Mick Hartley

Politics and Culture

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  • In Queen’s Wood

    More autumn trees, including some of those dancing hornbeams:

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    Highgate Wood was closed this morning because of the high winds, but Queen's Wood – other side of Muswell Hill Road – stayed open. Tougher trees.

  • The Democrats own this

    Kara Dansky – Will the Democrats finally start listening to the TERFs?

    As a lifelong Democrat, staunch leftist, and radical feminist, I was not happy to see Donald Trump elected once more. But I was not surprised.

    Data showed that “the most frequent criticism among swing voters who broke for Trump” was that “Kamala Harris is focused more on cultural issues like transgender issues rather than helping the middle class.” To me, this came as no shock.

    Some of us have been warning the Democrats for years….

    Many men are being housed in women’s prisons across the country. There are hundreds of men and boys playing in sports intended for women and girls. And even if there weren’t, how many is too many? Even worse, thousands of children received “gender-affirming care” in the form of hormones or surgeries or both between 2019 and 2023 in the U.S.

    The Democrats own this.

    President Biden began saying that “transgender discrimination” is the “civil rights issue of our time” in 2012. In 2015, Congressional Democrats introduced the so-called Equality Act, which would redefine “sex” to include the nebulous, sexist, homophobic concept of “gender identity” for all purposes under U.S. civil rights law.

    In 2016, President Barack Obama issued a “Dear Colleague” letter to U.S. schools, instructing them to interpret the word sex to include “gender identity” for all Title IX purposes. Democratic support for “trans” has continued apace since then.

    Voters last week were not dis- or misinformed about the Democratic Party’s support for “gender identity” over sex. They simply rejected it.

  • Helping to make the community more inclusive

    Amy Hamm at Reduxx:

    The mother of a young girl in British Columbia, Canada, is speaking out after a man in a pink, sparkly bikini — adorned with sparkles, frills and princess tiaras — was found showering in the female changing room of her local public pool. After reporting the man’s presence, she was told that the facility “welcomes and celebrates diversity.”

    Angie Tyrrell of Saanich, BC, spoke to Reduxx about the distressing experience, which occurred on July 5 of this year at Commonwealth Place, a local recreation center. Tyrrell recounts she had brought her daughter, who was 10 at the time, and her daughter’s friend, who was 11, for a playdate at the pool, where she watched them from the sidelines. After the girls were done, Tyrrell waited for them in the bathroom area of the female changing room.

    But what should have been a peaceful end to a fun-filled day quickly turned to panic after the young girls ran out of the shower room. Approaching Tyrrell, the two whispered: “There was a man in the shower with us.” Terrified, Tyrrell instructed the girls to get changed out of their bathing suits inside of the nearby toilet stalls so that the man would not see them undress.

    Soon after, the man entered the bathroom area. Tyrrell witnessed a teenage girl with her top off immediately cover herself and flee into a toilet stall upon spotting him. There were numerous women and children in the room, and Tyrrell noted that they all instantly appeared to become uncomfortable and moved to hurriedly get dressed and disperse. Tyrrell says the man, who was muscular and had a hairy chest and back, was wearing what appeared to be a pink child-like bikini, which was adorned with princess tiaras, sparkles, and frills.

    After the girls were finished changing, Tyrrell approached the reception desk to alert staff that a male was in the female change room. Tyrrell tells Reduxx that staff were dismissive, even when she stated: “He’s wearing a child’s bikini, but he’s definitely a man.”

    Upset and concerned, Tyrrell attempted to contact higher ups at the Commonwealth Pool via e-mails she shared with Reduxx.

    The manager's response was….well, what you'd expect. 

    “…everyone’s gender identity and expressions are valid. Everyone is welcome in our centres in the changeroom where they feel most safe. Gender expression and identity is protected under BC’s Human Rights Code and we are proud to have a Diversity in Changerooms Policy in our centres,” she wrote. “There is no evidence to support that providing diversity in changerooms has increased incidents or safety of others. I understand that the topic of gender diversity in change rooms can be sensitive and presented the option of the universal or single stall washrooms or changerooms. Our goal is to create an inclusive environment where everyone feels respected and valued. I understand that this is a complex issue and appreciate the open dialogue and feedback. Thank you for your understanding and for helping us make our community more inclusive.”

    So there we are. And it's happened before:

    This is the second publicized case involving a trans-identified male utilizing the women’s restrooms at a public recreation center on Vancouver Island. Just one hour north of Saanich is Nanaimo, where one mother was threatened with police after reporting that a male had been “watching” her daughter change in the women’s restroom of the Nanaimo Aquatic Centre.

    Janayh Wright, a photographer and mother of three, spoke to Reduxx about her own encounter with the man in February of last year.

    Wright says that while in the changing room waiting for her young daughter, she witnessed a man wearing a wig and a face mask enter the women’s facility and proceeded to walk over to the shower area. Wright says he did not have a towel or pool bag, and gave no indication that he was getting changed or going swimming. He then returned and entered the stall next to the one Wright’s daughter was changing in.

    Wright then witnessed the man try to peer under the stall divider and into the cubical her daughter was using. She immediately confronted him as he exited, but the man simply responded that he identified as female and that it was his “human right to be in the women’s changing room.”

  • The Canadian intifada

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  • Planes in the park

    London plane trees in Finsbury Park this morning:

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    [Click to enlarge]

  • Strip-searching

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  • Presenting his “feminine self”

    And, talking of institutional group think and what you have to put up with – enthuse about – if you want to get on, try this one.

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  • Institutional group think

    Janice Turner in the Times, after the Children in Need debacle – and Justin Welby, and the Post Office scandal – on the wilful blindness that allows all kinds of nonsense to thrive in so many large organisations:

    In an authoritarian, violently repressive regime such as Nazi Germany, or Russia and Iran today, would you be brave enough to speak out? This was the question Jemimah Steinfeld, granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, posed to Wednesday’s Index on Censorship awards. Few of us, thankfully, will ever need to put our physical courage to this test — but what about our moral courage?

    Why are institutions full of people prepared to overlook malpractice, abuse or injustice conducted within their professional field of vision, while just a cussed few speak out? […]

    The unspoken belief “I am a good person, ergo everything I do must be good” afflicts all organisations that proclaim their own virtue, from religions to progressive campaigns and charities. It is why management at the Tavistock Gids clinic ostracised and thwarted Sonia Appleby, its safeguarding leader, for raising staff’s concerns about prescription of puberty blockers: the righteousness of child transition was beyond all question. Ideology is always the enemy of truth.

    Blessed are the whistleblowers, not the self-righteous who think they have God’s ear. The Private Eye editor, Ian Hislop, who has been the conduit for many, notes they are often difficult people: prickly, obsessive, annoying. Because speaking out means being unafraid to stand alone.

    It's no great mystery. The people who thrive in large organisations tend to be the people who don't question anything, agree to all the boss's wonderful suggestions with enthusiasm, and make sure they toe the line on all the right issues. 

    Ian Hislop? Well, yes, Private Eye has played its part no doubt, though goodness knows it's got enough things wrong – the MMR vaccine and autism comes to mind. But like all such "prickly" institutions if they go on for long enough, it's lost its prickle as Hislop becomes as establishment a figure as you could wish for. He's avoided the whole trans issue, as Graham Linehan reminded us, and Have I Got News For You, as I argued years ago, is off the charts with its smugness – Hislop leading the way.

  • In Italy

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  • Final solution

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