Long Off @LongOff5

A draft conversion practices bill has now been published. We will continue scrutinising the detail, but we believe this bill constitutes an indefensible incursion by the state into family life with devastating impacts for parents who are trying to support their children in what is already a hostile environment. gov.uk/government/pub… Individual parents, parent-led support groups like @BayswaterSG, and healthcare professionals (including the NHS paediatric gender services) continue to be subjected to a barrage of false accusations that they are engaging in "conversion". This draft bill adds the threat of criminal prosecution to those wildly inaccurate claims. Even if the bar for prosecution is high, the chilling effect and the detrimental impact on public understanding of transgender identity is profound. One thing we can be sure of is that accusations of conversion will come thick and fast, as they have done over the last decade. Escaping prosecution will be scant consolation for those subjected to this onslaught of fabrication and intimidation. The threat of being prosecuted for corporate conversion means that schools will be even more inclined to affirm a child's attested cross-sex identity, despite safeguarding advice to exercise caution. The potential psychological and lifelong medical consequences for the child will be less of a concern to a school than its own legal risk under poorly defined legislation. The press release for the bill claims "robust thresholds that protect open conversations, and free speech", but those are nowhere to be seen in the bill itself. Instead, the bill relies on subjective assessments to define what constitutes criminally "abusive" conduct, stating that this would need to involve "controlling or coercive words or behaviour" or "use of psychological or emotional pressure". Accusations of psychological or emotional abuse are rife when it comes to transgender identity. If this bill becomes effective, parents will justifiably fear that such accusations could now escalate into a threat of a criminal offence that carries a penalty of imprisonment up to 5 years. But that is not the only concern for parents who must now worry about the prospect of a "conversion practice protection order" should they disagree with their child over the merits of a "transgender identity" as the explanation for the child's experience. Any parent who fails to affirm their child's "transgender identity" or who voices concerns about a belief that mind and body can be mismatched in this way could be accused of exerting "psychological or emotional pressure" under the terms of this bill. None of this will help the parents of a distressed young teenager who is convinced that her "transgender identity" means she needs to source DIY testosterone to modify her body in line with her identity. Or parents frantic with concern over their young adult son, who is failing to hold down work or social relationships, all while pinning his hopes of happiness on a medical transformation with significant risks to his long-term health and well-being. Most importantly of all, this bill will harm the very people it purports to protect by enshrining in law a belief that is inextricably bound up with rejection of the body and psychological distress.

“Gender ideology, transgenderism, isn’t true. Every single aspect of it is a lie. In fact, every claim it makes, the exact opposite is true. Men are not women, women are not men, no one is born in the wrong body, sex is not changeable, gender identity isn’t real.”

🚨Breaking: The UK government has published a draft ‘Conversion Practices Bill’🚨 As expected, it is an utter nightmare. The fact that Stonewall is celebrating tells you everything you need to know. On the week that it pushed forward with the puberty blockers trial, the government may now rob children of the opportunity to become comfortable in their own bodies. It includes no exemption for parents. Parents who try to dissuade their children from ‘transitioning’ could be criminalised and put in prison for 5 years. It further enshrines the notion of ‘transgender identity’ in the law and makes the offence ridiculously broad: “conduct causing someone to believe that they have or do not have a transgender identity”. It further enshrines the notion of being ‘non-binary’ in the law. The protection for therapists and other medical professionals is severely lacking, with a test of ‘reasonableness’ created. There is also a low threshold for what constitutes ‘abuse’. Make no mistake about it, this Bill will criminalising talking. It poses a significant threat to freedom of speech, religious freedoms and to the safeguarding of vulnerable children. It must not be allowed to become law.

Wihtout wishing to start a fight, there's an interesting contrast in this post. I acknowledge the work and resources that @CConcern put into this dispute, and, of course, respect the religious beliefs of the nurses who went down this road. But there is nothing specifically *christian* about the views expressed in the interview, as far as I can see. There's a possible world, not very far from the one we're in, in which this could be a post from the RCN or Unison, trade unions representing women workers who took seriously their responsibilities to represent workers, who took on NHS management, and won a victory, damages and an apology from the trust: who defended workers against management who disrespected their sex-based rights. We are in a world in which christian pressure groups seem to represent (some) women's rights better than the trade union movement. How did that come to pass?

Christian Concern @CConcern

a day ago

1. 🚨BREAKING: County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust has paid £187,000 in damages, apologised, and committed to separate changing facilities for male and female staff following the Darlington nurses’ legal case. In January, the Employment Tribunal had found the

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Nearly one in three MSPs and their staff claim they don’t know what toilet to use since new rules were introduced at the Scottish Parliament determining access by biological sex. dailymail.com/news/article-1…

If you’re on a hospital waiting list in Darlington, be comforted that the NHS wasted £1mln of your money trying to force female nurses to strip before a male colleague.

Janice Turner @VictoriaPeckham

a day ago

An NHS hospital trust has wasted almost £1 million of public money trying to destroy nurses who simply didn't want to get undressed in front of a man.

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An NHS hospital trust has wasted almost £1 million of public money trying to destroy nurses who simply didn't want to get undressed in front of a man.

Christian Concern @CConcern

a day ago

1. 🚨BREAKING: County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust has paid £187,000 in damages, apologised, and committed to separate changing facilities for male and female staff following the Darlington nurses’ legal case. In January, the Employment Tribunal had found the

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“We were told we had a duty to speak out when things were wrong.” “Many of us feel uncomfortable about using Beagles for medical research. How on earth can it be right to use children for irreversible and life changing medical research?” @angusmacdlibdem on puberty blockers. 👍

@AJRMcCann @spectator @lara_e_brown Your last para makes no sense - the opposition is evidence based. YOUR support is ideological as you have no evidence to support your views.

1. 🚨BREAKING: County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust has paid £187,000 in damages, apologised, and committed to separate changing facilities for male and female staff following the Darlington nurses’ legal case. In January, the Employment Tribunal had found the nurses suffered harassment and indirect sex discrimination over workplace changing-room arrangement. The case, brought by seven nurses at Darlington Memorial Hospital, Bethany Hutchison, Lisa Lockey, Karen Danson, Tracy Hooper, Annice Grundy, Carly Hoy and Jane Peveller, was supported by the Christian Legal Centre, which has provided the nurses with legal, media and pastoral support from the beginning of their ordeal. The case has become one of the most significant legal challenges in recent years concerning the freedom of female staff to access single-sex spaces in the workplace, with the nurses being compared to the Ford Dagenham workers and being dubbed ‘The Angels of the North.’ In January, Employment Judge Seamus Sweeney, ruled that the policy, which had been in place at the Trust for years allowing men who identify as women to access the female staff changing room, had amounted to unlawful discrimination. Following extensive and at times deeply protracted negotiations, the Trust has now paid out £187,000 in damages to the nurses, which does not include legal costs, which are still to be decided at a further hearing. This figure also does not include the Trust’s own legal costs of £603,000, and counting, spent on defending its position of allowing men into female changing rooms. See more on our website and in this🧵to see the Trust's apology and commitments on single-sex spaces.... christianconcern.com/ccpressrelease…

People campaign, rightly, against the use of animals in drug testing, but it seems it is okay to conduct clinical trials on puberty blockers using 11 year children. Just stop and think about that for a moment. 11 year old children. Every Labour MP who voted for this today should be ashamed. This is child abuse.

Conservatives @Conservatives

2 days ago

Complicit.

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Hydration break

It is grossly irresponsible for Baroness Cass, a trusted voice on child gender interventions, to make misleading and unevidenced remarks in support of a puberty-blocker trial. Children must not be put at risk to prop up this unethical and discredited treatment. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

On this day in 1972, President Nixon signed Title IX into law, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex and opening the door for women's equal academic and athletic opportunities. We knew what a woman was 54 years ago, and we know what a woman is now. @xx_xyathletics

I was searching for something else and came across the 2020 judgment on Mermaids v. Charity Commission case, where the fishy bastards tried to strip LGB Alliance of their charitable status. I found this, I stand by it. judiciary.uk/wp-content/upl…

Given how quickly the decision has been made, how did the ridiculous tin-eared memo from the SPS chief exec ever see the light of day? How do people get into senior positions without having basic levels of competence to see how things they say will be perceived by the public?

For Women Scotland @ForWomenScot

2 days ago

Scottish Government will not appeal Lady Ross's ruling on prisons.

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BREAKING: Ilana Gritzewsky, who was held hostage by Hamas, just took the floor at the United Nations to confront Reem Alsalem, the UN rapporteur on violence against women. Her dramatic testimony: Special Rapporteur, your report speaks about violence against women. Why is there no mention of Hamas? On October 7, terrorists stormed our Kibbutz — murdering, kidnapping, and burning. I was beaten and mutilated before blacking out. I woke up half naked with seven terrorists standing over me, not knowing what happened to me in those lost moments. I went through days of pain and horror in captivity, and even now the feeling of being powerless and violated still lingers. I came back with a broken hip, a broken jaw and a shattered soul. People see my face and think I’m free. But freedom is not a switch. Trauma doesn’t vanish once you are released. Now, every air-raid siren, and every rocket from Iran, throws me back into that hell. On October 7, and in captivity, Jewish women were raped, abused, and humiliated. And you, Special Rapporteur, you chose silence and denial. Ms. Alsalem, you said there was no evidence of sexual violence on October 7. I am standing here today — not as a report, not as a statistic. I am a woman who survived. I am the living proof of sexual violence by Hamas. When I and other Israeli women begged not to be raped, why were you silent? Please look at me. Do you believe us now? Will you apologize?

@LGBTQPrideUK @DreyfusJames Arguing non sex based pronouns are the fault of homophobes is a bit....niche. Have you checked this out with the rest of the Alphabet Mafia?

A man, who wreaked havoc at girls' schools by threatening to murder pupils and staff who he said had 'misgendered' 'trans' pupils, has been jailed. After publishing, it took 16 days for the BBC to reveal that 'trans' had anything to do with his crimes. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

I do not subscribe to your ideology, which means I do not believe in ‘cis’ and ‘trans’ in the essentialist way you apply the terms. I don’t believe anyone is ‘born in the wrong body’ because I don’t believe in gendered essences or souls. Gender dysphoria exists, as does fetishism. As far as human rights go, a man’s motivation for presenting as a woman is irrelevant. Society either agrees they’re all women if they want to be, or that they’re men with diverse motivations, none of which entitle them to women’s spaces.