I cannot even enjoy time alone as I will probably fall asleep after typing this! On the bright side, the nausea I had yesterday has almost gone.
I do not consider TransWomen to be women. I do not consider TransMen to be men. Women are women, men are men, TransMen are TransMen and TransWomen are TransWomen.
The distinction has been made when it comes to many sports as TransWomen are seen by many to have an unfair advantage over women. Not everyone agrees with this but the provision of an open category which non-binary individuals can compete in is a step forwards and should be more available. Many consider there to be over 100 gender identities, again an issue which not all agree with, but taking this into account, it is only fair to include them in sport while protecting biological sex.
I know many hate pronouns, but it is polite to refer to someone by their preferred pronouns. I think it is wrong to ensure all make their preferred pronouns known, but I have no issue with someone letting us know how they would like to be referred to. If someone wants to be called Ms rather than Mrs or Miss, I respect that. I do not refer to Boris Johnson as Alexander (his given name) as he prefers Boris. There are many examples of other names. So when JK Rowling refers to a TransWoman as a man, that is rude and also inflammatory.
DNA has to be respected, but within limits, so should identity. Rachel Dolezal, identified as black despite not being so. I do not respect the way she identifies as such. Genetically, it can be argued that our King is not English due to his father being born in Greece and the large amount of German DNA from his mother, but he is British. Bukayo Saka is English and British by birth, but I doubt he forgets that he is also Nigerian.
Working to find the least unfair answer to the non-binary issues that gender identity brings up involves trying to be the better person and not giving into hate.
There is an argument that Islamophobia is a type of racism. There has been a rise in this before the October 7th attacks by Hamas, but this has increased much further since. In addition to this, there has also been a huge rise in antisemitic abuse in UK since that evil Hamas attack, probably because of the reaction by the current Israeli government and the civilians that they appear to be killing saying that they are terrorists.
While being Jewish is to belong to a race, Hitler and the Nazi's showed that, Islam takes in people of any creed. Due to this, being Islamophobic is not racism. There was an argument that it was with the comments of Lee Anderson about Sadiq Khan being under the control of Islamists, but he also said that Starmer was. In addition to this, a recent court case, while not based on Islamophobia, has shown that the Conservatives are more than willing to accuse anyone, white or not, of being led or in favour of extremists.
I do however think that there is a big overlap with racism and Islamophobia, but it should be mentioned that Islam faces unjust prejudice in the UK from various ethnic minorities.
We had a trip to London this weekend. My son got to spend time in Spitalfields Market shopping for things and got things for his birthday which he wanted. The dog was very tired by the end of it, though enjoyed spending time with us, though my daughter stayed in Colchester. We also went to Brick Lane.
While there, despite London being in the hands of Islamists, I ate pork and drank alcohol. I saw loads doing the same. Not sure how this was allowed considering the comments made by those on the right...
If the USA does elect Trump, there will then be a risk of Russia being able to liberate Russian people in the Baltic states in the same way that Russia has done in Crimea, Transnistria (also know as Pridnestrovie), Abkhazia and South Ossetia as well as what Russia is trying to with parts of Ukraine.
A European defence force without having to rely on Trump would be a great idea. Issues do arise about what to do with Hungary, the greatest ally of Russia within the block, and also, a replacement for a NATO where Trump cannot be trusted to help its members would probably exclude the UK.
These videos are great however. The second one was shown to me by my daughter and sums up the issues there quite well.
Yesterday, I did got for a dog walk with my son which I would say was the highlight of my day as it does not happen that often. We had the son of some friends round and took him to our local pub quiz. Our usual team, which won last week, was not intact as two were watching Jazz. Our main rivals sat on the table next to us and got thirty eight points out of sixty, but the wining table romped home with a points score of fifty.
We did have a good night though. Not sure if Ben will continue to join us, but he would be welcome if he chose to.
