Feminist Legal Clinic – Advancing the Human Rights of Women & Girls

European Parliament passes resolution that says trans women are women – LGBTQ Nation

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 originally generated by Feminist Legal Clinic and does not necessarily reflect our views.

The European Parliament agreed to a resolution that says that trans women are women last Wednesday.

The resolution was to adopt recommendations concerning the European Union’s priorities for the 70th session of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, which is set to take place next month in New York. The U.N. Commission on the Status of Women is charged with promoting gender equality across the globe.

Citing the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, as well as several other international proclamations, the council set a list of recommendations for the E.U. to pursue at the convention, including: “emphasize the importance of the full recognition of trans women as women, noting that their inclusion is essential for the effectiveness of any gender-equality and anti-violence policies; call for recognition of and equal access for trans women to protection and support services.”

The resolution also mentioned LGBTQ+ people in several other places, including in the statement about needing a “comprehensive tool to monitor and counter democratic backsliding and backsliding in women’s rights” and citing “attacks by anti-gender and anti-rights movements” that “undermine democracy and target women’s and LGBTIQ+ rights.”

The resolution was adopted in a 340-141 vote, with 68 abstentions.

Independent journalist Erin Reen notes that this now puts the E.U. “on a direct collision course with the United States,” which will also be at the session, a reference to the current presidential administration’s stated policy that trans people’s existence must be denied by the federal government.

While the European Parliament’s recommendations aren’t binding, they are expected to have significant influence on the E.U.’s positions at the forum.

Source: European Parliament passes resolution that says trans women are women – LGBTQ Nation

The loony Uni – Julie Bindel’s writing and podcasts

[T]he University of Canberra has a brand-new offering, in the form of a Graduate Certificate in LGBTQIA+ Policy. Aimed at “professionals and aspiring changemakers”, this qualification will, the university claims, help students influence “decisions that count” and strengthen their “credibility in driving social change”.

External activities promoted for students by Sydney University include participation in the Mardi Gras parade, which is unfortunate given that it is currently losing money hand over fist, resulting in the after-party being cancelled for 2026. Perhaps the reason why this particular gravy train has slowed down is because corporates are no longer able to claim to be super “DEI”-focused when the Pride board is at loggerheads. It rejected member motions to centre the parade this year on transgender rights and to adopt slogans such as “Embrace trans rights not Trump”.

Operating under a protection racket reminiscent of UK-based Stonewall, this university is recognised as a Gold Employer of Choice for the Australian Workplace Equality Index – which effectively means they get a nice Kitemark for doing away with single-sex facilities and pretending that “trans women are women”.

What universities could really do with right now is a course that traces how the ever-growing gay rights movement came to encompass heterosexual kinksters, bored straight folks and young people with interesting haircuts, not to mention men in pup-fetish gear.

We need to teach the history of the Gay Liberation Movement, the actual one – not that imagined and distorted by the likes of Butler. Let these students learn about how and why genderism took such a hold over our institutions – an ideology so powerful and toxic it threatened the very basis of a democratic society – free speech and active learning.

Source: The loony Uni – Julie Bindel’s writing and podcasts

Flawed ‘Epstein Files’ disclosures undermine accountability for grave crimes against women and girls: UN experts | OHCHR

GENEVA – The so-called ‘Epstein Files’ contain disturbing and credible evidence of systematic and large-scale sexual abuse, trafficking and exploitation of women and girls, UN experts* said today.According to the experts, these acts could amount to sexual slavery, reproductive violence, enforced disappearance, torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, and femicide.

“These crimes were committed against a backdrop of supremacist beliefs, racism, corruption, extreme misogyny, and the commodification and dehumanisation of women and girls from different parts of the world,” the experts said.

“The ‘Epstein Files’, which are suggestive of the existence of a global criminal enterprise have shocked the conscience of humanity and raised terrifying implications of the level of impunity for such crimes.”

“So grave is the scale, nature, systematic character, and transnational reach of these atrocities against women and girls, that a number of them may reasonably meet the legal threshold of crimes against humanity,” they said.

Source: Flawed ‘Epstein Files’ disclosures undermine accountability for grave crimes against women and girls: UN experts | OHCHR

Rhode Island hockey shooter ID’d as transgender father Robert Dor | The Australian

Police identified the gunman who killed two people and critically injured three others at a high school hockey game in Rhode Island on Monday afternoon as Robert Dorgan and revealed he went by a female name.

The 56-year-old father, who shot family members and a family friend before he turned the gun on himself following the deadly rampage at the Pawtucket ice rink, used the alias Roberta Esposito, Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves said during a press conference Monday night.

Dorgan is the father of a North Providence High School senior who was competing in the hockey tournament, local station WPRI reported.

The suspected shooter sat near the back of the stands on the home team’s side during the game before he moved to the front and opened fire at four family members and one family friend, the outlet reported.

The student’s mother and sibling were among the dead, multiple sources told the outlet. The mother of Dorgan’s child died inside Lynch Arena, while the sibling died at the hospital, according to the sources.

Three victims are still in critical condition as of Monday night.

Dorgan took his own life at the scene, police said.

Source: Subscribe to The Australian | Newspaper home delivery, website, iPad, iPhone & Android apps

The Epstein Files just connected a child sex trafficker to the foundations of America’s transgender medicine industry | Jennifer Bilek

Newly released DOJ files show that Jeffrey Epstein funded research tied to key figures in transgender medicine, encouraged academic work on ‘transgender biology,’ and circulated the topic among elite institutional networks.

Jeffrey Epstein — a convicted sex offender whose documented crimes involved the sexual exploitation of minors — was simultaneously:

Funding the surgical infrastructure: A $50,000 grant to Dr. Jess Ting at Mount Sinai, followed by years of relationship-building during the precise period when Ting transitioned from plastic surgery to founding America’s first comprehensive transgender surgery center — a center that would become one of the most prominent transgender surgical programs in the United States. When Ting emailed Epstein about his career shift to transgender surgery, Epstein forwarded the email to an associate (EFTA02667053).
Commissioning the scientific rationale: Directing and funding Robert Trivers to produce research on “transgender biology” (EFTA00835004) — and when Trivers tried to pursue other research, explicitly conditioning financial survival on compliance: “I thought that you might want to focus on transgender biology. people would be interested and i would fund” (EFTA01035762). The resulting “research” consisted of dehumanizing descriptions of transgender people and enthusiastic discussion of hormonal manipulation of children’s bodies, written by a man who publicly minimized child sex abuse.
Managing the topic through elite channels: Advising Joi Ito on how to pitch transgender science to Bill Gates (EFTA01038315). Tracking when transgender would reach Wall Street with a smiley face in an email to Obama’s former White House Counsel (EFTA02582780). Listing it first among the contemporary topics of greatest interest (EFTA02669232).
Seeking involvement in public promotion: Ting’s direct pitch for Epstein to fund Born to Be, a documentary designed to normalize and celebrate transgender surgical procedures.

A convicted sex offender funded research conducted by the founding surgical director of America’s first comprehensive academic transgender surgery program. He commissioned the research. He routed the agenda through the most powerful institutions in the country. He did all of this after his conviction — while continuing to abuse children.

The parents who were told to trust this system deserved to know. Now they do.

Source: The Epstein Files just connected a child sex trafficker to the foundations of America’s transgender medicine industry.

NORWAY: Trans-Identified Male Convicted of Raping Young Girl Seeks to Change Legal Sex to ‘Female’ In Order to Be Placed in a Women’s Prison

A trans-identified male in Norway currently appealing a conviction for the rape of a young girl has announced that he has begun the process to change his legal sex marker to ‘female.’ Damien “Damia Scarlet Rose Nesne” Baar, 45, was convicted last year of the rape of a girl while she was between the ages of 12 and 14.

“So absurd has Norwegian law become that this plan is, by all accounts, going to be realized… He will consequently receive a new social security number and be registered as a woman in public registers. Perhaps also as a female criminal in the crime statistics. In the worst case, the Norwegian Correctional Service could decide that he should have his wish fulfilled to serve his sentence in a women’s prison.”

In addition to announcing his plan to change his legal sex, Baar stated that he had endured a difficult life as a result of being “transgender,” and demanded he receive surgeries and hormones subsidized by taxpayers while incarcerated.

Source: NORWAY: Trans-Identified Male Convicted of Raping Young Girl Seeks to Change Legal Sex to ‘Female’ In Order to Be Placed in a Women’s Prison

Revealed: The true toll of female suicides in UK with domestic abuse at their core | Domestic violence | The Guardian

The number of women who are driven to suicide by domestic abusers is being under-reported, and their cases overlooked by police, in what has been described by experts as a “national scandal”.

Domestic violence suicides are already growing at such a rate that a woman in an abusive relationship is now more likely to take her own life than be killed by a partner.

But research into the number of women who take their own life in such circumstances has suggested official statistics could track as few as 6.5% of the true number of cases.

According to the Domestic Homicide Project, a programme led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), there were 98 suspected suicides following domestic abuse in 2024, compared with 80 intimate partner homicides.

But research by a suicide prevention programme in Kent found that about a third of all suspected suicides in the region between 2018 and 2024 were affected by domestic abuse.

Recording domestic suicides is just one part of campaigners’ struggle to have causes of death in these cases more thoroughly investigated. There has been only one criminal conviction for manslaughter in UK legal history where a woman has died by suicide following domestic abuse.

Lawyers believe this number shows coroners may have been too quick to dismiss deaths as suicides without properly considering whether they could be unlawful killings.

Campaigners have called for all suicides where domestic abuse is suspected to be investigated as potential homicides from the outset, in order to ensure the best evidence is collected and preserved, as well as more multi-agency work to protect victims from abusers in the first place.

Source: Revealed: The true toll of female suicides in UK with domestic abuse at their core | Domestic violence | The Guardian

Medics accuse trans group of misleading fundraising | The Australian from 29 January 2026

Professional bodies representing doctors and nurses have accused a trans advocacy group of misleading conduct in its campaign to raise money to enable children to access puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones via private providers, circumventing Queensland’s public ban.

The Australian Medical Professionals Society and Nurses Professional Association of Australia, between them representing about 16,000 members, have complained to the ACCC regarding the Australian Professional Association for Trans Health’s “Project 491” appeal.

In their letter to the consumer watchdog, AMPS and NPAA cite a landmark judgment by Children’s Court judge Andrew Strum, and the Cass Review of pediatric gender medicine in the UK, to argue Project 491’s reference to “evidence-based” gender-affirming care, and claims about the suicide attempt rate among trans and gender-diverse youth, are misleading.

Project 491 is based on AusPATH’s claim that 491 children have been left “stranded without access to care”, after the Queensland government banned treatment of minors with puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones in the public health system.

The organisation states that in the year since the ban took effect in January 2025, Project 491 has enabled “more than 20 young people” to access “gender-affirming care” through the private system.

In August, AMPS and NPAA commissioned former Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission head Gary Johns to write to the ACNC, urging the regulator to strip AusPATH of its charity status, arguing the organisation’s advocacy for gender-affirming care is harming children.

Academic psychiatrist Andrew Amos said AusPATH and its global partner, WPATH – the World Professional Association for Transgender Health – were “political pressure groups masquerading as medical organisations”.

“The public statements by AusPATH about Project 491 are designed to deceive confused children and distressed families. They present themselves as neutral medical experts rather than politically motivated activists, and they confidently assert demonstrably false claims about suicide attempts and the benefits of treatment.

Source: Medics accuse trans group of misleading fundraising

‘Miss America’ Org Dethrones Winner For Daring To Say ‘A Woman Is A Woman’ | ZeroHedge

Kayleigh Bush, the 2024 Miss North Florida champion, has been stripped of her title and barred from competing in the Miss America nationals—all because she wouldn’t sign a revised contract that essentially erases the biological definition of womanhood to include men who’ve undergone surgeries.

The Miss America organization demanded Bush affirm transgender participation, turning a century-old celebration of women into another battleground for gender ideology.

Bush revealed the ordeal in a recent interview, explaining how she was pressured months after her win to accept new language in the contract. The rules now define eligible “women” as including those who’ve completed “Sex Reassignment Surgery via Vaginoplasty (from male to female).” Bush refused, stating flatly that she couldn’t agree to the idea that “a little boy could mutilate his body and become a woman.”

She added that the organization had changed the contract four weeks after her victory, forcing her into a corner. “I didn’t lose my crown because I broke a rule. I lost the crown because I was unwilling to rewrite the truth,” Bush told TMZ.

This is far from an isolated incident; it’s part of a broader pattern where transgender individuals are infiltrating and dominating women’s spaces, even pageants.

Back in 2023, the Miss Universe pageant made headlines when its new owner, a transgender businesswoman, celebrated the event as being “run by women”—prompting widespread mockery for the obvious irony.

Miss Universe’s shift under transgender ownership turned it into what many called an “international drag queen show.”

Source: ‘Miss America’ Org Dethrones Winner For Daring To Say ‘A Woman Is A Woman’ | ZeroHedge

Live Online Child Abuse… | International Justice Mission Australia

The eSafety Commissioner’s latest periodic transparency report¹ reveals big tech companies have made little progress in detecting live online child abuse in video calls, including in encrypted environments, in the first half of 2025.

eSafety found that tech companies did not apply tools across these widely used platforms or services to proactively detect live or new online child sexual exploitation and abuse.

Unfortunately, Australia’s demand for livestreamed child sexual abuse is chilling. A recent report² published by IJM in partnership with Childlight East Asia & Pacific Hub reveals that of 1,939 Australian men surveyed, 6.5% of respondents have or would livestream child sexual abuse.

eSafety’s first periodic notice report on child sexual exploitation and abuse revealed in August 2025 that Microsoft was piloting AI-powered detection tools for Teams designed to identify and prevent potential new child sexual exploitation and abuse from being created or transmitted on live video calls. Surprisingly, no further progress on this trial is reported in this latest report.

IJM Australia CEO, David Braga, said “The technology exists to stop this crime before it even happens. We’re calling on the Albanese Government to continue its commitment to child safety and to prioritise introducing a digital duty of care, which it announced it will legislate back in November 2024. A robust digital duty of care will require technology companies to act to prevent this harm on their platforms.”

Source: Live Online Child Abuse… | International Justice Mission Australia