A Tasmanian court has ruled that woman-only events are discriminatory towards men who claim that they are women, on the basis of their self-declared “gender identity.” The ruling was in response to an application filed by lesbian women seeking to hold women-only events at a venue in Launceston.

In May 2021, Jessica Hoyle, a representative for LGB Tasmania, contacted Equal Opportunity Tasmania (EOT) to apply for an exemption under the Anti-Discrimination Act 1998 (ADA), requesting the right to exclude males from lesbian-focused events on the basis of their biological sex. Hoyle explained she was affiliated with LGB Alliance Australia (LGBAA) at the time of the filing, and as a result, the Commissioner treated the appeal as an exemption sought on behalf of the LGBAA.

“We wish to hold an event primarily for Lesbians and women (those who are adult human females, or female-bodied humans),” Hoyle stated in her filing. “We do not want participants who are male-bodied humans attending regardless of how they identify. Lesbians are homosexuals, this is an event to celebrate lesbians and in particular, provide a safe venue without unwanted presence, attention or aggression of male-bodied people.”

In her filing, Hoyle also pointed to the loss of single-sex spaces as an infringement of lesbian rights.

“We have seen in recent times the rights of women and lesbians erased,” she said. “We have found in the LGBTQ community despite the mantra of ‘inclusion and diversity’ many female people are finding themselves excluded and feel invisible.”

As evidence of this phenomenon, Hoyle highlighted the disappearance of lesbian venues across Australia, saying, “Of the 102 spaces and events that used to exist, 99 no longer exist.”

Nevertheless, Anti‑Discrimination Commissioner Sarah Bolt refused Hoyle’s application in July. In her justification, Commissioner Bolt claimed “sex” was not a protected attribute, but gender identity was.

“As I understand it, the exemption is sought to permit discrimination on the basis of sex, specifically against ‘biological men’. Sex is not a protected attribute.”

The Anti-Discrimination Act, passed in 1998, was amended in 2019 to include the subjective category of gender identity, but does not provide legal protections on the basis of biological sex.

The Commissioner’s decision to refuse Hoyle’s request was justified on the grounds that granting the exemption would permit discrimination on the basis of gender identity – despite Hoyle having clarified that her intention was to only exclude “individuals who are male, regardless of their gender identity,” and asserting that “females are welcome no matter how they identify.”

Undeterred, Hoyle contacted the Anti‑Discrimination Tribunal (ADT) on July 16 of last year, requesting a review of the Commissioner’s rejection. After reviewing the case, the Tribunal sided with the Anti‑Discrimination Commissioner, and, on November 24, refused Hoyle’s request to permit women-only events.

In the ruling, Kate Cuthbertson of the ADT emphasized again that neither the terms “sex” nor “biological sex” are protected characteristics under the Anti-Discrimination Act.

“The Act does not expressly proscribe discrimination on the basis of such attributes in those terms. That has always been the case in Tasmania. The predecessor to the Act, the Sex Discrimination Act 1994, also proscribed discrimination on the basis of gender,” reads the ruling.

Cuthbertson took particular issue with an argument made in Hoyle’s request regarding “males who claim to ‘identify’ as lesbian.”

In defense of her application, Hoyle pointed to the academic literature which describes autogynephilia.

“Many of these men have a sexual fetish called autogynephilia. There are a myriad of academic articles written about this fetish,” Hoyle said. “Many autogynephilic males come into lesbian spaces in order to achieve sexual gratification for themselves, at the expense of lesbians. This is widely documented.”

Hoyle referred generally to instances of lesbians being harassed by men who identify as transgender, with same-sex attracted women being labelled as “transphobic” for refusing to date trans-identifying males. She further described the term “cotton ceiling,” a term coined by porn star and trans activist Drew DeVeaux in 2015.

“Cotton ceiling” is inspired by the concept of the “glass ceiling,” which is used to describe discrimination women face in the workplace that prevents them for reaching upper management levels. The “cotton” refers to the material of a women’s underwear, and frames a lesbian’s refusal to have sexual relations with males as a form of discrimination.

Yet Cuthbertson denied the existence of such harassment, and chided Hoyle for bringing up the issue, saying that such arguments “do a great disservice to transgender and transsexual” people.

“Many of the assertions, particularly those regarding paraphilias, patterns of criminality and nefarious motivations for attending female-only events were unsupported by empirical research or compelling evidence,” Cuthbertson stated in the ruling.

Speaking with Reduxx, Hoyle referred to a specific case in Tasmania involving a trans-identified male who was convicted of possessing child exploitation material last year.

Anna Koizumi Umpisa Simmons was found in possession of “anime and cartoon images of children in sexual poses,” but was not required to register as a sex offender. According to Hoyle, Simmons had also complained to staff at the Devonport swimming center after being refused entry to the women’s changing area.

Last October, The BBC reported on the testimonies of lesbians who had received violent threats, including of sexual assault, for refusing to accept the idea that “a penis can be a female sex organ“. Women were told they were bigoted and were called “genital fetishists” for being same-sex attracted. The BBC released a statement revealing that a flood of complaints had been received following the article’s publication.

Hoyle personally experienced similar abuse. Speaking with Sky News Australia, Hoyle told of how a man in a Facebook group for lesbians tried to “coerce” her into a sexual relationship. “He tried to coerce me and wanted to come spend a week with me… I said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m same-sex attracted. The next thing I know, I’m getting abused on Facebook messenger and being called a ‘genital fetishist’.”

“It is pretty clear by this ruling that lesbians and women have zero rights to freedom of association, nor are seen as belonging to a minority group. This ruling is misogynistic and lesbophobic in nature,” Hoyle told Reduxx.

A legal recognition of biological sex is necessary for the preservation of the rights of women and of the gay and lesbian community, Hoyle said. “If sex is not a protected attribute, women and same-sex attracted people are not protected. Men claim to be lesbians in order to harass same-sex attracted women.”

“Tasmanian men and women did not know this had happened,” she added, referring to the implementation of gender identity policies in law. “These laws where rushed through with no proper community consultation.”

In nations around the world – including England, Wales, Germany – lesbian women have reported being terrorized for asserting their same-sex attraction. In Norway, a woman is facing up to three years in prison for saying that men cannot be lesbians. In the United States, a prominent trans activist and trans-identifying male was recently convicted of the 2016 murders of a lesbian couple and their son.

Until 1997, Tasmanian law criminalized homosexuality, and allowed for a maximum prison sentence of 21 years, the harshest penalty in the Western world. The legislation repealing the law against homosexuality passed by just a single vote. 

Hoyle has confirmed that she intends to appeal the ruling barring her from hosting women-only events, provided she is able to raise the legal funds required to proceed.

Reduxx is a newly-launched independent source of pro-woman, pro-child safeguarding news and commentary. We’re 100% reader-funded! Support our mission by joining our Patreon, or consider making a one-time donation.

The Charity Commission for England and Wales has announced a formal inquiry into controversial trans activist organization Mermaids. The announcement comes just two months after complaints were filed after it was revealed that one of their trustees held views sympathetic to pedophiles, and that the organization had sent breast binders to female children without parental consent.

Mermaids is a well-known registered charity in the UK which purports to serve “transgender, nonbinary and gender-diverse children, young people, and their families.” Established in 1995, Mermaids advocates for an affirmation-only approach to gender dysphoria in young people, promoting the use of puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, and surgeries for minors who claim to be transgender.

The organization had recently come under additional public scrutiny after launching a legal campaign against another UK-based charity, LGB Alliance, which opposes its pro-transition approach for minors, citing concerns about the transitioning of gender non-conforming youth who may in fact be homosexual.

Mermaids argued that LGB Alliance’s mission was not a charitable one, claiming LGB Alliance’s real intention was “the denigration of trans people and the destruction of organizations that support them, in particular through political lobbying and campaigning for changes to the law. These are not charitable purposes for the public benefit; they are political objectives designed to roll back legal protections for trans people.”

But in September, the Charity Commission opened a regulatory compliance case into Mermaids after child safeguarding concerns were raised following the revelation that Mermaids had been sending girls as young as 13 breast binders without parental consent. The Telegraph reported that the organization had even been sending the binders to different addresses to avoid suspicion from parents.

But the Commission has now opened a full statutory inquiry into the organization, with the press release specifically noting particular concerns over its governance.

Of the three points of issue the Commission is seeking to examine, two in particular focus on the behavior of trustees.

The inquiry comes just weeks after it was learned that one of Mermaids’ trustees had expressed extensive views sympathetic to pedophiles, and had even given a lecture at a conference held by an organization founded by a convicted child rapist.

Dr. Jacob Breslow, an Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality at the London School of Economics, became a trustee for Mermaids in July of 2022.

In October, Reduxx reported that Breslow had spoken at a symposium held by B4U-Act — a charity founded in 2003 by convicted child rapist Michael Melsheimer to advance the rights of pedophiles.  

Breslow’s presentation was titled Sexual Alignment: Critiquing Sexual Orientation, The Pedophile, and the DSM V. During his presentation, Breslow read from a paper in which he rejected the understanding of pedophilic attraction to children as being inherently harmful, and supported the concept of pedophilia being classified as a sexual or political orientation.

Since giving the presentation at B4U-ACTs symposium, Breslow has published work such as  “Flirting with the Islamic State: Queer Childhood with a Touch of Contemporary Sexual Politics” and “Ambivalent Childhoods: Speculative Futures and the Psychic Life of the Child.”

It also came to light Breslow had run a WordPress blog from 2009 to 2017, with many of its entries advocating for reframing pedophilia as a sexual identity comparable to homosexuality. 

In several posts, Breslow describes his interest in pornographic magazines centered on the sexualization of teenage boys. In particular, Breslow praises Destroyer Magazine. Breslow describes Destroyer as “a magazine dedicated to the beauty of the boy” and praises Andersson’s “academic(ish) critique and aesthetic appreciation of boyhood, deviance, and the LGBT community.” Destroyer is a publication created by Karl Andersson which features sexualized photos of models that are advertised as being as young as 15 years old.

Following the revelation of Breslow’s history of pedophile apologism, he quickly resigned from Mermaids and the charity released a statement addressing the controversy.

“We have explained that it was only on the 3rd October that we became aware of his participation in a 2011 conference that would have disqualified him from becoming a trustee. Once notified, we immediately launched an investigation and Dr. Breslow tendered his notice that same day,” the Mermaids statement read.

They continued by stating they had informed the Charity Commission of the incident.

A formal inquiry was launched into Mermaids on 28th November 2022.

In a statement released on December 2, the Commission noted that it would be investigating “the regulatory issues to determine whether they indicate serious systemic failing in the charity’s governance and management.”

This announcement follows a sudden departure by Mermaids’ CEO, Susie Green, who abruptly resigned after 6 years with the charity.

Green had been the subject of ample criticism during her tenure, in particular due to the circumstances surrounding her own child’s transition.

During a TedTalk Green gave in 2018, she described how she speculated her son was gay at the age of two because he enjoyed playing with “girl’s” toys. Green noted that her ex-husband did not approve of the child’s behavior, so they penalized their son by removing his toys and condemning his effeminate behavior.

“And suddenly, a confident, happy little boy became quite quiet, withdrawn, very clingy, and tearful,” she explained. Green then asserted that it was shortly after this incident that her son began to say he wanted to be a girl.

Green reached out to Mermaids for support, and would become so active within the organization she would later become the CEO.

Green facilitated her son’s medical transitioning beginning at the age of 13. She took her child to America for “puberty blockers” and estrogen before such treatments were legal in the UK. When the child was was 16, Green took him to Thailand for a full vaginoplasty due to it having been illegal for minors in the United Kingdom to undergo such a serious procedure.

Green is now listed as a contributor to the development of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s Standards of Care guidelines on children despite having no clinical qualifications. WPATH’s latest guidelines removes age limit requirements for most transgender medicine interventions.

Mermaids have not stated why Green has left the charity but thanked her for “everything she has done over the last six years to support trans, non-binary and gender-diverse young people and their families.”

Following the Charity Commission’s announcement, a whistleblower anonymously spoke to the Telegraph and claimed that Green had been “forced out” of the organization due to her “incapable leadership.” In particular, the whistleblower noted the fallout from the October incident with Jacob Breslow, which was met with a lack of accountability or clear direction from Green.

Reduxx is a newly-launched independent source of pro-woman, pro-child safeguarding news and commentary. We’re 100% reader-funded! Support our mission by joining our Patreon, or consider making a one-time donation.

A self-proclaimed “sissy” has been caught in a predator sting after sending graphic sexual messages and pornography to a decoy social media account he believed to belong to a young girl.

Shaun Hawkes, 30, of Kent, England, was arrested at his mother’s home on November 27 following a sting conducted by the Justice for Innocence Project (JIP), an organization of volunteers formed in June 2021.

A JIP team member had set up a decoy social media profile intended to to represent a 13-year-old girl. Hawkes had initiated contact with the profile, and, over the course of two weeks, sent extremely graphic content and messages to the decoy.

Speaking with Reduxx, an anonymous representative from the JIP stated that the exchange took place over Facebook. The representative declined to share logs directly, stating that they were extremely explicit and amongst the worst the group had ever seen.

“[It] was a very sexual chat log, one of the worst we have dealt with,” the representative said, noting that it had included Hawkes “speaking of sexual acts on an animal.”

Hawkes encouraged the child decoy to masturbate and to watch pornographic material, even sending her images and videos of himself dressed in lingerie and performing sexual acts on other men.

He sent a pornographic image of a woman that he claimed was his mother and boasted of performing sexual acts with a horse. He also attempted to arrange a meeting with the child, stating that he would arrive “dressed as Gabby,” referring to his cross-dressing feminine persona.

When confronted and questioned about his behavior, Hawkes claimed to have known all along that he wasn’t speaking with a child, despite the age being made known to him from the first message.

In one message, Hawkes had referred to himself as a “pedo,” a comment that he dismissed during the sting as “banter.”

In a video of the sting live-streamed to the Justice for Innocence Facebook page, one of the team members read out a message sent from Hawkes to the girl in which Hawkes explicitly noted the child’s age, and stated his desire to be sexually submissive to her.

“I’m a submissive sissy, I’ll do as you say. I don’t care if you’re 13,” he told the child.

“Sissy” refers to men who participate in forms of “feminizing” humiliation or consume related pornography. Often, the genre includes males being “transformed” into women or young girls and forced to perform humiliating and degrading acts.

During the sting, one of the JIP members asked Hawkes whether he knew he had done something wrong.

“You knew she was 13, and you went along with it because of her age. And you know it’s wrong, don’t you?” The JIP member stated. Hawkes repeatedly refused to answer questions posed to him and denied his involvement.

Hawkes goes by the name Gabrielle Gabby on social media, where he posts photos of himself dressed in high heels and makeup. Facebook pages that Hawkes followed were related to highly sexual content, including a sissy dating group, a sex toy shop, and a “cuckold convention” page posting suggestive captioned images.

Another page linked to through Hawkes’ profile, “Trans Queen,” is dedicated to “trans and trans lovers,” and posts photos of men who identify as transgender.

Two of the pages followed by Hawkes feature photos and videos of school-aged children in Thailand. One page description states that the page is a “social media gathering place for modern teenagers,” while the other solely shares photos of very young Thai women, some of them teenagers in braces.

JIP advised Reduxx that Hawkes was detained by police, but declined to provide identifying information with regards to where the sting had been conducted.

In response to an email inquiry from Reduxx, Kent Police stated that due to privacy law, until formal charges were brought they could not confirm or deny whether Hawkes’ had been arrested or was presently being investigated.

Reduxx is a newly-launched independent source of pro-woman, pro-child safeguarding news and commentary. We’re 100% reader-funded! Support our mission by joining our Patreon, or consider making a one-time donation.