Mick Hartley

Politics and Culture

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  • Just a phase

    From the Mail – Most gender-confused children grow out of it, landmark 15-year study concludes:

    The majority of gender-confused children grow out of that feeling by the time they are fully grown adults, according to a long-term study.

    Researchers in the Netherlands tracked more than 2,700 children from age 11 to their mid-twenties, asking them every three years of feelings about their gender.

    Results showed at the start of the research, around one-in-10 children (11 percent) expressed 'gender non-contentedness' to varying degrees.

    But by age 25, just one-in-25 (4 percent) said they 'often' or 'sometimes' were discontent with their gender.

    The researchers concluded: 'The results of the current study might help adolescents to realize that it is normal to have some doubts about one’s identity and one’s gender identity during this age period and that this is also relatively common.'…

    Patrick Brown, a fellow at the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center who was not involved in the research, told DailyMail.com: 'This study provides even more reason to be skeptical towards aggressive steps to facilitate gender transition in childhood and adolescence.

    'The fact that rates of satisfaction are lower even just a few years later suggests that for the vast majority of people, prudence and caution, rather than a rush towards permanent surgeries or hormone therapies, will be the best approach for teenagers struggling to make sense of the world and their place in it.

    'As such, policies that prohibit gender transition for minors make a great deal of sense.'

    Someone tell the Scottish government: they're looking to make it illegal to put anything in the way of gender transition for minors. 

  • Having it both ways

    Oh boy:

    A non-binary patient in Canada is seeking taxpayer-funded surgery to create a vagina while also keeping a functional penis.

    If a court rules in their favour, the patient, 33, from Ontario, will travel to a specialist clinic in Austin, Texas, for the procedure.

    The patient, referred to in court documents as KS, was born male but identifies as non-binary. They do not identify as one gender but “literally a mix”, according to court documents.

    Clarity is not helped by the report's insistence on using "they" pronouns. But yes, this much is clear: we have here a man who wants a vagina, but wants to keep his penis. What could possibly go wrong? And where exactly will this new vagina go if he keeps his penis? Under? Over? to the left? To the right? I mean, won't it get a little crowded down there?

    Ontario’s Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) initially denied the request for the surgery in 2022 on the grounds that the procedure is experimental and is not performed in Canada.

    But KS complained to the province’s appeals board, which overturned the decision on the grounds that vaginoplasty shouldn’t inherently include a penectomy.

    LGBTQ rights group Egale Canada said the OHIP’s “interpretation (of a vaginoplasty) is exclusionary and discriminates against nonbinary people on the basis of their gender identity”.

    The decision prompted a counter-appeal and Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice is expected to issue a ruling in the coming months….

    KS’s doctor, an Ottawa endocrinologist, wrote a letter supporting the request for the surgery.

    “It is very important for (KS) to have a vagina for her personal interpretation of her gender expression but she also wishes to maintain her penis,” the doctor said.

    “(KS) is transfeminine but not completely on the ‘feminine’ end of the spectrum (and) for this reason it’s important for her to have a vagina while maintaining a penis.”

    Critics told the National Post the request illustrates “how far off the rails” gender-affirming treatment has gone.

    “Our public healthcare system is at the breaking point and really needs to focus on procedures that are medically necessary,” Pamela Buffone, founder of the parents’ group Canadian Gender Report, said.

    “The patient will not be physically healthier because of the operation, which is likely to result in complications and the need for corrective surgeries and further demands on the health system.”

    Likely to? Almost certain to.

    The goal with phallus-preserving vaginoplasty is to create a vagina that is “aesthetically pleasing” while “maintaining the original genital structure” of the penis, according to the Art Plastic Surgery clinic in New Jersey.

    A similar case last June saw the OHIP fund surgery for a civil servant, 41, who had a penis constructed without removing their vagina and uterus.

    Ha! They ought to get together, these two. Should be able to work something out.

  • “We can’t serve puppets here”

    Kim Jong-un has commanded that from henceforth South Korea will be referred to as "the South Korean puppet state". With far-reaching consequences:

    North Korean restaurants operating in Russia are no longer accepting South Korean customers. The policy change appears to be part of an order by North Korean authorities to turn away South Korean customers at all North Korean restaurants overseas.

    On Apr. 1, a source in Russia told Daily NK that South Korean visitors to the North Korean Pyongyanggwan (“Pyongyang Restaurant”) in Vladivostok were unexpectedly turned away during a visit in mid-March.

    The restaurant had previously been a popular destination for South Korean tourists and Korean expatriates in Russia.

    A restaurant employee had struck up a conversation with the group as they were escorted to their seats. However, as soon as the group sat down, the employee asked them, “Are you puppets?” When the customers asked for clarification, the employee explained that he wanted to know if the customers were “from the South Korean puppet state.”

    When the customers replied that they were from South Korea, the North Korean staff told them, “We can’t serve puppets here, get out right now,” and kicked the customers out of the restaurant.

    This particular group of South Korean guests had been visiting Pyongyanggwan for several years and had eaten at the restaurant as recently as January without any problems. As a result, the group was quite confused by the sudden turn of events.

    According to the source, “in the past, when customers revealed that they were from South Korea, the North Korean staff would be very friendly and make comments like ‘we are compatriots,’ but the customers in question now say that the staff’s attitude seems to have changed overnight.”

  • A Massachusetts Case Study

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    For more detail, read Jonathan Kay's latest at Quillette – The Damage Caused by Trans ‘Inclusion’ In Female Athletics: a Massachusetts Case Study. His conclusion:

    As female athletes and their parents find their political voice, the tide is beginning to turn on this issue—even in progressive parts of the United States, such as New York City. And spectacles such as that of “a 6’ Tall, Bearded Trans Basketballer” throwing girls around like rag-dolls will only accelerate the process.

    Once the ideological movement to undermine the reality of sexual dimorphism has run its course, and it’s (once again) become settled policy across the sporting world that turning “he” into “she” should not be a magic ticket into female leagues (or locker rooms), the question will become: How did we allow this to happen?

    For my own part, I’m not particularly interested in laying blame on the likes of Clark—young, confused, gender dysphoric males whose actions are being encouraged by others. What’s more interesting is why people who should know better—adult politicians, educators, administrators, scientists, and doctors such as Dr. Ackerman—have lent their names and reputations to this movement. One hopes that, at least in their private thoughts, they’ve begun to understand the disastrous effect of policies that prioritize the sanctity of male delusions over female safety.

    Kay is undoubtedly right in laying the blame on those adults in charge who allow this to happen, but he seems to me to be unnecessarily charitable towards Lazuli Clark, the offender here: worrying about what pronouns to use for him, and speculating about his "gender dysphoric" confusion. Couldn't the truth be more prosaic? – the guy's just a sociopath, and too many sporting bodies in thrall to trans ideology are allowing sociopaths like him to thrive, and girls to suffer as a result.

  • The very definition of misogyny

    Yep.

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    [Munroe Bergdorf was one of the ten trans women featured by Rowling in her "April Fools" tweets.]

  • Putin’s deranged fanaticism

    Lawrence Freedman's latest, on Putin the Fanatic:

    As I have argued many times in these posts, Russia’s inability thus far to achieve its objectives and so win the war is not the same as a Ukrainian victory. Ukraine has lost a lot and continues to do so. It has suffered mightily. A cease fire based on the current lines of contact would be seen in Kyiv as a defeat because it would leave sovereign territory occupied, with those trapped inside subject to harsh measures and ‘Russification’. But it would hardly be a victory for Russia which would be left with ruined, depopulated territory, full of unexploded ordnance, with a demanding internal security situation, a long border to defend, and a hostile government in Kyiv working to get into the EU and NATO. For this Russia has sacrificed hundreds and thousands of people – dead, wounded, and living abroad. Economic activity and industrial production is now geared to the war effort, with little left for public amenities or productive investment. It has lost its European energy markets, become a junior partner to China, and depends on Iran and North Korea for armaments…

    Because Kyiv’s defiance was intolerable to Putin he wished it to be quelled by the full-scale invasion. When instead of subjugation Kyiv remained as defiant as ever, the Ukrainian government was subjected to even more evidence-free denunciations, with drug addiction and a variety of personality disorders thrown in for good measure. Still more defiance and Ukraine was elevated into a civilizational threat, marked by decadence bordering on paganism. When this was not enough, and it became necessary to explain why mighty Russia could not overcome a smaller and inferior power, the role of NATO, and especially the US and the UK, was highlighted. And once these were identified as the real enemies then the whole struggle acquired an existential aspect.

    All those aspects of the Western way of life that Putin despises must now be banished from Russia. This goes beyond crushing political dissent and the propagation of patriotic and militaristic themes, but also an assertion of the superiority of Russian civilisation. Those wanting to see where this has led might consult a document released by the Russian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate, for approval by the World Russian People’s Council in Moscow on 27/28 March. This affirmed that Russia is fighting a ‘holy war.’ This is presented as an imperialist project, to create an expanded homeland for all Russian people, including the sub-groups of Belarussians and Ukrainians, where their culture and spirituality will be honoured, and also as a defensive struggle against the ‘globalism’ and ‘satanism’ that has gripped the West.

    An imperialist project to create an expanded homeland. I think we've been here before.

    If ever an argument was needed against unchecked autocracy Putin’s Russia provides it. Continuing failure to achieve his objectives has only aggravated his fanaticism. The problem is not that he is irrational but the way that he has framed his Ukraine problem obliges him to act in ever more unreasonable ways, because to do otherwise would require giving in to forces that challenge his idea of the Russian nation and what is stands for. Over a decade he has managed to turn an inconvenient aspect of Ukraine’s foreign policy into an existential threat. He will stick with a war without end because he dare not admit that it was folly to launch it in the first place. So the war machine must be fed with all available people and resources, independent and critical thought must be suppressed, and Ukrainians must be punished for their insubordination with ever more devastation and cruelty.

  • Not criminal

    JK Rowling hate law posts not criminal, police say. The force said complaints had been received but no action would be taken.

    Her courageous intervention – calling the bluff of those trans activists ready to pounce – seems to have paid off. 

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  • Homophobic at its heart

    From the LGB Alliance response to the Scottish government's consultation on ending conversion practices in Scotland:

    We are particularly concerned about “conversion practices” described in relation to talking therapy. It is essential to understand that many of the teenagers, especially girls, who are being referred to gender clinics, mistake their homosexuality for a gender identity issue. We know that an exceptionally high percentage of teens referred to gender clinics have same-sex sexual orientation – so much so that clinicians at the Tavistock GIDS clinic in London joked: “Soon there will be no gay kids left”. Data reported by GIDS reveal that teenage patients expressing a sexual orientation were overwhelmingly homosexual or bisexual. 67.7% of adolescent female patients were recorded as being attracted to other females only, 21.1% were bisexual, and only 8.5% were listed as heterosexual. Among adolescent male patients, 42.3% were attracted only to other males, 38% were bisexual, and only 19.2% said they were attracted only to females….

    One whistleblower explicitly referred to the institutional homophobia at the GIDS in his exit interview. Furthermore, the BBC Newsnight reporters Hannah Barnes and Deborah Cohen reported that homophobia was a factor in all the families they spoke to. In our view, the medicalisation of largely LGB, “gender non-conforming” teenagers is the greatest medical scandal of our age. The Scottish Government presents its Bill as progressive and caring. We say it is the opposite. The Bill is homophobic at its heart and strikes a mortal blow at the interests of lesbian, gay and bisexual people, eroding rights that have been painstakingly advanced over the past half-century.

    But read the whole thing: it's a comprehensive demolition. 

  • Upsetting the transgender lobby

    An interesting note from Scottish MP Ash Regan, who originally backed the Hate Crime Bill but has now changed her mind:

    I was asked for my view on whether we should include sex as a characteristic, to protect women from misogyny, and I said yes. I was told that in feedback from women’s rights organisations, they sought a separate offence in misogyny legislation that could assist in dealing with the specific considerations in domestic abuse law.

    After the act was passed, the follow-up meeting to discuss the guidance was a singular event that shaped my future political career. At that meeting ministers decided that they would not add clarifying real-world scenarios involving gender-critical feminists as there was nothing to gain, and it would upset the transgender lobby.

  • Defeating left wing homophobia

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    Full text:

    The last lot of us defeated right wing homophobia, this generation will defeat left wing homophobia.

    Both of them call us Queers and neither cares very much if we are insulted. Both practice conversion therapy, one by prayer, the other by gender. Both do homophobic violence, one on the street, one in surgery. Both are disgusted by variously by our “sinful behaviour” or the modern equivalents “sexual racism”/ “genital fetishism”. Both have control of the levers of power and both face grassroots opposition that will destroy them.

    Neither listens to us very much and both regard us principally as a medical issue.

    But success is our destiny and failure theirs. There is nothing very much new in history and this chapter is nearly over. Gender falls in 2024 and perhaps we close a book on the spasms of left and right and their struggle to adapt to kids that are just different, boys who just want to kiss each other and heaven forbid, two women who can get on just fine without a bloke.