Latest news with #genderdebate
Telegraph
19-07-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
‘Transphobes' are swivel-eyed loons, says Labour MP in leaked audio
A Labour backbencher has been filmed deriding 'transphobes' as 'swivel-eyed' and suggesting they are 'not very well people'. Tim Roca described the Supreme Court judgment on trans rights as 'very depressing' and rejected his own party's stance that it had brought 'clarity'. In a leaked recording, obtained by The Telegraph, he also said Parliament was a 'toxic cesspit' and other MPs were motivated by 'fear, envy, greed'. Mr Roca was elected as the first ever Labour MP for Macclesfield last year, winning a seat which had been represented by the Tories since 1918. He made the remarks during a talk he gave earlier this month at an event hosted by the University of Westminster, called Queering Academia. 'I think actually the UK has now really gone down the rabbit hole into the way the United States discusses issues of gender, race, poverty, all of that,' he said. 'So if we can bring the debate back into being one based on rationalism and compassion – and actually as we know, the facts – I think that's a much better place for all of us to be. 'What we can't be, is we can't look like the alternative version of the transphobes. The best argument against them is a conversation with them, because they look swivel eyed and honestly, they're not very well people, I don't think, the ones that I've met. 'So we have to make sure, as passionate we are, that we're talking passionately but sensibly and bringing people around.' Mr Roca has described himself as 'Macclesfield's first openly gay' MP and said his first act on getting the job last year was to join the town's Pride march. He said 'the most toxic element' of his campaign to get elected were the 'anti trans voices', claiming he had been heckled and had 'stuff thrown at me'. Speaking at a panel event titled Leading While Queer, he attacked the Supreme Court judgment that womanhood is legally defined by biological sex. He also criticised Baroness Falkner, the outgoing Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and said Labour MPs were pushing for a pro-Trans replacement. Baroness Falkner came under attack from left-wing backbenchers after the watchdog issued guidance in light of the verdict banning trans women from female toilets. 'I challenged the equalities watchdog after that very depressing Supreme Court judgment,' the Macclesfield MP said. 'The EHRC is clearly led by somebody who is not a friend of our community. In my view, I want to make sure the next head of the EHRC is somebody who is a friend of our community. 'And I've got colleagues in Parliament who are working really, really hard on that. But challenging the EHRC interim guidance, which is appalling, was really, really important.' He disputed that the judgment had brought 'clarity', saying it had 'caused fear and incredible uncertainty and…undermined protections' for trans people. In doing so he was directly contradicting the Prime Minister, who said in the immediate aftermath of the verdict that he welcomed the 'real clarity' it brought. During his speech Mr Roca was also critical of his Tory predecessor, David Rutley, as a 'terrible Member of Parliament', singling him out for his Mormon faith. 'Hogwarts by the river' He said that he had been 'struck by how toxic Parliament is' being re-elected and said the building itself favoured those who were privately educated. 'You've got the full gamut of human qualities there – the most amazing people really fighting for incredible principles and values,' he said. 'You've also got people who are motivated by fear, envy, greed, all sorts. And it's a bonkers building, it's like Hogwarts by the river. 'Buildings shape how you function very, very often, and if you're educated in Oxbridge or a public school, Westminster feels perfect for you.' At one point during a question and answer session Mr Roca also appeared to oppose his own party's policy of lowering the voting age to 16. In the remarks, made before Angela Rayner unveiled reforms this week to extend the vote to 16-year-olds, he said the change risked benefitting Reform. He said that while Nigel Farage had boosted his popularity with the young on social media sites like TikTok, content produced by Labour MPs was 'pretty naff'. 'I'm really worried [about] the number of young people who really like Reform,' he said. 'We need to be alive to the risk of Reform, alive to the risk of money like Elon Musk's flooding our political system. 'I want there to be another Labour government, but I think we need to have a system that's ready for the challenges that Reform pose as well.' The video was passed on to the Telegraph by James Esses, a psychotherapist, campaigner and founder of Just Therapy. He said: 'For an elected member of Parliament to speak with such disdain for the Supreme Court, the Chair of the EHRC, and those across society concerned about the impact of gender ideology on women's rights and child safeguarding, is shocking. 'However, my gut tells me that this is how your average Labour MP thinks and that should concern us all.'
Telegraph
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
When will angry men learn not to pillory JK Rowling?
When will the small, angry men of the Left learn what a folly it is to come for JK Rowling? She'll only make mincemeat of you, fellas. Serial court-case loser Jolyon Maugham tried it. He called her 'anti-trans', 'amoral' and a 'bigot'. Big mistake. In the tweeting equivalent of a surgical strike, Rowling did to Maugham's reputation what he did to that unfortunate fox while wearing his wife's kimono on Boxing Day 2019. Don't make me sue you, she said, not least because it would be a terrible waste of taxpayers' money to 'have to construct a courtroom large enough to accommodate your ego'. Next up was ex-pop star Boy George. He branded her a 'rich bored bully'. Bully? That's rich, she quipped, from someone who was 'given 15 months for handcuffing a man to a wall and beating him with a chain'. And now we have Owen Jones. Yes, completing the trifecta of gender-crank Rowling botherers, the Guardian's pipsqueak Leftist has come out swinging for the woman who dares to believe in biology. He seems to be upset because she had a chuckle about his erratic behaviour on Piers Morgan Uncensored last week. In response to an X user who wondered if Jones might have partaken of the white stuff before fidgeting and gurning his way through Morgan's show, Rowling tweeted: 'Well, he is known as Talcum X.' Jones is hopping mad. He's even written a 1,300-word screed on what a rotter Rowling is, which I'm sure we can all agree is a perfectly normal response to a woman making a joke. His line of attack is that Rowling has been shamefully silent on the suffering of Palestinians. She claims to stand up for women, he says, yet she's schtum on what is happening to women in Gaza. His Rowlingphobic diatribe drips with haughty sexism. He bemoans her 'useless obsessions', by which he presumably means her valiant defence of the reality of sex and her financial backing of women and homosexuals who have been persecuted for their beliefs by either their bosses or the state. Sounds pretty useful to me, Owen. He commands her: 'End your silence.' Maybe he didn't get the memo – men don't get to tell women what to do anymore. Women are free to think and say whatever they please. Radical, I know! But it's the disingenuousness of his blokeish moan that is most striking. He accuses Rowling of only caring about certain women. Yet as you read this rant from one of Britain's noisiest Israeliphobes, you realise that is far truer of Jones and his fellow woke bros than it is of Rowling. Rowling's big issue is the gender madness. She has made it abundantly clear that she thinks every woman, regardless of age, background or station, deserves dignity and liberty. No woman, she says, should be made to undress with or compete against men who masquerade as women. In both word and deed, she's been admirably consistent in her defence of the truth of womanhood and the rights of women. The same cannot be said for Jones and the other digital windbags of the 21st-century Left. Indeed, Jones' grossly inappropriate moral preening over how much he cares for Palestinian women instantly raises the question of why other women caught up in awful conflicts rarely seem to prick his conscience. Rowling's bold defiance of the gender cult is a strike for the autonomy of all women. In contrast, the myopic Israelophobia of the whackjob Left fashions a ruthless hierarchy in which the pain of Palestinians counts for more than the pain of anyone else on earth. What's more, these faux-feminists zip their lips when women are being oppressed by Islamists. They cosplay as feminists at home, holding forth on the gender pay gap and whatnot. Yet they fall silent in the face of the Iranian regime's mass murder of women who want more rights or the Taliban's medieval subjugation of its female population. They're so antsy about 'Islamophobia' that they will happily turn a blind eye to Islamism's truly brutish crushing of female freedom. Here's my question for Jones: why do you get so much angrier over conflicts involving the Jewish nation than you do over any other war? What explains that glaring disparity? Today, a report was released detailing the horrific sexual violence Hamas meted out on 7 October 2023 as part of its 'genocidal strategy'. I look forward to Jones' commentary on it. Wait – you do care about Jewish women, right?
Daily Mail
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Should men give up their seats on public transport for women? Battle of the sexes breaks out over divisive clip of train journey
A bitter debate has ensued online after a clip filmed by a woman on the London Underground went viral. A clip shared on TikTok by @annibaxter has prompted a battle of the sexes as increasing numbers of women argue men should give up their seats on public transport so they can sit down instead. The video, which has been liked more than 1.4million times, shows a whole row of men sitting down on the tube, while a row of women are standing in the aisle and holding on to poles. Elsewhere on TikTok and other social media platforms, women have been sharing their experiences on public transport when it comes to getting a seat. User @catlouisemx posted a clip that also showed a whole row of seats taken up by men on a train, while she and her other female friends stood on the side. She wrote in text over the video: 'Men used to go to war for us and now we can't even get a man to let us sit down on the train.' Another TikTok video posted last year by Rayana Alyssa, who goes by the handle @rayanaalyssa, showed another row of seats taken up by nearly all men, with a woman stood to one side. The complaints continue on X, formerly Twitter, as more women noted that men are 'racing' them to get seats on the Tube instead of allowing women to sit down first. 'I understand that men don't offer their seats on the Tube to women anywhere but we've now reached where they will all but push you out of the way to sit first? What is going on,' wrote X user @xhakaed. 'Getting really annoyed at GROWN MEN racing me for seats on the Tube, do you not have any shame??' user tezzuh added. A third X user, who goes by the handle @hayyasector1, said: 'Seeing these men scramming to get seats on the Tube is hilarious to me, one pushed me out of the way to grab a seat.' Take a seat: Social media users say they have noticed an increase in the number of men who will 'race' to get a seat on the Tube A recent Reddit post has also sparked some debate over the issue. A Reddit user wrote about her experience of being in crutches for the last 10 weeks after a cycling accident, and said she noticed the people offering her a seat on the Tube were mainly women. 'Every single time without fail, it has been a woman [who has] offered her seat,' she wrote. 'Women holding kids have offered, women who are elderly have offered, women have ushered me down the carriage to a seat they're in while men look on and ignore me even when they've seen my condition.' She claimed that the men she encountered on her journeys 'looked me up and down' and, despite seeing her struggle to stand, have 'ignored me when asked politely or hide their heads as if in shame'. 'If this is any of you, your fathers, brothers, sons, whatever, shame on the lot of you. To be clear, this has been men of all ages.' Responses to such posts have been mixed, with both men and women agreeing it is a growing problem and lamenting the decline in chivalry. '[To be honest it's not the sitting part that makes me mad, but them pushing and rushing to have a sit,' one commenter said on TikTok. Counterpoints: Some people argued that they didn't expect men to give them a seat Another shared their experience and said: 'When I was nine months pregnant I had to stand on the train for 20 minutes until a young girl got up and gave me her seat. The men were all avoiding eye contact with me.' On X, a commenter replied: 'I got SHOVED - physically shoved - by a man when there were multiple seats available. Literally why are you running and pushing?' A fourth person said the issue 'has been happening for a while', adding: 'Had to shout at two guys a couple of years ago who said something about equal rights. 'He had his arm out holding the seat for his mate. Shouted chivalry is dead and people clapped.' 'Tube etiquette is just fully in the bin, it's so bleak,' another lamented. Others pushed back, however, arguing that equality between men and women means that men shouldn't be expected to give up their seat on the train. One TikToker said he would only offer his seat to pregnant women or elderly people. 'You equal woman can stand up just like I would if there were no seats,' he added. Another wrote: 'Full grown adults expecting other full grown adults to give them a seat for no reason.' Some women also commented to say they did not expect men to get up for them on public transport if they aren't pregnant, elderly or disabled. 'Girl, I'm a woman and I don't expect a man to get up for me,' one person wrote. Another said: 'Also a woman here and who cares? They got there first, I'm not pregnant or have a disability, and I'm not elderly.'
News.com.au
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
‘It is just a funny joke': Aussie podcaster offends men
An Aussie podcaster has offended men by joking that women would survive easily without them. Maddy Carty, 30, hosts Mads World, a conversational comedy podcast that explores dating, feminism, sexuality, and relationships. During a lighthearted moment on the podcast, Ms Carty asked which gender would survive better without the other. 'If all men or all women got deleted off the planet, which gender would fare better?' she asked. Ms Carty answered her own question and argued, 'Women just figure s**t out', while men are more random. 'If you send a man to the shops, he'll bring back the most random items, and you'll be like, 'Why did you buy that?'' she joked. It was clearly not a serious moment, but when a reel of Ms Carty's comments was posted on Instagram - it caused immediate offence. While some people took Ms Carty's comments as they were intended, as a joke, others got really riled up. 'Still time to delete this,' one warned. 'No matriarchy in history has ever survived,' another claimed. 'Who built the sofas you're sitting on? Who built the room you're in? Who originally found the power to charge your phones? Who designed those microphones you're using? Who made the platform you're posting on?' one man asked. 'Rage bait,' one said. When Ms Carty replied and said the joke wasn't 'that deep', the commentator hit back and claimed she must be 'on her period' because she seemed angry. 'There is no world that women enjoy without men! This level of delusion is extraordinary,' another man claimed. 'So funny … go back to the kitchen,' one man wrote. 'Clueless women,' one said. 'This is the most delusional thing I think I have ever heard,' someone else complained. Some men got so riled up that they started making inappropriate comments about Ms Carty's appearance and claiming she had a 'face for radio' among the comment chaos. It wasn't just criticism. Quite a few women jumped in to defend Ms Carty and call out men for not taking it as a joke. Someone said the men complaining are 'fragile little boys' and another argued that girls rule and boys drool. 'Keep telling the truth Queen,' another applauded. Speaking to Ms Carty said she was surprised by the backlash because she thought it was pretty clear she was kidding. 'I was shocked that some men took it so seriously. They clearly have some insecurities around not being able to provide,' she said. 'It's just a funny joke that's 0.001 per cent of a long podcast. People should just get over it.'
Telegraph
21-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Stephen Fry says JK Rowling's been ‘radicalised'. I've got just one question for him
Sir Stephen Fry, the renowned psychoanalyst, says he believes that JK Rowling 'has been radicalised'. I must say that I for one was somewhat taken aback by this diagnosis. Because, if Ms Rowling has indeed been 'radicalised', that means she harbours beliefs that are 'radical'. In which case, would Sir Stephen be so kind as to tell us which of her beliefs he has in mind? Take, for example, Ms Rowling's belief that women don't have testicles. Or her belief that men can't give birth. Is either of those beliefs radical? Extreme? Wildly at variance with established medical science? Perhaps he's thinking of her belief that biological males should not be entitled to enter the female changing room at their local swimming pool and strip naked in front of small girls. Or her belief that confused children should not be pumped with drugs designed to prevent them from going through a normal, healthy puberty. Or her belief that we should not grant a convicted rapist his wish to be placed in a jail full of women merely because he's suddenly taken to sporting a blonde wig and pink leggings. Does Sir Stephen consider those beliefs to be radical? I do hope he'll let us know. It's urgent. Otherwise, there's a serious risk that innocent members of the public will become radicalised, too. In the meantime, I'm anxious to ascertain how exactly Ms Rowling came to fall for the outlandish notion that women are female and men are male. Who radicalised her? Sir Stephen reckons it was 'Terfs' (i.e., trans-exclusionary radical feminists). But I wonder if she was brainwashed at an early age – by, say, an O-level biology teacher. Or perhaps some appallingly irresponsible school librarian gave her access to a dictionary. Whatever the source of her indoctrination, I dread to think what crazed ideological nonsense this dangerous woman will pollute our children's minds with next. The Earth is round? Water is wet? Members of the family Ursidae typically defecate in arboreal environs? Then again, I suppose there is an alternative way to look at this story. Which is that the beliefs Ms Rowling espouses have been completely mainstream since the dawn of humanity – and that it is, in fact, her opponents who have been 'radicalised'. Just a thought. Lost in translation A 29-year-old Afghan asylum seeker, we learnt this week, attempted to defend his rape of a 15-year-old Scottish girl by claiming that he had not been 'educated' about the 'significant cultural differences' between Afghanistan and Britain. As it turned out, the court didn't buy this excuse. Which is a relief. After all, doesn't his argument imply that Britain was somehow at fault, for failing to 'educate' him about these 'differences' when he arrived? God only knows what he thinks the authorities should have said, the day his dinghy washed up here in 2023. 'Good afternoon, sir, and welcome to our country! Please do make yourself at home. But, if you don't mind, we'd just like to help you fit in by giving you a quick introduction to a few traditional British customs. 'Number one: we're completely obsessed with talking about the weather! Number two: we drink endless cups of tea! Number three: we all absolutely love the adorable adventures of Paddington bear! 'Oh, and number four: we generally tend to frown on grown men who rape children in the street. 'We appreciate, sir, that as a newcomer you may find this a touch puzzling. But then, all cultures have their distinctive little quirks and foibles, don't they? And 'not sexually assaulting terrified pubescent girls' just happens to be one of ours. So we thought we'd better give you a little heads-up, to save you from making a rather embarrassing faux pas! 'Of course, there are some people in our country who have been known to disregard the above convention. Late BBC disc jockeys, for example, and Pakistani grooming gangs. The feeling among the wider British public, though, is that it's still something of a no-no, and best avoided. After all, you can't be certain that our police, social workers and politicians will cover it up for you! I mean, they might, but it's not guaranteed. 'Anyway, thanks for listening, sir, and have a lovely new life! The hotel's this way, we'll just come and check you in.' A question of Pride LGBT Pride is about to enter its fourth week. Best wishes to all who are still celebrating. I hope no one will be offended, however, if I respectfully ask why this event now has to last for an entire month. It does feel like quite a long time. Especially when you compare the lengths of certain other annual events. For example, we have Pride month – but Remembrance fortnight. So we now spend twice as long waving rainbow flags as we do honouring those who died defending us. There's nothing hateful about suggesting that Pride has started to drag on a bit. When people complain about shops putting their festive decorations up in September, it doesn't mean they hate Christmas. It just means they think Christmas should last 12 days, not four months. Mind you, there are now so many different groups under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, I suppose it takes about a month just to list them all.
