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Scottish government under fire for asking kids about ‘anal sex’
12 Dec, 2021 16:11
Scotland’s privacy regulators are investigating a government census asking children as young as 14 a range of intimate questions about their sex lives, including whether they’ve ever had anal sex.
Drafted by the government, the controversial ‘Health and Wellbeing Census’ has already been handed out to secondary school students in 11 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities, The Herald reported on Saturday. A total of 14 have declined to distribute it, while others want changes to a controversial section on sexual health.
This section asks children whether they have had “sexual experiences,” including “oral sex” or “vaginal or anal sex.” Other questions ask how many sexual partners the children have had in the past year, and a full list of questions has not been made available to parents.
Parents have expressed concerns about these questions, and the survey is also being investigated by Scotland’s Information Commissioner’s Office, which is responsible for upholding data privacy. While the census has been described by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon as anonymous, reporting by The Herald found that local authorities will be able to identify participants by cross-checking their census forms against a separate database.
The government says that individual children may be identified if local authorities “see anything in the answers provided by some children and young people that raises some concerns.”
Privacy concerns aside, opposition to the survey has also come from conservative groups. The Family Education Trust (FET) warned that the census essentially asks children to admit to “illegal activity,” as most participants would be under the age of consent.
“You will be aware of the negligence that was shown by many local authorities in dealing [with] the sexual abuse of young girls by grooming gangs,” the FET wrote in a letter to Scottish Health Secretary Humza Yousaf last month. “The problem in many cases was that the local authority treated having underage sex as a normal part of growing up, thus allowing the abuse to continue.
“The questions in this survey display the same irresponsible attitude to young people’s sexual activity that was shown by so many local authorities,” the letter concluded.
When the government acts as though sex at 14 is normal, it gives boys ammunition and leaves virgin girls nearly defenceless against them.
Amid mounting controversy, Sturgeon told the Scottish parliament on Thursday that children will be free to opt out of the survey or skip questions that make them uncomfortable. She insisted, however, that the census asks vital questions for crafting policy for kids.
“We can refuse to ask the questions so that we don’t know the answers, or we can get the answers that then allows us to better support young people,” she said.
Nicola: what are you going to learn if half the kids don't take the survey, and half of them refuse to answer some of the questions? The results will be far from conclusive.
Leering and catcalling now listed as prosecutable offences in UK
15 Dec, 2021 13:48
British police have been given a new toolkit to fight back against an “epidemic” of misogyny and sexual harassment, with acts such as leering and wolf-whistling being included in a list of prosecutable misdemeanors.
On Wednesday, the British College of Policing issued a guide for officers to help them deal with sexual harassment against women. The document encourages police forces to pursue prosecution under public order laws for singular offenses and charging under a 1997 harassment act when an individual repeatedly engages in behavior which includes catcalling and wolf whistling.
The police have also been told to take “preventative” measures, such as public space protection orders and criminal behavior orders which prevent people from visiting prescribed public spaces.
Officers have been advised to pursue criminal charges or apply preventative strategies for a list of offences, including kerb crawling, cornering, and upskirting, as well as leering and persistent staring. Viewing pornography in public is also included.
Chief Constable Andy Marsh, chief executive of the College of Policing, said in a statement that there was “epidemic” of “industrial” level violence and harassment against women. Some 1.6 million offences against women are recorded each year.
Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blythe, the national police coordinator for violence against women and girls, said that women must come forward to report harassment, adding that it is important the public knows the police will use the powers made available to them.
Officials within Britain’s police have repeatedly stated their desire to enhance public trust in law enforcement in the aftermath of the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by Met officer Wayne Couzens earlier this year.
UK Supreme Court rejects gender neutral passports
15 Dec, 2021 15:45
The UK Supreme Court has rejected a legal challenge brought against the government over its failure to provide gender neutral passports after an LGBTQ rights campaigner claimed the lack of an 'X' option breaches human rights laws.
Christie Elan-Cane, who identifies as a “non-gendered” individual “fighting for legal recognition,” initially launched the legal challenge to secure legal recognition for British people who don’t identify as male or female.
The legal bid was rejected by the Court of Appeal in March 2020, which said the current policy does not breach human rights. The Supreme Court unanimously dismissed Elan-Cane’s appeal on Wednesday, handing the Home Office another win.
Defending the existing rule, which requires UK citizens to identify as either male or female on their passports, the Supreme Court said that gender forms part of the process that helps authorities confirm an applicant’s identity.
“It is therefore the gender recognised for legal purposes and recorded in those documents which is relevant,” Lord Reed, the president of the Supreme Court, said in the ruling, dismissing gender as not being “a particularly important facet of the appellant's existence or identity.”
Which, of course is true, since you can change your preferred gender from day to day. Passports should contain reference to sex at birth only.
Elan-Cane responded to the ruling on Twitter, declaring that the "UK government and judicial system are on the wrong side of history,” failing to provide recognition for non-gendered individuals.
Vowing that the Supreme Court’s decision is “not the end,” Elan-Cane will now seek to secure a positive ruling from the European Court of Human Rights, which would overturn the decision from the British courts.
The ECHR is much farther to the left than Britain's Supreme Court, so will likely overturn the unanimous decision by two British Higher courts.
Argentina, Australia, Canada, Denmark, India, Malta, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Pakistan all issue gender neutral passports. Germany also offers an additional intersex category.
DeSantis introduces ‘Stop Woke Act’
15 Dec, 2021 20:20
Governor Ron DeSantis is targeting the teaching of critical race theory (CRT) in Florida by introducing the ‘Stop Woke Act,’ which will give parents the right to sue educators. Teaching CRT is already barred in the state.
Speaking at a press conference in Sumter County on Wednesday, the governor blasted what he called growing “woke ideology” and called the Stop WOKE (Wrongs to our Kids and Education) Act the “first of its kind in the nation.” He added that he views “wokeness as a form of cultural Marxism.”
In June, the Florida Department of Education prohibited the teaching of critical race theory. Opponents of CRT have blasted it as racist and anti-American, while supporters claim it adds an essential element of context to racial inequality in American history.
The Stop WOKE Act allows parents to sue educators if their kids are being taught critical race theory in school. Teaching critical race theory will be considered an “unlawful employment practice.” This, the governor said, makes it “clear that corporations and public sector employers violate the Florida Civil Rights Act when they subject their employees to training that espouses race or sex stereotyping or scapegoating including critical race theory.”
During his announcement, DeSantis took to quoting civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. to defend the harsh stance against critical race theory.
“You think about what MLK stood for. He said he didn't want people judged on the color of their skin, but on the content of their character. You listen to some of these people nowadays, they don't talk about that,” the governor said, adding that critical race theory is an attempt to “denigrate” the US Founding Fathers and the American Revolution.
The governor was surrounded by supporters during his Wednesday speech, some of whom held anti-critical race theory signs and spoke in support of the bill, including City Journal reporter Christopher F. Rufo, who specializes in covering ‘woke’ teachings at schools and universities. All of these teachings, Rufo said, “relate back to critical race theory.”
The bill is modeled after a controversial Texas abortion law that allows private citizens to sue doctors who provide abortions after a heartbeat is detected, which is typically about six weeks into pregnancy.
California Governor Gavin Newsom similarly used the Texas law and it being upheld in the Supreme Court to announce legislation that will allow citizens to sue “assault weapon” manufacturers across the state.
Governing by law suit! Welcome to America!
Finally, someone is looking into this madness!
Probe triggered over claims pharma firms pushed
‘unapproved’ drugs on trans kids
16 Dec, 2021 17:05
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating two pharmaceutical companies for allegedly promoting their drugs as puberty blockers for children who identify as transgender.
“The manufacture, sale, prescription, and use of puberty blockers on young teens and minors is dangerous and reckless,” Paxton said in a statement announcing the investigation this week. “These drugs were approved for very different purposes and can have detrimental and even irreversible side effects. I will not allow pharmaceutical companies to take advantage of Texas children.”
Manufactured by Endo Pharmaceuticals, the drug Supprelin LA is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment Central Precocious Puberty, a medical condition in which a child starts going through puberty at an abnormally young age. The drug, delivered via an implant, arrests this process until the child is at an appropriate age.
Paxton’s investigation alleges that Endo Pharmaceuticals marketed and promoted Supprelin LA, as well as a prostate cancer drug called Vantas, to children suffering from gender dysphoria who wished to halt their sexual maturation.
According to the American Psychiatric Association, gender dysphoria is a condition in which a person’s gender identity differs from their biological sex, causing mental distress. It typically occurs among transgender people.
Paxton’s investigation is also probing AbbVie, another pharma firm, for allegedly marketing Lupron Depot to treat children with gender dysphoria. Lupron Depot is approved by the FDA for treating precocious puberty and advanced prostate cancer.
“The off-label use of these medications for gender dysphoria is completely different” to their authorized uses, endocrinologist Dr. Michael Laidlaw told Fox News on Wednesday. “Blocking normal puberty has numerous unhealthy side effects including loss of normal bone development, interference with normal brain and social development and, importantly, causes infertility and sexual dysfunction. Many of these effects will be irreversible.”
Endo Pharmaceuticals denies that it pushed its drugs on transgender teens. Referring to Supprelin LA and Vantas, an Endo spokeswoman told Fox News that the firm “has not promoted either of these medications outside of their indications.”
“We do not have any approved medications indicated for gender dysphoria and we do not promote medications for off-label uses,” the spokeswoman added.
AbbVie has not yet commented on the investigation.
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