Liberals have no business bailing out John Pesutto | The Australian

When you’re in a hole the best ­advice is to stop digging. But not if you’re a former Liberal leader in Victoria. Instead, you bring in an excavator, as well as a couple of sticks of gelignite, for good measure. How else do you explain the madness that’s being suggested by John Pesutto, Jeff Kennett, Ted Baillieu and others that the Liberal Party pay the $2.3m in indemnity costs ordered by the Federal Court after Pesutto defamed fellow Liberal Moira Deeming?

In what other workplace would people in a position of authority get bailed out after a court found they had reputationally destroyed a colleague, concealed secret recordings from evidence and generally made someone’s life a living hell?

And yet the Liberal Party wonders why it has a problem with women if this is how one of their own is treated. But to merely equate this with rank misogyny misses the rich vein of snobbery that runs through this whole sorry saga. I mean how dare a former schoolteacher from struggle street in western Melbourne stand up to the lawyer-turned-party-leader from the leafy suburbs of Hawthorn? And in taking him on, how dare she win?

All through this case, the word around Melbourne Liberal circles was that this would be a laydown misere win for Pesutto. Anyone seen to be defending Deeming was to be ostracised and in not-so veiled threats from Kennett, he declared her supporters inside the parliamentary Liberal Party “disloyal and perhaps even treacherous” and threatened to have them “dealt with in due course when preselections are called for the next election”.

What is staggering is that Pesutto, a former solicitor and shadow attorney-general, refused to countenance losing this case and rejected a pre-trial offer to settle for $99,000 without even an apology. Indeed, part of the reason for the massive costs order against him is because he ignored opportunities to mitigate damage and deliberately prolonged proceedings, as repeatedly referenced by Justice O’Callaghan in his judgment.

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

Ursula Doyle settles with Hachette – SEEN in Publishing

In April 2024 Ursula Doyle, publisher of Kathleen Stock’s Material Girls, left a successful career in publishing after finding herself subjected to discrimination and harassment because of her gender-critical beliefs. She subsequently launched a crowdfunder which raised more than £60,000 and brought a claim against Hachette at the employment tribunal for discrimination on the grounds of her gender-critical beliefs. The case was settled last week. Doyle’s case follows a number of tribunals, including the highly publicised settlement of Prof Jo Phoenix with the Open University, and the ongoing Peggie and Darlington nurses cases, which highlight widespread discrimination against those sceptical of gender identity ideology across a range of professions. In a statement, Ursula said: ‘I am hopeful that UK employers are beginning to realise that a policy they might have adopted in good faith and with the best intentions might have unforeseen consequences which harm women.’ It is high time for publishers to act to ensure that their internal policies respect the rights of both people who identify as trans and women and do not go beyond the law. We look forward to working with them to ensure a fairer system for all.

Source: Ursula Doyle settles with Hachette – SEEN in Publishing

The Zombie Study Behind the ‘1% Regret’ Myth for ‘Gender-Affirming’ Surgery | Reality’s Last Stand

It is frequently claimed that fewer than 1 percent of patients who undergo “gender-affirming” surgery come to regret it. This talking point is everywhere, deployed in courtrooms, legislation, news segments, and policy debates as proof that these surgeries are safe and effective.

What most people don’t know is that this widely repeated claim comes from a single paper published in 2021: “Regret after Gender-affirmation Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Prevalence” by Bustos et al. The study appeared in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Global Open, a pay-to-publish version of the flagship journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. And although systematic reviews are generally considered the highest tier of evidence, this particular review has been shown to contain so many major flaws and data errors that it should not be relied on for any public health decision.

And yet it remains one of the most cited pieces of evidence used to justify gender-affirming surgery—including for minors. It is perhaps the most influential zombie paper in gender medicine, being dragged around like Bernie Lomax in the movie Weekend at Bernie’s by activists, journalists, and supposed “experts” who need its corpse propped up to sell the illusion that it’s alive.

The central claim of the paper is simple: that among 7,928 transgender patients pooled across 27 studies, only 77—less than 1 percent—reported regret, and just 34 expressed what the authors categorized as “major” regret. They conclude that “there is an extremely low prevalence of regret in transgender patients after GAS.” This is the origin of the “1 percent regret” statistic for gender surgeries that has been repeated ad nauseam ever since.

But serious problems emerge the moment you look more closely. Shortly after publication, a Letter to the Editor by Pablo Expósito-Campos and Roberto D’Angelo appeared in the same journal, cataloging a list of serious concerns. The authors pointed out that numerous relevant studies fitting their search criteria had been omitted from the review. At the same time, the paper included studies that should have been omitted. More troubling still were the blatant data extraction errors, with sample sizes misreported, outcomes misrepresented, and methods misunderstood.

Source: The Zombie Study Behind the ‘1% Regret’ Myth for ‘Gender-Affirming’ Surgery

WDI Aus/NZ Webinars – Feminist Legal Clinic

Apologies to Australian signatories of the Women’s Declaration International (WDI) who may not have been receiving invitations to our monthly webinars due to a glitch in our systems. Hopefully you should have now received a communication which aims to resolve the problem. However, all the Aus/NZ webinars you may have missed over the past 6 months can be accessed at the link below and can be viewed by WDI signatories and others at any time.

Source: WDI Aus/NZ Webinars – Feminist Legal Clinic

Detransitioner, 20, is suing Planned Parenthood for ‘rushing her into transgender hormones and surgery’ that she says distorted her genitals and left her covered with hair | Daily Mail Online

A 20-year-old woman has accused Planned Parenthood of rushing her into a gender transition when she was 18, leaving her with lifelong side effects.

Cristina Hineman has filed a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest single provider of abortion, contraception, reproductive care, and sex education.

The organization has in recent years also become a leading provider of gender transition hormones for young adults, offering the service at more than 400 locations. At least 40,000 patients have gone to Planned Parenthood for hormone treatment this year.

Hineman claims she was given a prescription for testosterone following a 30-minute consultation with a nurse practitioner after she was ‘brainwashed’ by YouTubers, The Free Press reported.

She said she was left with permanent effects from the testosterone, including hair on the backs of her hands and face. Her clitoris has become permanently enlarged and constantly feels ‘uncomfortable.’

Meanwhile, Hineman says her sexual response has been dulled, and that a double mastectomy left her chest scarred and ‘alternately numb and raw.’

Hineman says she went to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Hudson, New York, in November 2021 as soon as she turned 18. She was desperate to obtain testosterone after being faced with her parent’s skepticism about her gender dysphoria.

Before the consultation, Hineman says she had been suffering from various mental health issues including self-harm, depression and anxiety. She also has autism.

Hineman told The Free Press that the Covid-19 pandemic and isolation exacerbated her issues – and that YouTubers she followed at the time ‘convinced her that gender was the problem.’

Hineman joins over a dozen young people who have filed legal claims alleging medical malpractice against institutions such as Kaiser Permanente and individual doctors.

Source: Detransitioner, 20, is suing Planned Parenthood for ‘rushing her into transgender hormones and surgery’ that she says distorted her genitals and left her covered with hair | Daily Mail Online

Deadline to pay: Deeming moves to bankrupt Pesutto | The Australian

Lawyers for Moira Deeming have launched bankruptcy proceedings against former Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto over his failure to pay court-ordered costs.

Mr Pesutto now has 21 days to pay the debt in full or negotiate a payment plan, or risk being declared bankrupt – a move that would force him from parliament and trigger a high-stakes by-­election in the marginal seat of Hawthorn.

If declared bankrupt, Mr Pesutto would be ineligible to serve as an MP and plunge the state Liberals into further turmoil by placing his electorate at risk of falling to Labor.

One-third of the $2.3m has been raised so far, including $200,000 from online crowd-funding and $500,000 that Mr Pesutto has secured privately.

Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett issued a last-ditch plea to the Liberal Party’s administrative committee to consider loaning Mr Pesutto the funds so he can avoid bankruptcy.

The escalation comes after the NSW property developer who bankrolled Mrs Deeming’s legal fees, Hilton Grugeon, pledged to pay whatever it took to pursue Mr Pesutto’s donors – including three former Victorian premiers – should he be unable to pay his costs bill.

The Australian revealed last week that a letter from Mrs Deeming’s lawyers had flagged seeking non-party cost orders against those who donated to Mr Pesutto’s failed defence should he declare bankruptcy.

In a letter published last week, Mrs Deeming said the decision to initiate bankruptcy proceedings was not one she took lightly. “My goal is simple: to ensure I am reimbursed so I can repay that loan, as I promised I would,” she said. “After being falsely accused of bigotry, of knowingly associating with Nazis – claims the court found to be defamatory – I faced a torrent of public and private abuse, including rape threats, stalking and personal and professional humili­ation and isolation. Sadly, I was not the only innocent woman who suffered as a result of the campaign to expel me.

“This moment should never have come to pass. Since it has, let it stand as a reckoning – not just for one individual, but for a culture of political brutality that must end.

“No man is above the law.”

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

Protecting Puberty – Memorandum of Understanding

Safeguarding children’s right to an open future through ethical care standards.

Source: Protecting Puberty – Memorandum of Understanding

4 ways women are physically stronger than men | The Washington Post

Across a variety of sports, women are not just catching up after generations of exclusion from athletics — they’re setting the pace. In ultramarathons, women regularly outperform men, especially as distances stretch toward the extreme. Jasmin Paris in 2024 became one of only 20 people ever to finish the brutal 100-mile Barkley Marathons race in under 60 hours — while pumping breast milk.

In long-distance swimming, female athletes now so routinely excel that within the community, their records are just part of the sport. In climbing last year, Barbara “Babsi” Zangerl became the first person, man or woman, ever to “flash” — climb without prior practice and sans falls — the towering Yosemite rock formation El Capitan in under three days.

Generally, discussions of “strength” have meant brute force and speed over short distances — qualities historically associated with male physiology. But stamina, recovery, resilience and adaptability are as essential to athletic performance. And in those areas, female physiology holds real advantages, experts in sports science, human physiology, and biological anthropology have found.

The myth of female fragility is relatively modern. For most of human history, women were hauling gear, tracking prey, and walking eight to 10 miles a day — often while pregnant, menstruating, nursing or carrying children (one estimate found that hunter-gatherer women covered more than 3,000 miles in a child’s first four years of life).

That evolutionary foundation undergirds today’s feats, experts say. “Female bodies have superior fatigue resistance,” says Sophia Nimphius, pro-vice-chancellor of sport at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia.

Four things women’s bodies do exceptionally well

Pain tolerance

A 1981 study put it plainly: “Female athletes had the highest pain tolerance and threshold.”

Immunity

Among mammals, including humans, it is widely accepted that females have stronger immune systems than males. That’s due to the power of estrogen, and also of the XX chromosome carried by women but not men, which provides more variability in immune function.

(There is a downside though; the majority of autoimmune disease patients are female. It’s the cost that women bear for an aggressive immune system.)

Resilience

Women’s bodies seem better built for the long haul — less wear and tear, more staying power, according to the limited research.

Longevity

[W]ith rare exceptions, no matter the species or culture, women live longer. That’s partly behavioral — men tend to take more risks that can kill them — but it’s also biological. Women tend to survive disease, starvation and injury at higher rates than men do. Studies have shown that the Y chromosome, which is unique to men, can degrade over time — a phenomenon known as mosaic loss of Y. This degradation has been linked to a range of health issues in men, including increased risks of heart disease and cancer.

Source: 4 ways women are physically stronger than men

Cyber brothels, AI girlfriends, and VR intimacy: How worried should we be about the sex tech industry? | The Independent

No kids, no animals. But inside Europe’s first cyber brothel, which uses a combination of sex dolls and AI to cater to its users’ demands, pretty much anything else goes. Olivia Petter explores the growth of today’s new tech-augmented sex scene, and asks what the rise in AI bots and cyber sex means for the future of human relationships.

Source: Cyber brothels, AI girlfriends, and VR intimacy: How worried should we be about the sex tech industry? | The Independent

Influencer Andrew Tate is charged with a raft of sex crimes. His followers will see him as the victim | The Conversation

British prosecutors have this week charged social media influencer Andrew Tate with a string of serious sexual offences, including rape and human trafficking, alleged to have been committed in the United Kingdom between 2012 and 2015.

This comes in the wake of an ongoing case in Romania. There, Tate and his brother Tristan face similar charges of coercing and exploiting women through what is sometimes described as the “loverboy method” of manipulation that is used to control and monetise women through webcam performances.

A self-described misogynist, Tate is a widespread figure of notoriety for his views on women and his role in the internet “manosphere”. He has millions of followers globally, including ten million on X alone.

This latest round of prosecutions will likely further entrench the loyalty of those followers: boys and young men who will see their leader as the victim of a corrupt system.

We might expect to see talk of “the matrix” of shadowy elites, and the weaponisation of justice systems to silence truth-telling men.

They will insist the charges are not about what they did, but about who they are: disruptors of a weak, feminised society. This victim-persecutor framing is central to their appeal and will remain so as this unfolds.

This makes combating Tate’s influence a complex challenge. Simply “calling it out” is not enough.

As our research shows, Tate’s brand thrives not in spite of controversy, but because of it.

Source: Influencer Andrew Tate is charged with a raft of sex crimes. His followers will see him as the victim