Basic fairness in reporting the issue? Oh don’t be silly, that would never do.

All men aren’t rapists and trans women should not be regarded as walking sex offenders https://t.co/15gP5YfOUt — Sarah Baxter (@SarahbaxterSTM) December 22, 2019

She means “not all men are rapists,” not “all men aren’t rapists” which is a far broader claim (wouldn’t you think journalists of all people would get that right?), but that pales next to the hostile hyperbole of the next clause. Who the hell claims that trans women should be regarded as walking sex offenders?!

So let’s read Sarah Baxter on being kinder.

The author of the Harry Potter novels has frequently been damned as a snooty elitist for being pro-Labour and anti-Brexit and for turning Dumbledore gay.

What? It’s snooty and elitist to be pro-Labour? What universe is this exactly?

At any rate, she goes on to explain about Rowling and That Tweet.

[S]he has also been denounced as a bitch, trash, Terf (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) and worse, for concluding her tweet with the words, “But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real? #IStandWithMaya”. By sex, Rowling didn’t mean bonking, but the sex into which you are born — or, as the transgender movement would have it, into which you are “assigned” at birth but that might not represent the real you. There are few more divisive issues. The novelist nobly flung herself into a pit of seething abuse in defence of Maya Forstater, 45, a tax expert who lost her job at the Centre for Global Development think tank over “offensive and exclusionary” language. Or, in Forstater’s words, for arguing firmly that “men cannot change into women”.

Tribunal, judge, ruling.

“It is a core component of her belief that she will refer to a person by the sex she considered appropriate even if it violates their dignity and/or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment,” he said. “The approach is not worthy of respect in a democratic society.” Of course I back Rowling and “stand with Maya” on the grounds of free speech. It was preposterous of Tayler to pronounce so blithely on what is or isn’t respectful in a democratic society. In fairness, Forstater has stated that she would “respect anyone’s self-definition of their gender identity in any social and professional context”. That alone suggests to me that she was unfairly dismissed. But she has frequently engaged in disputes on social media that have shed more heat than light on transgender issues. I can see why she might have got up the noses of more courteous colleagues.

That’s a swift turnaround. On the one hand she’s right and I stand with her of course, on the other hand I’ll just condemn her anyway.

The ferocious trans wars echo the debates of the 1980s, when some feminists insisted that all men were rapists. Yes, there are perverts out there, but I don’t regard every trans woman as a walking sex offender, as Forstater appears to.

Ah so that’s how it’s done. You make shit up and attribute it to the person you want to trash even though you concede that she’s right. Forstater “appears” to do no such thing, and it’s shit journalism to pretend she does.

And how does Baxter attempt to back up that absurd claim? By quoting someone else and attributing the quotation to Maya. Maya has told her she didn’t say it, and told her who did, and Baxter has apologized, but the piece has not been corrected.

“Pronouns are Rohypnol,” she once claimed, referring to the date-rape drug. “They change our perception, lower our defences . . . alter the reality in front of us. They numb us. They confuse us. They remove our instinctive safety responses. They work.”

Except that she didn’t.

I apologise for wrongly attributing these words to you. The judgement was confusing on that point — Sarah Baxter (@SarahbaxterSTM) December 22, 2019

But did she correct the article? No she did not.

I have just posted a comment under the article drawing attention to my error, based on the judge's misleading account. I think your insistence on absolute "clarity" is hurtful to people who do not fit into a binary world – but I think you are entitled to your opinion — Sarah Baxter (@SarahbaxterSTM) December 22, 2019

Posting a comment under the article is not the same thing as correcting THE MISTAKE in the article.

But hey, everybody be kinder, yeah?