• The current murder rate in the United States is five murders per 100,000, which is about 0.005%. The Williams Institute’s 2016 study, “How Many Adults Identify as Transgender in the United States?,” reports that 1.4 million US Americans identify as transgender. In 2019, the United States reported the murders of 30 trans people. With 1.4 million trans people, that’s a murder rate of 0.002% — less than half of the murder rate for the general population. It’s possible that more trans people are dying than reported, but the number would have to be over 250% higher to be considered even marginally higher than the overall rate.
• Very few of the reports on their deaths mentioned transphobic motivations — or any motivation at all. Some cases were vague, with transphobia as a plausible motive, while others seemed to have nothing to do with it whatsoever — yet they are counted by TDOR as victims of anti-trans violence.
• The victims whose occupations are known are mostly sex workers (61%). In the United States, the majority of the trans people reported murdered are trans women of colour and/or Native American trans women (90%).”
• This backed up what I saw as I looked through the lists of victims. The homicide rate for black women in the US is much higher than it is for white women, and the poverty rate is twice as high. Sex workers are 60 to 100 times more likely to be murdered than other women.

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• In 2017, during the first Trump administration, the attempt to bar transgender people
• In 2025
• “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness”
• Implementation timelines were spelled out in weeks and service members were given a choice of taking the carrot of a “voluntary” separation or the stick of an “involuntary” one with unknown consequences
• In May, the Supreme Court, seemingly ignorant of the real harms being done by the purge, answered the government’s emergency appeal and the injunctions were lifted, allowing enforcement

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• Last week, the Federal Court found a transgender woman, Roxanne Tickle, had been directly discriminated against when she was removed from a women-only social media app, Giggle for Girls.

• Yesterday as reportedly hundreds of thousands of people marched against “the far right” what became clear is that the umbrella term is vast but also demonises great swathes of people including oppressed women, Jews and sexual trauma victims.

• it is undeniable that something has gone wrong at FiLiA, for all that.

  This is my 4^th FiLiA and I’ve never before seen anything like the outrage sparked by that chant of “free free Palestine” in the opening plenary. There is no world in which it would have done anything other than split the room. And split the room it did with 50 – maybe 100 – women walking out. Looking round, the majority of the women were, like me, stoney faced, arms crossed. Angry.

  The chant on its own would have been bad enough. Coupled with calling the Israeli government “fascist”, an accusation of “genocide” and refusing to take any “lectures about the evil of Hamas”, Rahila Gupta made her point loud and clear. She spoke on behalf of Palestinian women, but not the Israeli women who were systematically raped as a weapon of war on October 7th.
• What hid behind these wafer thin, messages without meaning, was anti-Semitism, misogyny, the dismissal of the suffering of Iranian women and the denial of the suffering of rape gang victims.

• Marching with those demonising all of these groups was the feminist charity “FiLiA”. They joined the ‘Red Bloc’ of ‘Anti-Fascists’. Filia representatives held a banner which said,

  “Building sisterhood and solidarity. Amplifying women’s voices. Defending women’s human rights.”

  They posted proudly about their participation afterwards saying,

  “We are at the HUGE @UKTogetherAll march with our gorgeous banner. We are proud to be anti-racist & anti-fascist #feminists; we are not free until ALL our Sisters are free! No to racism. No to the far right. Yes to #sisterhood & #solidarity #Together #FeministsAgainstRacism”
• I was at Brighton for the 10-year anniversary conference organised by FiLiA last weekend.
• building defaced with spray paint and windows broken.
• Listed for approval at some Filia board meeting must have been “Shall we march with trans activists who in the past have attacked our buildings” and the vote was “ah go on then why not!” because that is indeed what they did yesterday.
• I’ve seen these antics at every feminist event I’ve attended over the past 5 years or so, from Let Women Speak, to Women’s Place UK, to FiLiA. But the number of protestors is dwindling, and they look increasingly out of touch.

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• pper middle-class white saviour complex, masquerading as class-conscious, anti-racist feminism, dominates the feminist discourse in this country
• . There’s a big difference between supporting women’s sex-based rights and transphobia!
• when trans activists protested their conference, because of FiLiA’s support for women’s sex-based rights, the number of women wanting to attend the conference increased dramatically. Perhaps because middle-class white women really do live in ivory towers, FiLiA, like many others, actually believed this was the beginning of a new vibrant feminist movement for the 21^st centur

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• 'decapitate terfs' sign at pro-trans rally in Glasgow
• SNP MP Kirsten Oswald, left, and SNP MSP Kaukab Stewart during the rally in Glasgow on Saturday

• An SNP politician has hit out at a 'decapitate terfs' sign at a pro-trans rally, stating "violent misogyny is hiding in plain sight".

  The placard, which also featured an illustration of a guillotine,
• The rally was held in protest of the UK government's decision to block Holyrood's Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Bill from being officially signed into law.
• A party spokesperson said the politicians were unaware of the placard at the time.

• Harry Potter author JK Rowling took a swipe at the politicians, posting on Twitter: "A strange new form of temporary blindness has broken out among Scottish politicians.

  "None of them could read placards calling for violence against women while standing inches away from them, yet they were instantly cured when photos of them posing with the signs hit the press."
• Joanna Cherry, SNP MP for Edinburgh South West, welcomed the police investigation as she defended her colleagues most likely being unaware of the sign behind them.

• Speaking to Sky News, Ms Cherry said: "Anyone who hasn't noticed the violent misogyny of many so-called trans rights activists hasn't been paying attention.

  "Women like me, JK Rowling, Rosie Duffield and others who have been on the receiving end of rape and death threats know this all too well.

  "Signs such as those we saw on Saturday threatening murderous violence against any other group would cause outrage, but they are commonplace at such demonstrations.
• Murdo Fraser, Conservative MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife, reported the sign to Police Scotland and has since given a statement to officers.
• He also confirmed that police are currently investigating an online threat of violence against JK Rowling "for her gender critical views", which the force confirmed.

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