Omitting "blanket" does not change the meaning. "A blanket presumption of innocence" means everybody has that right. "A presumption of innocence" also means everybody has that right, the right to be assumed innocent until proven guilty IS a "blanket" (universal) human right!
Try as they might, Rowling's tiresome flying monkeys are unable to show how the right to be presumed innocent, until proven guilty could be anything other than "a blanket." If some people, people they dislike, are to be excluded from that right, then nobody has that right.
A "presumption of innocence" that is not "a blanket" provision, covering everyone, is no longer a right, but a privilege accorded to some & withheld from others. Presumption of innocence is for everybody or does not exist.
Rowling's acolytes then move on to say that, despite using a common legal phrase, "presumption of innocence," Rowling is not talking about the criminal law, but about safeguarding - often they say something like this...
"Safeguarding" means measures to protect children & vulnerable adults from abuse. Minimally, it involves a background check for criminal records for staff & volunteers of services for children & adults. Needless to say, trans people are subject to the same checks as anyone else.
As it happens, I work in an area where safeguarding measures apply. Safeguarding checks are done on women & men. Women are not assumed to be safe & exempted from any check, so how can a GRC give "a category of people" an undeserved "blanket presumption of innocence?" It can't.
"Social workers, teachers, priests & doctors" are all subject to background checks, women just as stringently as men. Is this barm brack seriously suggesting that the GRA somehow would make trans women as "a category of people" exempt from normal safeguarding checks?
Trans people applying for jobs where safeguarding applies are subject to all the same checks as cis people - plus whatever random dollop of prejudice the individual interviewer happens to have. Trans people are NOT given a pass on safeguarding & the GRA could not change this.
A 👏GRC👏 cannot👏 exempt👏 anybody👏 from👏 vetting👏 precautions👏 because👏 women & men are subject👏 to👏 the👏 same👏 measures.👏 #safeguarding
Scowling Growling Rowling moves on almost seamlessly ("Incidentally...) to prisoners. Prisoners, as a "category of people" can hardly be said to enjoy "a blanket presumption of innocence." Hard to see how she could believe trans women prisoners would under GRA reforms.
INCIDENTALLY, prison sometimes is a "space to discover your innate sense of self." Not a perfect space, of course, but in the lives of people who are wretchedly poor, often unwell & often homeless, as most prisoners are, prison is predictable & safer than outside...
Prisoners do "find themselves" sometimes in prison. People detox in prison, get treatment for health problems, throw themselves into an Open University course in philosophy or find religion. People have time to think about their lives. All of this is well known.
I'm a social care worker, worked with homeless men the last 22 years, a v similar demographic to prisoners. If I had a penny for every time somebody said "I'm going to ask the judge to lock me up so I can sort my head out in prison," I could buy one of JK Rowling's spare castles.
If your life on the outside is one where you're not even guaranteed food or shelter, prison life can be an oasis of comparative calm that gives time for reflection. It's bizarre that this even needs to be said. It's why prisons have schools & detox programmes & chaplains & books.
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The Irish media has been disgracefully negligent, so far, in their coverage of local far right shenanigans. Now, unexpectedly, they have a major international story on their hands. What are they going to do? #KerryLibrary
Accounts with millions of followers are sharing images of the tiny rural lgbt+ community of County Kerry. Millions of people worldwide are threatening them, calling them "paedophiles corrupting children," calling Ross Lahive a "hero Dad..."
EVERYONE in the Irish media knows this story is a crock of shit. Will they be setting the record straight? Interviewing the parents, the performers, the library staff? I have my doubts, based on how they've been so far, but I live in hope!
A trans woman & a Tory Councillor meet in a pub toilet. The hand drier is broken. The Tory says she'll shake her hands dry. The trans woman says "I'm just going to wipe my hands on my jeans." A NATIONAL PAPER CARRIES THE TORY'S CLAIM THAT SHE SAID "PENIS" INSTEAD OF "JEANS." 👀
Has anybody in the history of forever dried their hands on their genitals? Is that even a thing??? A normal conversation presented as something sinister -The British Press is prepared to carry any lie, exaggeration or misunderstanding, so long as it makes a trans woman look bad.
"I'm going to wipe my hands on my jeans," something we have all said when there is no towel or hand dryer, gets turned into something "threatening" & "intimidating." It's even presented as a possible precursor to violence, no less...
This is it, folks. Compulsory gender conformity for all teenagers in Britain! 40 years ago, as a teenager, I changed my name & got my first butch haircut. I started wearing "boy's clothes" a lot earlier than that. The anti-trans bigots have pushed LGBT rights back to the 1950s.
This is absolutely evil & should be protested, but the same evil bastards that did this have made protest virtually illegal as well. Britain is a rogue state now, an international human rights pariah.
Ireland was a backwater 40 years ago. Homosexuality was illegal FFS, but at least you didn't need to have a medical diagnosis to get a haircut or wear "forbidden" clothing or change your name. Picture shows me in 1983 - I had already done all 3.
This is important. Conversion therapy advocate, Stella O'Malley, offers "training" to psychotherapists, teachers & others. The professional organisations & unions need to get the hell off the fence & start protecting young LGBT people from these abhorrent practices! @IACP_ie
It is abhorrent for this event to go ahead in a week when 2 trans people & 3 others have been killed in an #LGBT bar, along with 3 others, & a trans woman was one of those who risked her own life to save others! Please let the organisers know how you feel!
We need to STOP THIS NOW! Stella O'Malley's allegedly "up-to-date thinking" has helped fuel a climate where trans rights are being rolled back in Florida, in Texas & in Britain. Her activities expose LGBT people, especially young LGBT people to grave danger. #EndConversionTherapy