Yvonne van Dongen
Veteran NZ journo incredulous gender ideology escaped the lab. Won’t rest until reality makes a comeback.
One day everyone will be a TERF.
JK Rowling predicted as much when she tweeted recently:
I promise you this: in 10 years’ time, a load of women who’re currently riding the gender identity bandwagon will claim they were always TERFs. They’ll be like the fakers who pretend to have survived terrorist attacks they were never even near.
She’s right of course, but, right now, despite Cass reports and Trump edicts on sex and restrictions on puberty blockers elsewhere, in New Zealand we are still defiantly and officially pro-trans.
So in readiness for the day when it becomes embarrassing to admit you once thought people’s souls were like ectoplasm, wobbling accidentally into the wrong body, and that with the correct medication, surgery or even just magical thoughts you could change sex, I have been compiling lists. Lists of the worst trans advocates.
I’ve already compiled two previous lists of offenders but names and memories keep coming so here is the third. Today’s list is divided evenly between men and women.
Ever since this madness kicked off, I’ve been waiting for someone in the science community to break ranks and say there are only two sexes. The mantra ‘trans-women-are-women-no-debate’ should set off alarm bells for any scientist.
Most especially, if you are the government’s chief science advisor. This was the title of Professor Dame Juliet Gerrard under the previous Labour government when she used Wikipedia to respond to Speak Up For Women in 2019 in a tweet. Here she is referring people to an article on intersex by microbiologist and science communicator, Dr Siouxsie Wiles.
Gerrard then blocked a person who asked “If sex is not binary, then what is the third sex and what purpose does it have?”
Yes. Really.
Dr Siouxsie Wiles also deserves a place in the Terf’s hall of shame for writing in a November 2021 article for Stuff that sex chromosomes can be more complicated than the typical XX and XY framework. She noted that:
In other words, the reality is that people don’t fit into two neat categories [male and female – JR], and sometimes, they know they don’t fit the sex they were assigned at birth.
Presumably this is the wisdom Gerrard was referring to when she recommended people search Wiles on Wikipedia.
Caitlin Spice, on the other hand, could be forgiven for having these views since he is a writer of fantasy fiction. Spice lives in Wellington. His main fantasy is that he became a girl in 2007. At least he doesn’t claim to identify as a scientist.
He began writing online from 2015 on. Spice is the co-author of Raven Wild, a crowdfunded transgender fairy tale, written in collaboration with Adam Reynolds and Chaz Harris.
Spice has been a vocal opponent of the gender critical movement. He was especially worried about the visit of Posie Parker in 2023, fearful that trans rights such as self sex ID could be rolled back. To be fair, we all hope that’s a realistic fear, though no sign of change yet.
Lexie Matheson is the Bruce Jenner of New Zealand. The accomplished sportsman, former principal, successful businessman and entertainer was 53, twice married with four children, when he announced he was a woman.
Matheson is also incredibly well-connected. He was born in Christchurch 80 years ago to Anne Charlotte Euphemia (nee Rule) and John Walker Matheson. The sharp-eyed will spot the maiden name Rule and link it accurately to the Rule Foundation, a major funder of LGBTQI causes.
Lexie’s mother was the daughter of Peter Rule, a former Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) Squadron Leader and the founder of the Rule Foundation. Thus Matheson is the grandson of Peter Rule.
Rule was an openly gay male who had a distinguished career in the RNZAF until he was forced to leave because of his sexuality. Although he went on to make a successful career as an arts administrator, he suffered from depression. In 1987 he committed suicide aged 56. In his will he expressed a desire to assist the gay community. The sale of his extensive collection of Korean art provided the basis for the capital of the Foundation. The Rule Foundation funds many LGBTQI groups.
Grandson Matheson was a top sportsman in his youth. He regularly represented Canterbury in both rugby and cricket in under age grades. He has since campaigned for men to be able to compete as women in all levels of sport. Matheson was the first transgender male-to-female to compete in the World Goju Ryu Karate Federation Championships in 2017, where he placed bronze in the women’s division. This is what he said about taking a place from a woman.
It’s such an honour to represent New Zealand, and to get to stand on the podium with two great Italian women was a really special moment.
Matheson has a second dan black belt in Goju Ryu Karate. He has been a past chair of Archery New Zealand and he did his PhD on the history of karate in New Zealand.
He’s been involved in over 400 theatrical productions, won a playwriting award and lectured in event management at Auckland University of Technology.
He was involved with the early Hero Festival and became a founding member of its successor, the Auckland Pride Festival. He’s also been involved with Agender New Zealand Auckland and was a trustee for Transadvocates.
Matheson also campaigned for gender identity to become a protected identity under the Human Rights Act 1993, and he has expressed concern about incarcerated transgenders, that is, male-to-females being incarcerated with those of their sex.
Obviously Lexie Matheson is a helluva guy and a big wheel in the alphabet activist world.
In the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours, Matheson was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to performing arts, education and LGBTIQ rights. That’s the official explanation. Mine is that he was rewarded for his work eroding women’s boundaries and leading an assault on truth. As well, Matheson has been nominated for Senior New Zealander of the year in 2019, 2020 and 2021, being runner up in 2020.
So that’s it, though I have a feeling this won’t be the last list of gender malefactors. There’s always more than I imagined.
This article was originally published on the author’s Substack.
