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JK Rowling and Harry Potter reunion part ways
17 Nov, 2021 13:43
November 10, 2016 © Reuters / Andrew Kelly
The stars of the Harry Potter films will reunite for a 20-year anniversary special on HBO, minus author JK Rowling. Fans and commenters wondered if Rowling’s absence had anything to do with her views on transgender issues.
‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ premiered 20 years ago this week, catapulting actors Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson to superstardom. Warner Bros announced on Tuesday that the three stars – as well as a whole range of supporting actors from the franchise – will travel back to Hogwarts for an “enchanting making-of story” airing on New Year’s Day, entitled ‘Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts’.
Conspicuously absent from the production is author JK Rowling. A Warner Bros’ press release made no mention of Rowling, and a lengthy Instagram post by actress Emma Watson thanked fans and fellow cast members, but also made no mention of Rowling, whom other Harry Potter actors said they “owe everything” to.
Rowling’s PR team did not comment on the author’s absence, and the Hollywood Reporter claimed that the author will only appear in the show in archival footage.
Commentators online reckoned that Rowling had been canceled from the retrospective special due to her high-profile clashes with transgender activists. A self-described feminist, Rowling has spoken out against gender-neutral language, arguing that it “erases” the concept of sex and therefore the concept of womanhood. She has also stated that sex is a binary concept, and argued against gender-neutral bathrooms, claiming that by allowing men into women’s bathrooms, women are made less safe.
Rowling’s comments on gender issues generated intense backlash from LGBT organizations, and death and rape threats from the most zealous transgender ideologues online. Actors Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson also both spoke out against Rowling’s defense of biological sex last year, with Radcliffe declaring that “transgender women are women,” and apologizing to upset fans “for the pain [Rowling’s] comments have caused you.”
Did he apologize to the girls who were raped by an xgender in school bathrooms. There were two in Loudon County, Virginia (2nd story on link) alone.
“Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren’t who they say they are,” Watson chimed in.
It's a good thing these two made their fortunes acting, they would be in real trouble if they had to use their brains.
Rowling has repeatedly stated that she is against anti-trans discrimination, but would not change her position on sex. “I refuse to bow down to a movement that I believe is doing demonstrable harm in seeking to erode ‘woman’ as a political and biological class and offering cover to predators like few before it,” she wrote last year.
Now that's a woman with a brain, who doesn't allow other people to do her thinking for her.
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Music TV channel fined $14k for ‘gay propaganda’
17 Nov, 2021 13:42
A court in Moscow has imposed a fine of one million rubles ($13,780) on Russian music channel ‘Muz TV’ after being found guilty of promoting so-called non-traditional sexual relations among teenagers.
The penalty is the largest possible that can be given to a company for breaking this law.
You need to make the penalty much bigger. That's pocket change to them.
The court decision comes after an announcement in June by Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor, which revealed that it would analyze the recording of the Muz-TV Music Awards. The ceremony was not marked as 18+ and was broadcast during the day, meaning that the watchdog believed it could have broken the law.
Although Roskomnadzor did not explain the exact moment that was deemed unacceptable, the award show broadcast caused a stir at the time after it pictured pop stars Philipp Kirkorov and Dava arriving in a white convertible surrounded by flowers and topless men.
Muz-TV also showed footage of famous blogger Igor Sinyak wearing a dress and TikTok star Danya Milohin donning an outfit consisting of half a tuxedo and half a pink dress.
In 2013, Russia enacted what is known colloquially as the “gay propaganda law,” which implemented restrictions on the endorsement of “non-traditional sexual values among minors.” The legislation has been criticized internationally, its detractors both at home and abroad calling it an attack on LGBT rights. Ruling party politicians have even questioned the law, with then-MP Oksana Pushkina saying last year that state policy “needs to be adjusted.”
Last month, two MPs from Russia’s ruling party announced that they intended to complain to the Prosecutor General after two male comedians kissed on a nationally broadcast TV comedy show, which one of the MPs dubbed as “disgusting.”
My personal opinion - I completely agree.
Sussex University probed over trans rights row
17 Nov, 2021 12:41
England’s higher education watchdog is investigating whether Sussex University failed to uphold its freedom of speech obligations after a high-profile transgender rights row saw a professor resign after getting death threats.
The Office for Students (OfS) announced on Tuesday it had “identified potential concerns” that merited “further scrutiny” of the university’s conduct.
While the OfS did not specify what prompted the investigation, it was announced in the House of Lords on the same day that it was in response to acclaimed philosophy professor Kathleen Stock’s resignation (2nd story on link) from the university last month, after activists and student groups called for her dismissal over allegedly “transphobic” views on gender identity.
The OfS probe will focus on whether the university “met its obligations for academic freedom and freedom of speech within the law for all students and staff, whatever their views.” In its statement, the watchdog said academic staff were entitled to “freely express lawful views, no matter how controversial they are, without fear of losing their jobs or privileges.”
Hmpf! Coming from a Labour MP! Go figure!
Stock, who describes herself as a feminist, has previously criticised ideas championed by transgender rights groups such as gender identity – the debate over which, she said, has “allowed a few students with totalitarian tendencies to have a disproportionate chilling effect on the rest.”
Last month, flyers were posted around the university campus and several people in masks held up signs that read: “Stock Out.” The campaign, by an online group called ‘Anti Terf Sussex’, called for Stock to be fired for “espousing a bastardised variation of radical feminism.”
In response, the university said it would not tolerate threats to “cherished academic freedoms” with its vice-chancellor promising to “take any action necessary” to protect these rights. When announcing her resignation, Stock thanked the university for stating that bullying and harassment for legally held beliefs were unacceptable but noted it had been “a very difficult few years.”
France turns to Ancient Greece for war on woke
17 Nov, 2021 11:54
France’s education minister has announced plans to boost the teaching of ancient Greek and Latin in an effort to fight the proliferation of wokeism and “develop the culture” of the country’s younger generations.
Speaking on Monday, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer, a leading figure in France’s war on woke, said that ancient Greek and Latin would become available to sixth formers pursuing vocational courses next year, as well as middle school students.
Blanquer wants sixth formers to have the opportunity to “develop their culture” by reading ancient philosophers while gaining the technical qualifications that the economy demands.
Speaking at a charter signing, alongside counterparts from Italy, Greece, and Cyprus, the minister claimed their joint commitment to the promotion of the classics came at a time when ancient languages were being threatened by American wokeism.
The targeting of the dead languages has been most prominent in the US with Princeton University announcing this summer that it would no longer require classics students to study ancient Greek and Latin; the two vernaculars are often considered the core pillars of the discipline.
Dan-el Padilla Peralta, an associate professor of classics at Princeton, claimed the ancient languages had been used as a justification of slavery, colonialism, and fascism for 2,000 years.
In a similar move, a Massachusetts high school boasted that it had removed Homer’s Odyssey from the school curriculum as it conflicted with the anti-racist agenda it wanted to teach. “Very proud to say we got the Odyssey removed from the curriculum this year,” a teacher wrote on social media.
Blanquer told Le Point that such interpretations of the classics were “completely mind boggling.” “To stick categories and a contemporary world view on writings dating back two millennia is an abyssal (abysmal?) absurdity,” he added, noting that these civilizations brought us “openness and a search for the universal.”
The minister believes that ancient languages are a common bond for contemporary European nations, noting that the “common linguistic fund” would help spread “common values.”
Blanquer also claimed the classics respond to a demand for logos (language as a tool for reason), in a world where “a lack of reason is spreading like wildfire.”
Last month, the education minister set up a think tank dedicated to President Emmanuel Macron’s war on wokeism.
The liberal or woke agenda, which some in France claim is an Anglo-Saxon import, is likely to be a major feature in the 2022 presidential election, where Macron’s main competitor (Marine Le Pen) is likely to hail from the far right of the political spectrum.
Trans athletes can compete with females without reducing testosterone
- IOC
17 Nov, 2021 11:19
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been labeled “cowardly” after new guidelines suggested transgender women should no longer need to reduce their levels of testosterone to compete in female categories.
As part of new frameworks which will replace the existing guidelines from 2015, the IOC said there should be no presumption that trans women have advantages over female rivals.
This reverses the previous stance, although the IOC stressed that the burden is on governing bodies across individual sports to determine their rules – leading some to call the guidelines a "fudge" and accusing the organization of passing the buck.
The IOC says decisions on such matters must be made with a nod to "robust and peer-reviewed science … which demonstrates a consistent, unfair and disproportionate competitive advantage and/or an unpreventable risk to the safety of the athletes."
The new document boasts 10 points and was prepared after consulting over 250 athletes and stakeholders. It is set to be rolled out following the Winter Games in Beijing early next year.
The new frameworks also apply to athletes who have differences of sexual development (DSD), such as South African 800m runner Caster Semenya.
However, organizations such as World Athletics have already said they have no plans to change their rules, which require any athlete with a DSD to reduce their testosterone to under five n/mol to compete in races with a distance between 400m and one mile.
Previously, the IOC had recommended that trans women should suppress testosterone levels to below 10 n/mol per liter at least 12 months before competing.
Earlier this year though, medical director Richard Budgett claimed that the policy had become outdated.
"What we’re saying now is you don’t need to use testosterone at all," Budgett said of the new guidelines. But this guidance is not an absolute rule. So we can’t say that the framework in any particular sport, such as World Athletics is actually wrong.
"They need to make it right for their sport and this framework gives them a process by which they can do it, thinking about inclusion and then seeing what produces disproportionate advantage."
Welcoming the IOC's new guidelines was Canadian Olympic Gold medalist and footballer Quinn.
"This new IOC framework is groundbreaking in the way that it reflects what we know to be true – that athletes like me and my peers participate in sports without any inherent advantage, and that our humanity deserves to be respected," said the footballer.
Less receptive though was fellow trans woman athlete Joanna Harper, who is Loughborough University's visiting fellow for transgender athletic performance.
"It is important that the IOC has come out in favor of inclusion of trans and intersex athletes, but I think sections five and six of the framework are problematic," said Harper.
"Transgender women are on average, taller, bigger and stronger than cis women and these are advantages in many sports," she continued.
"It is also unreasonable to ask the sports federations to have robust and peer reviewed research before placing restrictions on trans athletes in elite sport. Such research will take years if not decades."
Backlash from women's campaign groups is also expected.
Some had hoped the IOC would follow the stance of the UK's five sports councils, which in September said there was no magic solution for inclusion into female sport for trans women while guaranteeing fairness and safety for all.
To this end, sports across the country were told that the element they wish to prioritize is their choice.
Online, other criticisms saw the IOC guidelines dubbed a "word soup" and a "mess". "The only context in which this decision makes sense is if they’re going to scrap categories of sex," read one response.
Elsewhere, British former Olympic marathon runner Mara Yamauchi labeled the guidelines "a mess."
"It will create mountain of work to tell us what we already know on sex-based performance; full of political platitudes but little clear, helpful guidance based on facts and science; will diminish female sport," wrote the runner.
"[The IOC] could have protected the female category unequivocally to encourage women and girls into sport with guarantee of fair and meaningful competition. They chose not to."
Former UK swimming star Sharron Davis echoed those sentiments, calling it a "cowardly passing of the buck."
"How can testosterone be on the drug ban list but not an issue if born male in female sport? Men get fair sport [but] women not," wrote Davis.
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California Supreme Court to Decide if Pronoun Misuse
Can Lead to Jail Time
Michael Foust |
ChristianHeadlines.com Contributor |
Tuesday, November 16, 2021
The California Supreme Court has agreed to hear a major free speech case involving a law that criminalizes “misgendering” individuals by not using their preferred pronouns.
The multi-faceted law placed new restrictions on long-term care facilities and was geared toward protecting LGBT residents – yet a section on pronouns has sparked major pushback.
The controversial section makes it unlawful to “willfully and repeatedly fail to use a resident’s preferred name or pronouns after being clearly informed of the preferred name or pronouns.” Violating the law could subject the employee to criminal penalties, including fines and jail time.
The California Supreme Court agreed last week to take the case. This summer, a three-judge panel of the California Court of Appeals unanimously struck down the controversial pronoun section of the law.
The law was signed in 2017 by then-Gov. Jerry Brown.
Greg Burt, director of capitol engagement with the California Family Council, argues the law violates free speech.
“How can you believe in free speech but think the government can compel people to use certain pronouns when talking to others,” Burt told legislators when the law was being considered. “Compelled speech is not free speech. Can the government compel a newspaper to use certain pronouns that aren’t even in the dictionary? Of course not, or is that coming next?
“Those proposing this bill are saying, ‘If you disagree with me about my view of gender, you are discriminating against me,’” Burt told legislators. “This is not tolerance. This is not love. This is not mutual respect. … True tolerance tolerates people with different views. We need to treat each other with respect, but respect is a two-way street. It is not respectful to threaten people with punishment for having sincerely held beliefs that differ from your own.”
This summer, the California Court of Appeals agreed with Burt.
“We recognize that misgendering may be disrespectful, discourteous, and insulting, and used as an inartful way to express an ideological disagreement with another person's expressed gender identity,” the Court of Appeals ruled. “But the First Amendment does not protect only speech that inoffensively and artfully articulates a person's point of view. At the very least, willful refusal to refer to transgender persons by their preferred pronouns conveys general disagreement with the concept that a person's gender identity may be different from the sex the person was assigned at birth.”
The California Supreme Court, though, may have the last word.
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