I support meritocracy because I want banks that don’t fail
Woke head of ‘risk assessment’ at Silicon Valley Bank ‘prioritized’ LGBT initiatives – including organizing a month-long Pride campaign – before bank lost BILLIONS and collapsed
Jay Ersapah was head of risk assessment for Silicon Valley Bank’s EMEA region
She launched a host of woke initiatives including ‘safe space catch-ups’ for staff
In one video she said she ‘could not be prouder’ to work for the bank which collapsed spectacularly on Friday
11 March 2023
A head of risk assessment at the beleaguered Silicon Valley Bank has been accused of prioritizing pro-diversity initiatives over her actual role after the firm imploded on Friday.
Jay Ersapah – who describes herself as a ‘queer person of color from a working-class background’ – organized a host of LGBTQ initiatives including a month-long Pride campaign and implemented ‘safe space’ catch-ups for staff.
In a corporate video published just nine months ago, she said she ‘could not be prouder’ to work for SVB serving ‘underrepresented entrepreneurs.’
Last year professional network Outstanding listed Ersapah as a top 100 LGTBQ Future Leader.
‘Jay is a leading figure for the bank’s awareness activities including being a panelist at the SVB’s Global Pride townhall to share her experiences as a lesbian of color, moderating SVB’s EMEA Pride townhall and was instrumental in initiating the organization’s first ever global “safe space catch-up”, supporting employees in sharing their experiences of coming out,’ her bio on the Outstanding website states.
It adds that she is ‘allies’ with gay rights charity Stonewall and had authored numerous articles to promote LGBTQ awareness.
These included ‘Lesbian Visibility Day and Trans Awareness week.’
Separately she was also praised in a Facebook post by the group ‘Diversity Role Models,’ a charity which campaigns against homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in UK schools.
In a corporate document for the bank she said: ‘”You can’t be what you can’t see” has always been a quote that stuck with me.
‘As a queer person of color and a first generation immigrant from a working class background, there were not many role models for me to ‘see’ growing up.
‘I feel privileged to help spread awareness of lived queer experiences, partner with charitable organizations, and above all create a sense of community for our LGBTQ+ employees and allies.’
Palestinian workers prefer to work for Israeli employers
https://www.jns.org/report-palestinian-workers-prefer-to-work-for-israeli-employers/
Palestinian workers prefer to work for Israeli employers
Higher salaries, legal protections and lack of discrimination are among the reasons most Palestinians would prefer to work for Israeli firms.
February 16, 2020
The United Nations “blacklist” of businesses operating in Israeli settlements was lauded by the Palestinian leadership following its publication last week, but a recent report indicates that Palestinians actually prefer to work for Israelis rather than Palestinians.
Titled “Why Palestinians prefer to work for Israeli employers,” the report, by Israel-based media watchdog group Palestinian Media Watch, affirms that whenever Palestinian workers have the opportunity to work for Israeli employers, they are quick to leave their jobs with Palestinian employers. The report cites an article in the official Palestinian Authority daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida that praises the Israeli-employment sector.
According to senior PMW analyst Nan Jacques Zilberdik, who co-authored the report with PMW director Itamar Marcus, there are a number of reasons Palestinians prefer Israeli employers.
“First, the salary from Israeli employers is more than double that of the Palestinian sector, but that is not all. Palestinians working for Israelis are protected by the same laws as Israeli workers, including health benefits, sick leave, vacation time and other workers’ rights, whereas these protections are not granted by Palestinian employers. Also there is no gender or religious discrimination in the Israeli sector.”
Speaking on the official P.A. TV show “Workers Affairs,” Israeli-Arab labor lawyer Khaled Dukhi of the Israeli NGO Workers’ Hotline said Israeli labor law is “very good” because it does not differentiate between men and women, Israelis and Palestinians, Muslims and Jews. However, he explained, “Palestinian workers who work for Israelis still suffer because Palestinian middlemen ‘steal’ 50 percent, 60 percent and even 70 percent of their salaries, especially those of women.”
The higher Israeli salaries have been consistent for years, according to surveys published by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Labor Force Survey for the second quarter of 2018 showed that the average daily wage for wage employees in the West Bank was NIS 107.9 ($31.5) compared with NIS 62.6 (18.3) in Gaza Strip. The average daily wage for the wage employees in Israel and the Israeli settlements reached NIS 247.9 ($72.3) in the second quarter of 2018, compared with NIS 242.5 ($70.8) in the first quarter of 2018.
Drag Queen Kitty Demure SLAMS Woke Culture For Exposing Children To Drag Shows
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jF7W3N1T7U
The Chicago affiliate of NPR is reporting on the newest Project Veritas video, which claims that a Chicago school handed out sex toys to underage children
Here’s the newest video from Project Veritas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvLVJaKN28k
WBEZ, the Chicago affiliate of NPR, is actually reporting on this one. Among other things, the NPR affiliate said:
“The video captures the dean talking last week about a visit to Francis W. Parker School by an LGBTQ health organization to discuss queer sexual health with high schoolers.”
“The operative recorded himself talking to Joseph Bruno, Parker’s dean of students. In the video, Bruno described an event during the school’s annual Pride Week last May. During an optional lunchtime session for high schoolers, educators from Howard Brown Health presented a lesson on queer sexual health that included showing sex toys to students. Bruno also mentioned a storytime and photo-op with a drag queen.”
TheProject Veritas video itself says that the students were underage. It also says that this is a private school in Chicago that charges $40,000 in tuition.
As a libertarian, I’m 100% in favor of letting consenting adults do whatever they want in privacy of their own home.
Giving out sex toys to underage children in a school does not meet this criteria.
A Chicago private school defends LGBTQ sex ed after right-wing viral video
An administrator at Francis W. Parker School was secretly recorded by an operative with the group Project Veritas posing as a conference attendee.
By Char Daston
Dec 8, 2022
An elite Chicago private school tightened security and disabled its Twitter and Facebook accounts after a video of its dean of students secretly recorded by a conservative group went viral on Wednesday.
The video captures the dean talking last week about a visit to Francis W. Parker School by an LGBTQ health organization to discuss queer sexual health with high schoolers. The video of that conversation was edited by the right-wing group before it was posted.
Parker leaders sent a letter to the school community late Wednesday saying “we are heartbroken that one of our colleague’s words have been severely misrepresented for a malicious purpose.” The letter offered strong support for their faculty and staff and for the school’s “inclusive, LGBTQ+ affirming, and comprehensive approach to sex education.”
The school said the local alderman helped it expand the police presence around its Lincoln Park campus, and it has implemented higher security measures. At least one person marched in front of the school on Thursday to protest the school’s sex ed curriculum.
Project Veritas, the New York-based right-wing organization that made the video, claims on its website that it is “creating an army of guerilla journalists.” Its operatives assume fake identities and secretly record conversations, often attempting to shame or discredit progressive organizations and media outlets, including NPR.
The video footage was captured by an operative disguised as an attendee at the National Association of Independent Schools conference last week.
The operative recorded himself talking to Joseph Bruno, Parker’s dean of students. In the video, Bruno described an event during the school’s annual Pride Week last May. During an optional lunchtime session for high schoolers, educators from Howard Brown Health presented a lesson on queer sexual health that included showing sex toys to students. Bruno also mentioned a storytime and photo-op with a drag queen. The video does not mention that both events were optional.
The video, which had been viewed more than 4 million times as of Thursday afternoon, has made its way around right-wing media accounts and news sites. #ExposeGroomers trended today on Twitter, and Fox News picked up the story this morning.
Project Veritas posted a second video showing founder James O’Keefe attempting to confront Bruno Wednesday afternoon on Parker’s campus. Bruno walks away from O’Keefe and his cameraman. O’Keefe then asks parents if they’re aware the school is “giving sex toys to children” in a voice loud enough for nearby elementary school age students to hear. He is asked to leave by a parent volunteer.
Targets of previous Project Veritas undercover video projects have included educators and teachers unions. The American Federation of Teachers in 2018 posted about a “heavily-spliced” Project Veritas video that misrepresented the union’s response to an accusation of teacher misconduct.
This latest campaign is part of a trend of online right-wing attacks against LGBTQ+ books and events for children that have sometimes led to threats and violence. Earlier this month an independent school in suburban Clintonville, Ohio, canceled a drag queen story time event after a post on the right-wing Twitter account LibsofTikTok inspired the Proud Boys, a militia group, to plan an armed rally outside the school.
Parker leaders said in their letter that they “are sickened by this group’s deceptive tactics, their invasion during a People of Color conference, and their attack on the LGBTQ+ community” and offered strong support for the dean.
“Parker administrators and Parker’s Board of Trustees support Parker’s programming, the strength and inclusivity of our curriculum, and the dedicated and talented faculty and staff that teach it.”
The school is offering mental health check-ins to students and held an assembly Thursday to discuss the news.
The Word ‘Homosexual’ Is in the Bible by Mistake: The Explosive Documentary That Is Under Attack
The Word ‘Homosexual’ Is in the Bible by Mistake: The Explosive Documentary That Is Under Attack
LOVE THY NEIGHBOR
The documentary “1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture” claims that one human error 75 years ago stoked decades of homophobia and hate. Extremists don’t want you to see it.
By Kevin Fallon
November 7, 2022
The first time the word “homosexual” appeared in the Bible was in 1946. That year, a committee gathered to translate an updated English version of the book from the Greek. Religious scholars, priests, theologists, linguists, anthropologists, and activists have done decades of research and investigation into the instances where the word appears in the book. Their conclusion is that it was a mistranslation.
In other words, the Biblical assertion that homosexuality is a sin—the catalyst for an entire shift in culture, with political repercussions, religious implications, consequences for LGBT rights and acceptance, and, frankly, deadly results—was, they allege, a mistake.
As a new film asserts, it was “the misuse of a single word that changed the course of history.”
1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture is a new documentary directed by Sharon “Rocky” Roggio. Ahead of its premiere this week at the DOC NYC festival, it has, as one might expect, gone viral within the conservative and Christian communities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yly6Q0GbtFk
A grassroots campaign to promote the film on social media has gotten its official TikTok account more than 185,000 followers. That makes sense. For most people—practicing Christians or otherwise—what the film is stating is shocking.
There are layers to it: the realization that the Bible has been translated many times over the centuries, and that human error may have been involved in the process. That may be obvious, but it’s eye-opening. Moreover, there’s coming to terms with the notion that human error could be responsible for the stoking of homophobia—a mindset of hatred, oppression, and religious nationalism that has defined the last 75 years of our existence.
Before anyone has even seen the film, there has been an organized effort to attack and debunk the film’s claims. Roggio and others involved in the making of the documentary have received threats. Campaigns have been waged to get even innocuous social media posts taken down. An entire book was published to refute the evidence—even though the film has yet to be screened.
“The opposition is quite vocal about our film, trying to debunk it because they’re afraid,” Roggio tells The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview ahead of 1946’s New York premiere. “We’re literally unmooring them and pulling the anchors out from underneath.”
Those attacks are coming from all sides.
“We’ve been hit by the conservative audience,” Roggio says. “We’ve been hit by the atheist audience. We’ve been hit by LGBTQ people who have been hurt by the church and who have now left the church, because they feel that we are subscribing to religious supremacy by even playing along in this dialogue.”
1946 takes a journalistic, academic approach to substantiating these claims. Poring over thousands of historical documents, centuries of ancient texts, and Bible translations in many languages, the experts in the film conclude that two Greek words were mistranslated to mean homosexual. One more accurately means effeminate. The other connotes a person who was a sexual abuser and who had harmed someone.
As the film outlines, years after the translation, when the mistake was pointed out, the committee recognized and attempted to correct it. But, by the ’70s, the implications of those verses had become widespread. By the time the AIDS crisis arrived in the ’80s, that mindset was weaponized by the moral majority, particularly in the merging of politics and religion in the United States.
“A big point of our film has been biblical literalism,” Roggio says. “We do just think that it was a magical book that was just dropped down to us, but these are real people who have made these decisions that impact our real reality. People are going to feel unmoored by this idea that it’s man that has messed up, not God. As much as we are combating biblical liberalism, we want our conservative audience to journey with us, in the sense that this is not an attack on God. This is not an attack on the Bible. This is a real issue of a mistranslation.”
Before 1946 premieres at DOC NYC on Nov. 12, we spoke with Roggio about the work she did (along with scholars and activists Kathy Bullock and Ed Oxford) to meticulously substantiate the film’s claims, the challenge of getting through to a Christian community that refuses even to hear the evidence, and how a documentary like this could change the world.
I grew up in the church, but I am still someone who found the idea of “homosexual” being a mistranslation in the Bible to be shocking. What has been people’s response to this?
We’re talking about the biggest book in the world. This impacts the three largest religions in the world. This impacts everyone. And we don’t discuss these things. That was what intrigued me as someone who grew up in the church, was a victim of bad theology, and was discriminated against because I’m a member of LGBTQ community. Realizing that the word homosexual wasn’t in the Bible until 1946, that was a click for me. I think that it’s gonna be a click for a lot of people.
Even the basic principle that the Bibles we read were translated by a human, and there may have been a mistake in that translation—that’s a mind-blowing realization for people.
One of the biggest concerns that we see in America today is Christian nationalism and people using the Bible who are saying that it is inerrant. They are biblical literalists. It has sovereignty over us. It can’t be changed. The word is the word. That is dangerous. It’s dangerous for so many people. We see it playing out in our reality today, and I call that religious supremacy, really. My idea in finessing these themes is to hopefully get the conservative audience to join with us and be honest about this. Words have power and words have meaning. The way that we use the Bible and use these old texts is very important. So what we try to do is contextualize.
What is the goal of that contextualization?
Our movie is more than just theology. It’s history. It’s society. It’s politics. It’s law. It’s oppression. It’s how, again, these words have meaning. We as a group of people have had to negotiate the text. A group of people over time have had to pick and choose which verses stand out, which verses we follow—which verses play out in our land and our law. To really be an honest reader of Christian scripture, we have to find a way where we’re not oppressing people, where we’ve contextualized the text—we understand where it comes from and how it impacted a group of people.
When you’re introducing this idea, which is seismic and likely upsetting to a lot of people, how do you explain it to them at the most basic level?
1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture is about the first time the word “homosexual” appeared in the Bible. We had a team of researchers who wanted to ask the question: Who made this decision, and why? What was discovered, through a series of letters written by the translation committee that put the word “homosexual” in there, is that it was a mistake. Then it was discovered how the word “homosexual” went viral in print in the ’70s. That impacted the ’80s and the moral majority, and how we see the merger of politics and religion, specifically in America. What we now see today is the dangers of Christian nationalism, and it’s only grown.
Can you talk more specifically about the mistranslation of the word “homosexual” and what happened there?
We’re talking about a word, a medical term that has a connotation of a group of people that have an orientation, as opposed to what the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts are referring to, which is an aggressor, somebody who was an abuser—somebody who has abused someone else, and there is a victim on the other side. It’s a very different connotation. So that was my drive for making the movie, because now I have tangible evidence, letters written from the committee [acknowledging this].
This translation committee also has not only recognized the error but continues to rectify it and make their translations reflect the connotation of abusive behavior. Whereas now we see malice in the conservative committees, who since the ’80s have done the opposite. They say it refers to consensual acts, so it’s been amplified as homophobia because of this mistranslation.
From my experience, I know there are many Christians who are unmoving in their beliefs, who operate from a point of blind faith. What is it like to arrive with all of this evidence, research, and proof—even just an ask to listen to what the movie is alleging—but be met with that stubborn certitude?
It’s like hitting a wall. You get two kinds of Christians. You get people like my dad. [Roggio’s father is a pastor who appears in the film and repeatedly challenges its claims.] They want us to think they love us so much, that they’re just trying to give us the truth. And my dad is very kind and he’s never hurtful. But there are other people that I’ll see, especially on social media, who turn their fear into anger and then hatred. They’re vicious. A lot of what I see on social media and TikTok is the epitome of the phrase “There’s no love like Christian hate.” They’re just so disgusting.
Is it ever productive? What is it like to encounter that, on a human level?
We have reached a couple of people who actually will listen and watch the movie. But there are so many people who are so close-minded. It’s heartbreaking that people aren’t even open to recognizing us as human. It’s just dehumanizing. With the church being comfortable othering people—it’s not us, it’s you—it’s easy for them to dehumanize the LGBTQ person. A key barrier is that even some of these theologians that will put out this harmful rhetoric, they don’t have relationships with LGBTQ people.
Do you think that makes a difference?
One reason why I wanted to put my dad in the movie and my story in the movie is because we are a prime example of that “hitting the wall.” Here’s an example of someone who I love very much, who is my biggest oppressor. There’s no getting through to him at all. And so the other thing is, you know, we’re not going to change everybody’s minds, and that’s OK. But at the end of the day, my dad needs to keep his beliefs where they belong, and stay out where my beliefs are.
I don’t impede his equal rights and he doesn’t need to impede mine. I’m doing this to provide equal protection for everyone under the law, because if we don’t get a handle on this now, with the Bible in this country, we’re all in trouble—no matter what you believe.
Gender Studies Grad Demands Blue-Collar Worker Pay Off Her Loans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIZd4x0mD0I
In New Jersey, liberal idiots who put men in a woman’s prison are shocked to find out that they impregnated some of the female inmates
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjbPi00k_ME
Two women at N.J. prison are pregnant after consensual sex between inmates, DOC says
By Joe Atmonavage
April 13, 2022
Two women incarcerated at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility — the state’s only female prison — have become pregnant after having sex with a transgender inmate, NJ Advance Media has learned.
It appears the women became pregnant from “consensual sexual relationships with another incarcerated person,” Dan Sperrazza, the DOC’s external affairs executive director, said.
Although Sperrazza did not identify the inmates in question, Edna Mahan houses 27 prisoners who identify as transgender. He said the investigation is ongoing.
“While DOC cannot comment on any specific disciplinary or housing decisions that may be considered in light of these events,” Sperrazza said, “the Department always reserves all options to ensure the health and safety of the individuals in its custody.”
On Wednesday, NJ Advance Media obtained multiple letters written by the prisoners involved discussing the pregnancies.
The revelation presents a thorny problem for state corrections officials, who have been grappling with the sexual abuse and exploitation of inmates by staff at the prison for the past decade.
The developments follow a settlement agreement with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Jersey last year, which stipulates that transgender prisoners should be housed in line with their gender identity.
That settlement stemmed from a lawsuit by a transgender woman who was sent to a men’s prison, where she alleged she received inadequate medical care and was abused by male inmates and staff.
Advocates hailed the agreement as necessary reform that moved New Jersey to the forefront of trans rights along with states like California and Massachusetts that have implemented policies on how transgender prisoners should be housed and medically treated.
The majority of transgender inmates in the United States are housed in prisons according to their gender assigned at birth and are often subjected to violence and harassment, according to an NBC News investigation published in 2020.
On Tuesday, the ACLU of New Jersey did not respond to questions regarding the pregnancies, but its legal director Jeanne LoCicero said the current policy “reflects best practices to ensure the health, dignity, and safety of people in [DOC] custody.”
“(It) is in line with New Jersey’s strong anti-discrimination laws that prevent discrimination and harassment on the basis of gender identity,” she said in a statement.
Union officials, who consistently opposed the move, said the current policy remains concerning for its officers and the incarcerated population.
“We opposed this policy change believing it would be detrimental to the general population of female inmates being housed at Edna Mahan and also bring added stress to our correctional police officers assigned to this institution,” said William Sullivan, president of NJ PBA Local 105, the union that represents the majority of correctional officers.
Even among inmates, there is disagreement over whether some transgender prisoners should be at the facility.
Last year, two Edna Mahan prisoners filed a class-action lawsuit seeking to immediately remove “any and all male pre-operative transgender inmates,” alleging that some had harassed them and engaged in sexual contact with other women.
In an affidavit filed in support of the lawsuit, one transgender prisoner who had gender-conforming surgery before she was incarcerated said the DOC’s current policy is “very questionable.”
“I believe it is highly inappropriate for the NJDOC to place pre-operative male-to-female allegedly transgender inmates in a women’s prison,” said the woman, who has been locked up for more than 20 years.
Under the new policy, when placing a transgender prisoner in a facility, the DOC should consider “all aspects of an inmate’s social and medical transition,” including behavioral history, institutional adjustment, overall demeanor, likely interactions with others, and feelings of safety.
Like with any prisoner, the policy also states that the DOC must consider whether an individual’s placement would present management or security problems in a facility. The placement is reassessed twice a year.
If the committee tasked with housing transgender prisoners has a “substantiated, credible, and non-discriminatory basis” to believe that someone is not sincere, it can ask further questions and allow the person to provide more information before they decide, according to the policy.
The settlement agreement mandated the DOC keep the policy in place for at least one year before it can reassess its effectiveness. It is unclear how this will affect it moving forward.
Longtime prison advocate Bonnie Kerness said the DOC and the newly-formed Edna Mahan Board of Trustees, which supervises the prison, should examine the current policy and find ways to improve it.
“There needs to be an appropriate process that protects the cis women and the trans women already there,” said Kerness, program director for the nonprofit American Friends Service Committee’s prison program, which advocates for prisoners.
An independent monitor continues to oversee the prison under an agreement signed in August between the state and the U.S. Department of Justice after federal authorities found correctional officers had sexually abused female prisoners.
Last year, Gov. Phil Murphy announced plans to close the facility after officials learned that corrections officers had violently extracted women from their cells and brutalized them n the middle of the night. The incident led to filing criminal charges against 15 officers and forced DOC Commissioner Marcus Hicks to resign.
It is unclear when the facility will close.
Harassing people at the library is a “protest” when it’s done by idiots on the left, but a “hate crime” when it’s done by idiots on the right
This video was filmed in 2015 at a library at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. Dartmouth is an Ive League college which will be charging $60,687 in tuition (plus an additional $1,971 in “fees,” $10,881 for housing, and $7,218 for food) for the 2022-2023 school year.
$7,218 for one year’s worth of food? When I went to college, I had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. Maybe instead of forgiving student debt, we should stop colleges from price gouging.
Anyway, the left wing people in this video are described as “protestors.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5WhrFh1Wx8
Meanwhile, in 2022, at San Lorenzo Library in Alameda County, California, some right wing people decided to harass people. But their actions were described as a “hate crime.”
This news video includes video footage of the incident:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0e_3vlKUfc
I think both of these incidents were totally inappropriate.
What I don’t agree with is that it’s OK to call one a “protest” while calling the other one a “hate crime.”
We should hold the left and the right to the same standards.
Harassing people in the library is always wrong, regardless of the political affiliation of the harassers.
Washington Post spirals out of control after a writer retweets a ‘reprehensible’ joke about women
https://www.theblaze.com/news/wapo-dave-weigel-sexist-joke
Washington Post spirals out of control after a writer retweets a ‘reprehensible’ joke about women
By Carlos Garcia
June 3, 2022
A spokesperson for the Washington Post issued an apology after a writer retweeted a sexist joke and other writers at the news outlet objected vocally on Twitter.
Dave Weigel retweeted a joke about women on Friday and immediately regretted it after he was criticized heavily for joking on Twitter.
Weigel deleted the tweet, but it was saved for posterity by random people on Twitter and other writers at the outlet, like Felicia Sonmez, who objected to the sexist message.
https://twitter.com/feliciasonmez/status/1532763318804439047
“Every girl is bi. You just have to figure out if it’s polar or sexual,” read the tweet.
“Fantastic to work at a news outlet where retweets like this are allowed!” replied Sonmez sarcastically.
“Or perhaps @daveweigel the correct diagnosis: they’re just not that into you,” responded Stephanie Ruhl, the MSNBC host.
Kristine Coratti Kelly, a Wapo spokesperson, quickly issued an apology for the offensive joke tweet.
“Editors have made clear to the staff that the tweet was reprehensible and demeaning language or actions like that will not be tolerated,” said Kelly.
Weigel also apologized.
https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1532771139323211776
For some on the left, it wasn’t enough.
“You are still misogynistic trash. Can’t believe @washingtonpost still employs someone with such deep-seated sexist beliefs. Definitely clouds his ability to report unbiased facts,” responded liberal activist Amy Siskind.
According to a report by CNN’s Oliver Darcy, WaPo national editor Matea Gold addressed the controversy with the outlet’s employees on a channel on Slack.
“I just want to assure all of you that The Post is committed to maintaining a respectful workplace for everyone. We do not tolerate demeaning language or actions,” Gold wrote.
The whole bizarre episode was mocked and ridiculed by many on social media.
“Seriously? The Washington Post had to issue a statement about a retweet of a dumb joke? Nearly a dozen journalists in Mexico have been murdered since the start of the year and here we have people freaking out because Dave Weigel retweeted something. Goddamned babies,” said editor Jay Caruso.
Bill Maher wonders why the percentage of the population that is LGBTQ keeps doubling every generation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMBzfUj5zsg
Norwegian Feminist Facing Up To Three Years In Prison Over Tweets
https://reduxx.info/norwegian-feminist-facing-up-to-three-year-prison-sentence-over-tweets/
Norwegian Feminist Facing Up To Three Years In Prison Over Tweets
By Genevieve Gluck
May 25, 2022
A Norwegian feminist could be facing up to three years in prison for allegedly “hateful” tweets directed at a male who claims to be a lesbian woman.
Christina Ellingsen, a representative of feminist organization Women’s Declaration International (WDI) is being investigated under hate crime charges for tweets she made between February 2021 and January 2022.
The tweets in question were replies directed at Christine Marie Jentoft, a representative of trans activist group Foreningen FRI. Jentoft is a male who identifies as a lesbian woman.
Ellingsen’s charges are centered around her questioning why FRI promoted the belief that men could be lesbians. While police are still investigating, if she is found guilty, Ellingsen could face a prison sentence of up to three years.
Norway introduced “gender identity” into the hate crime paragraphs in January 2021. At the time, WDI Norway (formerly WHRC Norway) warned that the introduction of the concept into law would result in persecution of women for stating biological facts.
“Why [does] FRI teach young people that males can be lesbians? Isn’t that conversion therapy?” Ellingsen tweeted in October 2021.
A second tweet that has been cited as evidence of hate speech reads, “Jentoft, who is male and an advisor in FRI, presents himself as a lesbian – that’s how bonkers the organization which supposedly works to protect young lesbians’ interests is. How does it help young lesbians when males claim to be lesbian, too?”
Ellingsen was recently accused by Amnesty International Norway of harassing Jentoft after telling him on national television that he was male.
“You are a man. You cannot be a mother,” Ellingsen had said, “To normalize the idea that men can be mothers is a defined form of discrimination against women.”
After speaking with her lawyer earlier this week, Ellingsen told Reduxx she had learned that the police report made against her was filed by Jentoft himself.
Jentoft previously sparked controversy after inviting children to contact him for hugs in a tweet made in 2018.
“Dear queer children of all ages! I know some of us have parents who don’t love us any more. But thanks to a [Facebook] video I have just seen, I just want to inform you that I am actually a certified mother. So if you ever need a real motherly hug, I will be happy to oblige!” Jentoft wrote.
Ellingsen pointed out that even though Jentoft is involved with a powerful lobbying group, he nevertheless reported her to the police as a civilian member of the public. “The police attorney’s decision to open this investigation against a women’s rights activist is deeply concerning,” she said.
Jentoft is an advisor on gender diversity for FRI, also known as the Norwegian Organization for Sexual and Gender Diversity. FRI was previously known as The National Association for Lesbian and Gay Liberation.
Since 1997, FRI has been working towards the repeal of sexual paraphilias and fetishes as mental health diagnoses in both Norway and abroad. In 2010, many paraphilia-related diagnoses were removed from Norwegian medical literature, and in 2018 the World Health Organization (WHO) followed suit. The FRI’s campaigns successfully resulted in sadomasochism, transvestic fetishism, and general fetishism being re-classified as variants in sexual arousal in the 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases.
In 2016, a law was introduced in Norway allowing those aged 6+ to change their legal sex on documents. Currently, it is not possible to change parental status, though FRI has been campaigning to change that.
A mother is in Norway legally defined in the laws governing children’s rights as the “woman who has given birth to the child.” In recent years, FRI has been lobbying to redefine the legal definition of “mother” to “birth parent,” along with other linguistic alterations aimed at making laws “gender neutral.”
Five years ago, the Norwegian government announced its intention to introduce gender neutral identification markers by 2032, thus eliminating sex-based data which may be useful to understanding the impact of laws and policies on women and children.
“I am under police investigation for campaigning for women’s rights, because to certain groups, the fact that women and girls are female and that men cannot be women, girls, mothers or lesbians, is considered hateful,” Ellingsen told Reduxx.
“Women are not protected against hate speech in Norway, but men who claim to be both lesbian and a woman, are protected both on the grounds of gender identity and on the grounds of sexual orientation,” Ellingsen said.
“The fact that police are legally able to investigate and persecute women who engage in women’s rights is concerning. This is new territory in Norway, so the outcome of the investigation is important, both if the case is dismissed and if it leads to trial.”
In 2021, a Norwegian man was sentenced to 21 days in prison and a fine of 15,000NRK after being found guilty of “insulting” and “misgendering” a trans-identified male on Facebook.
ACLU changes abortion quote by Ruth Bader Ginsburg to make it gender-neutral
In 2018, Time magazine published the following quote from Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. The bolding is mine:
“The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a woman’s life, to her well-being and dignity. It is a decision she must make for herself. When Government controls that decision for her, she is being treated as less than a fully adult human responsible for her own choices.”
Original source: https://time.com/5354490/ruth-bader-ginsburg-roe-v-wade/
Archived source: https://web.archive.org/web/20180803070425/https://time.com/5354490/ruth-bader-ginsburg-roe-v-wade/
In 2021, now that Ginsburg is dead, the American Civil Liberties Union has taken it upon itself to change her words in order to make the quote gender-neutral. This is the gender-neutral version that was tweeted by the ACLU. The bolding mine:
“The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a [person’s] life, to [their] well-being and dignity… When the government controls that decision for [people], [they are] being treated as less than a fully adult human responsible for [their] own choices.”
Original source: https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/1439259891064004610
Archived source: https://web.archive.org/web/20210920003532/https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/1439259891064004610
Here’s a screenshot of the ACLU’s tweet of the gender-neutral version of Ginsburg’s quote:
This is exactly the kind of thing that George Orwell warned us about in his novel 1984.
I never thought that the American Civil Liberties Union would do something like this. On the contrary, those of us who truly support civil liberties tend to be very much opposed to this kind of thing.
Shame on the ACLU.
Motorcyclist Who Identifies As Bicyclist Sets Cycling World Record (satire)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipvesqJP1e4
Chad Felix Greene: How Ryan Anderson’s Banned Book, ‘When Harry Became Sally,’ Helped Me With Gender Dysphoria
How Ryan Anderson’s Banned Book, ‘When Harry Became Sally,’ Helped Me With Gender Dysphoria
People like me have gone years feeling alone and ignored by the popular discussion of gender identity. Backed by science, Ryan gives us hope and understanding.
By Chad Felix Greene
March 1, 2021
In July 2017, I took a risk and submitted an article to a publication that I respected and read frequently, hoping to provide conservatives a perspective they may not have viewed before. I wanted to address why suicide was so high among transgender people and ask questions about transition I hadn’t seen asked by mainstream LGBT sources.
I wanted to present my voice as a person who experienced gender dysphoria, pursued transition, then later found myself grateful I didn’t go through with it. So with nervousness, I sent the article to Public Discourse, the online journal of the Witherspoon Institute.
I’d hoped for a positive reply, but I didn’t expect a response from Ryan T. Anderson, a conservative voice I had respected for a long time. He thanked me for sending my story. Ryan took a risk on me, an amateur writer, and offered me my first professional writing opportunity. He also published another personal story about my experience with gender dysphoria. Throughout both interactions, he was kind, generous with feedback and recommendations, and interested in what I had to say.
When his breakthrough book, “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment,” was published, I excitedly downloaded it to my vast Audible library. To say his book was eye-opening is to provide a vague description. I had not heard the arguments he made before, nor read through the scientific research and other objective examinations of the condition and its effects the way Anderson presented it before. I also had not heard stories of other people who had gone through what I had until then.
I Thought I Was the Only One
I rarely discussed my gender dysphoria because I never transitioned, and I assumed something was unusual about me. I connected emotionally with most transgender stories right up until they began medical intervention and then I felt out of place and truly alone.
In many ways, I saw myself as a failure because the only transgender stories I encountered were those who accomplished what felt impossible for me. I was embarrassed to even bring up the topic because I didn’t want to have to answer the humiliating questions about why I stayed trapped in the “wrong” body all these years, or admit something inside me kept me from moving forward.
Anderson shared deep, rich stories by people just like me who did transition and then realized it was a mistake. Then they faced rebuilding the body and the identity they socially and medically altered in pursuit of some intangible goal of idealized gender.
Their understanding of discomfort in their bodies resonated loudly with me, even more than the initial concept of being transgender. I saw my struggle in their accomplishments, and I realized how truly grateful I was to have hesitated earlier in my life. When I wrote my story and sent it to Public Discourse, I thought it was unique because I hadn’t seen it before. I didn’t know I was among many friends.
I soon realized Ryan’s work offered me so much more than just a sense of personal validation in my journey. He also offered me answers. The book goes in-depth into the science behind biological sex and what we understand about the human body and how it functions.
Anderson moves through the development of a human fetus into brain development and what science tells us can affect that development. He answers the question, to the best of his ability and using the most pertinent science available, why the argument in favor of gender identity over biology is flawed.
The arguments he makes are positioned within the compassionate and empathetic interest of a scientist trying to understand what is causing a person so much pain and what can truly be done to relieve it. Without ever dismissing the experience of the transgender person, he asks the important question, one I struggled with for years, of whether a medical transition is genuinely the best option to alleviate gender dysphoria and all the pain and suffering associated with it. He bravely challenges the arguments supporting pro-transgender therapy in children and imbues the reader with the information necessary to understand why.
The Left Is on a Book-banning Crusade
For years I have championed this book to those interested in fully understanding the transgender movement, its arguments, and how to challenge them on the science, especially regarding public policy. When I saw that Amazon had removed Anderson’s book without so much as leaving the listing, complete with its history of valuable commentary from other readers, my heart sank. When I found out that LGBT activists were cheering on the decision, I sighed with frustrated disappointment.
Anderson’s “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment,” is not an anti-LGBT or anti-transgender work. Ryan is not anti-LGBT, and he was never dismissive or cruel to transgender people. His work is certainly a far cry from anything resembling “hate speech.”
Like Abigail Shrier’s, “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters” and Dr. Debra Soh’s, “The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths About Sex and Identity in Our Society,” also targeted by LGBT activists for banning, Anderson’s book asks necessary questions that deserve to be given fair consideration and debated, not restricted from public view.
For people like me who may have gone years feeling alone and completely ignored by the popular discussion of gender identity, Ryan’s book gives us hope and understanding of ourselves and the options we have for our future.
That, in its simplest form, is the best argument for keeping this book and others like it available for people to consider and decide for themselves how to respond. Instead, LGBT activists seem to feel entitled to decide what information we should have access to so that we only make the choices they believe are best for us.
We live in an era of absolute human potential and knowledge. We have access to information and ideas beyond anything most people who ever lived could have dreamed possible, yet we find ourselves restricted by powerful, ideological Puritans who believe this freedom is dangerous. I hope that Amazon corrects this mistake before it causes further damage to the free ability to decide for yourself what you want to believe.
You can purchase Ryan’s book, “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment,” directly from the publisher, Encounter Books.
BBC article on people who regretted getting sex change surgery
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6923912.stm
Are sex change operations justified?
By Innes Bowen
August 1, 2007
Many people who have been through sex change operations say it was the only solution to a distressing condition. But a leading feminist campaigner claims that sex reassignment surgery is based on unscientific ideas – and could be doing more harm than good.
“I should never have had sex change surgery,” Claudia MacLean, a transsexual woman told the audience at a recent debate organised by the BBC Radio 4 programme Hecklers and the Royal Society of Medicine in London.
“As a result of the surgery, I am incapable of sex and I have lived a life apart.”
Claudia was speaking out in support of Julie Bindel, a radical feminist and journalist, who was trying to persuade medics and trans people that sex change surgery is unnecessary mutilation.
Threatening concept
Radical feminists have ideological reasons for opposing sex change surgery.
To them, the claim that someone can be “born into the wrong sex” is a deeply threatening concept.
Many feminists believe that the behaviours and feelings which are considered typically masculine or typically feminine are purely socially conditioned.
But if, as some in the transsexual lobby believes, the tendency to feel masculine or feminine is something innate then it follows that gender stereotypical behaviours could well be “natural” rather than as the result of social pressures and male oppression.
As a feminist, Julie Bindel therefore has a strong political motivation for her scepticism about sex change surgery.
But, her argument goes beyond ideology.
Having looked into the medical research on transsexualism, she claims there is a lack of science behind the diagnosis, no satisfactory research into the outcomes for patients and individual stories of post-operative regret.
Regret
Claudia says she was referred for surgery after a single 45 minute consultation.
“At no time did I say to that psychiatrist that I felt like a woman. In my opinion what happened to me was all about money.”
She is one of a small number of trans people who have publicly expressed their regrets about having had sex change surgery.
Another is Charles Kane who, as Sam Hashimi, was the subject of a BBC documentary One Life: Make me a Man Again, televised in 2004.
This showed Sam, a transsexual woman, undergoing surgery to become a man again.
She told the BBC that her desire to become a woman had developed following a nervous breakdown.
For her, these feelings were caused by a longing to retreat into a fantasy character rather than having a crisis of gender identity.
“When I was in the psychiatric hospital there was a man on one side of me who thought he was King George and another guy on the other side who thought he was Jesus Christ. I decided I was Sam.”
Others, like Miranda Ponsonby, blame post-operative discontent on society’s lack of willingness to accept transsexual people.
In her forthcoming autobiography, The Making of Miranda, she describes having a strong sense from a young age that she was a female trapped in a man’s body.
However, like Claudia, she says that, since her surgery, she has lived a life apart.
She claims that she is no happier now than she was before the operation.
Her advice to those contemplating sex change surgery is “Don’t do it.”
Stories of satisfaction
Against these stories of disappointment and regret, there are many more people who will testify publicly to their overwhelming satisfaction with sex change surgery.
But are most people who have sex change surgery satisfied or dissatisfied?
It comes as something of a surprise to learn that the medical profession does not yet know the answer to this question.
According to a review carried out by the School of Health and Related Research at Sheffield University, the poor quality of research in this area means that “little robust evidence exists” on the outcomes for patients who have sex change surgery.
Dr Kevan Wylie, a consultant in sexual medicine and the head of the UK body looking into standards of care for sex change surgery patients, admits there have been difficulties.
“The problem is that we tend to lose touch with our patients after a relatively short period of time following surgery.”
Some local health authorities now refuse to fund sex change operations on the basis that there is a lack of evidence about the surgical efficacy and psychological benefits of surgery.
In the absence of more research studies, gender dysphoria specialist Dr Kevan Wylie says it is important to listen to his patients.
However, those contemplating surgery – and the health authorities which fund them – ought also to be able to get advice about the risks versus the potential benefits of such a major operation and, until further research is done, doctors are unable to give them such information.
Best-Selling Controversial Book on Transgender People Removed From Amazon 3 Years After Publication
Best-Selling Controversial Book on Transgender People Removed From Amazon 3 Years After Publication
By Katherine Fung
February 22, 2021
Ryan Anderson’s When Harry Became Sally was removed from Amazon’s cyber shelves Sunday, three years after the controversial best-seller was published on February 20, 2018.
Anderson told Newsweek that he discovered that his book had vanished from Amazon—as well as the company’s e-reader Kindle, podcast service Audible and used-book sellers—when someone looking to buy a copy informed the author. He said that neither he nor his publisher were notified by Amazon.
In 2018, the book hit No. 1 on two of Amazon’s best-seller list before it was even released, but sparked controversy for arguing that society’s growing acceptance of transgender people stems more from ideology than science.
“We need to respect the dignity of people who identify as transgender,” Anderson argued in the book, “but without encouraging children to undergo experimental transition treatments, and without trampling on the needs and interests of others.”
While the book was well-received by conservatives, LGBTQ activists have dismissed the book as anti-trans and “dangerous.”
“People who have actually read my book discovered that it was a thoughtful and accessible presentation of the state of the scientific, medical, philosophical and legal debates,” Anderson told Newsweek. “Yes, it advances an argument from a certain viewpoint. No, it didn’t get any facts wrong, and it didn’t engage in any name-calling.”
He argues that the book’s research is more important than ever before given the recent push for trans policies from the new Biden administration.
“Three years after publication, in the very same week that the House of Representatives is going to ram through a radical transgender bill amending the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Amazon erases my book opposing gender ideology from their cyber shelves,” Anderson wrote to Newsweek. “Make no mistake, both Big Government and Big Tech can undermine human dignity and liberty, human flourishing and the common good.”
On his first day in office, President Joe Biden undid a host of Trump-era policies and issued a sweeping executive order, protecting gay and transgender people from discrimination in schools, the workplace, health care among other facets of daily life.
“Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports,” Biden’s executive order stated. “Adults should be able to earn a living and pursue a vocation knowing that they will not be fired, demoted, or mistreated because of whom they go home to or because how they dress does not conform to sex-based stereotypes. People should be able to access health care and secure a roof over their heads without being subjected to sex discrimination.”
Days later, Biden also reversed former President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender individuals serving in the U.S. military.
The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the Equality Act this week after Democratic Representative David Cicilline of Rhode Island reintroduced the LGBTQ rights bill last week.
The Equality Act would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, credit, education, public spaces, public funding and jury service.
While it passed the House in 2019 after eight GOP lawmakers broke party ranks in a historic vote, the bill was stalled in the then-Republican-controlled Senate. But sponsors of the bill are hopeful that it could pass now that the Senate is split 50–50.
Anderson said that although his book has been praised by a number of psychology experts “none of that matters. It’s not about how you say it, it’s not about how rigorously you argue it, it’s not about how charitably you present it. It’s about whether you dissent from a new orthodoxy.”
He said his publisher has since contacted Amazon to inquire about the grounds for removal but has not received a response.
Amazon also declined Newsweek’s request for comment, although a spokesperson referred to the company’s content guidelines, which removes books that include illegal or infringing content, offensive content, poor customer experience or public domain content.
“We don’t sell certain content including content that we determine is hate speech, promotes the abuse or sexual exploitation of children, contains pornography, glorifies rape or pedophilia, advocates terrorism, or other material we deem inappropriate or offensive,” Amazon’s guidelines read.
However, it remains unclear as to why Anderson’s book has been removed by the online retailer.
Dr. Rand Paul asks Dr. Rachel Levine whether she supports or opposes letting people under the age of 18 get transgender surgery and hormone treatment without their parents’ permission. Dr. Levine refuses to answer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y4ZhQUre-4
In my opinion, California’s AB 1084 actually has very little to do with gender, and everything to do with the fact that the politicians who support it are a bunch of control freaks
California’s AB 1084 would require retail stores to have gender neutral areas for children’s clothing.
I am against the government getting involved in this.
In my opinion, businesses should arrange their stores according to what their customers want, not according to what politicians want.
I think this bill actually has very little to do with gender, and everything to do with the fact that the politicians who support it are a bunch of control freaks.
https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/new-ca-bill-to-require-gender-neutral-retail-departments/
New CA Bill to Require Gender Neutral Retail Departments
AB 1084 will require retailers to maintain one undivided area of its sales floor for children’s clothing, as well as online
By Chris Micheli
February 19, 2021
On February 18, Assembly members Evan Low and Cristina Garcia introduced Assembly Bill 1084 to require gender neutral retail departments. The bill would add Part 2.57 (commencing with Section 55.7) to Division 1 of the Civil Code.
Section One of the bill would add Part 2.57, which would be titled “Gender Neutral Retail Departments.” The bill would specify legislative findings and declarations that there are unjustified differences in similar products that are traditionally marketed either for girls or for boys can be more easily identified by the consumer if similar items are displayed closer to one another in one, undivided area of the retail sales floor. In addition, keeping similar items that are traditionally marketed either for girls or for boys separated makes it more difficult for the consumer to compare the products and incorrectly implies that their use by one gender is inappropriate.
The bill would specify that a retail department store that offers childcare items for sale is required to maintain one undivided area of its sales floor where the majority of the childcare items being offered shall be displayed, regardless of whether a particular childcare item has been traditionally marketed for either girls or for boys. In addition, a retail department store that offers children’s clothing for sale, as well as toys for sale, would be required to maintain one undivided area of its sales floor where the majority of the children’s clothing being offered shall be displayed, regardless of whether a particular article of children’s clothing has been traditionally marketed for either girls or for boys. The bill defines the terms “childcare item,” “clothing,” and “toy.”
AB 1084 would also specify that it is not to be construed to constrain how a retailer promotes, displays, or presents a particular item within each undivided area of its sales floor where either childcare items, children’s clothing, or toys are being offered for sale. However, no signage is allowed to be used within any undivided area where either childcare items, children’s clothing, or toys are offered for sale indicating the items are for either girls or for boys.
In addition, a retail department store located in California that maintains an internet website through which it sells childcare items, children’s clothing, toys, or anything that could be considered a combination thereof, is required to dedicate a section of the internet website to the sale of those items and articles that must be titled, at the discretion of the retailer, “kids”, “unisex”, or “gender neutral”.
This proposed law would only apply to retail department stores with 500 or more employees. Beginning on January 1, 2024, a retail department store that fails to correct a violation of this law within 30 days of receiving written notice of the violation from the Attorney General is liable for a civil penalty of $1,000 which may be assessed and recovered in a civil action brought in the name of the people of the State of California by the Attorney General in any court of competent jurisdiction.
According to social justice warriors, AIDS is not caused by “high-risk behavior.” Instead, it’s caused by racism and homophobia.
Apparently, people on the radical left think that racists like David Duke are running around injecting black men with HIV.
American Progress writes: (the boldng is mine)
https://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/issues/2012/07/pdf/hiv_community_of_color.pdf
African Americans, who make up only 14 percent of the U.S. population, make up 44 percent of the HIV-positive population…
Men who have sex with men represent 2 percent of the U.S. population but account for 61 percent of all new HIV infections…
… the racial HIV gap and the racial health gap in general, is strongly correlated with… historical and contemporary processes of segregation in housing, education, employment, and health care…
The high rates of HIV/AIDS we see among communities of color are not the result of high-risk behavior in these communities, but structural inequalities…
Comedy writer permanently banned from Twitter for saying “men aren’t women”
https://disrn.com/news/comedy-writer-banned-from-twitter-for-saying-men-arent-women/
Comedy writer permanently banned from Twitter for saying “men aren’t women”
By Adam Ford
June 28, 2020
Irish comedy writer Graham Linehan has been permanently banned from Twitter after he tweeted “men aren’t women tho” in response to a tweet by a women’s group wishing men who identify as women a happy Pride Month.
Lineman, who had hundreds of thousands of followers on the social network, is the creator or co-creator of the sitcoms Father Ted, Black Books, and The IT Crowd.
Twitter said Linehan “has been permanently suspended after repeated violations of our rules against hateful conduct and platform manipulation.”
YouTuber Arielle Scarcella: I’m A Lesbian Woman and I’m Leaving The INSANE “Progressive” Left
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzYHBPTfXCI
Salon forced to close after refusing to wax transgender woman’s male genitalia
Salon forced to close after refusing to wax transgender woman’s male genitalia
July 22, 2019
A Canadian small business owner was forced to close her home-based beauty salon after refusing to provide a Brazilian wax for a transgender woman’s male genitalia.
Marcia Da Silva received a response about the opening of her new salon from Jessica Yaniv, a transgender activist, after previously only have provided services to family and friends. They initially agreed to an appointment via text message and Yaniv claimed that Da Silva canceled the session after she sent her a photo and identified as a transgender woman.
Yaniv filed over a dozen complaints with a British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal, claiming she was discriminated against. “You cannot choose who your clientele is going to be,” Yaniv said while speaking in front of the Tribunal. The LGBT activist has demanded monetary compensation and condemned Da Silva’s decision not to wax her genitalia as neo-Nazism.
“This is about businesses and individuals using their religion and culture to refuse service to protected groups because -they- don’t agree with it,” Yaniv said in a tweet.
This is not about waxing. This is about businesses and individuals using their religion and culture to refuse service to protected groups because -they- don’t agree with it or the person and use that to illegally discriminate contrary to the BC Human Rights Code and the CHRC.
— Jessica Yaniv (@trustednerd) July 18, 2019
Da Silva said her refusal to wax Yaniv’s genitalia was because of safety concerns raised by her husband, alleged harassment on Yaniv’s part, and discomfort carrying out a Brazilian wax on male genitalia.
Jay Cameron, a lawyer with the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, is representing Da Silva at the Tribunal.
“Some of my clients have been very significantly affected on a personal level. [Another client also] closed her business, she has been depressed, anxious, sleepless, and that has gone on for a period of many many months,” said Cameron.
“It is a very serious thing to launch a human rights complaint against a person. My clients are people. They have a right to make a living and this has interfered with their livelihood, but also you have the stigma of being associated with this hanging over you.”
Yaniv has said on Twitter that she will “never give up fighting for human rights equality”.
One proud lesbian. I’ll never give up fighting for human rights equality.
Gay rights activist set fire to his own home in fake hate crime, Michigan police say
https://news.yahoo.com/gay-rights-activist-set-fire-230859095.html
Gay rights activist set fire to his own home in fake hate crime, Michigan police say
February 25, 2019
DETROIT —When Nikki Joly’s Jackson home burned down in 2017, some thought the fire was a hate crime against the transgendered, gay-rights activist who had fought for a local anti-discrimination ordinance.
But now, instead of a victim, the 54-year-old is accused of being the perpetrator.
The Michigan case is gaining national attention alongside the situation involving Jussie Smollett, another alleged hate crime victim who became the accused. Authorities concluded the attack on Smollett was a hoax.
“Real hate crimes are on the rise,” Graham Cassano, associate professor of sociology at Michigan’s Oakland University, said Monday. “But, as these crimes increase and become publicized, it’s not surprising to me that people would take the opportunity to use this to their advantage and fabricate hate crimes.”
Authorities accuse Joly of setting fire to his own home and killing his pets, two dogs and three cats. He has been charged with first-degree arson, and a hearing has been set for March 8 in Jackson County Circuit Court.
“We determined it pretty quickly to be an arson,” Elmer Hitt, Jackson’s director of police and fire services, said Monday. “We investigated it over, what probably was a year’s time before the prosecutor ended up issuing charges.”
Two cases with unexpected twists
Initially, some in the community perceived the blaze to be a hate crime, Hitt said. Investigators considered that, too, but ruled out the possibility as evidence that pointed to Joly came to light.
Declining to offer a motive for the house fire, Hitt acknowledged that some in Jackson were probably rattled — perhaps in a similar way to the Smollett case — by the police investigation’s unexpected outcome and charge. Joly was named 2018’s Citizen of the Year by the Jackson’s newspaper, the Citizen Patriot.
In the higher-profile hate crime case that turned on its head last week, Smollett, a 36-year-old actor on the drama TV series “Empire,” alleged to Chicago police he had been a victim. Smollett was arrested on charges that he set up the assault.
Smollett, who is black and gay, said masked men yelled racial slurs, attacked him, put a rope around his neck and made references to President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
But, Chicago police said, their investigation found evidence that Smollett staged the crime, possibly to portray himself as a victim and boost his salary as an actor, and lied to police.
Tearing up at the thought of his dogs
Joly, a transgender man, was touted as Jackon’s 2018 citizen of the year by the local newspaper and described as an activist who had endured slights and still re-energized a movement.
He tried to “pass an ordinance in Jackson protecting people against discrimination because they are gay, because they are transgender, because they aren’t as some say they should be,” according to the newspaper.
The long profile described the Detroit native as someone who had been on his own since his adoptive parents ousted him at 15, had been sexually assaulted, and subjected to “insulting gender questions” and “refused service in bars or restaurants.”
Joly, the article said, was “born female,” but “prefers a masculine pronoun,” and has long “been activist-minded even if it was not always openly.”
It also mentioned the fire on Aug. 10, 2017, in which his home was burned down.
In the profile, Joly said that he was “really in shock for quite a while.” He teared at the thought of his dogs, who perished in the blaze, the article said, and organized a weapons training course at a gun range to fight fear.
A few months later, Joly was charged with setting the fire.
Terrible for those ‘facing real hate crimes’
In the Joly case, police suspicion was based on a timeline of events, phone records, physical evidence and witness statements. Joly had the “means and opportunity to start the fire,” according to a report published by Mlive.com in October.
Security camera video showed Joly filling a gas can before the fire, the Mive article said. Gasoline was on his clothing, per the report, and a witness smelled gas on him. Photographs seemed to be missing from the walls, and Joly received $50,000 in donations after the fire.
Joly’s attorney, Andrew Abood, challenged the police conclusion.
“What they have is a coincidence and a coincidence is not proof beyond reasonable doubt,” Abood said, per Mlive. “They are trying to convict on circumstantial evidence and theory when they have no direct evidence in the case.”
Still, Cassano said, when presumed victims of hate crimes are actually the perpetrators, “it’s terrible for social movements in general” and terrible, specifically, for people “facing real hate crimes.”
In 2018 alone, the civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Campaign, tracked 26 deaths of transgender people in the U.S. as a result of fatal violence. So far this year, the group identified one death.
The most recent stats from the FBI showed 7,106 hate crimes in 2017, up 17 percent from the year before. Of those crimes, nearly 60 percent of the victims were targeted because of race and ethnicity and nearly 16 percent because of sexual orientation.
“When someone comes along and fabricates a hate crime, it calls into question people who have really experience these things,” Cassano said. “It’s absolutely awful. It really, to my mind, is incomprehensible.”
Wilfred Reilly, an associate professor of political science at Kentucky State University in Frankfort who has studied fake hate crimes, wrote that the fact that Smollett’s case is being alleged a hoax “shouldn’t surprise anyone.”
Reiley didn’t mention the Joly case but made the case in an opinion piece for USA Today and a book “Hate Crime Hoax: How the Left is Selling a Fake Race War,” that “a great many hate crime stories turn out to be hoaxes.”
The professor said he found more than 400 confirmed hate hoaxes, and he concluded that “what hate hoaxers actually do is worsen generally good race relations, and distract attention from real problems.”
Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog 