Mick Hartley

Author: Mick Hartley

  • Intermission

    Off for a few days. Back Monday 2nd June.

  • On cross-sex hormones

    .

    Existing research does not verify “the assumed psychosocial and mental health benefits of cross-sex hormones initiated during developmental years” either, she argued. Gender medicine seems to be acting outside of medical norms: “No other medical field performs irreversible treatments before the age of 25 years in Sweden”, Prof Dahlgren said, adding that she is “not aware” of any condition in children that needs cross-sex hormone treatment. “However,” she also wrote, “some disorders of sex development (DSD) may need complementary sex hormone treatment.” Both expert reports were highly critical of the model provided by overseas prescribers of hormones. It was “unsafe and irresponsible”, Kaltiala said.

    It could hardly be more damning. This is what "gender-affirming care" really means. Prescribing these drugs to teenage children – or younger – is a grotesque breach of everything medicine should be about. Streeting can surely not ignore this.

    Last word to JKR:

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  • Tackling Islamophobia

    hared by the trainers on X described Israel as a Nazi state and referred to “a Zionism problem” in healthcare institutions.

    The event, organised by the professional body for psychotherapists, had been intended to help therapists and wellbeing practitioners become aware of the impact of Islamophobia on mental health….

    On Oct 1 2024, Prof Mir reposted a tweet expressing “pure joy” at an Iranian missile attack against Israel.

    In May 2024, Dr Younis wrote on X that “our healthcare institutions have a Zionism problem” and stated the following month: “Our work isn’t done until all Zionists are removed from our institutions and are shamed, alongside all racists, into nothingness”.

    Shocked and surprised? I know I am.

  • The UCU standing “with the trans community”

    ommunity in the fight for equality.

    'This year trans people have suffered a wave of attacks against them, but UCU remains steadfast as one of their most vocal allies. We refuse to allow trans people to be the collateral of a right-wing culture war and while they continue to experience violence at home, in the workplace and on the airwaves, we will stand by them.'

    Phew. A Churchillian flourish to finish. "While they continue to experience violence at home, in the workplace and on the airwaves, we will stand by them."

    It's true: the UCU under leader Jo Grady has consistently supported trans ideology, and kicked any gender-critical women – like Kathleen Stock at Sussex University – in the teeth.

    Argument is useless. No, trans people have not suffered a wave of attacks; no, it's not a "right-wing culture war". And no, there are no trans youths being denied "essential healthcare" – just deluded kids in the grip of a social contagion being lured into a lifetime's nightmare of unnecessary medical mutilation and interference in the essential requirement to at least let them go through puberty and reach adulthood – at which point, maybe, they're mature enough to decide for themselves.

    What a disgrace this whole business is. Helen Joyce made the point a while back that parents who allowed their kids to be transed would never admit they'd made a terrible mistake and ruined their children's lives. It's beginning to look like the same applies to any group that's backed gender ideology. They'll never admit they got it wrong. 

    Plus, as is now clear, it's against the law.

  • Rowling vs. Maugham

    t as a feud when it's really all Jolyon throwing the insults and Rowling responding.

    And this.

    Maugham also posted on social media that his wife — who last year had a double mastectomy for breast cancer — was confronted by staff at a leisure centre, which he implied was a reaction to the court’s ruling.

    “This morning, for the first time ever, she was challenged in the changing rooms at the swimming pool. Her breasts were not what make her a woman — but, breasts or not, she is entitled to dignity and protection from vigilantes.”

    The story here is that Maugham's wife posted on social media – later deleted – wondering if, as a result of the Supreme Court ruling, she'd now be challenged when she went to the swimming pool because of her double mastectomy. Lo and behold, a day or so later Jolyon comes up with the line that this actually happened. And if you believe that….

    Anyway, here's JKR's latest:


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    Full text:

    This is a lie, and an easily provable lie. I’ve spent the best part of three decades funding initiatives and donating to charities serving vulnerable women, including domestic violence shelters. The charitable trust I set up in 2000 focuses on alleviating social deprivation, with a focus on women and children, including female refugees. I’ve funded an initiative to help female ex-prisoners secure jobs, I helped fly professional women out of Afghanistan because they were in danger from the Taliban, I’ve publicly voiced my support for women’s reproductive rights, I founded and fund a women-only rape crisis centre and I’ve campaigned for and funded projects to help single mothers.

    I myself am a survivor of domestic abuse and sexual assault, as trans activists never tire of reminding me, whether to hope it happens to me again, or assert, as Maugham has, that I was left with unresolved trauma that leaves me irrational on the subject of physical risk to women.

    Maugham is imploding in real time because he’s furious the Supreme Court decision put him back in his box. He was wrong on the law. He pretended it said what it doesn’t. The court reaffirmed the sex-based rights of women, but Maugham’s vanity and delusion make it impossible for him to accept (yet another) loss. So his grift continues, his lies grow bigger and more obvious, and now might be a good time for him to reread the myth of Icarus, because nobody needs clairvoyant powers to foresee how this is going to end.

  • What Labour thinks of women

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    The postponement – aka cancellation – is doubtless due to the trans dilemma. They know they should follow the Supreme Court ruling that sex in the Equality Act means biological sex, but that would annoy all the trans women they've been pandering to all these years. The solution is obvious: just don't bother with the conference at all. Brilliant. It's only women, after all.

  • A tale of two bands

    him to lead a life “of mental and physical trauma”.

    This bank holiday weekend, Kneecap will be the headline act at South London’s Wide Awake festival in Brockwell Park. Their next UK date will be their biggest – at Glastonbury. At the last big festival they played at, Coachella, they displayed the message, “F**k Israel. Free Palestine.”

    Since then, one of their members has been charged with a terror offence. This relates to footage taken from a gig at the Kentish Town Forum last year, in which Liam O'Hanna (stage name Mo Chana) appears to shout, “Up Hamas, up Hezbollah.” At a previous gig, a member appeared to shout: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”

    After one gig with them was cancelled, the music industry rallied around. The likes of Paul Weller, Primal Scream, DJ Annie Mac and scores of other acts signed a letter saying: “As artists we feel the need to register our opposition to any political repression of artistic freedom. In a democracy, no political figures or political parties should have the right to dictate who does and does not play at music festivals or gigs that will be enjoyed by thousands of people.”

    Not one of these artists spoke up for Oi Va Voi….

    The argument over Kneecap is likely to come to a head soon with Glastonbury, which is going to be forced to make a decision: will they showcase this band? If they do, will they demand no political content? Will the BBC screen Kneecap’s performance?

    This row is going to be nasty and noisy, no doubt. We’ll see letters and social media posts celebrating a group, even though one of its members has been charged with supporting a terrorist organisation that glorifies the murder of Jews.

    For Oi Va Voi and other groups with an Israeli link, however, the slow silent cancellation will continue. And none of those free speech activists in the music world will breathe a word.

    Admittedly Oi Va Voi are hardly household names, but if it had been a Palestinian group cancelled for being offensive to Jews (would never happen) you can be sure these big names would be lining up in solidarity, to share their horror.

  • Driven by ‘far-right ideologies’

    osaurs. And the fact that women are the ones who suffer is surely a bonus for these men (though sadly they're not all men), who in reality have zero interest in women's rights, and haven't got where they are today by thinking for themselves.

  • Promoting a two gender ideology

    DMWOK – Don't Mess With Our Kids – “a religious group that promotes a two gender ideology.”

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    "They’re referring to biological truth as “a two gender ideology.”

    "The MEDIA is painting the biological truth of male and female as “dangerous ideology” pushed by “far-right” and “anti-trans” Christians. Let that sink in."

  • Penis removal on the NHS

    nis and trying to fashion a vagina is on a whole different level, in so many ways.

    Dr Louise Irvine, the co-chairwoman of the Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender, said: “If this surgery is intended to relieve gender dysphoria then as far as we know there is no research to show how effective it is, but we know that there is a high level of complications such as infertility, loss of sexual function, scarring and urinary problems.

    “This is a very profound surgery with long term effects on very young men, many of whom will have comorbidities such as mental health issues or autism for which they don’t receive any assessment or care in an adult gender clinic.

    “The NHS is currently doing a review of adult gender services but not surgery. We think it is a matter of absolute urgency that they review surgery. They should look at the evidence and the demographic and ask is this the best way to help young men with gender dysphoria?

    “It is highly irresponsible for the NHS to doing this surgery without any good evidence that it is beneficial. It is negligent, unethical and there should be an urgent review.”

    Stephanie Davies-Arai, the founder of Transgender Trend, added: “This is the same cohort of young people who have been indoctrinated as children into believing that they have a gender identity and that they are trans who are now being referred into adult clinics and for these surgeries.

    “These are serious procedures on young people and the NHS is spending millions on what is really elective surgeries with no health benefits but clear health risks and harm.

    “This is not what medicine is for, it is not what a health service is for. This is irreversible and it will leave these young people with medical problems for the rest of their lives with the NHS will have to deal with.”

    Exactly. This is not what medicine is for, and it's not what a health service is for.

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