No lust at first sight: why thousands are now identifying as ‘demisexual’

For those who are not asexual but not celibate either, the new label is helping to define their love lives.

In 2017, Dan Savage, the sex and relationship guru behind the column and podcast Savage Love, was scathing about demisexuality, despite being considered a progressive beacon on understanding identity and sexuality. He wrote: “We used to call people who needed to feel a strong emotional bond before wanting to fuck someone people who, you know, needed to feel a strong emotional bond before wanting to fuck someone. But a seven-syllable, clinical-sounding term that prospective partners need to Google – demisexuality – is obviously superior to a short, explanatory sentence that doesn’t require internet access to understand.”

[ed: a fancy new label for those who don’t sexually objectify others].

Source: No lust at first sight: why thousands are now identifying as ‘demisexual’ | Society | The Guardian

Religious freedom laws won’t shield all cases

A Christian rehabilitation centre for women would not be shielded from a discrimination claim for turning away a biological male who identified as female under the governments draft laws upholding religious freedom.

Australian Christian Lobby managing director Martyn Iles warned that activists were increasingly using dis­crim­ination law and gender iden­tity as a “weapon” to force religious bodies to compromise their beliefs.

In one, a biological male who identifies­ as female threatened a discrimination action after being subjected to a second interview for admission to a Christian women’s residential rehabilitation program.

Source: Religious freedom laws won’t shield all cases

I Hated My Mother For Refusing To Leave My Abusive Father

For years, I hated my mother for her complicity in the violence my siblings and I grew up with. I fantasized about someone calling the police on our behalf, and prayed that someone would step in and act where my mother wouldn’t. But the extraordinary miscarriage of justice in Neha Rastogi’s case has made me realize that my mother’s mistrust of the system wasn’t unfounded. Domestic violence victims might overcome life-threatening physical, psychological, and financial obstacles to seek help, only to be revictimized by an unforgiving legal system. And when the system fails one of us, it fails us all.

For example, the Department of Homeland Security has released a public, searchable database of detained immigrants that allows abusers to track their victims, and there are draconian laws in at least 29 states that can put mothers in prison for failing to protect their children from abuse, despite clear evidence that these women were abused themselves. (This type of evidence is often used against women instead of being considered a mitigating circumstance; one Oklahoma prosecutor told the court a battered mother charged with enabling child abuse had “made the decision to stay.”) In some of these cases, battered women actually received longer sentences than the men who had abused them and their children.

Source: I Hated My Mother For Refusing To Leave My Abusive Father

How an Élite University Research Center Concealed Its Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein | The New Yorker

New documents show that the M.I.T. Media Lab was aware of Epstein’s status as a convicted sex offender, and that Epstein directed contributions to the lab far exceeding the amounts M.I.T. has publicly admitted.

According to the records obtained by The New Yorker and accounts from current and former faculty and staff of the media lab, Epstein was credited with securing at least $7.5 million in donations for the lab, including two million dollars from Gates and $5.5 million from Black, gifts the e-mails describe as “directed” by Epstein or made at his behest.

Source: How an Élite University Research Center Concealed Its Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein | The New Yorker

Google Maps Is Still Directing Women Seeking Abortions to Pro-Life Clinics — and a Memorial for the ‘Unborn’

In areas where abortion rights are under threat, confusing labels and a lack of policing by Google means misleading — and sometimes flat-out wrong — Google Maps results are common, a VICE News analysis found. Users who search Maps for abortion clinics will often be directed to centers that do not offer or refer patients for abortions, political groups that oppose abortion rights, and, in one case, a monument to “unborn” children.

Source: Google Maps Is Still Directing Women Seeking Abortions to Pro-Life Clinics — and a Memorial for the ‘Unborn’ – VICE

Thousands protest in South Africa over rising violence against women

Thousands of South African women took to the streets on Thursday to protest at the government’s failure to deal with rising violence against women in the wake of a string of brutal attacks that have shocked the country.

At least 137 sexual offences are committed per day in South Africa, mainly against women, according to official figures. This week the women’s minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, said more than 30 women were killed by their spouses last month.

Source: Thousands protest in South Africa over rising violence against women | World news | The Guardian

Evelyn Hernández: Prosecutors In El Salvador Are Going After A Woman Tried Twice For Having A Stillbirth

Evelyn Hernández’s acquittal last month was hailed as a victory for women’s rights, but prosecutors are appealing.

Hernández’s acquittal by a Salvadoran court three weeks ago was seen as a victory for women’s rights in the conservative country. Abortion there is banned in all cases, including when the woman’s life is in danger. Impoverished women suspected of having undergone an abortion are regularly prosecuted for homicide and sentenced to as many as 40 years in prison.

Source: Evelyn Hernández: Prosecutors In El Salvador Are Going After A Woman Tried Twice For Having A Stillbirth

Inauthentic Selves: The modern LGBTQ+ Movement Is Run By Philanthropic Astroturf And Based On Junk Science

Transgenderism, as a movement, has experienced a rapid rise compared to any other civil rights movement.

The transgender movement is not marginalized voices finally being heard; it is a case of large amounts of money being heard. According to Funders for LGBTQ Issues (FFLI), funding specifically earmarked for transgender causes began rapidly increasing in 2012; by 2016 it outstripped the funding for gay, lesbian and bisexual combined (a total of $13.2m), at a cool $22 million total in funding, specifically earmarked for transgender causes. That’s over 10% of the total LGBTQI funding tracked by Funders, which is $202m total.

That the money comes from a wide range of philanthropists: while names such as George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, Arcus (run by gay Stryker Corp heir Jon Stryker) and Tides come as little surprise to anyone following money on the center left of politics. But other names stand out: Jennifer Pritzker, (formerly Col. James Pritzker) who came out as a trans woman in 2013, through their Tawani Foundation, who outside of transgender causes, is a far-right Republican and supported Trump-supporting candidates in the 2016 election. This has come as specifically earmarked funding for gays and lesbians has declined in the same period — foundation and philanthropic funding for lesbians was a not-so-cool $4 million in 2016, despite being a far larger population than transgender people.

As funding specifically for gay men and lesbian women has stagnated or declined in the same period, transgender funding has increased year on year, from $3m in 2010 to $22m in 2016.

Source: Inauthentic Selves: The modern LGBTQ+ Movement Is Run By Philanthropic Astroturf And Based On Junk Science

Children being put at risk by transgender books that ‘misrepresent’ medical knowledge, academic claims

Books and lesson plans that are designed educate pupils about transgender issues “fail child safeguarding and conflict with the law”, according to Dr Susan Matthews, an honorary senior research fellow in creative writing at Roehampton University.

After analysing a series of books that are circulated in British schools, Dr Matthews found that much of the information given about medical transition is “inaccurate”, adding that “potential harms are ignored, glossed over or falsified”.

Dr Matthews argues that this is “misleading”, since there is no evidence to demonstrate that puberty blockers are fully reversible when taken during puberty, or if they cause permanent harm.

“The presentation of unchecked claims about drug-based interventions through books in schools is an irresponsible minimisation of invasive and experimental treatment, which seems only designed to sell it to young people,” she wrote.

Dr David Bell, a consultant psychiatrist at The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, said that critical discussion about the phenomenon of transgenderism and gender dysphoria has been “shut down” by activists.

Source: Children being put at risk by transgender books that ‘misrepresent’ medical knowledge, academic claims

Also: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/04/transgender-children-medically-treated-risk-serious-irreversible/