Latest news with #genderIdentity
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Health
- Telegraph
Medical report leaked that ‘proves Imane Khelif is biological male'
Imane Khelif's sex-test results from the 2023 World Championships have been published for the first time, with the medical report appearing to indicate that the boxer is biologically male. Just 36 hours after World Boxing ruled that Khelif, a hugely controversial Olympic champion in women's boxing at last summer's Paris Games, would need to undergo sex screening to be eligible for any future appearances in the female category, the document at the heart of this extraordinary saga was released into the public domain. Alan Abrahamson, the American journalist who disclosed in Paris how the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had been warned more than a year earlier that Khelif had the DNA of a 'male', produced the result of a test carried out on the boxer in New Delhi in March 2023, triggering the boxer's disqualification from the championships that year. The document published on the 3 Wire Sports website summarises the findings on Khelif as 'abnormal', stating: 'Chromosome analysis reveals male karyotype'. A karyotype refers to an individual's complete set of chromosomes, which in Khelif's case has been reported by the International Boxing Association (IBA) as being XY, the male pattern. The test results carry the letterhead of Dr Lal PathLabs in New Delhi, accredited by the American College of Pathologists and certified by the Swiss-based International Organisation for Standardisation. This directly challenges the account of IOC spokesman Mark Adams, who in a tense news conference at the Paris Olympics described the results as 'ad hoc' and 'not legitimate'. Thomas Bach, the IOC president, has gone even further, claiming that the results are the product of a Russian-led misinformation campaign. He pointed out in an interview earlier this year that the IBA, headed by Russia's Umar Kremlev, had been stripped of IOC recognition in a row over ethics and financial management. The official authentication of the Indian laboratory that conducted the tests on Khelif increases the pressure on the IOC to explain why it believes the results are illegitimate. It also makes any potential comeback by Khelif far more complicated. Outwardly the 26-year-old has been defiant, even vowing to win a second successive Olympic gold medal in Los Angeles in 2028. But World Boxing has ruled that Khelif is ineligible to enter future events as a woman without first submitting to the same chromosome testing that has already triggered the boxer's disqualification at global level. The governing body, provisionally approved to run Olympic boxing in LA, has announced that all athletes in its competitions over 18 years old must undergo a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) genetic test to determine their sex. The test detects chromosomal material through a mouth swab, saliva or blood. Khelif, who was allowed to box in Paris because of female passport status, has failed to provide any evidence of having female chromosomes in the nine months since the scandal erupted. World Boxing's tougher stance on the issue comes in response to widespread outrage at the scenes in Paris, where both Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting swept to Olympic titles, despite having been banned by the IBA the previous year on the grounds that they did not have XX chromosomes. Italy's Angela Carini, the first opponent beaten by Khelif, described how she had been punched so hard that she feared for her life. Mexico's Brianda Tamara, who fought Khelif in 2022, said: 'I don't think I had ever felt like that in my 13 years as a boxer, nor in my sparring with men.' Latin American federations ultimately proved highly influential in persuading World Boxing to prioritise the reality of sex, in order to uphold fairness and safety for women. In correspondence seen by Telegraph Sport, the Honduran federation told the Women's Rights Network that 'necessary measures should be taken so that only women by birth can compete in women's competitions'. Their Peruvian counterparts also strongly urged the 'protection of women'.
Telegraph
4 days ago
- General
- Telegraph
Don't let trans rapists choose gender, UN warns police
Police forces that allow criminals to pick their own gender are the 'biggest barrier to ending violence against women and girls ', a United Nations report has found. Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur for violence against women and girls, said at least a third of British forces were still collecting data on criminals and victims' self-identified gender rather than their sex. It has led to a situation in which 49 convictions for rape had been officially listed as female in the decade to 2023, despite the fact they were biological men and the legal definition of rape as only being able to be carried out by men. She said such an approach 'neglects women's and girls' specific needs' and increases risks to their safety. In the report, Ms Alsalem warned that feminist campaigners had been 'ostracised, attacked and punished' by British political parties, universities and the media for criticising gender ideology. She said the UK risked 'undoing decades of progress made on combating homophobia' by failing to stand up for lesbians who had been 'vilified' for demanding the right to same-sex spaces such as bars and dating apps. And she demanded that Labour ensured its conversion therapy ban did not criminalise doctors and parents who question whether a child needs to change gender. Ms Alsalem's comments, in a report on how the UK fares on the issue of violence against women and girls, come a month after the Supreme Court ruled that sex in the Equality Act means biological sex and not self-declared gender. In March, a review led by Prof Alice Sullivan, of University College, London, urged Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, to issue a mandatory order to all 43 English and Welsh police forces, and the British Transport Police, to collect data by sex, but she has not yet done so. In her interim report, published on Friday, Ms Alsalem backed that call for action, writing: 'The lack of legislative clarity on 'sex' hampers data collection on violence against women and girls. 'Police data, while disaggregated by crime and location, often conflates the sex with the gender, for data on victims and perpetrators. The special rapporteur identifies this gap as the biggest barrier to ending VAWG, obscuring trends and intersectional vulnerabilities.' Ms Alsalem said prioritising self-identified gender erased biological sex records, 'distorting the male-driven nature of violence against women and girls' and hindering analysis. She said allowing violent males to log as female offenders 'due to gender identity policies' had led to the situation where there were 49 'female' rape convictions over the decade to 2023 despite the legal definition of rape. 'At least 16 of 46 police forces follow guidance favouring self-identified gender, skewing the very low rate of sexual and gender-based violence crimes committed by females,' she said. 'The conflation of sex and gender related data and the recent elimination of single sex spaces for women undermines crime statistics and VAWG policy effectiveness. 'Sex/gender-blind policies, driven by poor data, neglect women's and girls' specific needs, increasing risks in safety and participation and leading to self-exclusion. This is evident in the erosion of single-sex spaces like prisons and shelters for survivors of violence.' Ms Alsalem called for greater protection for women and girls who do not subscribe to gender ideology. She said: 'Women and girls, as well as their male allies that have wished to reassert their needs and rights based on their sex and that have asserted the immutable nature of sex, have been ostracised, attacked, and punished by state and non-state actors for their beliefs and opinions, including political parties, universities, private employers, the media. 'Several women that lost their jobs because of their views however were vindicated as tribunals confirmed their unfair dismissal or discrimination against them.' She added that lesbians had 'suffered the brunt of this phenomenon' and were 'being vilified by some corners in society on account of their same-sex attraction, which risks undoing decades of progress made on combating homophobia'. She said this was because trans rights activists have said biological men who identify as female can call themselves lesbian, making it harder to ban them from lesbian spaces and dating apps. However, the Supreme Court ruling made it clear that the term 'lesbian' in law refers to a woman who is sexually attracted to other women, and supported their right to a female-only space.
Daily Mail
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Lorde goes topless for new video after stirring controversy over her gender
Lorde went topless this week as she teased the upcoming music video for her song Man of the Year. The 28-year-old music artist — who is Rolling Stone's June cover star — skipped a shirt while acting out a scene in which she looked down at her bare chest with a concerned expression. Another shot showed her spinning in a chair that was the sole piece of furniture in an empty room. Dressed in a pair of blue jeans, she was barefoot with her dark hair spilling around her. She wrote in a caption to her 11.2 million Instagram followers, 'M.O.T.Y. Tomorrow late New York time. Written in blood.' It comes after earlier this month the Royals hitmaker was accused of 'gender baiting' when she opened up about her 'expansive' identity in her Rolling Stone interview. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. She revealed in the profile, 'My gender got way more expansive when I gave my body more room.' The star shared that a conversation with fellow musician Chappell Roan encouraged her to reevaluate her gender identity. When Roan asked Lorde if she was non-binary, she answered: 'I'm a woman except for the days when I'm a man.' Lorde explained to the outlet, 'I know that's not a very satisfying answer but there's a part of me that is really resistant to boxing it up.' Despite towing the line between masculinity and femininity, the singer-songwriter said she still calls herself a cisgender woman and her pronouns remain she/her. She noted that she doesn't think 'my identity is radical' as 'comparatively, I'm in a very safe place as a wealthy, cis, white woman.' 'Making the expression privately is one thing, but I want to make very clear that I'm not trying to take any space from anyone who has more on the line than me,' Lorde, born Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor, stated. Some readers took to social media to express their confusion over the seemingly contradictory remarks. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lorde (@lorde) Others accused her of 'gender baiting' to drum up publicity for her album, with one person writing on X: 'Gender baiting is a sure marketing winner.' Someone else said, 'Holy sh**t, can we please stop with this c**p? Pop artists are cringe. I don't care what you identify as or your sexual orientation, but using it to sell records is getting played out. You all spew the same s**t.' 'We don't want this wokeness,' someone else declared while another critic agreed, 'Oh my god shut up.' The harsh comments continued, 'this is f*****g absurd,' 'Cringey gimmick,' and, 'We're tired.' Lorde's music video for her latest single — off her upcoming album Virgin, out on June 27 — drops on May 29.
Daily Mail
27-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
EUAN McCOLM: In praise of JK Rowling - the one-woman crowdfunder backing women who told truth about sex and gender
For years, now, women have been losing jobs after daring to express the view that biology is real and important. Companies and public bodies, captured by the demands of extremist trans activists, have exacted cruel punishments on those expressing perfectly mainstream - and legal - views on sex and gender. Inevitably, tribunals have followed a number of these cases. During these, we've heard horrifying details of women treated abominably by employers in thrall to campaigners who urged and enforced the illegal adoption of self-ID policies when it came to single-sex spaces. We've heard of women bullied and shunned for questioning the right of those born male to self-identify into women's spaces, from changing rooms to domestic violence refuges. Equally inevitably, those women capable of fighting back have been winning legal actions. But even a rock solid case does not make it easy to retaliate. Good lawyers are expensive and the process is draining, both physically and emotionally. For every woman who has triumphed in court, there are many more for whom launching a legal case seemed impossible. The establishment by the novelist and philanthropist JK Rowling of a fund to support women's legal protection of their rights immediately removes any financial barriers to action for those with viable cases. The intervention of Ms Rowling should, right now, be concentrating minds in human resources departments across the country. Since the Supreme Court ruled, last month, that sex, in law, was a matter of biology rather than paperwork, a number of organisations - in both the public and private sectors - have issued statements announcing their decisions to 'consider' the implications for their policies. This widespread and reckless complacency stands to cost companies - and taxpayer-funded bodies - dear. The facts are simple. If a service is offered on a single sex basis that means biological sex, not personal identity. The law is the law and no further consideration is required in order for employers to meet their obligations under it. A number of past legal actions after women were unfairly dismissed or bullied out of jobs for refusing to agree with the mantra 'trans women are women' were possible thanks to the support of online crowd-funding campaigns. Ms Rowling frequently promoted - and donated to - such fundraisers. Now, she's a one-woman crowd-funder, ready to back the cases of every woman wronged at work for speaking the truth about sex. The JK Rowling Women's Fund will transform the battlefield when it comes to women discriminated against for their legitimate, reality-based views. At the heart of industrial tribunals there may be vulnerable people playing for high stakes but the human cost means nothing to the insurers underwriting employers' costs. For them, it's all about the bottom line and the prospect that every woman with a case now has access to the best lawyers in the business will, I suspect, encourage many to urge settlement rather than the humiliation, and inevitable cost, of more doomed defences. If one required proof that women's rights are in need of the fiercest protection, it came in the response to the launch of Ms Rowling's fund. With delicious pathos, one activist lawyer declared online that the Harry Potter creator had 'emerged from the shadows' as the funder of what he described as the 'anti feminist biology is destiny movement'. Ms Rowling has never been in the shadows when it comes to her views on women's rights, has she? Other responses were, predictably, more violent in tone. The ongoing tribunal involving nurse Sandie Peggie, claiming discrimination and harassment against NHS Fife and trans-identifying doctor Beth Upton, brought the issue of the way so called 'gender critical' women had been treated at work to wide attention. This is a case that 'cut through' with the public and forced some politicians to address an issue they preferred to avoid. Scottish Labour's leader Anas Sarwar and his deputy, Jackie Baillie, announced their support for Ms Peggie and declared their belief in the importance of biological sex. If they'd known what they know now, they added, they would not have voted in favour of the SNP's ultimately doomed plan to allow anyone to self-identify into the legally-recognised sex of their choosing. But while the Peggie case and the subsequent ruling on the legal meaning of sex by the Supreme Court may have forced a humiliating U-turn by the Labour leadership on the matter of biological reality, others remain stubbornly committed to defiance of the law. Naturally, the Scottish Greens - a great Wodehousian satire of a revolutionary cell - remain committed to the use of single-sex spaces by anyone who feels they belong to that sex. There have been recent statements of resistance from trade unions, too. Unison has permitted a trans woman to run for a women-only position on its national executive council. But every act of performative defiance by well-funded trade unions - or taxpayer-funded local authorities and health boards - is another costly legal action in the making. It should not have been necessary for JK Rowling to guarantee to underwrite the legal costs of women discriminated against for their views on sex and gender. Nobody should ever have lost a job, a promotion, or a contract on the basis of their view that sex is immutable and important. Nor should the novelist have felt it necessary to establish, in 2022, Beira's Place, a women-only support service for victims of sexual violence in the Lothian area. Ms Rowling's decisions to fund Beira's Place and to underwrite the legal costs of women discriminated against for believing in the reality of sex are acts of feminist philanthropy which, in a world not made batty by gender ideology, would have been hailed by our political leaders. I know that recognition is the last thing on the writer's mind but isn't it downright weird that, when he talks of the achievements of successful Scots, First Minister John Swinney never mentions the support Beira's Place has given to hundreds of women? Money is not the only thing women taking action to defend their rights need. Ask anyone who has been through the tribunal process and they'll tell you that the emotional support of friends and allies is essential. This comfort will not be in short supply for those women who receive backing for their cases from the JK Rowling Women's Fund. The writer is part of an international network of campaigners, fighting to protect women's rights against the demands of trans activists, and calls to action and support do not go unheeded. Let the nation's human resources departments brace themselves. A most remarkable plot twist has just been written.
New York Times
27-05-2025
- General
- New York Times
Justices Allow School to Bar Student From Wearing ‘Only Two Genders' Shirt
The Supreme Court on Tuesday let stand an appeals court decision that allowed a public school in Massachusetts to prohibit a seventh grader from wearing a T-shirt that said 'There Are Only Two Genders,' declining to hear the case over heated dissents from two conservative justices. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, said the court should have agreed to take the case and ruled for the student on free speech grounds. 'If a school sees fit to instruct students of a certain age on a social issue like L.G.B.T.Q.+ rights or gender identity,' Justice Alito wrote, 'then the school must tolerate dissenting student speech on those issues.' The opinion illustrated a split among the members of the court's six-member conservative supermajority, said Justin Driver, a law professor at Yale. 'The dissent both illuminates and underscores a significant divide among the six Republican-appointed justices,' he said, 'with Alito and Thomas comfortable voicing positions that the other four would prefer to avoid.' There was a similar split in a second case the justices declined to hear on Tuesday, as they let stand a ruling clearing the way for copper mining on sacred Indian land. Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, the court's most committed supporter of Native American rights, issued a dissent joined by Justice Thomas. Justice Alito recused himself but did not say why. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
