I’ve been aware of one of the incidents described in this thread for a long time, because I know people involved. I’m posting this in response to the head of Rape Crisis Scotland’s attempts to use rape survivors as human shields for her own career.
[https://x.com/SD5419203477703/status/1834693365796859953]

The incident involves a group of female sexual assault survivors, who a few years ago requested a meeting with Sandy Brindley, head of Rape Crisis Scotland. They wanted to express their concerns about gender self-ID legislation. Specifically, the survivors wanted Rape Crisis Scotland to support a woman’s right to request a female medical practitioner. They went to the meeting well aware that they’d be reliving and possibly discussing their own highly traumatic experiences. When they arrived at the meeting, the survivors found another woman present, in addition to Sandy Brindley. This woman wasn’t introduced, so the survivors assumed she must be another woman who’d experienced rape or sexual assault. They were mistaken. The woman in question was @sharoncowan22, Sandy Brindley’s romantic partner, who had no role at Rape Crisis Scotland but is an academic with a particular interest in gender identity and trans issues.

Sandy Brindley, the head of a rape crisis charity, had invited her girlfriend to sit in on a meeting with victims, none of whom had given consent to identifying themselves as rape survivors in front of a total stranger. As if that wasn’t enough, @sharoncowan spoke up during the meeting to berate and criticise women who want same-sex medical care. The survivors’ concerns were dismissed and they were sent on their way. What happened at that meeting has been an open secret ever since among people particularly engaged in the gender self-ID debate. A large number of people were aware that Sandy Brindley had been guilty of a staggering breach of trust and lack of professionalism. Brindley, who claims to be unaware of calls for her to be fired, is responsible for the catastrophe at Edinburgh Rape Crisis. She has betrayed rape survivors’ trust in the most brazen ways imaginable. Scottish rape survivors deserve far, far better. Brindley has to go.

And I’ve mistakenly typed @sharoncowan in tweet 7 rather than @sharoncowan22. Apologies.

Previous writing: « Comments on Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre report

Next writing: I say the following again… »

Today has seen the publication of a damning report into the culture of the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre under CEO Mridul Wadhwa, a man who identifies as a woman.
[https://www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/article/mridul-wadhwa-edinburgh-rape-crisis-centre-sw5fpfzql]

According to the report’s author, legal specialist Vicky Ling, the regime of the rape crisis centre under the trans-identified CEO “caused damage” to survivors. Some “did not feel safe” using it. It was because I knew sexual assault victims were self-excluding from the only rape support centre in my home city, that I founded and fund @beirasplace, a woman-only service for female survivors of sexual assault in Edinburgh and Lothian.

Responding to Ling’s report, Rape Crisis Scotland said today: ‘It is important that survivors can make informed choices about the services they access at Rape Crisis Centres, and we recognise that for some survivors this includes the choice of a single sex service.’ Yet Edinburgh Rape Crisis has never referred a woman in search of a single sex service to @beirasplace and was found to have constructively dismissed support worker Roz Adams for believing that service users have the right to know the sex of staff.
[https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/may/20/edinburgh-crisis-worker-wins-tribunal-over-gender-critical-views]

A staff SLACK conversation about @beirasplace came to light during Roz’s tribunal. The opening of the new single-sex centre was described by one employee as ‘really terrible news’ and ‘a festive stinker.’
[Image on original tweet: https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1834364837763182678]

Umbrella organisation Rape Crisis Scotland claims to have been in ignorance of the Edinburgh centre’s failings. As @ForWomenScot says below, this is nonsense. They were warned, yet supported Wadhwa and his ideology throughout his tenure.
[Image on original tweet: https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1834365577831612875]

Chief Executive Sandy Brindley appears to have been fine with Wadhwa’s publicly expressed views that female survivors are ‘bigots’ if they don’t want to share spaces with trans-identified men and that the best way to deal with gender critical staff is to fire them.
[Image on original tweet: https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1834365833939693653]

Wadhwa remained in post even after the Edinburgh centre allowed a man now convicted of serious sexual assault, who the judge said harbours ‘hostility towards women’, to access a space supposedly reserved for traumatised female survivors.
[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/17/predator-cameron-downing-trans-inclusive-rape-crisis-centre/]

Some might have expected the Chief Exec and her ‘amazing sister’ to resign today, but no. The government continues to fund a service dominated by ideologues, vulnerable women have been denied help, and Brindley and Wadhwa continue to draw their salaries.

Previous writing: « Statement about Harry Potter Series Creative Team

Next writing: Response to the head of Rape Crisis Scotland’s attempts… »

There has been an utterly damning judgement in the case of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre versus their ex-employee Roz Adams, who was subject to what the judgement calls a ‘heresy hunt’ for her gender critical beliefs. ERCC’s investigation of Roz is described as Kafkaesque.

This statement by Roz gives an insight into who she is as a person. Roz’s top priority has always been the survivors of rape and sexual assault ERRC was supposed to serve. Aside from being a highly qualified support worker, Roz is a person of bravery, integrity and compassion.

Why was Roz subject to disciplinary action and discrimination in the workplace? Because she wanted to ensure that rape and sexual assault victims knew whether the person supporting them would be a man or a woman, in order to give informed consent before commencing counselling.

The judgement, which can be read here, includes a heartrending letter from a survivor who was re-traumatised by the CEO’s public statement that it is ‘bigotry’ for women not to accept trans-identified men as women, even when being counselled for rape.

The judgment gives a further example of a 60-year-old rape survivor who was turned away from the service because she wanted reassurance that there would be no males included in group therapy.

Tellingly, ERCC chooses not to refer women who want an all-female service to Beira’s Place, the all-female service for survivors of rape and sexual assault in the Lothians I founded and fund.

Women like me are constantly asked, ‘why do you care about this stuff so much?’ I care for many reasons, and one of them is that organisations like ERCC are demonstrably prioritising gender ideology over the service they’re meant to be providing to extremely vulnerable women.

While I’m happy for Roz, I find it disheartening that we’re relying on the bravery of individuals (mostly women) standing up to unlawful harassment and discrimination to expose the harms gender identity ideology is doing to the rights and protections of women and girls.

It’s time for employers to protect those holding gender critical beliefs in the same way that gender ideologues have been protected. Hopefully today’s judgement will bring about much-needed change, both for survivors of sexual violence and for employees across Scotland.

But it would be nice, for once, to see the Scottish government speaking up for the women who’ve been subject to unlawful discrimination for defending their sex-based rights, and to hear the government condemn, rather than side with, those conducting the witch hunts.

Previous writing: « This comment by Billy Bragg perfectly sums up…

Next writing: Contribution: Why I decided to stand up for women »

This comment by Billy Bragg [@billybragg] perfectly sums up what left wing women have taken from left wing men over the last few years. The problem isn’t whether Julie Bindel and I are correct on the issues, but that certain right-wingers agree with us.

If you’ve spent any time at all on the left of politics, you’re familiar with the progressive male class warrior, usually middle-class himself, whose interest in women’s issues begins and ends with sex work, stripping and abortions. He might claim to be a feminist ally and mutter vaguely about ‘equality’ if the need arises, but when a genuine assault on women’s rights erupted under his nose, he cut left wing women adrift without a second thought. He expected us to be so blindly tribal that we’d surrender single sex spaces, jettison the very language we use to describe ourselves, give up fair sport, agree rapists should be locked up in women’s prisons and that lesbians are bigots for not wanting to sleep with the penis-ed, because (horrors!) some people on the right thought these things were wrong, too.

Over the last few years, a huge number of PMCWs have become men’s rights activists in all but name, and it’s been profoundly depressing, if not entirely unexpected, to see how enjoyable they’ve found it. Even while attacking women for finding themselves on the same side as right-wingers, the PMCWs stampeded to join the team that was threatening women with rape and violence, harassing women’s conferences, attempting to block access to gender critical events and physically assaulting female demonstrators. PMCWs are everywhere online, lecturing women reliant on state-run services for not welcoming the male-bodied into communal changing rooms and rape crisis shelters, presuming to police women’s language and tone, turning a blind eye to all statistics on male sexual violence that might contradict the ‘you’re all scaremongering bigots’ narrative and demonstrating that their deepest empathy will always be reserved for those who were born with a penis.

The truth is that the left has fucked up monumentally on gender identity ideology and until it owns the mistake, it will continue to hand the right valid talking points. As more and more PMCWs realise this, they’ll take shameless refuge in accusations that we, the women criticising the injustice and insanity of gender identity ideology, were enabling the far-right. The fact is that they’ve done exactly that, by refusing to accept that there was anything wrong with a movement that was causing serious harm to troubled young people, trampling all over women’s rights and seeking to remove single-sex services for the most vulnerable.

The sense of betrayal women on the left feel towards men like Bragg will take a long time to disappear, if it ever does. I think we all take some grim satisfaction, though, in the fact that evidence of the PMCWs’ misogyny and complicity is a matter of public record, because the panicky back-pedalling and whitewashing that’s just begun is quite something to behold.

Previous writing: « I’m astounded by this comment…

Next writing: An utterly damning judgement »

.@KirstieMAllsopp I’m astounded by this comment. One of the gender ideologues’ favourite slogans is ‘no debate’. Opponents have been attacked, vilified, subject to discipline at work, had their lives overturned and lost their careers, all for the crime of wanting a debate.

Sonia Appleby, an experienced psychotherapist working at the now discredited Tavistock clinic, was monstered for raising concerns. A tribunal found that her professional reputation had been damaged and ‘prevented her from proper work on safeguarding’. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58453250]

Sue Evans, a nurse who also worked at the Tavistock and was extremely worried that children were being harmed, tried to raise the alarm. She took concerns to management but was ‘alienated’ and subsequently left for the sake of her own mental health. [https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/protect-children/]

Dr David Bell, a distinguished psychiatrist who shared Evan’s and Appleby’s concerns, submitted a report detailing whistle-blowers’ claims, and the trust’s response was to attempt to open an investigation into him. [https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/may/02/tavistock-trust-whistleblower-david-bell-transgender-children-gids]

James Esses, who was doing a Masters Degree in psychotherapy, was expelled from his course for speaking out about the impact of gender ideology on child safeguarding.[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12851073/Student-sued-professional-body-psychotherapists-thrown-course-expressing-gender-critical-views-reaches-settlement-discrimination-case.html]

In Canada, Kenneth Zucker, former head of the Child Youth and Family Gender Identity Clinic, was fired for questioning whether automatic affirmation of children in their trans identities was the best treatment model. [https://juliebindel.substack.com/p/a-fascinating-conversation-with-kenneth]

In the US, trans man Scott Newgent (@NotScottNewgent) has made it his life’s mission to raise the alarm about the dangers of transitioning children. He’s lost his career for speaking out.

Jo Phoenix, professor of criminology at the Open University, was harassed and bullied because of her opposition to gender identity ideology, severely impacting her career and health. [https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/harassed-silenced-for-my-gender-critical-views/]

Allison Bailey, the lesbian KC who dared challenge gender identity ideology’s impact on lesbians, was targeted by Stonewall, subject to horrendous abuse and effectively lost her career. [https://allisonbailey.co.uk/]

Philosophy professor Kathleen Stock was hounded out of her position at the University of Sussex, shunned by colleagues and targeted by students, all for the crime of being critical of gender identity ideology. [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/28/kathleen-stock-interview-oxford-university-gender-debate/]

Detransitioners are subject to horrendous abuse from their ‘community’ online, because they speak out about the negative impact hormones and surgery have had on their lives. We’ve all watched them being jeered at, even told to kill themselves, after sharing their stories.

These individuals are the tip of the iceberg. I know, because I’ve received innumerable letters and emails from other people in medical and related professions who’ve been bullied and harassed for wanting a debate on gender identity ideology and the affirmation model.

People like you who now claim there’s never been any attempt to stifle debate are part of the reason this mess happened in the first place. If you want to remain in a state of blithe unconcern, fine, but don’t tell those in the trenches they’re making a fuss about nothing.

Previous writing: « Over the last four years, Hilary Cass…

Next writing: This comment by Billy Bragg perfectly sums up… »

Over the last four years, Hilary Cass has conducted the most robust review of the medical evidence for transitioning children that’s ever been conducted. Mere hours after it was released to the press and public, committed ideologues are doubling down.

These are people who’ve deemed opponents ‘far-right’ for wanting to know there are proper checks and balances in place before autistic, gay and abused kids – groups that are all overrepresented at gender clinics – are left sterilised, inorgasmic, lifelong patients.

I understand that the review’s conclusions will have come as a seismic shock to those who’ve hounded and demonised whistleblowers and smeared opponents as bigots and transphobes, but trying to discredit Hilary Cass’s work isn’t merely misguided. It’s actively malign.

Even if you don’t feel ashamed of cheerleading for what now looks like severe medical malpractice, even if you don’t want to accept that you might have been wrong, where’s your sense of self-preservation? The bandwagon you hopped on so gladly is hurtling towards a cliff.

And if I sound angry, it’s because I’m bloody angry. I read Cass this morning and my anger’s been mounting all day. Kids have been irreversibly harmed, and thousands are complicit, not just medics, but the celebrity mouthpieces, unquestioning media and cynical corporations.

The consequences of this scandal will play out for decades. You cheered it on. You did all you could to impede and misrepresent research. You tried to bully people out of their jobs for opposing you. Young people have been experimented on, left infertile and in pain.

I thought the last tweet was going to be my last, but I just burst into tears. The #CassReview may be a watershed moment, but it comes too late for detransitioners who’ve written me heartbreaking letters of regret. Today’s not a triumph, it’s the laying bare of a tragedy.

Previous writing: « I believe a woman is

Next writing: I’m astounded by this comment… »

You’ve asked me several questions on this thread and accused me of avoiding answering, so here goes.

I believe a woman is a human being who belongs to the sex class that produces large gametes. It’s irrelevant whether or not her gametes have ever been fertilised, whether or not she’s carried a baby to term, irrelevant if she was born with a rare difference of sexual development that makes neither of the above possible, or if she’s aged beyond being able to produce viable eggs. She is a woman and just as much a woman as the others.

I don’t believe a woman is more or less of a woman for having sex with men, women, both or not wanting sex at all. I don’t think a woman is more or less of a woman for having a buzz cut and liking suits and ties, or wearing stilettos and mini dresses, for being black, white or brown, for being six feet tall or a little person, for being kind or cruel, angry or sad, loud or retiring. She isn’t more of a woman for featuring in Playboy or being a surrendered wife, nor less of a woman for designing space rockets or taking up boxing. What makes her a woman is the fact of being born in a body that, assuming nothing has gone wrong in her physical development (which, as stated above, still doesn’t stop her being a woman), is geared towards producing eggs as opposed to sperm, towards bearing as opposed to begetting children, and irrespective of whether she’s done either of those things, or ever wants to.

Womanhood isn’t a mystical state of being, nor is it measured by how well one apes sex stereotypes. We are not the creatures either porn or the Bible tell you we are. Femaleness is not, as trans woman Andrea Chu Long wrote, ‘an open mouth, an expectant asshole, blank, blank eyes,’ nor are we God’s afterthought, sprung from Adam’s rib.

Women are provably subject to certain experiences because of our female bodies, including different forms of oppression, depending on the cultures in which we live. When trans activists say ‘I thought you didn’t want to be defined by your biology,’ it’s a feeble and transparent attempt at linguistic sleight of hand. Women don’t want to be limited, exploited, punished, or subject to other unjust treatment because of their biology, but our being female is indeed defined by our biology. It’s one material fact about us, like having freckles or disliking beetroot, neither of which are representative of our entire beings, either. Women have billions of different personalities and life stories, which have nothing to do with our bodies, although we are likely to have had experiences men don’t and can’t, because we belong to our sex class.

Some people feel strongly that they should have been, or wish to be seen as, the sex class into which they weren’t born. Gender dysphoria is a real and very painful condition and I feel nothing but sympathy for anyone who suffers from it. I want them to be free to dress and present themselves however they like and I want them to have exactly the same rights as every other citizen regarding housing, employment and personal safety. I do not, however, believe that surgeries and cross-sex hormones literally turn a person into the opposite sex, nor do I believe in the idea that each of us has a nebulous ‘gender identity’ that may or might not match our sexed bodies. I believe the ideology that preaches those tenets has caused, and continues to cause, very real harm to vulnerable people.

I am strongly against women’s and girls’ rights and protections being dismantled to accommodate trans-identified men, for the very simple reason that no study has ever demonstrated that trans-identified men don’t have exactly the same pattern of criminality as other men, and because, however they identify, men retain their advantages of speed and strength. In other words, I think the safety and rights of girls and women are more important than those men’s desire for validation.

I sincerely hope that answers your questions. You may still disagree, but as I hope this shows, I’m more than happy to have this debate.

Previous writing: « April Fools’ Day 2024

Next writing: Over the last four years, Hilary Cass… »

Scotland’s Hate Crime Act comes into effect today. Women gain no additional protections, of course, but well-known trans activist Beth Douglas, darling of prominent Scottish politicians, falls within a protected category. Phew!

Lovely Scottish lass and convicted double rapist Isla Bryson found her true authentic female self shortly before she was due to be sentenced. Misgendering is hate, so respect Isla’s pronouns, please. Love the leggings!

Fragile flower Katie Dolatowski, 6’5″, was rightly sent to a women’s prison in Scotland after conviction. This ensured she was protected from violent, predatory men (unlike the 10-year-old girl Katie sexually assaulted in a women’s public bathroom.)

Samantha Norris was cleared of exposing her penis to two 11-year-old girls. Hooray! Unfortunately she was then convicted for possession of 16,000 images of children being raped and sexually assaulted. Be that as it may, Sam’s still a lady to me!

Scottish woman and butcher Amy George abducted an 11-year-old girl while dressed in female clothing. No idea why this was mentioned in court – of course she was wearing women’s clothing, she’s a woman! Amy took the girl home and sexually abused her over a 27-hour period.

But most women aren’t axe-toters or sex offenders, so let’s talk role models! Guilia Valentino (in red) wanted to play on the women’s team ‘because of sisterhood, validation and political visibility’. Naturally, she was given some boring cis girl’s place. Yay for inclusion!

Mridul Wadhwa, head of a Scottish rape crisis centre, says, ‘sexual violence happens to bigoted people as well.’ She has no gender recognition certificate, but was still appointed to a job advertised for women only. Time to be ‘challenged on your prejudices’, rape victims!

Munroe Bergdorf isn’t just a pretty face! Public campaigner for a children’s charity until safeguarding concerns were raised, she was appointed UN Women’s first ever UK champion. ‘What makes a woman “a woman” has no definitive answer,’ says Munroe. Great choice, UN Women!

Katie Neeves has been appointed as the UN Women UK delegate. She switched from straight man to lesbian at the age of 48 and, in a leaked 2022 webinar, described how she used to enjoy stealing and wearing her sister’s underwear. A truly relatable representative!

Last, but least, TV’s India Willoughby proves we women can call a black broadcaster a ‘nasty bitch’ who ‘wouldn’t be anywhere without woke’, dub lesbians men, insult the looks of a female Olympic swimmer, ‘joke’ about kidnapping feminists, and STILL get airtime! What a gal!

Only kidding. Obviously, the people mentioned in the above tweets aren’t women at all, but men, every last one of them.

In passing the Scottish Hate Crime Act, Scottish lawmakers seem to have placed higher value on the feelings of men performing their idea of femaleness, however misogynistically or opportunistically, than on the rights and freedoms of actual women and girls. The new legislation is wide open to abuse by activists who wish to silence those of us speaking out about the dangers of eliminating women’s and girls’ single-sex spaces, the nonsense made of crime data if violent and sexual assaults committed by men are recorded as female crimes, the grotesque unfairness of allowing males to compete in female sports, the injustice of women’s jobs, honours and opportunities being taken by trans-identified men, and the reality and immutability of biological sex.

For several years now, Scottish women have been pressured by their government and members of the police force to deny the evidence of their eyes and ears, repudiate biological facts and embrace a neo-religious concept of gender that is unprovable and untestable. The re-definition of ‘woman’ to include every man who declares himself one has already had serious consequences for women’s and girls’ rights and safety in Scotland, with the strongest impact felt, as ever, by the most vulnerable, including female prisoners and rape survivors.

It is impossible to accurately describe or tackle the reality of violence and sexual violence committed against women and girls, or address the current assault on women’s and girls’ rights, unless we are allowed to call a man a man. Freedom of speech and belief are at an end in Scotland if the accurate description of biological sex is deemed criminal.

I’m currently out of the country, but if what I’ve written here qualifies as an offence under the terms of the new act, I look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment.

If you agree with the views set out in this tweet, please retweet it.

#ArrestMe #AprilFools #HateCrimeActScotland

Previous writing: « Statement from J.K. Rowling, 14th March 2024

Next writing: I believe a woman is »

The word ‘transphobic’, as used here, does not mean an irrational fear or dislike of trans people. It means refusing to use gender identity ideology’s jargon, refusing to parrot its slogans, refusing to accept that sex doesn’t matter when it comes to sport and single-sex spaces, refusing to believe a bearded heterosexual man becomes a lesbian when he declares himself one, and refusing to believe an abusive, misogynistic male is a woman because he likes to wear mini-dresses and pout in selfies.

Like every other gender critical person I know, I believe everyone should be free to express themselves however they wish, dress however they please, call themselves whatever they want, sleep with any consenting adult who wishes to sleep with them, and that trans-identified people should have the same protections regarding employment, housing, freedom of speech and personal safety every other citizen is entitled to.

But this isn’t nearly enough for the dominant strain of trans activism, which asserts that unless freedom of speech is removed from dissenters, unless trans-identified men are permitted to strip away women’s rights, with particular reference to single sex spaces like rape crisis centres, prison cells, hospital wards, changing rooms and public bathrooms, until we all bow down to their neo-religion, accept their pseudo-scientific claims and embrace their circular reasoning, trans people are more oppressed, and more at risk, than any other group in society.

This is nonsense. 99.9% of the world knows it’s nonsense. The emperor is naked. He might be wearing lipstick, but his balls are swinging in plain sight.

Previous writing: « Some time ago, lawyers advised me that…

Next writing: Statement from J.K. Rowling, 14th March 2024 »

Some time ago, lawyers advised me that not only did I have a clearly winnable case against India Willoughby for defamation, but that India’s obsessive targeting of me over the past few years may meet the legal threshold for harassment.

I ignored this advice because I couldn’t be bothered giving India the publicity he so clearly craves. Nevertheless, we must all do our bit to combat hate, so India will be glad to know I’ve taken note of his homophobia, racism, and humane stance on immigration.

Nor have I forgotten India’s shocking transphobia. It appears to have slipped what passes for India’s mind that he’s previously called a fellow trans woman a man on this very site.

Surprisingly for such an eminent legal authority, he appears to have forgotten that the Forstater ruling established that gender critical views can be protected in law as a philosophical belief. No law compels anyone to pretend to believe that India is a woman.

Aware as I am that it’s an offence to lie to law enforcement, I’ll simply have to explain to the police that, in my view, India is a classic example of the male narcissist who lives in a state of perpetual rage that he can’t compel women to take him at his own valuation.

Previous writing: « We don’t leave our doors and windows wide open…

Next writing: The word ‘transphobic’, as used here… »