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Been near Port Townsend a few times when we pulled into Naval Magazine Indian Island a few times when I was stationed in Everett ('10-'12) - never made it into town though due to schedules.

One of the things they drill into us - esp as officers - is "Perception is reality". These situations are insanely stupid and eminently avoidable every time. I find it extremely difficult to believe that the only place the Y could "employ" a non-passing transwoman was in the locker room. Beggars belief.

Changing/locker rooms are one of those situations where a little common sense goes a long way in virtually every single case (and I'd like you folks not to equivocate so much on this). Every private (24 hr, etc) and public (on-base military, etc) gym I've gone to in the last 10+ yrs has single-occupancy changing/bathrooms (often but not always labeled "family" or something else - if it doesn't sound obvious) - in some cases, ALL the changing rooms are single occupancy. Situations like this are pure virtue-signaling, just asking for outcomes such as what occurred - and the resulting publicity and outcry makes things ridiculously more difficult for all the normal folks who just want to blend in and live normally.

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Shocked and dismayed that we have had not one, but two episodes involving opera drama, and yet you still haven't used the title "Tantrum of the Opera." Sad!

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I think it's odd no one has mentioned the feelings of the little girls and their parents in the Port Townsend case. My six year old would have been mortified if a dude in a position of authority was watching her take her swimsuit off, and I would have been LIVID. I am in fact not sympathetic to the 18-year-old kid who didn't recognize that is inappropriate. I honestly think that is very close to the bar for a sex offense — Katie said 'it sounds creepy,' but that's because it is creepy. If that had been my daughter, I would have talked to police about it.

One more question I have about that incident: I've heard it described as a male body wearing a woman's swimsuit. To be super crass: due to biological differences, male and female swimsuits have different amounts of fabric. How were this dude's balls not hanging out? I can't imagine a normal woman's swimsuit being able to provide appropriate coverage for male privates.

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Aug 20, 2022·edited Aug 20, 2022

After years of resistance, Katie finally self identifies as TERF.

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Salman Rushdie spent about 9-10 years in hiding, not “decades.” He has not been hiding for about 20 odd years and makes regular public appearances, often to extol the importance of free expression like he was going to do in Chautauqua. He refused to allow Islamist extremists and Iran make him live in fear and tried to live a full life as best he could. He even managed to get married and divorced to a couple of different women - both of them glamorous, successful, and beautiful - have another child, and get a knighthood since Satanic Verses came out. Rushdie is an incredibly brave and principled individual, a genuine icon of free expression and liberal values.

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Aug 21, 2022·edited Aug 21, 2022

Wait, I was born and raised in Olympia. Katie are you telling me that the governors house in Olympia is a lie?

Edit: I'm also on the 80 year old woman's side. It's insane to me that we allow people's psychological disorders to grant them access to places they shouldn't be.

Edit edit: I laugh my ass off every time Katie says "what she perceives as a man". I think it's wild that women allow their gender to be reduced to a bunch of, frankly, sexist stereotypes. Like how so often women who "transition" to men just think that means being hairy, fat, and dressing like a skater in 1998. Trans people have the same problem as authors writing the opposite gender. They can, but sometimes the results are wildly off of reality, like in 13 Reasons Why or Harry Potter (no male author would have Harry discard the elder wand, come the fuck on)

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Aug 20, 2022·edited Aug 20, 2022

JK 👏 ROWLING 👏 LIKES 👏TO GO 👏BOWLING.

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I have some thoughts re: the Port Townsend section of the episode.

From Katie’s intro: “An 80-yr-old women was banned from a YMCA bc she saw a TW, she didn’t realize that this person was a TW, she thought it was a guy, in a locker room, it was an employee of the Y, & this person was watching little girls change."

And a little later describing what Julie Jaman heard while she was in the shower at the YMCA: She heard what she perceived as a male voice, & saw these little girls in the changing room.”

It's kind of frustrating to hear someone who sees this issue w/far more nuance than most—describe an incident involving an older woman w/language that almost questions the woman's perception of reality (that we all shared before 5 min ago).

At one point Katie questions whether anyone was assaulted. In the first video on this Substack, at 22:02 you can see women being pushed on the ground (the longer video is frustrating to watch). https://thedistance.substack.com/p/mayor-police-bear-responsibility?utm_source=%2Finbox&utm_medium=reader2

The tactics of the trans rights activists in Port Townsend last week are remarkably similar to the ones Jesse mentioned the activists took in the UK when feminists were trying to host discussions on how self-ID affects women. Make loud noises to distract the women & make it hard to hear anyone, physically swarming the area and pressing in (I saw a video from a UK event where a woman, Julie Bindel? -- not sure -- was stuck in a stairwell trying to get into an event and a bunch of obnoxious little shitheads were intimidating her and preventing her from getting up the stairs to her event).

If there's no conflict between women's and trans rights, as the trans activists say, then why are they preventing women from assembling to speak?

Port Townsend police chief Tom Olson really dropped the fucking ball, he made the Uvalde police look brave by comparison - his six officers at the rally last week were across the street, not helping women at the rally until several 911 calls were made, even when people were going across the street to ask for help. He can be heard in the 2nd video recommending that if the women speaking don't feel safe, then they should go home. What the actual fuck. They're exercising their right to free speech & the right to assemble. It's his damned job to make it safe for them to do so. Does he think the Antifa bros are paying taxes? It's the older people (they're also the ones that vote most consistently).

Jesse: “I did not want to read more about this story.” He hosts a podcast about what ppl talk about on Twitter. Men get the freedom to ignore stories like this bc it doesn't affect them.

This is far from the end of issues involving the need to respect the privacy/dignity of older women, & safeguarding concerns re: males interacting w/children, least of all LITTLE GIRLS UNDRESSING TO USE THE BATHROOM.

Women have come to expect that we will have a female attendant in a room if a male doctor needs to exam us, that a female will be doing our mammogram (boobs out in a small room w/one other person & an X-ray machine). It’s going to be next to impossible to keep males from doing those jobs w/little girls, in medicine or personal care if the Democrats ever pass the Equality Act bc the purpose of it is to let gender be on level with sex, which means no distinction can be made for making anything

Older women, & non-verbal younger women in facilities requiring assistance w/ intimate personal care deserve to have that care provided in a way that best serves their safety & dignity. Sex denialism makes it impossible for women & girls to advocate for ourselves.

Going back to Julie Jaman’s more urgent concerns re: a male supervising little girls getting undressed... this matters to me as a parent of two elementary age girls. I live in a blue state, and I honestly don't think I can count on any organization that offers programs for children to take this shit seriously, and I can't entrust my children to them, or give them my $. They can virtue signal their hearts out--but I'm not putting my kids at risk.

I recommend listening to Julie's interview on the Quillette podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/quillette-podcast/id1441708286?i=1000575842845

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From the weeseeyouwat page and the phrase "[...] we as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color theatre workers [...]", does anyone else feel a grammar pet peeve at the way "people of color" is used as an adjective despite being a noun?

Like I know they're trying not to split up BIPOC as the full acronym, but grammarly speaking, it feels like it should be "theatre workers of color." And they're not the only ones who've done the noun-as-adjective thing; it's a growing, grammatically wonky trend.

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Aug 21, 2022·edited Aug 21, 2022

Interestingly, the judge who ruled on Michelle Carter’s verdict (it wasn’t a jury trial), specifically argued that Michelle regular suggesting, supporting or urging Conrad Roy to kill himself did not amount to manslaughter. There was only one message in question, that had she not sent it he would have allowed her to walk free. Conrad got out of his car while attempting to kill himself with exhaust fumes and when he told her he got out, she told him to get back in.

Conrad Roy had had suicide attempts prior to meeting Michelle and Michelle had a history of rehab for eating disorders and self harm. A really unfortunate fate that two extremely unwell and codependent teenagers crossed paths in the first place. Reading the messages, its hard to for me to say if Michelle even thought she was doing the right thing my supporting his expressed will to die. The story is sick and horrifyingly tragic, but I think there was a lot more to it than she bullied him to death for the attention.

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6 minutes in and Katie incontrovertibly outs herself as a Terf. Love it.

I will contribute to a crowdfunder for Katie to move to Port Townsend, run for city council, and rename it Terfsville.

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For anyone who wants to dive into the appraisal lawsuit, the complaint filed by the plaintiffs is available for free here: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/64901934/connolly-v-lanham/ The initial appraisal was done in June 2021. The second appraisal was done in January 2022.

Below is a tangent not really related to the lawsuit or anything from the episode:

It drives me nuts that newspapers don't usually include court filings with the articles they run. They used a copy of it to write the story, why not share it? If this document wasn't on Courtlistener, someone wanting to read it would have had to spend $3 on PACER (the federal court website) for a copy. If you ever use PACER, please consider installing the RECAP browser extension available here: https://free.law/recap . It automatically adds documents you download from PACER to the Courtlistener website so others can access them for free.

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Aug 20, 2022·edited Aug 20, 2022

I used to be acquainted with Sam T. in person many years ago. He struck me as a really mild-mannered, nice guy. I believe our mutual acquaintances who've kept up with him still think of him that way. To me, his online persona looks like a sad case of Twitter Wars Brain taking over his IRL demeanor.

Kudos to Jesse for defending him, anyway.

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founding

Jesse pronounced Edinburgh as Edinberg. I laughed.

(Fun fact: the original planner of Pittsburgh wanted it pronounced "boro" like Edinburgh. Didn't stick. Though they kept the h!)

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Aug 20, 2022·edited Aug 20, 2022

The heart of TERF agenda is maintaining the freedom to have women only designated space, vote with your pocketbook

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I’m issuing a fatwa of my own: Jesse’s usual tagline of “it’s complicated” has now been replaced with “I’m tired, y’all.”

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