Category: Violence

Father Ted writer among 23 people taking discrimination action against Robinson’s Bar in Belfast

Women’s rights campaigners including Father Ted writer Graham Linehan were allegedly subjected to discrimination in a Belfast pub because of their gender critical beliefs, a court has heard.

Counsel for the group claimed they were unlawfully refused service during a “hostile and febrile” encounter at Robinson’s Bar.

It was also alleged that one of the campaigners was assaulted and left with a permanent facial scar.

A total of 23 civil actions have been lodged in the first case of its kind in Northern Ireland.

The group is suing Wine Inns Ltd, the owner of Robinson’s, over incidents in the city centre pub on April 16, 2023.

The Judge, Her Honour Orla Murray, agreed to list the cases for a further review next month.

Speaking outside court on Monday, the plaintiffs’ solicitor explained that lead cases will be selected rather than making an unwieldy attempt to run all 23 claims at the same time.

Source: Father Ted writer among 23 people taking discrimination action against Robinson’s Bar in Belfast

Labor bill proposes up to seven years’ jail for doxing but drops promised new hate speech laws | Australian politics | The Guardian

Malicious release of personal data would be criminalised under a bill to be introduced by the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, on Thursday along with a separate bill implementing the first tranche of privacy reforms.

As Guardian Australia revealed on Monday, this will include a new right to sue for “serious invasions of privacy” and a children’s online privacy code.

The doxing bill, full details of which will only be revealed on Thursday, would criminalise “malicious use of personal data”, with a penalty of up to six years in prison or up to seven years for targeting a person because of their race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status, disability, nationality or national or ethnic origin.

But despite promising a bill to criminalise vilification and hate speech more generally – such as inciting hatred, serious contempt, revulsion or severe ridicule – the government has dropped the commitment.

[Ed: Complicated. It will also make it more difficult for women to warn others of male sexual perpetrators using a changed name or sex.]

Source: Labor bill proposes up to seven years’ jail for doxing but drops promised new hate speech laws | Australian politics | The Guardian

Do your boys fight with sticks, Nerf guns and fake swords all the time? Here’s why they do it

You might be wondering why such behaviours seem to be more evident in boys than girls. Research shows boys (on the whole) tend to be more physical in how they play.

Their play often focuses on themes related to power and dominance and playful aggression is the perfect way to experiment with these themes.

Theories about sex differences in social play extend across many research areas including psychology, neurobiology, evolutionary psychology and anthropology. Current theories link these differences to testosterone and differences in neurochemistry.

There is some evidence to suggest boys and girls are socialised differently in relation to being physical.

However, the degree of influence is contestable given sex differences in behaviour appear very early in life and in other mammals. Perhaps the socialisation process exacerbates nature – and as such, nature and nurture may be working in tandem.

The end result is still the same, with more boys than girls engaging in playful aggression.

When girls role play, it tends to focus on what researchers call “tend and befriend” or on people and nurturing. For example, games built around families or looking after pets.

But this is not to say girls can’t be aggressive. However, research suggests if girls fight it is usually done with words to hurt someone’s feelings and children are upset with each other. It is not done for fun.

Source: Do your boys fight with sticks, Nerf guns and fake swords all the time? Here’s why they do it

War on Woman. – YouTube

Trans-identifying males over-represented in NZ prisons | Speak Up for women

In July 2024 Speak Up for Women (SUFW) submitted a request to The Department of Corrections under the Official Information Act 1982 as follows:

We would like to request the following information, from 2020 until now, broken down into yearly or part yearly statistics (in the case of 2024). 

 

Please break the statistics down into ‘sentenced’ and ‘remand’ where possible.

A trans-identifying male is a biological male who identifies as a woman.

  1. The number of trans identifying males in custody during each period

  2. The number of trans identifying males who were housed in a female corrections facility during each period

  3. The number of trans identifying males who requested a transfer to a female corrections facility

  4. The number of the trans identifying males who were sentenced or on remand for crimes involving ‘sexual assault’ during each period

  5. The number of the trans identifying males who were sentenced or on remand for crimes involving ‘an act intended to cause injury’ during each period

We received a delayed but comprehensive response to questions 1,2,4 and 5. The results are unsurprising – male offending patterns do not change because of the way a man identifies.

Read the full release here

Source: Trans-identifying males over-represented in NZ prisons

Posie Parker assault: Activist Eli Rubashkyn who doused anti-trans campaigner in tomato juice convicted – NZ Herald

  • Eli Rubashkyn was denied a discharge without conviction for assaulting Posie Parker with tomato juice
  • Judge Kirsten Lummis deemed the assault premeditated and serious, despite Rubashkyn’s remorse
  • Rubashkyn, also known as Eliana Golberstein, pleaded guilty to two assault charges in June

However, Judge Lummis was not persuaded.

She told the court today the seriousness of the offending was elevated because it was a “well thought out premeditated assault” that she later justified to the media.

While Judge Lummis acknowledged Rubashkyn, whose legal name is Eliana Golberstein, was remorseful, she noted an apology was absent from her submissions to the court.

Judge Lummis told the court Golberstein had been subjected to death threats following the assaults and she agreed with Olsen’s submission that she had already received enough punishment.

With this in mind, Judge Lummis chose not to impose a penalty, resulting in Golberstein receiving a conviction and discharge for her crimes.

Source: Posie Parker assault: Activist Eli Rubashkyn who doused anti-trans campaigner in tomato juice convicted – NZ Herald

Misogyny to be treated as extremism by UK government | BBC

Extreme misogyny will be treated as a form of extremism under new government plans, the Home Office has said.

Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has ordered a review of the UK’s counter-extremism strategy to determine how best to tackle threats posed by harmful ideologies.

The analysis will look at hatred of women as one of the ideological trends that the government says is gaining traction.

For some years there has been concern around “Incel culture”, an online movement of mainly young men who describe themselves as “involuntarily celibate” and blame women and “alpha males” for their problems.

A mass shooting in Plymouth in 2021 by 22-year-old Jake Davison, who killed five people before fatally shooting himself, was linked to Incel ideology.

At the time no further policy action was taken, but incidents like that one, and also the rise of social media influencers such as Andrew Tate – a self-proclaimed misogynist – may have pushed the new government to think again.

Source: Misogyny to be treated as extremism by UK government

Eggs and water balloons thrown as protesters face off at Women Will Speak rally in Melbourne | Women | The Guardian

About 20 people initially attended the planned #WomenWILLSpeak rally that commenced at about 11am, Victoria police said in a statement.

They were outnumbered by 150 protesters from another group, who were “throwing eggs and water balloons at the speakers involved,” the statement said.

A 36-year-old Brunswick woman was arrested at the scene for allegedly assaulting police and was released pending further inquiries, police said.

A live stream of the rally posted on YouTube by Women’s Action Group showed a barricade of police officers in yellow vests separating the #WomenWILLSpeak event from a large crowd gathered with signs.

In the same live stream, some of the protesters in the Women Action’s Group camp can be seen holding signs reading “trans women are men”, “inquiry into gender medicine now” and “no male cheats in women’s sports”.

On Wednesday, a Facebook page titled Trans Queer Solidarity posted about the rally, saying: “We need to out-number them and limit their recruitment like we have before.”

Source: Eggs and water balloons thrown as protesters face off at Women Will Speak rally in Melbourne | Women | The Guardian

The report on murdered and missing Indigenous women and children fails to hold anyone to account. It’s not enough.

After two years and 16 hearings, the Senate Inquiry into Missing and Murdered First Nations women handed down its report yesterday. While important, it was not the moment of reckoning many of us had hoped for.

The Senate inquiry was introduced and spearheaded by Dorinda Cox, the West Australian Greens Senator, who today called the report’s recommendations “weak” and “toothless”.

What the inquiry found is precisely what First Nations women have been saying for decades: that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children are disproportionately impacted by men’s use of violence.

That their stories and lives are ignored by mainstream media.

That police often fail to adequately investigate, search for, or respond to calls for help from First Nations women and children.

And that the data is shockingly incomplete and inadequate. No one is accurately keeping count.

First Nations women represented 16% of all Australian women homicide victims, despite comprising between 2–3% of the adult female population.

First Nations children represented 13% of all child homicide victims.

Not only are First Nations women and children more likely to go missing, they are less likely to be found.

First Nations women are also disproportionately misidentified as the perpetrator, instead of the victim, criminalising First Nations women and creating yet another barrier to getting help.

Source: The report on murdered and missing Indigenous women and children fails to hold anyone to account. It’s not enough.

Violence against women isn’t the only national emergency – we must also tackle the misogyny that’s causing it

The National Police Chiefs’ Council has declared violence against women a national emergency in England and Wales.

Missing from the conversation is what’s behind the emergency: the misogyny and male violence that underpins these stark figures.

For those of us who research violence against women and girls and support survivors, the “national emergency” declaration is a long overdue acknowledgement – it has been an emergency for some time. Data collected by the Femicide Census shows that on average, a man has killed a woman nearly every three days in the UK since 2010.

Last year, police chiefs placed offences against women and girls on the same level as terrorism and serious organised crime. The decision to now declare it a national emergency is perhaps an acknowledgement that the situation has not improved.

But still missing from the conversation is what’s behind the emergency: the misogyny and male violence that underpins these stark figures.

This violence is not just passively happening to women and girls. They are being subjected to violence predominantly at the hands of men. The majority (77%) of domestic homicide victims (killed by a current or former partner or a family member) from 2017-2019 were female, and 96% of the suspects in those homicides were male.

The national emergency is really men’s violence against women.

Men are also overwhelmingly the perpetrators of violence against other men. There are deep questions that must be answered to do with men, masculinity and violence.

A 2023 Women’s Aid report found a clear link between exposure to misogynistic views on social media, and having harmful perceptions of relationships.

Source: Violence against women isn’t the only national emergency – we must also tackle the misogyny that’s causing it