Forum Topic

Mr Hawkes. I wasn't trying to equate computer misuse with the transgender debate, I was using the legal principles to look at different ways to deal with exceptions, such as those who are naturally occurring intersex individuals. I guess we'll just have to see how future cases pan out in the courts if they don't fall withing the constraints of the Supreme Court ruling. Actually, those of us who have worked in infosec/cyber security would consider use of computers has changed significantly since the 1960s. Social media and real time messaging wasn't available to the general public then, and the internet was just a twinkle in the eye of DARPA for military and academic use, not for every commercial organisation and consumer to have instant access to. The implications of computer misuse has far reaching effects now in certain instances since the CMA was introduced in 1990: breaching hospital IT systems has probably been responsible for deaths, and one German blast furnace was destroyed by unauthorised access shutting it down. I'm not sure M&S are too pleased about their current event, although probably not life threatening, apart from the stress on their IT team!https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/feature/Studies-show-ransomware-has-already-caused-patient-deathshttps://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30575104Your standard response to anything you don't want to argue about (or possibly can't!) is to say "gaslighting". Coming up with a rational argument as to why sex shouldn't be treated as binary isn't gaslighting; if I was trying to deny the ruling by the Supreme Court, which you've accepted I'm not, I would agree that would be gaslighting.A bit of light relief- a side panel from a New Scientist article about how the Y chromosome has a tendency to disappear in a significant fraction of aging men, which apparently has been shown to play a role in cancer. (Not necessarily relevant but I just found it interesting - NS 3 May '25.)Will the Y completely disappear? Since mammalian X and Y chromosomes first evolved around 200 million years ago, the X has remained more or less the same, whereas the Y has lost 97 per cent of its original genes. In fact, the Y chromosome is the most rapidly changing human chromosome This has led to concerns that it is irretrievably withering away and is set to be permanently lost. At first glance, this would seem to have dire implications for the very existence of males. But there are a few species of mammals for which this has already happened -and these creatures still come in male and female forms. For instance, the Amami spiny rat is Y-less, but a gene located elsewhere in its genome has evolved to be a brand new way of determining sex.The likelihood of humans undergoing similar changes seems low, according to Kenneth Walsh at the University of Virginia. He says that after some initially dramatic shrinkage, the Y chromosome in most species has stabilised in size over the past 25 million years. And with this chromosome potentially containing genes that serve important functions in immune cells and possibly elsewhere (see main story), its future in those species - including humans - looks assured.

Michael Ixer ● 58d

This individual has put themselves into the public domain so questions regarding their self-declared gender and motives are inevitable.  You previously stated that McCloud has female anatomy so does that mean breast and buttock implants and a constructed vulva and vagina, or what exactly because I cannot find any references to surgery?  To be honest I really don't care that much but it is important to know if they still have their male anatomy because if they do, they have no right to contest this issue as a trans-woman. Trans gender public toilets and changing rooms in shops, restaurants, swimming baths etc would seem to be the obvious solution but that will not work for all because I can foresee problems. Imagine this scenario if you can: I was previously a male called Sidney but I decided years ago that I should be a woman and believed that I was misgendered at birth, despite having all the physical characteristics of the male sex.  So as an adult I started to live as a woman, wearing female clothing, shaving off all my body hair, wearing feminine wigs and even wore polo neck garments to cover up my Adam's Apple and even had jaw reconstruction!  However I wasn't prepared to have full trans surgery to remove my male genitalia because I was afraid of having such drastic surgery, (or any other reason).  Finally I changed my name to Sue and happily used women's public spaces and conveniences, and was very happy.  Until the Supreme Court poked their nose in and 5 foreign judges ruled that I should not have that option, and now I am bloody livid and will go on marches to shout and scream about discrimination! I fully support McCloud to fight this on behalf of me and all other trans pseudo-women. On the other hand I am the other Sue after having full trans surgery and no longer have my male bits and if you think I am going to use a transgender toilet with pseudo-women who still have their penis, think again.  Because I will not! So the only way to get round this is to have 2 kinds of trans toilets, one for pseudo-women (with male genitalia) and one for real trans-women (without male genitalia). Hugely expensive for retail businesses and workplaces, local public amenities etc and how would it be 'policed'?

Sue Hammond ● 62d

The interesting question for me is why apparently sane and educated people make irrational statements on issues like race and gender.For example, the Cambridge University Polar Museum has described exploration of Antartica at the beginning of the twentieth century as ‘colonial’ exploitation. So presumably the lawyers acting for any penguins caught stealing fish at the London Zoo will able to ask for a pre-sentencing report which will highlight the post-colonial trauma which led to their crime.A statement of equal stupidity was made by David Lammy when he claimed that men can grow a cervix. He also described women’s rights campaigners as ‘dinosaurs’ hoarding their rights and compared sex segregated spaces to apartheid in South Africa.Recently Martina Navratilova has been called a ‘Nazi homophobe’ because of her stance against biological males competing in women’s tennis tournaments.What is the explanation for this woke madness? I think there are three reasons:1) Individual belonging to minorities which have suffered discrimination, whether trans or gay or black, lose all sense of proportion, making irrational claims and demanding rights that infringe on the rights of the majority.2) People on the left of the political divide, who like Harold Wilson think that left wing politics is ‘a moral crusade or it is nothing’ but who no longer believe in socialism, adopt displacement causes like anti-racism, trans rights, net zero etc with fanatical zeal in which faith has replaced reason.3) Politicians like Keir Starmer, whose party has been captured by ideological activists, become  afraid to say what they really believe and so engage in ‘performative lying’ where they repeat claims which they know to be absurd.

Steven Rose ● 62d