All entries on Feminist Legal Clinic’s News Digest Blog are extracts from news articles and other publications, with the source available at the link at the bottom. The content is not generated by Feminist Legal Clinic and does not necessarily reflect our views.
On the morning of 27 August, Robin Westman entered Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis armed with a pistol, a shotgun, and a revolver. He opened fire during the first Mass of the new school year, killing two young children and wounding many others before turning one of the guns on himself.
While Westman’s political ideology (insofar as he had one) is unknown, one thing we do know is that the killer was a biologically male 23-year-old who identified as transgender. Robert Westman became “Robin Westman” at the age of seventeen—a fact that many media outlets originally chose not to report. In keeping with the taboo against “deadnaming” trans-identified individuals—even murderers—they posthumously honoured Westman’s “gender identity”; and so gave Americans the false impression that the carnage at Annunciation Catholic School had been committed by a woman.
[R]ecent years have witnessed many horrifying crimes committed by trans-identified individuals. Some examples include:
It goes without saying that the fact a killer—or attempted killer—is trans-identified does not necessarily mean his or her transgender identity is connected to his or her criminal motive. But it is alarming to observe how prevalent mentally unwell trans-identified individuals have become in many extremist movements and sects. This includes the Zizians—a self-described “rationalist” cult linked to at least six homicides. Its imprisoned leader, “Ziz” LaSota, is a biological male (originally named Jack Amadeus LaSota) who identifies as a woman. Most of his followers are also trans-identified (as well as autistic), including the late Ophelia Bauckholt, a biologically male German native originally named Felix.
Source: Trans-Identified Mass Shooters and Gender-Affirming Care
All entries on Feminist Legal Clinic’s News Digest Blog are extracts from news articles and other publications, with the source available at the link at the bottom. The content is not generated by Feminist Legal Clinic and does not necessarily reflect our views.
Read heartfelt detransition stories, timelines and trends from the members of the /r/detrans Reddit community, the largest open collection of detransition stories on the internet. Find out how old were detransitioners when they transitioned and de-transitioned and what pathways they took.
All entries on Feminist Legal Clinic’s News Digest Blog are extracts from news articles and other publications, with the source available at the link at the bottom. The content is not generated by Feminist Legal Clinic and does not necessarily reflect our views.
The Commissioner’s remarks risk undermining women’s rights and judicial independence in the UK.
As one of the main drafters of the Yogyakarta Principles, a non-legal activist document that seeks to erase sex as a category in law and policy, O’Flaherty has long blurred the boundaries between human rights and ideological advocacy. His intervention now appears less as a defence of rights than as political pressure on independent courts and legislators. The UK Supreme Court ruling reaffirms basic legal clarity and women’s sex-based rights. Attempts to undermine such rulings through moral panic and behind-the-scenes lobbying mark a worrying misuse of institutional power.
Read our full statement here:
Source: Statement in response to Council of Europe Commissioner’s letter on UK ruling – Athena Forum
All entries on Feminist Legal Clinic’s News Digest Blog are extracts from news articles and other publications, with the source available at the link at the bottom. The content is not generated by Feminist Legal Clinic and does not necessarily reflect our views.
The Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (Macs) has refused to let a non-binary teacher use their preferred pronouns and title, in a case that has put state and federal anti-discrimination laws on a legal collision course.
Two years ago, non-binary teacher Myka Sanders – who uses they/them pronouns and Mx for their title – asked Sacred Heart Girls College in Oakleigh, Melbourne if their gender identity could be recognised at school.
Their employer, Macs, refused, saying it went against “the ideas of Catholic anthropology”. Macs is the sixth-largest education organisation in Australia.
The Independent Education Union (IEU), which is supporting Sanders, took the matter to the Victorian civil and administrative tribunal over the school applying what they believed were unlawful actions against Myka.
But Macs successfully argued its defence relied on federal legislation so could not be heard by the tribunal. The matter is scheduled to be heard in the magistrates court next month.
LGBTQ+ Victorians are protected from discrimination in religious schools by the state Equal Opportunity Act. The act prohibits religious bodies from discriminating against someone on the basis of their identity, unless it is deemed “proportionate”.
But federally, the Sex Discrimination Act holds broad exemptions for religious schools.
In an email sent to Sanders in April 2024 and seen by Guardian Australia, the organisation said titles such as Mx went against “Catholic anthropology”.
Sanders, who has worked at the school since 2022, said they were still trying to sign off on emails as Mx, but the school’s leadership has intervened, telling them to stop
All entries on Feminist Legal Clinic’s News Digest Blog are extracts from news articles and other publications, with the source available at the link at the bottom. The content is not generated by Feminist Legal Clinic and does not necessarily reflect our views.
The state’s top coroner has taken the rare step of issuing an open letter after NSW reached the “profoundly distressing milestone” of recording the highest-ever number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths in custody in a single year.
Teresa O’Sullivan told The Sydney Morning Herald after her appointment in 2019 that preventing Indigenous deaths in custody was a priority for her court.
But the number of Aboriginal people in custody has increased by almost 20 per cent in the past five years, while the non-Aboriginal prison population declined in the same period.
“Twelve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have died in custody in NSW so far in 2025 – the highest number ever recorded in a single year, with more than two months remaining in the calendar,” O’Sullivan wrote in the letter, released on Wednesday.
O’Sullivan said the number of Aboriginal people in custody had increased by 18.9 per cent over the past five years, while the non-Aboriginal prison population had declined by 12.5 per cent.
“Nearly half of Aboriginal adults in custody (45.6 per cent) were on remand or refused bail awaiting further court outcomes. The number of Aboriginal people on remand has surged by 63 per cent over the same five-year period,” she wrote.
“These figures reflect the entrenched over-representation of First Nations peoples in the criminal justice system – a systemic issue that compounds the risks and vulnerabilities contributing to the rising number of deaths in custody.”
[Ed: Indigenous people make up only 3.3% of Australian population but 29% of male prison population and 34% of indigenous female prison population.]
Source: NSW records highest ever number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths in custody in 2025
We therefore ask the House to 1. Establish an independent rapid review of unsafe orders and a Federal Royal Commission. 2. Ban moratoriums, “parental alienation” tactics, coercive reunification, and profit-driven supervision centres. 3. Deliver a National Apology. 4. Repeal the Family Law Act 1975, replace it with a trauma-informed Family Justice & Safety Act. 5. Establish a Federal Judicial Commission extending accountability to all court professionals. 6. Provide redress and housing security. 7. Guarantee survivor co-design.
All entries on Feminist Legal Clinic’s News Digest Blog are extracts from news articles and other publications, with the source available at the link at the bottom. The content is not generated by Feminist Legal Clinic and does not necessarily reflect our views.
Help Us to Expose the Corruption that has Led to Family Courts becoming Centers of Epidemic Violence!
The Family Court system in our country is seriously corrupt, extremely dangerous to families, especially to women and children, and opens wide the door to judicial criminality in ways few Americans can fathom unless they have experienced it. While it is disturbing to consider that a system set up to protect families is in fact preying on them — to their deaths and destruction — the problem will not solve itself unless the public demands it.
Thus, for the first time ever, we are organizing a major national conference in Washington, DC, that will expose this growing humanitarian and constitutional crisis. The event will take place at 1–5 p.m. on November 11, 2025, in the Grand Ballroom of the National Press Club, the nation’s most prominent venue for major policy announcements and human rights discussions.
One of the country’s most celebrated constitutional and human rights attorneys, Bruce Fein, Esq., will give the keynote address. Acclaimed forensic psychiatrist, Bandy Lee, M.D., who taught at the Yale School of Medicine and Yale Law School for 17 years and is now chief medical officer of the Institute of Forensic Science — dedicated to bringing rigorous science into the Family Courts — will be organizing the event.
All entries on Feminist Legal Clinic’s News Digest Blog are extracts from news articles and other publications, with the source available at the link at the bottom. The content is not generated by Feminist Legal Clinic and does not necessarily reflect our views.
A review into the original investigation file on Bishop Eamonn Casey has been completed and no further investigative actions have been identified, An Garda Síochána (Irish police) have said.
It comes as his remains were removed from the crypt of Galway Cathedral.
He served as bishop of Galway from 1976 to 1992, and died in 2017.
Multiple allegations of child sexual abuse have been made against him, including by his niece.
Bishop Casey is the first senior cleric to be disinterred in Ireland following posthumous concerns about his conduct, according to Irish national broadcaster RTÉ.
[Ed: Interestingly this is the Bishop under whom Michael O’Flaherty served during his time as a priest in the Diocese of Galway and who he has described as “a remarkable leader who demonstrated a passion for social justice, the like of which I don’t think had ever been seen before”. Lets hope it is never seen again.]
Source: Bishop Eamonn Casey: Gardaí taking no further investigative action
All entries on Feminist Legal Clinic’s News Digest Blog are extracts from news articles and other publications, with the source available at the link at the bottom. The content is not generated by Feminist Legal Clinic and does not necessarily reflect our views.
The home secretary has accused Europe’s human rights watchdog of undermining the case for Britain to remain a member of the European Convention on Human Rights after it criticised the government’s stance on transgender rights and Palestinian protests.
Senior government sources said Shabana Mahmood took a “dim view” of claims made by the Council of Europe that the government’s treatment of trans people in the UK and that the arrest of those supporting Palestine Action could breach the European Convention on Human Rights.
The claims were made in a letter to Mahmood and senior MPs by Michael O’Flaherty, the council’s human rights commissioner, after a visit to the UK. His role is to identify possible shortcomings in human rights law among countries that are signatories to the convention.
Source: Shabana Mahmood says rights watchdog undermines UK case to stay in ECHR
