The Times: rape crisis founder backs JKR, 2/3 voters oppose GRR, Sturgeon husband and SNP loan, and film screening stories

[ResisterRex]

Stories in the Times today:

Two thirds of voters oppose SNP’s gender reform plans

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bdf96958-7c02-11ed-bcd8-855e06175970?shareToken=a8873d488ae0751017c66553578cf5a7

Nicola Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell failed to declare £100,000 loan to SNP

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/3c1681a0-7bbc-11ed-8486-22782b7fe87b?shareToken=56b39ab4e0617d9741619b13140375ea

Film screening called off after trans protest

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/61def9dc-7c00-11ed-8486-22782b7fe87b?shareToken=0b017501a14788a13d028990c38e653d

Rape Crisis founder backs Rowling’s trauma centre

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/4c40fd1c-7bfd-11ed-bcd8-855e06175970?shareToken=7b7fb627ebffd56e1c2e12f294e87fab

Not sure about the wording of this:

“It is disgraceful that a service has been used by the Scottish government for ideological reasons by making funding conditional on men being included in the service. In reality, this means men were to be included in a service set up by women to help women who had been raped or sexually abused by men.”

I can't work out if Ros Whyte thinks rape crisis should have no services for men, or is simply referring to males in women's groups (who ID as women).

If it's the latter it's so important to get the message across clearly, rather than sounding like men shouldn't have access to support after SA (although we know there will be far, far fewer men needing the service). Still, we know how TRAs will spin it...

Also article refers to most centres being "trans inclusive", that old chestnut. Implying that anything else excludes trans people based on their trans status. Rather than the reality of including trans people, but not allowing them to ID into opposite sex groups or services.
I know it has quote marks around but it's so important to explain what "trans inclusive" means!

From the film screening link:

Their occupation led to a 90-minute stand-off, as small numbers took over successive venues, forcing an audience of about 150 to wait in corridors, while security guards and two police officers looked on.

Describing the documentary, Deirdre O’Neill and Mike Wayne, the co-directors, said the film was “a 92-minute explainer” that showed “how far things have already changed for the worse for women and how difficult it has been to be heard, to be listened to”.

so activists protested for the same amount of time as the film, a film aiming to show his difficult it is for women to be heard and listened to.the

The activists actually showed what the film was all about in real time! That's really not the success the activists think it is.

thanks for the links Rex, now I'm off to carry on reading them.

np. I missed one though!

Someone who never loses out? That’s a man

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0caeb050-7bed-11ed-bcd8-855e06175970?shareToken=39bf3307984a06fb286c0c978beceb24

The graphs in that first article are unequivocal aren't they. So who are the MSPs representing?! Hmmm

Will these articles all be in today's printed paper, as well as online?

Does it matter? The Cats' Protection League does not provide services for donkeys. Doesn't mean that donkeys shouldn't have an organisation to protect them, just that it's not the CPL's job. Doesn't mean that the Donkey Sanctuary shouldn't exist.

What a great selection of articles and topics. Thanks for all the share tokens.

Like ProtectAndTerf I would love to see more consistently clear language around these issues, however. From the same Article on Ros Whyte, I picked out this phrase:

“The legislation aims to make it easier for trans people as young as 16 to switch gender.”

It needs to be very clear that the legislation alllows people to change their legal sex (for most purposes). Wooly language has been widely used to obscure the demands being made by transactivism. Media outlets reporting on this topic need to return to language that everyone understands.

I am deeply ashamed of my former university for allowing such a farce. I don't understand why the security guards and police that the article mentioned were "looking on" couldn't turf the bloody idiots out.

There's a running joke in our house that comes from Margaret on the Apprentice once sniffily saying (in response to a mediocre candidate) that "Well, Edinburgh isn't what it was." DH says it whenever I don't know something or say something stupid (it's funny to us ). It seems Margaret was right.

Thank you for all the share tokens.

Doesn’t matter how many people are against this Bill, the SNP, Greens and Lib Dems are going to force this through. They are willing to hand out GRCs to anyone, even sex offenders.

Sturgeon/Harvie/Slater/Cole-Hamilton - what kind of a person prioritises the feelings of sex offenders over the safety of women and children?

And it will not stop here. We know the Greens especially want to lower the age further. So we will not stop either.

#WomenWontWheesht

💚🤍💜

Precisely. And how can anyone change their gender on their birth certificate (as described in one of the articles) when birth certificate records sex not gender? None of it makes sense, especially when the basic language and definitions aren't even nailed down. How can you possibly pass legislation in these circumstances?!

From the Rape Crisis Founder article

"Rape Crisis Scotland said: “It is crucial that the life-saving support offered by Rape Crisis centres is available to trans and non-binary people. All Rape Crisis services in Scotland offer support to trans women and have done so for 15 years. There has not been a single incident of anyone abusing this.”

Is this true? Has there never been a (known) incident?

JKR on the 2/3 voters story:

twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1603319797722259458?s=46&t=wo0W6B0-6aQRyb8ktnEB6Q

"The single biggest assault on the rights of Scottish women and girls in my lifetime and opposed by two thirds of voters. This is @ NicolaSturgeon's poll tax."

@Christmasisshit I don't know. But I do know that it's not just about whether or not there are incidents. It's also about whether or not women feel safe and confident accessing services that include transwomen and whether or not services designed to support women are actually appropriate for transwomen. What the TRAs don't realise is that whilst some of this change has been driven by people supporting the ideology, much of it is based on costs and other practical decisions with no concern for any if the people involved. If you are a council funding local services for women, on a tight budget and with limited concern for the real issues, it might seem a better idea to lump trans women into existing services at no extra cost than to commit additional funds to set up specialist support for a fairly small demographic, for example.

For those of you who don't know the poll tax reference: it was a policy that sunk Margaret Thatcher (basically changing council tax into personal local tax. If you were on the local electoral register, you had to pay this local tax). Thatcher's party dumped her after she tried to keep this going. There were riots. I was someone who was old enough to have been liable for paying it.

Thank you very much for the links and tokens.

This from Janice Turner's article made me chuckle - A male writer in the former newspaper The Independent

guinnessguzzler I totally take your point. I just wanted to challenge the assertion that there had never been an incident.

Thank you for the share tokens.

Off to read all the articles.

Depends upon your definition of 'incident'. (Language, again!) Is it an abusive incident for a male person to insert theirself into a group discussion between women who have been raped and assaulted by males?

And incidences of males abusing the service are not the only consideration. In a women-centred service, why are their concerns centering males? What are they not centering the women who need to access this single-sex service set up for them, but cannot because it is no longer single sex?

@Christmasisshit it's weasel words

"There has not been a single incident of anyone abusing this"

Any man is a woman if he says he is ergo it's not actually possible to "abuse" the policy. Add to that all the women who will be self-excluding because they don't want to be gaslit by the people who are supposed to be helping them and Rape Crisis cannot claim, in good faith, that their policy is not a problem.

I believe there were challenges made in person at a meeting, by women who had been unable to access these services, but afterwards the service provider claimed that they had received no complaints.

“Incident” is such a weasel word in these circumstances as well. What would be classed as one? The majority of “incidents” would be women feeling unable to access the services and they’d be unlikely to complain, given the reception they know they’d receive.

But I bet there have been incidents where women felt unable to speak in meetings, self-excluded from groups, or found themselves retraumatised after being exposed to someone they recognized as male. I bet by “incidents” they mean that no woman has been physically assaulted by one of the men admitted into that space. And if that’s their only criterion, they are entirely missing the point.

@Christmasisshit that depends. If you take people at their word then no it is not true. As women will have been told to reframe their trauma, to educate themselves, to set aside their fears and feelings in order to receive counselling. This is as stated by the Chief Executive Officer of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre. See below

He is far more interested in telling us, repeatedly, that he has been hounded by women saying they don't want a man to counsel them, to lead a rape crisis centre etc.

www.heraldscotland.com/politics/19509343.outcry-plan-educate-bigoted-rape-survivors-trans-rights/

The discussion around self ID tends to focus on certain services; I want to know if its possible to exclude a man who self ID's from a breastfeeding area without being sued.
I want to know how the SNP thinks mammograms and PAP services should be managed, especially given the funding crisis within the NHS.

The article about the £100k loan is also worth reading:

It is beyond odd for the SNP chief executive, and Nicola Sturgeon’s husband, to be lending his employer a six-figure sum of money

on top of the missing £600k of donations, this tells me that the SNP’s accounts are at best a mess, and it’s very possible there’s something dodgy going on

i firmly believe that whatever is leading Nicola Sturgeon to commit political hara-kiri will boil down in some way to money

when people appear to be acting against their own best interests, it always means there’s something you can’t see

My motto is always to follow the money, and find out who benefits… I’m a cynical cow

@Christmasisshit I don't know about in Scotland but there have been incidents elsewhere-- a woman was assaulted/flashed by a trans woman and there was another trans woman who was taking photos of themselves with a semi-hard on, in a refuge. I can't find links though :-( More recently a trans woman was removed from a Leeds refuge after it came out that they had assaulted a 10 year old girl. There are recent media links about that one.