To put the NSW/QLD fires into context: A hectare is 10,000 square metres. Nearly 3 million of those have been burned this fire season. 30 BILLION square metres. To bring that to a human scale, think of 30 million quarter acre blocks. #auspol Again - for context. Let's say you build a 600m2 home on each quarter acre block, with enough room to accommodate 4 people comfortably - that's 120 million people you could fit COMFORTABLY into the size of the fire grounds. Nearly 5 times Australia's current population.

Most professions have some kind of code of professional conduct. Most customer-facing professions require a degree of impartiality regarding to whom and how you deliver those services. If you can't deliver your ethical obligations due to your religious beliefs, you must choose. Do you suck it up and do your job? Or do you not practice the profession at all? Obviously, this thread is mainly about medical practitioners. But as to why they should make that choice, imagine a policeman facing the same dilemma. Or a fireman. Anyone in emergency services.

If "TERF" is a euphemism for anything, it's a polite way of saying "transphobic bigot who uses their (largely white) privilege to attack the rights of trans people." The term falls under the category of punching up, not down, so it can't be characterised as a slur or oppressive.

https://twitter.com/helenlewis/status/1123661637553143809

But more importantly... It was coined by a cis feminist as a means to distinguish TERF ideology from the broader feminist movement. And it's far less oppressive or insulting than terms like "trans identified male", or intentionally misgendering, doxing or deadnaming trans women.

#Auspol The original intent of negative gearing was to encourage landlords to upgrade and improve their rental properties to make them more liable. I've rented for the last 25 years. Hot tip... Landlords aren't interested in those things. Negative gearing had been a failure. What negative gearing has become is a way for people to build an asset base at the taxpayer's expense, without providing any benefits for renters. That in turn has created artificial demand for investment properties that have kept them out of reach of potential owner-occupiers.

@EORPhilosophy @Kateismyfate @BellaRizinti @HalcyonEmber @germarulo @rachelvmckinnon @EricRWeinstein @BretWeinstein @HJJoyceEcon @joerogan @SamHarrisOrg @RubinReport @peterboghossian @ConceptualJames Nope. Idiocy is a failure to understand that simplicity is the enemy of truth when discussing complex matters. Let's see who's making that rookie mistake here... Oh wait... It's you! @EORPhilosophy @Kateismyfate @BellaRizinti @HalcyonEmber @germarulo @rachelvmckinnon @EricRWeinstein @BretWeinstein @HJJoyceEcon @joerogan @SamHarrisOrg @RubinReport @peterboghossian @ConceptualJames Here's how science works. You make an observation, then you wonder about the cause of it. You come up with a hypothesis which you test. When you have tested it enough under a variety of conditions, you can promote your hypothesis to the status of a theory.

Something transphobes are often unaware of is that hormones (including, but not limited to sex hormones) remain effective on human physiology for lost of a person's life. This is why HRT works to help with menopause, even though the sufferer is in their mid-life years. So it shouldn't come as a huge surprise that anti-androgens and estrogen have a physiological effect on previously masculine bodies. Not only does breast development happen to some degree, but feet shrink (anecdotally - but I've gone down a shoe size in a year) too.

Chronic TERFery: a timeline.
70s-80s: Second wave feminists get shirty about trans women being g present at a feminist festival designated as women only spaces.
90s: Second wave feminists start to adopt third wave/intersectional feminism. Quiet remnant writes resentful essays. 00s: Visibility of trans people and social acceptability of being visibly (as opposed to secretly) trans improves. 2nd wavers dig their heels in more. Some trans people join forces with them quoting Blanchard ontology and promoting the idea that "transsexuals > transgender".

Also worth noting... not all equality of access for people with disabilities is about topology (e.g. stairs vs ramps, etc). There are many people whose disabilities are related to temporal factors (when things are on, how long they last) that can be severely lacking.

https://twitter.com/lauramdorwart/status/1023768950293909504

Consider the example of a person who has a sleep disregulation issue. Expectations of an 8:30am start time for such individuals might occasionally be manageable, but generally won't be. Such individuals are no less capable of doing their job than anyone else in their own time.

A quick reminder for those in the cheap seats: Yes... a lot of trans people are angry activists. We do not need to be civil and compliant for your convenience. If you want us to shut up, FIX THE ISSUES we're flagging. We're a small minority so that is NOT currently in our power. The fact that someone is angry and an activist should be a hint that there's something wrong with the system that we can't change. Our frustration, outrage and despair should MEAN something to you other than as a source of annoyance.

A reminder that gender is a complex, multidimensional context. Gender consists of:
* Gendered Behaviour (stereotypes - subjective and culturally varying)
* Gender Presentation (dress, accessories)
* Gender Identity (personal and unique to the individual - has sub-axes Gender identity can be classified by:
* Consistency of gender identity (gender fluidity vs fixed ID)
* Strength of gender identity (a-gender to gendered)
* Position on masc/femme continuum (it's not a binary)

And NONE of this has anything to do with sex or sexual attraction.