[Ed: A description of just some of the downsides of taking cross-sex hormones by a FTM.]
Knowmore Legal taken to court, amid claims sex abuse survivors were short-changed by compensation scheme – ABC News
In short:
A class action has been launched against Knowmore Legal, with sexual abuse survivors alleging the service encouraged them to accept compensation payments that were lower than what they could have received.
Knowmore Legal says it will “vigorously” defend the claims in court.
Knowmore is a not-for-profit centre that provides free advice and support to survivors of child sexual abuse around the country. Almost half of its clients identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
“Knowmore is disappointed that legal action has commenced and will vigorously defend the claims made against it in court,” chief executive Jackie Mead said.
“Knowmore has proudly helped thousands of clients over many years to obtain redress from the National Redress Scheme.”
Recent cases where abuse survivors went to court resulted in multi-million dollar compensation payouts.
In a 2015 NSW case, the state was ordered to pay $2.6 million to two sisters abused by their stepfather.
When Brian agreed to the redress payment, it prevented him from making further legal claims against the Salvation Army and State of Victoria.
He is now seeking damages from Knowmore Legal and hopes to receive enough money to buy a house and enjoy the rest of his life with his children and grandchildren.
Mr Price said the class action would be run on a no win, no fee basis, and acknowledged the case could take years to drag through the courts.
The National Redress Scheme was set up in response to the child sexual abuse royal commission, and is open for applications until mid-2027.
Church of England set to issue advice telling teachers to challenge ‘outdated terms’ around biological sex as critics argue new guidance is pushing gender ideology that a person’s sex is ‘assigned’ at birth | Daily Mail Online
Church of England advice for teachers has been criticised for pushing the gender ideology that a person’s sex is ‘assigned’ at birth rather than a biological fact.
Guidance set to be issued to thousands of schools states that a transgender man is someone ‘who was assigned female at birth but identifies and lives as a man’, and a transgender woman ‘was assigned male at birth but identifies and lives as a woman’.
The statements are in the document Flourishing For All, which is backed by Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, and tells teachers to challenge ‘outdated terms’.
About a million children attend 4,630 Anglican schools.
[Ed: Just in case any feminists were still under the misapprehension that the churches can at least be relied upon to accurately distinguish between men and women when it actually counts.]
WoLF Files New Complaint in Landmark Case to Get Men out of California Women’s Prisons — Women’s Liberation Front
WoLF’s amended complaint in the case of Chandler v. CDCR details years of abuse and trauma in California women’s prisons following the implementation of a 2020 law that allows male offenders, including rapists, to “self-identify” into being housed with female prisoners. The new filing includes detailed evidence of harm caused to women under this law, including violations of the First, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments.
This complaint, filed on July 19 2024, also introduces two additional plaintiffs to the case — Channel Johnson and Cathleen Quinn, both of whom were victimized by men transferred under SB 132. They join the four original plaintiffs: Janine Chandler, Krystal Gonzalez, Tomiekia Johnson, and Nadia Romero.
Eve Wiley sperm donor dad was an egomaniacal monster.
For years now, Wiley has been campaigning tirelessly about fertility fraud. She even featured in the hit Netflix docuseries The Man With 1000 Kids, which told the story of serial sperm donor Jonathan Meijer.
Along with Jonathan, there is an alarming number of serial sperm donors out there who are obsessed with the idea of impregnating women under false pretences — for their own twisted reasons. Nobody knows that better than Wiley.
Growing up, Wiley had always believed Doug was her biological father. He was married to her mother, Margo, and he was a high school teacher in their hometown in America. Sadly, Doug passed away when she was seven.
Years later, 16-year-old Wiley was going through her mother’s emails, and she made a discovery.
Rather, Donor 106, real name Steve, was her biological father.
Mum had chosen him because he had certain qualities and an interest in film and politics that she thought was similar to Doug,” explains Wiley.
The pair met and went on to form a close bond. Steve told Wiley he had been a donor years ago while in college, doing it to earn a quick buck.
Years went by. The father/daughter relationship continued. Steve even officiated Wiley’s wedding to her husband, Blake. Then upon having children of her own, Wiley’s son became sick.
She undertook the genetic testing, and it transpired that Steve was not her biological father. Commercial DNA testing found it was her mother’s fertility doctor who had intentionally used his own sperm.
Upon finding out the truth, Wiley and her mother contacted the authorities as well as their lawyers. They were informed that this insemination without consent was only a crime in one state in the US.
Wiley has since set out to change the laws in Texas and other states by creating civil and criminal causes of actions for victims. As of 2022, eight US states have passed some sort of fertility fraud bill.
Wiley also decided to confront her biological father via email.
“He said I should just be grateful. I never heard from him again after I told him I would be lobbying to make this a crime.”
When Wiley went public with her story in 2020, the reaction in her local area was difficult to grapple with. She even had the doctor’s preacher call her to say he had been doing “the Lord’s work” and that she should be “grateful to have his wonderful genetics”.
Her cases against the doctor are still in the court system. She is hoping to have his medical license revoked.
Source: Eve Wiley sperm donor dad was an egomaniacal monster.
Parents at odds over child’s trans therapy | The Australian
A parent hoping to block their transgender child from taking cross-sex hormones to become a boy says they accept the child’s gender dysphoria but don’t believe the underlying reasons were properly assessed.
Lawyers for the parent, referred to as Parent B, cited family dysfunction, adverse child experience, and internalised homophobia as other explanations for gender dysphoria.
But the child’s other parent, referred to as Parent A, who supported the prescription of testosterone, told the Federal and Family Court that Parent B was too “fixated on the why”.
The proceedings are governed by strict suppression orders preventing The Australian from printing key details about the family.
Barrister Belle Lane, leading Parent B’s legal team, argued the gender clinic should have “slowed down” the process from first appointment to gender dysphoria diagnosis and had issue with the fact the diagnosis and informed consent assessment took place over just two appointments. The court heard the time between the child coming out and being diagnosed with gender dysphoria was two years and eight months.
Parent B, wants their child to wait the 17 months until they turn 18, in order “to develop his own sexuality and idea of himself before it is impacted irreversibly”, the court heard, due to side-effects such as vaginal atrophy, sexual dysfunction, pelvic floor dysfunction, and infertility.
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Daughter “Stolen” by Family Court—Mom Cries Out after Baby Murdered by Ex | Women’s Coalition
Dr. Chrystal Obi’s 3-year-old daughter’s body was discovered last weekend at a recycling facility. Her ex had murdered her on an overnight, unsupervised visit and thrown her body in a dumpster. After which he killed himself.
A truly evil act. But the father could not have murdered her without the aiding and abetting of a Family Court judge.
Chrystal had fought for three years—nearly Ellie’s entire short life—to protect her. As usual, despite abundant evidence her ex was dangerous, the judge granted him unsupervised visits. Not long after that, she was dead.
Now Chrystal is left to grieve the unbearable loss of her precious daughter.
This is yet another case of a woman desperately trying, and failing, to protect her child within a system that is oppressive and hostile to women, while being conciliatory towards and privileging men.
Judges cannot be trusted to do the right thing in custody cases. Too many end horribly as this one has. And it is not just custody cases that end in children’s death that are the problem. Countless cases result in mothers being alienated from their children, often a fate akin to death. More on that in the Takeaways.
3 year-olds should not be taken away from mothers, their primary attachment figure, for long periods of time or overnight. The prevailing—false—narrative and presumption (even if it is not in writing) in Family Court remains that fathers should get 50/50 parenting time, even of infants who are still breastfeeding.
Mandatory 50/50 is never in children’s best interests, unless both parents feel that is best for their kids. It can be catastrophic in cases where the father is not a good parent, which is the majority of custody cases. This pernicious fiction needs to be changed both culturally and legally.
Source: Daughter “Stolen” by Family Court—Mom Cries Out after Baby Murdered by Ex
Friday essay: public ‘pash ons’ and angry dads – personal politics started with consciousness-raising feminists. Now, everyone’s doing it
Personal activism has achieved major legislative change, such as no-fault divorce and the decriminalisation of homosexuality and abortion. But it’s also used by groups who want to reverse that change.
Thanks to “personal politics”, the everyday lives of Australians have been transformed in areas like no-fault divorce, providing safe abortions, decriminalising homosexuality, and introducing health and welfare programs tailored to women and LGBTIQ+ people.
Political change continues to be driven by personal stories.
Family Court violence
Men’s and fathers’ rights groups emerged in the lead-up to the 1975 Family Law Act and have continued to push back against feminist-led reforms to family life since.
Groups such as the Divorce Law Reform Association emerged in the late 1960s, sharing stories of distressed fathers who were required, by law, to support their divorced spouses and children.
After the Family Law Act passed, a rather angry masculinist activism argued for the “return of the fault factor”. The association’s president threateningly predicted “violence” if these male “victims” of oppression did not have their grievances recognised.
The Lone Fathers’ Association circulated stories of men who “considered kidnapping, even suicide” because of delays in the Family Court and a sense they were not being given a “fair go”.
Such groups argued the Family Law Act had turned divorced fathers into wage-slaves because they were required to provide child support, even if they had very limited custody.
No-fault divorce, the Divorce Law Reform Association argued, was making it “too easy” for women to leave marriages. At a Senate inquiry in 1980, it argued legal determinations of fault were required to “preserve the benefits, worth, stability and integrity of marriage” and prevent an ocean of male distress that was unfolding without it. A father was, and should remain, “the head of his own house”, the association argued.
In the early 1980s, the Family Court, its judges and their families became the target of lethal violence. Between 1980 and 1985, a series of bombings and shootings resulted in the death of one Family Court judge and another judge’s wife. They also resulted in the serious injury of Family Court judges. In 1984, the Family Court in Parramatta was bombed, though in this case no one was injured.
The “cause” of this violence, whether directed towards judges or families, was widely represented as a Family Court system that did not attend to men’s needs. As feminist scholar Therese Taylor observes, these activists had managed to turn “murder into the final proof of paternal love”.
From the mid-1990s, “men’s sheds” proliferated across Australia, and from 2010, they began to receive Commonwealth funding. There are now at least 1,250 of them (with access usually restricted to men). They promise to address isolation, poor mental health and suicide among (particularly older) men by providing “traditional” male activities and social contact.
In 2010, Men’s Sheds were awarded Commonwealth funding to support their expansion across Australia. In 2020, their funding was increased. A recent report commissioned by the Commonwealth government found most sheds reported being “well-funded and well-resourced”.
Review of suicides and gender dysphoria at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust: independent report – GOV.UK
Aim of this review
I have reviewed data provided by NHS England (NHSE) on suicides by young patients of the gender services at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, based on an audit at the trust. The specific aim is to examine evidence for a large rise in suicides claimed by campaigners.
Summary of conclusions
- The data do not support the claim that there has been a large rise in suicide in young gender dysphoria patients at the Tavistock.
- The way that this issue has been discussed on social media has been insensitive, distressing and dangerous, and goes against guidance on safe reporting of suicide.
- The claims that have been placed in the public domain do not meet basic standards for statistical evidence.
- There is a need to move away from the perception that puberty-blocking drugs are the main marker of non-judgemental acceptance in this area of health care.
- We need to ensure high quality data in which everyone has confidence, as the basis of improved safety for this at risk group of young people.