Why subscribe to The Ministry has fallen?
It’s 2022 when I start writing The Ministry has Fallen and I’m watching, incredulous, as fundamentalist ideas about women, men and homosexuality are being pushed into policy and law under the guise of a progressive just-be-kind trans ideology. It’s happening where I am, Aotearoa / New Zealand (by some of my oldest friends dammit) and around the world. Feelings presented as facts; harm presented as health; hardcore gender stereotypes presented as liberation. It’s looking grim for democracy and thought and tolerance.
This feels historic, and I want to document what’s happening as it’s happening. I want to explore these ideas, and understand how we got here, and what comes next.
I fully support all people, including transgender people, being able to enjoy full, interesting and violence-free lives. Always have, always will. That’s why I’m here.
Who is Garwhoungle?
I’m a New Zeaalnd woman born, bred and living in Aotearoa, also known as New Zealand. I have a long history of involvement in feminist and other left wing movements for social change. I believe climate change is real, that Covid is real, that Māori continue to suffer the effects of colonisation and that gayness is a natural human experience. I believe in redistribution of wealth from those with far too much to those with not enough.
A weird strand of “feminism” has come to dominate NZ media and community groups. It no longer recognises women and girls as belonging to a distinct biological class. Much of this “feminism” now focuses on transgender issues partiularly transgender women, men who identify as women. Feminism is a women’s movement and requires both an acknowledgement of females and a focus on them. Rather, the new feminism actively opposes measures that help keep women , gay people and children safe. They prioritise the demands of males over women’s needs. Whatever these groups and individuals are doing, it’s not feminism.
Why a pseudonym?
Like many anonymous commentators on this issue, I would love to be writing under my own name. I am writing under a pseudonym because it’s dangerous in this country (and others) to openly express the idea that women are adult human females, to question that transwomen are literally women, to say that it’s impossible to be born in the wrong body and that it’s ethically wrong to give drugs to or cut the breasts off dysphoric or gender confused young people. It’s also dangerous to raise safety concerns about putting males (namely those who identify as women) into women’s spaces including bathrooms, changing rooms, rape crisis centres, sports and prisons.
It’s dangerous because compassionate, women-centred commentators on this issue get death and rape threats. It’s happened to JK Rowling and hundreds of others. It’s dangerous because trans activists have hounded and successfully disrupted the careers/family lives of those speaking up to defend kids, gay people and women. That’s happened to lawyer Alison Bailey, comedian Graham Lineham and academic Kathleen Stock. It’s dangerous because if you don’t follow trans rhetoric to the letter your publishers, employers and associates might be lobbied to cut ties. Give birth like a feminist author, Milli Hill, was deplatformed from an NZ midwifery conference and accused of being transphobic because she used female-centred language. UK author Rachel Rooney wrote a book for preschoolers called My body is me which was deemed as offensive by trans activists and she lost her career. An anonymous doctor planning to speak at a recent NZ conference about the evidence surrounding gender-affirming care withdrew because an activist threatened their registration. Many of the NZ institutions that would once have protected and defended feminist women, now prioritise hysterical demands made by trans activists. We’re living under a new form of misogyny. A pseudonym is safer for me and for my family.
Why Garwhoungle?
Garwhounge is a Scots word that means the noise made by the bittern when it rises from the bog. The gender issue is a bog, it frequently feels like we’re stuck in a weird alternative universe where everyone believes something as ridiculous as the moon is made of cheese, or that the earth is flat. They believe people can literally change sex, that some women have penises, and that young people need drugs and surgery to be their authentic selves. Garwhoungle also means the clash of tongues and this battle is played out first in the tongue or the language we use to name ourselves and our experiences.
Join the crew
Sign up, and be part of an Aotearoa community that is interested in compassionate, sane and logical discussions about this gender ideology thing. An ideology that demands from us, not recognition of human rights—no one I know has any problem with transgender people having human rights—but unquestioning acquiescence with increasingly totalitarian and risky demands.
