The GutterView Transcripts

22nd May 2021 Imagine (in my case the effort is minimal) you are a gay man, and open about it. Thirty years ago this would have brought huge difficulties, attracted hostility, excluded you from many careers, and made you feel almost an exile in your own country. Things have changed — and how! Broadly speaking life in Britain has been normalised for you. Yes, you may still face raised eyebrows and residual prejudice; there remain anomalies and you’re aware there’s further progress to be made in shifting attitudes in (for instance) schools, churches, ethnic minority communities and the world of sport. But frankly these are details. Today you can marry, be a tinker, tailor, soldier, spy. Or MP. There’s no crushing sense of victimisation. You do not feel society is against you. You hear talk of “identities” but your gay identity overlaps with so many others you feel that it needn’t define you. Nevertheless, as “a member of the gay community” (a fiction that can make you grind your teeth) y...

Groped student reprimanded for naming abuser  "A woman who named and shamed a fellow student after he allegedly sexually assaulted her has been punished by the University of Edinburgh. The first-year student, who has requested anonymity, posted a photograph and name of a man — alongside text messages he had sent to her — on social media, alleging that he groped her. She claimed that she had been left traumatised by the incident and insisted that other women deserved to be warned. The man at the centre of the allegations admitted that he had touched her inappropriately and claimed he had apologised for doing so. Despite this, the university launched an investigation which found the woman had harassed him. The female student has posted a copy of an email, which stated that she had been found guilty of misconduct. It stated: “The posting of a number of private messages between yourself and [the male student] on social media has had a significant impact on him and has resulted in him ...

 There is a culture of fear in universities, say ‘cancelled’ Jo Phoenix and Rosa Freedman Last week Jo Phoenix received a phone call from the vice chancellor at the University of Essex who wanted to personally apologise to her for an attack on her freedom of speech. Anthony Forster then picked up the phone to Rosa Freedman, one of the UK’s leading human rights lawyers, and said sorry all over again. Both Phoenix, professor of criminology at the Open University and Freedman, professor of law at the University of Reading, had been invited to give talks at Essex. But both had had their talks cancelled after they were accused of transphobia. Phoenix had also been the target of a flyer circulated by a student with an image of a gun and the words “Shut the F*** up”. “Anthony Forster said that he was very sorry both personally and on behalf of the university,” said Freedman. “But an apology is only the start. On its own an apology does not repair the reputational damage or distress caused...

  Coffee House Julie Bindel Stonewall and the silencing of feminist voices  at universities (the original article is here ) This week a game-changer of a report released by Essex university led to its Vice  Chancellor abjectly apologising for the university cancelling two feminist academics for their views on gender identity and sex. Both professors Jo Phoenix and Rosa Freedman have views which accord with our current laws on gender identity, and yet they had a number of talks cancelled by Essex university and Freedman was potentially rejected from a job after they were labelled ‘transphobes’ by a mob of intolerant academics and students. Now Essex has been forced into issuing a humiliating apology and admitted that its treatment of the professors infringed on their freedom of speech. 19 May 2021, 4:54pm Home Today Topics Writers Podcasts Magazine More Log in Commen This week a game-changer of a report released by Essex university led to its Vice Chancellor abject...

Stonewall has been accused of misrepresenting the law in its advice to Essex University, which failed to uphold free speech when it dropped speakers accused of transphobia. A barrister, Akua Reindorf, warned of “potential illegalities” and said the university should reconsider its ties to the campaigning group. Her report was commissioned by Essex after two professors were disinvited from events. Stonewall provides expert advice to hundreds of organisations, including employers, schools, universities and police forces, through its “diversity champions” programme. Jo Phoenix, a professor in criminology at the Open University, was due to speak at a Centre for Criminology seminar on trans rights, imprisonment and the criminal justice system in 2019. After protests about her inclusion, the event was cancelled. Rosa Freedman, a professor of law development and global conflict at Reading University, was told she would be invited to speak at an event on antisemitism. She was dropp...

  Protests over trans woman heading rape crisis centre Mridul Wadhwa promised the rape crisis centre would provide “inclusive and flexible support” Nick Harding Wednesday May 19 2021, 12.01am, The Times The original article is here   The appointment of a transgender woman to the female-only role as head of a rape crisis centre has prompted calls for an equalities investigation by activists who claim she has no legal right to the position. Mridul Wadhwa, a former Scottish parliamentary SNP candidate, was appointed chief executive of Edinburgh Rape Crisis, a job that was advertised as reserved for a woman. Feminist campaigners claim she has no gender recognition certificate and has not undergone gender reassignment surgery and so is not legally entitled to be considered a woman. Wadhwa caused controversy last October when she was  proposed as a candidate  on the SNP’s all-women shortlist to contest the Stirling seat at this year’s Holyrood election. She is reported to ...

Why was convicted paedophile allowed to move to a female jail? Andrew Gilligan Sunday September 09 2018, 12.01am, The Sunday Times - The original article is here https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/why-was-convicted-paedophile-allowed-to-move-to-a-female-jail-nmpbfm272 Like most other women’s jails, HMP New Hall, near Wakefield, reflects the fact that women behave better towards each other than men. There are no Victorian wings with rows of cells. Instead the prisoners, even the high-security ones, mix freely together in what inspectors called a “fundamentally safe and respectful” place, with “very few” locked up during the core prison day. Showers and some “rooms,” as New Hall calls cells, are also shared. There are even children: a mother-and-baby unit accommodates up to 10 infants aged under two. Into this safe and respectful environment was placed a convicted paedophile who was on remand for multiple rapes, with a long record of other sexual and violent offences committed, as a man,...