Jennifer Thetford-Kay

#Science The genetic differences between men and women - A study analysed the expression of 20,000 genes in the body tissues of donors. They found that 6,500 of them are expressed differently in men and women

Congratulations to Dr George Webster! 🎉 Positive representation changes lives. Every story that celebrates the achievements and value of people with Down’s syndrome helps challenge outdated assumptions and build a more inclusive society. 💙 bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

📢NEW REPORT 📢 86% of sexual crimes in Northern Ireland swim changing rooms are in mixed-sex changing villages. Our latest report into sexual crimes in Northern Ireland leisure centres confirms that mixed-sex changing rooms are a danger area for women and girls. In Northern Ireland 86% of sexual crimes in swimming pool changing rooms occurred in mixed-sex facilities. The data correlate with our previous research from England and Wales which shows that 88-90% of changing room sex crimes occur in mixed-sex changing rooms. Freedom of Information requests to the Police Service of Northern Ireland revealed that 86% of sexual crimes (voyeurism, illicit filming / photography, sexual assaults and rapes) which occurred in leisure centre changing rooms were in mixed-sex facilities compared with 24% which occurred in single-sex facilities. The FOI request covered 12 months from January to December 2023. Previously, we published Leisure Centres: Putting Women and Girls at Risk containing police data collated from a Freedom of Information (FOI) investigation on sexual crimes in leisure centres in England and Wales. These data showed that in one year (2023) there were 16 rapes, 80 sexual assaults and 65 acts of voyeurism across 257 leisure centres in England and Wales. As there are approximately 860 leisure centres in England and Wales, and as these crimes are under-reported, the totals will be much higher. The Sports Councils have actively promoted mixed-sex changing villages as the preferred option for new build and refurbishment projects. @Sport_England design guides are widely used throughout the UK for new-build and refurbishment projects. Sport England states that mixed-sex changing villages are the ‘preferred option’ but says that local councils must ‘risk assess’ their designs. Councils rarely conduct risk assessments that take into account the increased risks of allowing males into areas where women and children are in a state of undress. Women’s Rights Network calls for: ✅all new-build and refurbishment projects to be designed with single-sex changing as the default option with mixed-sex changing for families; ✅all mixed-sex changing villages to be risk assessed as a matter of urgency and controls put in place to reduce the risk. Links to the report are in the next post.

EXC: Amnesty's international secretariat has distanced itself from the UK report which labelled Beira's Place 'anti-rights'. Story👇 @heraldscotland. heraldscotland.com/news/26275911.…

We were also libelled alongside @jk_rowling’s @beirasplace in this poorly researched & defamatory hit piece from disgraced former human rights charity @amnesty. Firstly amnesty clearly know nothing about our group as they listed us a ‘gender critical’ group. We are not. We are a child #safeguarding group. If Amnesty feel that standing up for child protection is ‘anti rights’ then we have a lot of questions regarding exactly what ‘rights’ Amnesty are advocating for. We are aware that many people object to effective child safeguarding & that those that do will resort to slurs & name calling. This is nothing new & is to be expected. We are not affiliated to any other group named in Amnesty’s disgraceful ‘briefing review’. Some of the other organisations we have never heard of. Those that we have heard of our understanding is that they campaign on issues such as women’s rights, Gay rights, Lesbian rights, free speech or like ourselves child protection. Hardly issues that any sensible person could interpret as ‘anti rights’. We hope that one of the larger groups will be taking legal action. The @ChtyCommission should also investigate but based on past experience we do not hold out much hope. Once again when a child safeguarding organisation is being attacked & libelled like this it is further evidence that a #PublicInquiry is needed into the infiltration of safeguarding. There are widespread systemic failures & public & professional understanding of what effective safeguarding actually entails is currently extremely poor. The biggest right children have is the right to be protected by the adults in their society, particularly their parents. #RestoreSafeguarding #Edutwitter #WomenEd

@MaxiMumMother @NoSecretLessons @jk_rowling @ProtectTeach I think actual words of support will give these organisations a moral boost if it comes from someone like JKR! Not all of them want to go down the lawfare route!