Transgender man wins women's 100 yd and 400 yd freestyle races.

The picture you posted is quite clearly chalk.

The specialist equipment needed is a shower of rain.

it was a case of deliberate destruction

Steady on.

It really is a dog’s dinner of a mess. How on earth did they get a handle on so much power over the last 10 years? I’ve been reading a fair bit from gays and lesbians for a while who feel dragged over hot coals by the Trans movement consistent which what you write here.

Sad then that any genuine well-intentioned trans might feel they have to stay hidden away from the madness. But however genuine and true they are, it is not the job of women to root out the truth or support the on-going difficulties. That’s why it was crucial we received clarification in the law for everyone to move forward.

This is a quote is from Bev Jackson, nailing it a million times over:

“Trans people have rights under the protected characteristic of gender reassignment.

Women have rights under the protected characteristic of sex.

Lesbians and gay men have rights under the protected characteristic of sexual orientation.

It was never the case that trans-identifying men have the rights accorded to women. Or those accorded to lesbians.

All the Supreme Court has done is to clarify the law.”

Amen to that!

It's not "quite clearly chalk" at all, it looks like it might have been done with one of those paint pens. In fact one of the articles about this states that

"Fag rights” and a heart were painted on the banner held by a statue of the suffragette Millicent Fawcett during the protests.

"Painted on", so not chalk then. Photos of some of the other statues show they also used spray paint.

The statue referenced is quite clearly chalk, you can see it in the texture and size.

The absolute bonkers over reaction is hilarious. You'd swear it was decapitated and kicked into the Thames.

😂

Actually, I agree with this, in that it's very noticeable that where the police are calling for any photos the public have to help them find the people who defaced the statues, there is no comparable appeal for help in finding the people who threatened women with violence or death. Very little talk of that at all.

As so often, preventing or punishing male violence against women doesn't interest the rest of society nearly as much as damaging property does.

Nothing real about that, it's purely your opinion based on a statistic that you made up

How man trans men and women do you know personally?

Well your point is equally an opinion you made up.

What part?

I don't have to know any personally

That would be common.

didn't look anything like a man, rather a lesbian.

Oh Dear.

As a gay man of course I would be aware. Malcolm Clark runs an excellent gender critical account on X, exposes all sorts. This recent one on trans homophobia says it all …

This is a fascinating article in the NY Times about the whole issue. It is primarily about Blaire Fleming a trans woman volleyball player, but it goes into significant detail into the wider topic, including the disagreements within the Biden administration in relation to Title IX

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/20/magazine/trans-athletes-women-college-sports.html?unlocked_article_code=1.BU8.C6tQ._WopFvA0cZSA&smid=url-share

Should be free to read.

There's a critique of the article on the X thread below. It questions some of the points about Fleming being a relatively ordinary volleyball player. She plays Division 1 at NCAA and is on a scholarship etc.

It’s so remarkable, by that I mean hugely remarkable, all this has happened without scrutiny, even-handedness, transparency and fairness.. where did all those educated objectives brains disappear to on college campuses across America?

But, the Title IX directive came down from on high. College administrators had to obey it (though doubtless many did so willingly). Who would have guessed that Joe Biden himself had misgivings about it, but never once uttered them in public?

I also never knew that the draft guidance they published was "allowed to wither on the vine" and was then quietly withdrawn before Trump took over. A nice political stroke that removed any cover for Trump to claim he was continuing what Biden had started. The Democrats have completely corrupted themselves over this issue.

Our system may be legislation heavy compared to that, but it's a bit more transparent. You can actually look up and read the Dail "debates" on the Gender Recognition Act, such as they were ….

Wow, thanks for that (didn’t read all, will do this evening) never realised how deeply embedded it was politically - guessed, but no way was I fully aware of the depths of it.

If Biden had misgivings but said nowt, here’s hoping politicians grapple this issue better from here on.. but the written-in-stone nonsense that if one side of house supports something the other side must oppose, has resulted in this gigantic mess. One that the democrats are still paying for.. Fools! While they spent years pussy footing about, the devil ran away with the prize.

I decided to wait a few days before commenting. Thanks to the other posters for their opinions in the meantime- especially @plodder for the NYT article and @Mr.Wemmick for the quote from Bev Jackson.

I had two reactions to the judgement - on the one hand I was relieved to see that common sense had prevailed, and that women can rely on the law to support them when they seek to exclude men from places that they have no right to be in. On the other hand I was thinking - what next, a Supreme Court ruling that water is wet? I look forward to a similar ruling in Ireland, but I won't be holding my breath. As Australia has a similar legal system to the UK, I'm wondering if the ruling is any help to Sal Grover.

I have also been interested in various reactions to the ruling. JK Rowling has been humorous as expected, groups like Sex Matters have been measured, and sadly the trans activist side and their allies seem to have lost their collective minds. Here's a quote from Brigerton actress Nicola Coughlan (she has raised £120,000 for trans charity Not a Phase):

“Like many people, I’m completely horrified by the Supreme Court’s ruling yesterday about trans people,” she said. “To see an already marginalized community being further attacked and attacked in law is really stomach-churning and disgusting, and to see people celebrate it is more stomach-churning and disgusting.”

I am appalled by the dishonesty presented as kindness in that remark. The trans community may be marginalised, but FWS and other groups who campaigned for and welcomed this ruling have never attacked them. Lord Hodge clearly stated that this ruling was not removing rights from anybody, merely clarifying the law as it stands, which is to everybody's benefit.

@volchitsa has contrasted the lack of effort to catch people who threatened violence against women (and in some cases committed acts of violence against them) with their statements regarding acts of vandalism. There is also the contrast between the behaviour of the TRA's and the so-called terfs. There is a litany of documented terrible behaviour from the former group, from doxxing, shouting down public speakers, online threats, hounding people out of jobs, etc. Despite looking for evidence of similar behaviour from the gender critical side, and asking for it on this thread, I have found none. This thread has been also shown contrasting behaviour between the two sides of the argument - people who believe in biological reality have presented their case with reasoned argument, others have responded with name calling and insults - JK Rowling, Jennifer Sey, Trina Budge have all been victims. What is it about intelligent, assertive, successful women that some people have a problem with?

Andrew Doyle has a very well written article which I won't link here but it's easy to find - it's called "Trans activism has jumped the shark" (I found it via Bev Jackson). He discusses the reactions to the judgement, the behaviour of TRA's, and how mainstream journalism having sidestepped other major developments now find themselves compelled to cover this judgement.

Meanwhile in America. A woman (Natalie Daniels) who complained about trans women in the women's category in the Boston Marathon has been kicked out of her club, after Nikki Hiltz made a video complaining about her. Hiltz has to be the only person in the world who competes as a woman (because they are female), while doing her best to destroy women's sport. Hiltz is trans and non-binary theirself.

Hiltz's point is that it makes little difference to competitors like Daniels, whether trans women are there or not, ie what difference does it make if you are placed 900 or 901? That misses the point because every place taken by a male athlete in the women's field, which has highly competitive qualification times, is one not available to women. And incidentally the race has a third (non binary category) whose qualification time is set at the women's level (so easier for men) but the category has always been won by men. Two out of the three categories were won by men this year. It's possible (likely even) that all three could be in future.

Does it only become serious if, for example, a male were to take an Olympic team slot that Nikki would otherwise have qualified for?

Of course, to answer my own question, Nikki is protected from that by the outstanding work being done by World Athletics under Seb Coe to ensure that only female sex athletes can compete in the female category. As a result Nikki does not have to worry about a male sex athlete taking what would otherwise be Nikki's slot for any competition run under world athletics rules, including the L.A. Olympics, and this year's world championships (where a simple swab test for eligibility to enter the female category is plan to be introduced). That's a nice luxury position to have when criticising other athletes who do not (yet) benefit from that level of protection.

Meanwhile in America. A woman (Natalie Daniels) who complained about trans women in the women's category in the Boston Marathon has been kicked out of her club

Where does it state she was kicked out of the club and what grounds would the club have to kick her out?

She finished 110th which is good going for a professional runner 6 months after giving birth.

The trans runner finished nearly 9000th almost 2 hours slower.

For clarity it was Daniels who unprovoked called out Hiltz in a Zoom interview with a self styled Christian Conservative podcaster.