeuvre. Examples include DBS checks, risk assessments and information-sharing protocols.

It's obvious that allowing some boys to count as girls, and vice versa, makes a mockery of safeguarding procedures. And yet there in the policy, in black and white, was the assertion that pupils who claim to feel like the opposite sex have the right to act as if those feelings change reality.

The head teacher's reply was superficial and dismissive. No one else had complained, she said. (Well, someone's got to be the first.) The school knew of no negative consequences from the policy. (What if pupils hate it, but are afraid of being called 'transphobic'?)

The policy was already under review for unrelated reasons, she added. But she gave no indication of how long that review would take, and no sign that she understood the issues.

When she brushed off a follow-up email with a two-line response, we realised there was no point playing nice. Our next letter was a formal complaint to the governing body. We restated all our original concerns - and added another. We had raised serious safeguarding issues, we pointed out, and the head teacher had ignored them.

Another three weeks' wait; another brush-off. So we appealed. That was rejected too.

Nearly an entire term of back-and-forth emails, and we had got precisely nowhere.

Shortly after the start of spring term, we received an email from Ms Trump out of the blue. Our feedback, and legal advice the school had received, had led to changes in the policy, she said. But the changes turned out to be trivial, and failed to address any of the serious issues we had raised.

Our only remaining official option is to write to the Department for Education or Ofsted. Somehow, we don't think they'll listen either.

I admit to being disappointed. I can understand a teacher or school governor skim-reading a policy and agreeing that 'trans girls' belong in the girls' changing rooms - until it's pointed out that 'trans girls' are boys who say they are girls.

I had hoped that the governors had been bamboozled by ideological language, and might see how dangerous and unethical the policy was when it was restated in clearer terms.

In plain English, it allows any boy who claims to be a girl to use the girls' toilets and changing-rooms, and vice versa. This means - and it makes me feel like screaming to have to spell this out - that these facilities are all mixed-sex, no matter what it says on the door.

And yet the governors denied this. Their final response repeated, once again, that Hills Road still has single-sex toilets. 'War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.' Today's version of this quote from George Orwell's dystopian classic 1984 is 'boys are girls, if that's what they claim to be'.

But although I was disappointed, I wasn't surprised. Hills Road is hardly the only school going down this path. So are others all over Britain.

Urged on by lobby groups like Stonewall, Mermaids, Gendered Intelligence and the Kite Trust, many schools are abandoning the concept of biological sex entirely. In its place they have enshrined self-declared gender identity - not just when it comes to facilities and school rules, but when it comes to lessons.

Many children are being taught that humans don't come in two fixed types, male and female. They're told that sex is an arbitrary, irrelevant label 'assigned at birth' by medical professionals. That all that matters is your stated 'gender identity': boy or girl, non-binary or gender-fluid, or a host of other made-up labels. Your gender identity is 'how you feel about yourself inside'.

This is presented as 'progressive' and 'inclusive'. In my view, it's the most sexist rubbish I've heard in my life.

How can anyone know what it 'feels like' to be a member of the other sex? All children have to guide them is regressive stereotypes. Suddenly, a child who likes football, model trains and sports kit is 'really a boy', no matter what's on their birth certificate. One who likes ballet, dolls and fashion is 'really a girl'.

Lessons that tell children to define themselves according to sex stereotypes are part and parcel of the same ideology that demands 'preferred pronouns' and tells pupils to use single-sex facilities for whichever sex they 'identify as'.

The spread of this ideology is a big part of the reason why so many children now identify as 'trans'. The lucky ones will grow out of it. But some will take dangerous measures they can never reverse.

Girls may bind their breasts to make them look more like boys when they are dressed. This can damage delicate tissues and deform their ribs and spines. The really unlucky ones may end up on puberty-blockers and cross-sex hormones. These irreversible treatments can cause sexual dysfunction and sterility in adulthood.

Government regulations say that schools must avoid indoctrination or teaching only one side of a heated political issue. It's hard to imagine anything that better fits that description than teaching children that if you think sex is real, you're backward and a bigot.

It's as if we handed over geography lessons to flat-earthers. Worse, actually, because the lies our children are being taught aren't just about the world around them. They're about a fundamental aspect of being human: our sex.

It all adds up to a full-blown crisis. Schools are indoctrinating our children, alienating them from their parents and putting them at risk.

Some parents I know recently received an email from their 13-year-old daughter's school. It said that at the child's request her registration details were being amended to give her a boy's name and record her sex as male. The email was merely for information; the parents' opinions were not even solicited.

When the parents kept pushing, a staff member let slip that a tenth of the children at that school are recorded as trans or non-binary.

A decade ago trans-identified children were so rare that most people had never met or even heard of one. But relentless indoctrination in schools and on social media has created a social contagion.

How has the UK become a country where this can happen? Why do some school leaders and teachers think it's their right to promote this ideology? Why are they failing in their ethical and legal duty to teach the truth and avoid putting children in harm's way?

And why does the government let this continue?

As my experience of complaining to Hills Road shows, parents who want to challenge activist schools and teachers are in a very weak position.

If you ask what your child is being taught in relationships and sex education, or diversity and inclusion, the school may refuse to answer. Many use materials provided by transactivist groups that cite 'commercial confidentiality' as a reason not to let parents see lesson plans. The government says this is bad practice, but hasn't cracked down.

If you dare to tell your child's school that trans ideology is dangerous nonsense, you are likely to find that it couldn't care less what parents think. The main lesson I have learned is that some teachers and school leaders think it's their right to promote whatever faddish theory they choose.

The only person with the power to rein in activist teachers is the education secretary. Yet Gillian Keegan, who took over the job in October, seems completely out of her depth. In December she was questioned on indoctrination into trans ideology by the education select committee. She rambled, said there needed to be 'debate' and insisted that 'most teachers' are doing their best.

In a profile in the Sunday Times earlier this month she further demonstrated her cluelessness. Her department is supposed to be writing guidance on trans issues for schools, but it wouldn't need to 'define what a girl is', she said. How can girls have private spaces if no one is willing to be clear about who's a girl?

So, for all that my own complaint hit a brick wall, I urge other parents to do the same. Ask if your child's school has a 'trans inclusion policy'. Demand to see what it is teaching about sex and gender identity. If you're rebuffed, complain and complain again.

Don't allow the government to continue to claim this is a marginal issue. Don't let a head teacher say no one has complained. Don't let Keegan think she can get away with waffling while children's safety and future health are at risk.

If the cowards in the Department for Education aren't willing to crack down on this preposterous ideology, it's going to take parent power. If no one else stands up for our children, we'll do it ourselves.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
HELEN JOYCE explains why she had to complain to her son's school

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I had already decided to complain to my son's school before his first lesson. Over the summer, as he was preparing to transfer to Hills Road sixth-form college in Cambridge, a friend pointed me to the ' transgender policy' on the school's website. It was full of breaches of government regulations and equality law.

# data[].attributes.headline
Parents condemn secondary school for a 'complete lack of privacy' as it tells girls to request 'red card passes' while on their period so they can go to the toilets during class time

# data[].attributes.subject
Parents condemn secondary school for a 'complete lack of privacy' as it tells girls to request 'red card passes' while on their period so they can go to the toilets during class time

# data[].attributes.body
What utter degradation of young girls! How on earth any educational establishment thinks this is any way to deal with teen anxiety around periods and puberty is beyond me!
Here you are girls a period shame card so everyone knows your intimate hygiene needs!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Parents condemn secondary school for a 'complete lack of privacy' as it tells girls to request 'red card passes' while on their period so they can go to the toilets during class time

Penrice Academy pupils are not allowed to go to the loo during class time

The headteacher said the policy has been introduced to 'maximise learning time'

A Cornwall school has come under fire from parents after it said that girls must request a 'red card pass' while on their period to go to the toilet during class time

The new policy at Penrice Academy in St Austell means that all pupils can only go to the bathroom outside of lesson time.

The headteacher defended the decision and said it was important to minimise disruption during classes.

The school also insisted that the rule will never prevent pupils from going to the loo if they really are in need.

While some of the parents have also complained about the school enforcing its no coat-rule in corridors.

Many parents in the area took to Facebook to express their outrage, Kim Bailey wrote: 'Any human, child or adult should be allowed to use the toilets at any time.

'They are hardly going to "please Sir I have a touch of diarrhoea". Or "please may I use the loo my periods have started".

'If schools are all about care and nurturing children, some of these controlling and archaic rules need rethinking.'

One mother added: 'They should know by now that these rules are singling students out and will not be approved of by anyone.

'Red passes are a ridiculous idea. This is a complete invasion of young girls' privacy.'

Another concerned parent added: 'The issuing of a red card is neither sensible or a reasonable response. It clearly singles out these young people. Who already have many pressures this is an invasion of their privacy.'

The school said 'red card period passes' can be requested ahead of time for pupils to keep in their bags and use when required.

They also shared with all parents in a newsletter the 'long-standing school expectations regarding coats in corridors and access to toilets during lesson time'.

Lucy Gambier, headteacher of Penrice Academy, defended the policy saying: 'All students are encouraged to wear coats on site at breaktimes and whenever they are outside a school building walking to another lesson.'

She continued: 'We primarily ask that coats are removed once indoors so that students can represent the school with pride in their full uniform.

'Penrice students are welcome to use the toilet facilities at the start of the day, in between lessons, at breaktimes, lunchtimes, and at the end of the day.

'This equates to 6 opportunities throughout the day, spaced no more than 75 minutes apart at any one time. This policy is in place to maximise learning time and minimise disruption to teaching.

'There are, of course, exceptions such as medical conditions and unexpected arrival of periods; toilet passes can be obtained by students who require flexibility or peace of mind.

James Hammersley, the assistant headteacher, added: 'We understand that girls cannot always plan for the arrival of their periods which may take place during lessons.

'With this in mind, girls can request red period pass cards via their tutors which they can keep in their bags to use when required. This system has always proven successful, and many Penrice girls already know of and make use of the cards.

'Crucially, this system operates on trust, and is monitored to ensure that the cards are used appropriately.'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
School tells girls to request 'red card pass' while on their period

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Penrice Academy pupils are not allowed to go to the loo during class time The headteacher said the policy has been introduced to 'maximise learning time' A Cornwall school has come under fire from parents after it said that girls must request a 'red card pass' while on their period to go to the toilet during class time The new policy at Penrice Academy in St Austell means that all pupils can only go to the bathroom outside of lesson time.

# data[].attributes.headline
“Biological sex is not a spectrum: there are only two sexes in humans” with Claire Graham

# data[].attributes.subject
“Biological sex is not a spectrum: there are only two sexes in humans” with Claire Graham

# data[].attributes.body
https://womansplaceuk.org/2019/10/21/biological-sex-is-not-a-spectrum-there-are-only-two-sexes-in-humans-with-claire-graham/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This article is part of a series of interviews featuring international perspectives on the ramifications of the concept of 'gender identity' within public policy. We are grateful to all the women who have agreed to be interviewed. Their perspectives will sometimes disagree, which enriches the series. Most importantly, thank you to Dominican newspaper for its commitment to support women's right to discuss public policy openly and without censorship.
The sudden introduction of the concept of 'gender identity' into public policy across the globe has generated quite a turmoil, riddled with worldwide confusion and clashes of mismatched theories relating to the meaning of sex, gender and personal identity.

Those of us who followed closely the intense 'summer of gender' which recently took place in the Dominican Republic, in which some sectors of society where arguing for or against gender policies being taught in public schools (an effort spearheaded by the Ministry of Education) will remember a video recorded by a charismatic media personality in which she tried to explain the differences between sex and gender.

The didactical video, which went viral, shows the curly-haired publicist stating: "We are currently in the midst of a fight to the death between sectors of society which support gender policies and those who are opposed to it, because they understand that behind them lies an effort to impose a gender ideology. Before we define the difference between gender policies and gender ideology, we need to clarify two concepts which are often confused: sex and gender. Sex refers to the biological differences which defines us as masculine, feminine or intersex, depending on which genitals we were born with."

What this media personality denominates "a fight to the death", is something which I would refer to as an urgently needed democratic debate, but these are trivialities. It is worth pointing out that among the twenty one references which are cited in the video as alleged scientific evidence which support her arguments, almost all of them are about trans politics and twelve of those argue that 'gender identity' (an internal feeling of being feminine or masculine) resides within our brains. Quick question: I thought Departmental Order 33-2019, the cataclysm of this summer's gender debate, was simply about ending violence against women and teaching children about equality?
Raquel Rosario Sánchez: Dear Claire, thank you so much for granting us this interview. My first question is, how did you become involved in the sex and gender debate?
Well, no matter! In this article we will speak with English lawyer Claire Graham. She currently works as a school teacher for special needs children, but she became renowned within UK feminism as an advocate for the rights of intersex people (previously referred to as 'hermaphrodites'), like her.
Right. Let's just get down to it: what is sex?
Claire Graham: I am currently a teacher for special needs children but I am also an intersex advocate. I have a blog where I write about intersex conditions, or differences of sex development (DSD). This stems from a Twitter account where I wrote about MRKH, which is the DSD I was diagnosed with at the age of 18. From this, I meet other people with DSDs and started learning about them too. As I learned, I shared the information. I've been fortunate to meet people who've been very generous with their time and knowledge.
At the moment, there is a human rights case being heard in the United States which could have drastic repercussions to their laws and policies regarding sex and gender. One of the Supreme Court Judges assessing the case, Justice Elena Kagan, has used the language of "sex being assigned at birth" by doctors. How does this work? Is biological sex assigned or determined at birth?
CG: Sex is the language we use to describe reproduction. So, if we're talking about humans, there are people who belong to the group with the potential to produce sperm, or people who belong to the group with the potential to produce ova. The names for these are male or female.

CG: For most of us, our sex is observed. When we're born, the midwife looks at our genitals. Usually this is a good indicator of our sex. If we have a vagina, we're recorded as female. If we have a penis, we're recorded as male.

That's not to say this is a perfect system, there are very rare people who may be born with a vagina, but who have XY chromosomes and internal testes. This means they are genetic males but with a female phenotype (the outside of their body looks like any other woman or girl). We call these 46 XY DSDs. The most well-known example is probably CAIS. Although understanding they're male is important for healthcare, they are raised as and socially accepted as female. This makes sense, 46XY DSD women have similar issues to genetic females, such as gynecological needs and female socialization. This isn't the same as assigned sex.
But if Differences in Sexual Development (DSD) trouble the idea of binary sex, wouldn't that mean that sex should be understood as more of a spectrum? If so, how many sexes are there? Some cultures are said to acknowledge five or seven sexes...
Assigned sex is really a term for IGM, intersex genital mutilation. In the past, and sadly still in many places today, if a child was born with genitalia that didn't look typically male or female (what we call ambiguous genitalia), doctors would perform surgery to make the genitals appear "normal". Due to the limitations of surgery, doctors developed a theory: "It's easier to build a pole than dig a hole". This meant children with ambiguous genitalia would have a surgically created penis and be assigned male, even if they were female. In these cases, we use the term "assigned sex". It's important that we have unique language to describe that experience.

CG: It is not a spectrum, although I know that's a popular theory. There are only two sexes in humans. As I say, sex is the language we use to describe reproduction. People have potential to be either large gamete producers, or small gamete producers. No one produces both; no one produces something else.
During the national conversation about sex and gender, which took place this summer in the Dominican Republic, we heard several reputable non-profit organisations and State agencies make the claim that the category of 'intersex' constitutes a 3rd sex. Would you agree? If not, why not?
Some people are infertile, but that doesn't make them sexless. Doctors can tell what sex infertile people are, hence, we have different treatment options for males and females to help with fertility problems. To be slightly explicit, doctors do not look at the testicles of an infertile male and wonder if they should be producing sperm or ova.

CG: I don't agree, mainly for the same reasons that I don't agree that sex is a spectrum. It seems odd to me that anyone would look at a man with Klinefelter's (a condition where males have an extra X chromosome) and a woman, like me, with MRKH, and try to argue we are the same sex as each other.
Do you consider sex to be a political issue? If so, is there a difference between how feminism and how trans activism politically theorise about sex?
This isn't a policy that has come from intersex organisations. They have always been against being classed as a third sex. Germany changed their law a few years ago to say any child born with ambiguous genitalia had to be recorded as a third sex. Intersex organisations all over the world condemned this. It's arguable third sex markers encourage more surgeries on intersex infants as parents are unlikely to feel comfortable with the uncertainty. It's also unnecessary. We can work out the sex of children with ambiguous genitalia. This is a key factor in diagnosing their specific DSD, which is information every intersex person is entitled to.

CG: Sex is very much a political issue. On a basic level, it's important for healthcare so, especially in countries with socialized healthcare, governments need to understand our sex to ensure resources are distributed accordingly and public health campaigns reach the right audience. It also has huge implications for women. Sex based discrimination happens all around the world. There are specific issues, such as female genital mutilation, sex selective abortion, female infanticide, etc. Countries that are successful in addressing and eliminating these practices do so through legislation. They are issues politicians and governments have to engage with to fix.

Even where laws are successful with addressing this, women have additional needs, such as access to maternity care or menstruation products. Time out from work to have children also means women's earning potential and pensions can be affected. In some countries, women have been denied the right to vote, drive, be in employment, own property or have credit in their own name. Women can also have difficulty accessing public life for other reasons, such as a lack of single sex spaces. UNESCO released a report last year that stated lack of access to single sex toilets is one of the biggest barriers to education for girls around the world. One of the jobs of politics is to address structural inequalities like these and ensure women and girls are protected from discrimination or being disadvantaged because of their sex.
Forgive me if this is intrusive, but there is a very common myth that intersex conditions equal significant numbers of people with what you refer to, in your work, as "ambiguous genitalia." Could you give us some basic statistics as to how common intersex conditions are? And does it really come down to what genitals you have as a baby when you're born?
I think this probably illustrates the tension that exists between trans activists and feminists. Feminism historically is about the advocacy for women's rights based on the equality of the sexes. In other words, all those issues I've just mentioned are the focus of feminism. Trans activists, on the other hand, argue sex is a social construct, which denies the material reality of women as a sex class and makes talking about the specific inequalities and discrimination they face difficult. If we can't identify the group, we can't name the problem and address it.

CG: To be honest, there are no questions that I find too intrusive when I'm talking about DSDs. I've had to lose any embarrassment over talking about genitals to be able to do what I do. I want to encourage open and honest conversations.

The statistic you'll often see is 1.7%. If we use that, we are not actually talking about people with ambiguous genitalia in all cases. In fact, 1.5% are people with late onset CAH. This is a condition that doesn't manifest until later in life, so people with it are not different at birth in any way.

This leaves us with 0.2% of the population who are born with a difference, what we call congenital conditions. Most of these are not ambiguous at birth either. Take MRKH, my phenotype is typically female, so I looked no different to any other girl at birth. Internally, I don't have a cervix and my uterus never developed properly. I also have a slightly short vagina, although I do have ovaries and an XX karyotype so am genetically female. None of this was noticed when I was born, as people don't go looking for your internal organs. Most congenital intersex conditions are similar in that regard and each one is quite rare. The most common is Klinefelter's, which affects 0.1% of the population, then the others increase in rarity. MRKH, for example, affects around 1 in 5000 women.

Cases of ambiguous genitalia are extremely rare. Due to the surgeries in the past and secrecy surrounding intersex conditions, exact numbers are hard to find. To give a picture though, of the 40 or so conditions encompassed by the term DSD, only a handful result in a child being born with ambiguous genitalia. These include PAIS, 5-ARD deficiency, CAH and gonadal dysgenesis. That's not to say everyone born with these conditions will be ambiguous at birth either. So, it's a tiny fraction of a tiny fraction, probably less than 0.001% of all births.

I should point out, ambiguous genitalia is a slightly misleading term. Most people think it means genitals that cannot be classified as male or female at all. This isn't accurate. What we're talking about is genitalia that may not appear clearly male or female upon initial observation. This could include a female who is virilized. Virilization means masculinized, so the girl's clitoris is larger and may look more like a penis and her labia may be fused so it looks like a scrotal sack. For males, it can include a hypospadias, where the urethra opens on the underside of the penis, or a small penis that looks more like a clitoris, or it can mean their testicles haven't descended so the scrotum looks like a labia.

Something a lot of people don't realize is ambiguous genitalia is treated as a medical emergency. While the genitalia itself does not pose an immediate risk to health, it can be a symptom that other things aren't right. In the case of CAH, which only involves ambiguous genitalia in genetic females, there are two different types, one of which is salt wasting CAH. If this is not diagnosed and managed it can be fatal. So, when someone is born with ambiguous genitalia, a whole raft of experts gets involved. It's important doctors understand the child's sex and anatomy for accurate diagnosis.
We've seen in the news the case of Olympic gold medalist Caster Semenya, who is an intersex person. Why is the intersex condition such a complex matter for sporting bodies? In your opinion, in which category should people like Caster Semenya compete?
I guess, therefore, to answer your question, it kind of does all boil down to which genitals you are born with, even more so for people with ambiguous genitalia.

CG: Cases like Caster Semenya are complicated, and I find the sports debate quite difficult from an intersex point of view. Semenya has a 46XY DSD, so she is genetically male. I haven't seen her medical records, but I've read the judgment and the rules and they're quite specific. Although this is also a slight oversimplification. Some women with 46XY DSDs are not included within the rule, such as those with CAIS or Swyer Syndrome. This is because either they are unable to respond to testosterone or they do not have internal testes, so are not considered to have a significant advantage compared to genetic females.

The issue boils down to whether women with 46XY DSDs, internal testes and an ability to produce and respond to testosterone at a higher rate than genetic females, have an advantage in sport. Arguably they do, when Semenya was made to reduce her testosterone, we know her performance dipped. The next question is whether that advantage is unfair and if so, should she not be allowed to compete or maybe take medication to reduce her advantage.

From an intersex advocacy standpoint, the second option is not appealing. Intersex activism has always argued against enforced or unnecessary medicalization. Some medical organizations, in fact, released statements, telling their members not to agree to agree to provide the treatment as it could be unethical. It's not an intervention for health benefits. That poses difficult questions for athletes who agree to comply with the rules.

It's difficult for me to argue that women like Semenya should be made to race with the men, and I know this is contentious. While some 46XY DSD women may have an advantage over genetic females, they would not stand a chance in the male competition. This would mean we would lose athletes like Semenya from elite sports. Seeing an intersex woman, not ashamed of being different, and succeeding is important for young girls with DSDs.
You argue that you are a reluctant advocate for intersex rights and that your advocacy started as a response to trans activists appropriating intersex conditions. Would you say that there is a conflict between the aims of intersex advocacy and the goals of trans advocacy?
Fairness is in the eye of the beholder here. I can't pretend I have an answer as to what should happen, and intersex is just a tiny portion of the sports debate. Although Semenya is obviously high profile, so her case gets a lot of attention. I think it's a shame that her case came around while trans inclusion in sport is under scrutiny. It's unfair to compare DSD athletes to trans athletes. They do not share the same advantages and are asking to be able to compete as the sex they were recorded as at birth.

CG: I would say trans activism has many aims that are at odds with the intersex community, although not all intersex people agree with me. Intersex activists would rather minimize medical interventions, as I explained with the Caster Semenya case, whereas trans activists often campaign for free access to many of the same interventions. They include children in this, which is really the antithesis of intersex aims.
Could you tell you a bit about how you were banned from social media, please? It is bizarre that your voice has been censored on social media when this debate benefits so much from understanding the complexities of sex and gender from the perspectives of intersex advocates.
I don't think the sex spectrum is great for intersex people either. When surgical interventions happen to babies often this includes the child never being told the truth about their sex and their medical history. This is sometimes achieved by using vague or inaccurate terms. Hermaphrodite is probably one most people are familiar with. In the past, this would be the "diagnosis" recorded for a child with ambiguous genitalia, then a sex would be assigned, or other unnecessary surgeries performed. I see the sex spectrum as being like that. It just leaves a question mark. There's no need to do that when our understanding of sex and DSDs is so much more advanced.

CG: It's an odd story. My account wasn't popular with trans activists, so they often reported me for hate speech. I would get notifications from Twitter, telling me about unsuccessful reports. Then, a few months ago, Twitter banned me, alleging that I was "managing multiple accounts for abuse purposes". I only had two accounts, MRKHvoice, and a tiny personal account which I didn't use anymore. They haven't deleted that account, so I'm unsure what they mean. I've tried appealing but speaking to a human being at Twitter is almost impossible.
What would be something that you would like our Dominican audience to understand about intersex conditions?
My account was never abusive. Some people may not like what I say, but my campaign is about protecting women's rights by acknowledging their recognition as a sex class and ensuring people with DSDs have fair representation in a debate that is often about us, but usually without us speaking.

CG: I think the thing to remember is most intersex people aren't interested in being used as a political tool. Most of us understand ourselves as male or female but with a medical condition that caused a difference in how we developed. A lot of the arguments you hear about intersex in the mainstream media either don't come from intersex people or don't represent how many of us see ourselves.

It's great to raise awareness about our conditions because they are rare, but it's important, if you're doing so, to make sure what you're saying is accurate and helpful. When you talk to intersex people, that's usually what they want; access to clear information and a better understanding of their body and development. Using us as props in someone else's argument only makes finding that information harder as it just gives us more to sift through.
This is quite an instructive interview. I have to ask, though, what would you say to people who argue that by speaking about chromosomes and karyotypes you are "reducing women to their biology"? The year is 2019 and yet here we are, having conversations about who can claim menstruation and what constitutes sperm. Shouldn't society be past this stage and just strive for "equality"?
Also, don't expect people with DSDs to necessarily want to share that information about themselves, or have it shared about them. There's no reason to be ashamed of being intersex, but it is a medical condition. Like everyone else, we're entitled to privacy surrounding that. You may know people with DSDs, but you wouldn't be able to tell. I have a mixture of people in my life who know and who don't. It's obviously not a secret, but it's not like I greet people with it or use it as small talk.

CG: Women face discrimination and inequality because of their biology. This isn't something made up by feminists, it's material reality. Equality isn't achieved by denying or ignoring this, but by seeing it and openly talking about its causes and remedies. This doesn't have to conflict with other people's rights or identities. I think everyone should have the right to dress, act, think, believe and do whatever they like, as long as they're not hurting anyone.
A thousand thank you's to English teacher and lawyer Claire Graham for her time and most importantly, for her advocacy for intersex people's human rights. Our next interview will focus on how the new generation of activists and thinkers are navigating the suffocating sex and gender debate within the feminist movement. Raquel Rosario Sánchez is a writer, campaigner and researcher from the Dominican Republic. She specialises in ending male violence against girls and women and is currently pursuing a PhD with the Centre for Gender and Violence Research at the University of Bristol. The original, shorter version of this interview was published by Dominican newspaper El Caribe on October 21st, 2019. You can read it in Spanish here.
I also think it's important we build our laws and understanding of the world on objective, observable facts though. How else will we know if we're achieving equality?

Read all the interviews in the El Caribe series on sex and gender identity here

We believe that it is important to share a range of viewpoints on women's rights and advancement from different perspectives. WPUK does not necessarily agree or endorse all the views that we share.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
"Biological sex is not a spectrum: there are only two sexes in humans" with Claire Graham - Woman's Place UK

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This article is part of a series of interviews featuring international perspectives on the ramifications of the concept of 'gender identity' within public policy. We are grateful to all the women who have agreed to be interviewed. Their perspectives will sometimes disagree, which enriches the series.

# data[].attributes.headline
Durham student 🤬 acquittal sparks talk of criminal law reform.  By Katie King     

# data[].attributes.subject
Durham student 🤬 acquittal sparks talk of criminal law reform.  By Katie King     

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Should we bring back anonymity for accused rapists?

The law on the anonymity of defendants has come under scrutiny once again, after a Durham Uni student's life was "devastated" by false rape allegations.

This week, 21 year-old Louis Richardson, a Durham history undergrad and former head of the university's debating society, was cleared of rape and sexual assault.

Richardson was accused of raping a woman when she was "crazy drunk", and sexually assaulting another at a student party.

The accused firmly denied the charges. He admitted having had consensual sex with his 'victim', and claimed that her boyfriend encouraged her to make up the complaint.

Philippa McAtasney QC of Furnival Chambers, defending Richardson, described his alleged rape victim as:

[A] highly manipulative, dishonest, dangerous young woman.

On Tuesday, Richardson was acquitted at Durham Crown Court by a jury that took just over two hours to reach a verdict.

Being falsely accused of rape is no doubt rare, but these allegations can have a serious, long-term impact on the suspect.

Though cleared of all offences, the bright student's life has reportedly been "devastated" by these allegations. A statement released on behalf of the Richardsons described the experience as "absolute hell for the whole family."

Debate is stirring - as it often does after a case like this - about whether anonymity should be granted to defendants, at least in cases of a sensitive subject matter.

Currently, victims of sexual offences are granted full anonymity, but the same protection is not available to suspected offenders. This has not always been the case - in the 1970s anonymity was introduced for accused rapists, but this was later repealed in 1988 for fear that victims were being discouraged from coming forward.

There is an indisputable level of support for the pre-1988 rules to be reinstated, or at least reconsidered.

Nigel Evans - leading Conservative MP and former deputy speaker - has pushed for a change in the law of sexual offence trials. As someone who himself was cleared of rape in 2014, Evans has serious doubts about whether Richardson's case should have ever reached the courtroom, let alone hit the press. He said:

We can't know everything that the jury knew but they took less than three hours on the basis of the evidence. It begs the question: why did this case ever go to court?

He continued:

After these kinds of case, [the Crown Prosecution Service] and the police go into defensive mode. I understand where they are coming from, but we do need to look again at why this went to trial. Did they get it wrong?

And he's not alone. Anonymous legal blogger the Secret Barrister has described himself as "very much in favour" of keeping the identity of accused sexual perpetrators hidden. He told us:

Affording anonymity until conviction would not only protect the reputations of the acquitted, but would ensure that prosecutorial decisions can be taken without consideration of popular opinion or media or political pressure.

So, given this undeniable raft of support, is a change in the law around the corner?

Maybe, but maybe not.

Mark Fenhalls QC, the chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, has spoken out about the need to review the current legislation. He told The Times ' law newsletter :

There is an argument, at least, that anonymity should be looked at.

However, it's not all black and white. There is a strong argument that granting anonymity may compromise the openness of the criminal justice system, and the job of the legislator is to get this balancing act right.

These concerns are echoed by Felicity Gerry QC, who herself thinks that reform would be detrimental. When Legal Cheek spoke to the criminal barrister, she told us:

Reports of the trial tend to suggest that [Richardson] was well represented and that he took the opportunity to give evidence. That is what trials are for. Better to have a public conviction or acquittal than gossip and rumour.

But is there a middle way?

Max Hardy, a criminal barrister at 9 Bedford Row, seems to think so. Describing anonymity of suspects as "a very vexed issue", Hardy told Legal Cheek:

It seems to me that one practical solution would be a presumption in favour of anonymity until conviction with a discretionary power reserved to judges to allow publicity upon application and submissions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Durham student rape acquittal sparks talk of criminal law reform - Legal Cheek

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Should we bring back anonymity for accused rapists? The law on the anonymity of defendants has come under scrutiny once again, after a Durham Uni student's life was "devastated" by false rape allegations. This week, 21 year-old Louis Richardson, a Durham history undergrad and former head of the university's debating society, was cleared of rape and sexual assault.

# data[].attributes.headline
End Violence Against Women International is an organization that trains police in “Start by Believing” and “Trauma informed” investigations used both in the US and UK. It’s flawed - so much so that the US Department of Justice has ceased funding this training. By Claire Best

# data[].attributes.subject
End Violence Against Women International is an organization that trains police in “Start by Believing” and “Trauma informed” investigations used both in the US and UK. It’s flawed - so much so that the US Department of Justice has ceased funding this training. By Claire Best

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
For several years I was on the board of Dunelm USA, the committee run by Durham University alumni in the US.

When I read the news about accusations against incoming freshman for "Rape culture" Facebook messages in September 2020, I immediately called a local contact for the university.

While I wasn't sure of the veracity of the claims broadcast by the BBC, published in The Daily Mail, The Times, The Sun, The Daily Mirror, Airmail and other news organizations and Glossy magazines, I sensed that this might be a set up by Title IX activists from the US who had infiltrated the UK's school and university system.

I alerted my Durham contact to what I thought might be going on.

Two weeks later I received a thank you: Durham police had investigated.

Only one freshman had done anything to warrant having his place rescinded. Had I not made that call I wonder if several others might have never made it to freshers' week due to the media and social media being promulgated about the "Posh lads" about to arrive at an "Elite" university.

Title IX is an act that was introduced in the US in 1972 to prevent sex discrimination on campus. It consists of 37 words which have had the most profound influence on education - for the greater good and sometimes leading to civil rights atrocities - the framing of innocent (mostly male) students, teachers and professors.

Title IX's origins lay in an effort to address the paucity of options for women's sports. Tennis icon Billie Jean King was a huge advocate for Title IX. Women's sports on campus have flourished since then.

Nevertheless, in the last couple of decades Title IX has been weaponized by feminist activists working across the department of education, the department of justice, the department of defence and the FBI. These have formed strategic partnerships with police departments, campus administrators, PR specialists and "Non-profits" with charitable status claiming to address an epidemic of male upon female sexual assault on campus.

The allegations published in September 2020 about the incoming freshmen at Durham University had a familiar ring. They echoed ones made a couple of months earlier against male students at St Andrews University in Scotland - a popular choice for American students who wish to go to university overseas.

Just a month earlier, US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (a Trump appointee) had introduced new Title IX regulations after consideration of 124,000 comments from the public and interested parties.

The new regulations which replaced those introduced by Vice President Joe Biden on April 4, 2011 (and which did not go through the regulatory process) were seen by many from all sides of the political spectrum as being fairer to all parties, accuser and accused.

These new regulations, however, didn't cover incidents that might happen overseas during a school year or semester abroad. There was a lot of push back from the Obama/Biden Department of Education and their affiliates who'd taken a dig at Betsy DeVos via Amber Heard's Washington Post December 2018 Op-ed, which was central to the Johnny Depp v Amber Heard defamation trial in Fairfax, Virginia.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ive-seen-how-institutions-protect-men-accused-of-abuse-heres-what-we-can-do/2018/12/18/71fd876a-02ed-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html

Discovery from the Washington Post Op-Ed revealed that Amber Heard was solicited by the ACLU who actually created the Op-ed for her. It was timed to coincide with the call to renew the Violence Against Women Act and the release of Warner Brothers' Aquaman in which Amber Heard stars. Shortly after it was published, Johnny Depp was cancelled from Fantastic Beasts, a Warner Brothers film based on a book by J.K. Rowling. He was also cancelled from a $22.5 million deal for Pirates of the Caribbean.

Amber Heard's attorney, Roberta Kaplan (on the board of Times Up and the National Women's Law Center) abruptly quit her legal team. No explanation was given.

However, it appears that Anthony D Romero, the Executive Director of the ACLU was also on the board of the National Women's Law Center where Roberta Kaplan was a prominent member. The ACLU and an organization called "Know Your IX" sued Betsy DeVos over the new Title IX regulations. The organization that has long been revered for standing up for civil rights, the ACLU, suddenly lost the plot altogether:

Since Johnny Depp's win in the defamation trial in Virginia, there have been online petitions asking for his trial in the UK against The Sun newspaper to be revisited. The "Wifebeater" headline which appeared in The Sun in 2018 was, I believe, a political move, timed to coincide with several other events in 2018 to help the Democratic Party renew The Violence Against Women Act which, via grants from the Department of Justice, has released $9 billion over the years since 1994 for police, prosecution and victim's rights advocacy.

Were the journalists in Britain given a narrative carefully timed to smear incoming "Posh" students at an "Elite" university? I believe so. Were the journalists also given a narrative for St Andrews University earlier in the summer designed to interfere with the new Title IX regulations going into effect which would leave incidents involving US students at UK universities out of the Title IX jurisdiction? My gut says yes.

And, was there a strategic plan behind all this which was brought to the UK by the US activists? I, also, believe so.

There are organizations which work in both the US and the UK which are worthy of scrutiny, especially when you consider data protection laws alongside the partnerships these charities have with US Government Affairs PR firms and social media giants such as Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, YouTube and Google.

Just recently Anita Dunn, who had been Obama's Director of Communications before joining a well-known public relations company SKDK specializing in the Democratic Party, has had to divest of her shares in Google for conflicts of interest.

Google has partnerships with Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook and major print and broadcast media organizations. A rumour about Facebook posts from incoming freshmen at Durham University can strategically become the first item in a Google search about the university, ruining not only the reputation of the males involved but also the "Elite" institution itself. I believe that is the goal. Clickbait material drives traffic for online major brand advertisers like L'Oreal, Uber, Lyft and others. The more sensationalist and negative the news, the more traffic for the server and the advertiser.

Anita Dunn's PR firm represents UNWomen for whom Emma Watson became an ambassador in 2014 for the campaign. The following article, created with the help of SKDK, presents a Gordian knot intertwining UNWomen with the White House, Social Media and agenda to influence the "Harry Potter" generation.

Earlier in 2014, Dr Charlotte Proudman, once known as Charlotte Bailye from Keele University, used LinkedIn to contact Alexander Carter-Silk. Suddenly Proudman shot to fame and has become an outspoken feminist ever since.

Proudman is a follower and admirer of Stanford Law Professor Michele Dauber whose online vitriol against men and some women is far-reaching and has led to death threats for her targets. Professor Michele Dauber helped draft an unregulated federal directive for Title IX ("Dear Colleague" or "DCL") which then Vice President Joe Biden introduced on April 4, 2011 at the University of New Hampshire.

The non-partisan organization The FIRE issued the following rebuttal to the "Dear Colleague" Title IX 2011 letter:

It wasn't until September 2017 that the unregulated directive was rescinded by Betsy DeVos paving the way for the 2020 regulations currently in effect, requiring due process.

The University of New Hampshire had received funds from the Department of Justice during this period to develop "Bystander" and "Know Your Power" training to combat sexual assault. These are now marketed under a company called Soteria Solutions which has sold its services in the UK to Bath University and possibly elsewhere.

The problem is that the "Bystander" training and "Know Your Power" were developed by feminists and consequentially ignored violence by females upon males. The 2015 trial of New Hampshire vs Owen Labrie (18) was used to support the case for "Bystander" training. I see the arguments presented by Sharyn Potter from the University of New Hampshire as absurd, which would never stand up to scrutiny. Yet, this training has been sold around the world and nobody has looked into its deeply sexist and potentially catastrophic flaws.

Given the recent revelations about Dr Breslow, trustee for the trans charity Mermaids, supported by Emma Watson, ambassador for UN Women, it might be time for UK schools and universities to question the training programs they receive from the US, including those coming from Soteria Solutions and the University of New Hampshire.

End Violence Against Women International is an organization that trains police in "Start by Believing" and "Trauma informed" investigations used both in the US and UK. It's flawed - so much so that the US Department of Justice has ceased funding this training.

The following post is a rebuttal to Amber Heard's Op-Ed. Everyone must stand up for the civil rights of all students, including males, in schools, colleges and universities.

https://avoiceformen.com/featured/a-letter-to-washington-post-regarding-the-amber-heard-op-ed-fiasco/

Claire Best heads Claire Best & Associates, an international talent agency representing some of the most respected names in the entertainment industry for film, television, and commercials that was established in 2010. She had 16 years of experience in the agency business as an owner, C.E.O. and C.O.O. before Claire Best & Associates. Prior to becoming an agent in 2002, Claire was a production executive at New Line Cinema and Fine Line Features where she oversaw the production of many well-known domestic and international feature films from 1996-2001. Claire has also produced and executive produced a number of award winning and critically acclaimed features, shorts, and documentaries. She is a voting member of B.A.F.T.A. and the Television Academy (see: clairebest.net).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Durham University, The Campus Survivor Movement and The Media

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Durham University For several years I was on the board of Dunelm USA, the committee run by Durham University alumni in the US. When I read the news about accusations against incoming freshman for "Rape culture" Facebook messages in September 2020, I immediately called a local contact for the university.