I hate online pile-ons. I also hate to hear anyone say they’ve wondered if it’s worth going on, not least because I’ve wondered the same thing myself. I am sorry John Boyne has felt like that.

But this article in the Guardian is ridiculous - and typical of the double standard when it comes to trans issues.

When it reports trans people describing how devastating the EHRC ‘guidance’ is for trans lives the Guardian always makes sure to include - prominently - a gender-critical voice.

Not when it’s the other way round though.

Not one trans person. Not one trans ally. Not even one of the writers or judges who has pulled out of the Polari Prize.

Instead we get quotes from J K Rowling and Julie Bindel deploring the criticism (bullying) that Boyne is receiving.

Horrified by online bullying - truly, coming from either of them, that is an accusation beyond irony.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/14/john-boyne-says-lgbtq-polari-fiction-prize-backlash-brought-him-close-to-the-edge

#JohnBoyne #PolariPrize #TheGuardian #LGBTQ #JKRowling #JulieBindel

John Boyne says LGBTQ+ fiction prize backlash brought him ‘close to the edge’

Gender-critical novelist urges writers to re-enter prize they boycotted and may ask judges not to shortlist his novella

The Guardian

I'm absolutely *shocked* that these two are going out to bat for Elmo.

And who could have ever seen that what they chose for their 'activism' would lead them to this point?

#JulieBindel #JKRowling #ElonMusk #LGBTQ #trans

This is now a few days old, and a lot has happened since, but first they (here, Julie Bindel) complained about men 'not standing with and for women', now they're complaining about "thuggish men" coming out and saying they want to 'protect women'.

You gotta make up your mind at some point what you want.

Since this was posted, Bindel seemingly made up her mind and rage quit Twitter - deleting her account - after the tweet went down predictably badly in the GC sphere.

#JulieBindel #LGBTQ #trans

And there it is folks. One of the key members of the GC/anti-trans sphere in the UK, just drops the mask - Debbie Hayton was just "a useful idiot" to "put up with".

It's just what we've said all along.

It's not about just being a 'good one', going along with the rhetoric, and they will then save you from what they'll do to all the 'bad ones'.

#LGBTQ #trans #DebbieHayton #JulieBindel

I step offline for all of two seconds, and suddenly there is an all-out war going on in the GC 'feminist' community.

Who could have seen that 'activists' with the sole - life destroying - interest to oppress a minority group, would ever start eating each other alive?

I guess Hayton may now realise being the token 'good trans' is indeed not the gig it was being sold as?

#LGBTQ #trans #JKRowling #JulieBindel #DebbieHayton

'Enter the gender-critical movement. With the important exception of Julie Bindel, these are writers with relatively little training in feminist theory but whose thought has become perhaps the dominant trend in contemporary British philosophy.'

#GraceLavery reviews books by #HelenJoyce , #KathleenStock and #JulieBindel

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/gender-criticism-versus-gender-abolition-on-three-recent-books-about-gender/

Los Angeles Review of Books

Los Angeles Review of Books