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Showering with biological men: Female inmates in US & UK
recount sexual abuse from ‘trans’ prisoners
30 Aug, 2021 14:59
Women in the US and UK who were forced to live alongside biological men in prison have told RT that policies designed to protect transgender rights have led to violence and sexual assault against female inmates.
Tomieka Johnson was sentenced to 50 years behind bars by a California court in 2012 after she killed her abusive husband during a physical altercation. Johnson, a former highway patrol officer, told RT that she shared a cell with a transgender prisoner who was “very violent and very vulgar.” The inmate would reportedly force women in the prison to clean the bathroom and wash the floors, leading to interactions that reminded Johnson of the domestic abuse she once suffered.
And although the inmate in question identified as a woman, the biological male allegedly had a girlfriend whom he would “beat” and “choke” regularly. According to Johnson, the prisoner in question sometimes became violent if his ‘girlfriend’ rejected his sexual advances.
“It would be, she didn’t want to be romantic and he would get angry and attack her… She never reported it,” Johnson told RT.
She believes that she was chosen to bunk with the transgender inmate because the guards in the prison thought it would be a good “joke” to make a former police officer share a cell with a biological male.
“I felt hopeless. I felt trapped,” she said of the experience.
At the start of this year, California passed legislation allowing trans inmates to request transfer to facilities that align with their gender identity. Since then, around 300 such requests have been submitted, with not a single request having been rejected as of June.
The policy was likely the result of politicians paying lip service to the LGBT community, which has been able to “pool resources” to exert political power in the state, Johnson said. She stressed that while some officials undoubtedly wanted to adopt policies that would keep everyone “safe,” authorities were clearly being left in the dark about what the policy meant for female inmates.
RT learned of a similar story in the United Kingdom. A former female prisoner in the UK said that she had been sexually assaulted by a transgender cellmate who had previously been put behind bars as a man for sex offenses against women.
“You always feel on edge. You know they are not women. They are physically threatening and aggressive,” she told RT.
I was sexually assaulted and I am not the only woman who has been. They haven’t had surgery and they expose themselves.
One of the biological males in prison with her was told that he couldn’t shower at the same time as the other inmates. The policy was overturned after he filed a formal complaint, alleging that his human rights had been violated.
“Now he is allowed to shower with us. And because he now has that right, the other males have that right too,” the said.
What stunning madness!
Female prisons in England and Wales can hold transgender women with gender recognition certificates who may still retain male genitalia.
The policy was recently upheld by an England and Wales high court. The judge ruled that while female inmates may feel threatened by biological males, the rights of transgender prisoners need to also be taken into consideration.
While the rights of the women are completely ignored!
Kate Coleman, a British activist campaigning to keep prisons ‘single-sex’, told RT that the law needs to change if it’s seen as acceptable to place women and biological males in the same prison facilities.
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More than 50 people arrested in Odessa after right-wing extremists
attack police & participants at annual LGBT pride march
30 Aug, 2021 14:07
The same group attacked the march last year, when members of the Ukrainian neo-Nazi group fired pepper spray at participants, leading to 21 arrests.
This time, according to Odessa’s police, even more have been detained. Video from Saturday’s event shows several people firing pepper spray in the direction of the police, injuring 29 officers.
“Approximately 20 minutes after the end of the rally, a group of provocateurs showed inappropriate behavior towards the police and ran up to them for a fight on Deribasovskaya Street and used tear gas,” the report says.
“Such actions of provocateurs were obviously aimed at trying to undermine the situation in Odessa and to test the strength of law enforcement officials,” the head of the regional police Nikolay Seminishyn said. “Odessa has always been and remains safe for residents and guests.”
Speaking to Ukrainian news outlet Dumskaya, the Odessa Pride organizing committee head Anna Leonova revealed that many people didn’t come to the event because of last year’s attack, scared the scenes would repeat themselves – fears that were clearly not unfounded.
As well as opposing LGBT rights, Tradition and Order is actively opposed to pro-Russia, left-wing, and populist politicians.
Is there anyone they are for?
Bangladesh court sentences 6 to death for murder of LGBTQ+ activists
31 Aug, 2021 16:12
© AP Photo / Mahmud Hossain Opu
A court in Bangladesh has sentenced six members of an outlawed Islamist group to death for the murder of two LGBTQ+ activists five years ago. The judge acquitted two others in connection with the killings.
In a packed courtroom in Dhaka on Tuesday, Judge Majibur Rahman of the special anti-terrorism tribunal ruled that six of the eight accused would die for their crimes.
Only four of the eight accused were present in court for the sentencing. A further two, including a former army officer, were convicted in absentia, while the remaining suspects were acquitted.
The six men were found guilty of the brutal murder of two LGBTQ+ activists in the capital Dhaka in 2016. Xulhaz Mannan, the editor of the country’s first and only magazine for the gay community, was hacked to death along with his friend Rabbi Tonoy.
The six murderers also belonged to Ansar al-Islam, a group which officials claim is an offshoot of Al-Qaeda and was banned by the Bangladesh government the year before the killings.
Five of those convicted on Tuesday had already been sentenced to death for the murders of a blogger and a publisher in 2015. The two were hacked to death in separate incidents.
The judge said Tuesday’s sentencing should serve as an example that Bangladesh will not tolerate “militancy or terrorism in any form.”
Crowds support Scottish feminist on trial for ‘hate crime’
over tweets deemed anti-transgender
31 Aug, 2021 13:34
Crowds have gathered outside a Glasgow court and have been sharing their views online, demanding that a judge drop charges against a feminist activist who is accused of a hate crime against the transgender community.
On Tuesday, Marion Millar, a Scottish feminist campaigner accused of hate crime, arrived at Glasgow Sheriff Court for her previously delayed trial. Her arrival saw a large crowd of supporters wave flags and chant “Women won't wheesht!” (‘women won’t be silent’).
Millar, a 50-year-old accountant from Airdrie and member of the For Women Scotland group, has been charged by Scottish authorities over two separate complaints. It is believed the complaints relate to tweets posted in 2019 and 2020 which were deemed to be transphobic and homophobic.
The activist has frequently shared her views on social media. In one tweet showing images of male-appearing trans women, she referred to them as “filthy predators” and said the “cult” should be kept away from schools, according to screenshots online.
Her supporters contend that she is standing up for hard-won women’s rights amid increasing pressure from LGBTQ+ campaigners who label her a ‘terf’ – a “trans-exclusionary radical feminist.”
Millar’s case has drawn widespread attention since she was charged with a hate crime in June, with many contending that the decision of the Scottish prosecutor to press charges against the feminist campaigner is the death knell for free speech. Millar faces two years in jail if convicted.
Those who showed their support in Glasgow on Tuesday were largely supported by online commenters, as Millar’s name trended on Twitter, along with the hashtag “WomenWontWheesht,” a call popularized by the activist.
“I stand with Marion Millar” many wrote, with one calling on other women to “rise up” against her treatment. “We are the granddaughters of the witches you could not burn,” she added, a reference to a ‘witch hunt’ which Millar believes she is the focus of.
Some claimed the prosecution of Millar was an attempt to “silence women” and was trying to make people afraid to “point out that biology trumps gender beliefs.” One said that they will never give up until “we, and our children, are safe.”
Others expressed their concern about the future of free speech in Scotland. “If this ludicrous case isn’t immediately dismissed by the judiciary, then women’s protected, sex-based rights in my country will no longer exist,” one Twitter user argued, adding that they will never vote for the Scottish National Party again.
Another claimed the country was now on a “knife edge,” over the trial, saying that, either an innocent woman will be jailed for standing up for women’s rights, or, “if sense prevails, we at least have hope of fixing this mess.”
However, support for Millar wasn’t universal. The Empowered Woman Project told people in Glasgow to watch out for the “#WomenWontWheesht mob,” claiming there is lot of anti-transgender signage around. “These women are dangerous and 100% speak for a minority,” they added.
One woman, who identified as cisgender, claimed the “terfs” aren’t actually feminists at all. “None of you bigots speak for me or any other [cisgender] woman I know!” she added.
The court case comes amid increasing conflict between women’s rights campaigns and factions of the LGBTQ+ community who have been campaigning for greater transgender privileges.
Debate has raged particularly fiery in Scotland, where the government has decided that children as young as four can change their gender and name at school without parental consent.
Absolute madness! Child abuse and child sexual abuse! No basis in science - contravenes biology!
Last week, legendary actor and gay rights activist Simon Callow, expressed his concerns about the direction of the well-known LGBTQ+ Stonewall group, claiming an “extraordinarily unproductive militancy” now surrounded its position and suggested the organisation’s aims now impinged on women’s rights.
When it threatens hard-fought women’s rights and “the right to have exclusive spaces for women, away from any threat at all – I think that’s a very serious issue,” Callow argued.
