Month: June 2024

When Emmanuel Macron announced France’s snap election on 9 June, following the surge in support that weekend of Marine Le Pen’s hard-right National Rally (RN) party at the European elections, he must have known it was a gamble. The RN has had a surge in support in the country in recent months, while Macron’s centrist alliance lost its parliamentary majority in 2022 and has since been plagued by divisions and disorder. The unexpected elections, Macron announced, could provide a “moment of clarification” for French voters to choose who they wanted to lead. As the exit poll for the first round of voting was announced on Sunday night, it seems that bet has backfired.

Initial projections after polls had closed, according to pollster Ipsos, showed that Le Pen’s RN took first place with 34.2 per cent of the vote. The New Popular Front (NFP), a four-party left-wing alliance led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party, came in second with 29.1 per cent, followed by Macron’s allies Ensemble on 21.5 per cent of the vote. Though the final count could shift, particularly given how unusually high the turnout for this vote was, it’s already clear that voters aren’t willing to reward Macron for his gamble. 

And voters clearly recognised the importance of this election: turnout by late afternoon was already at 59.39 per cent, making it the highest turnout at this stage since the 1980s. (By contrast, only 39.42 per cent of eligible voters turned out in 2022.) Yet the turnout makes Macron’s miscalculation even more pronounced: not only did he come in a humiliating third, it was a majority of French voters who turned out to put him there. 

As a result of the surging turnout, the second round of voting on 7 July will likely include many three-sided runoffs. Qualifying candidates for the second round must have secured at least 12.5 per cent of registered voters; a higher turnout makes a three-way runoff more likely for a greater number of seats. One pollster predicts that as many as 315 out of 577 seats will have three-candidate run-offs based off of the first-round results.  

French election: Victory for Marine Le Pen – New Statesman

A trans-identified male in British Columbia, Canada, is suing the provincial Ministry of Health after it refused to fund the out-of-country vaginoplasty he demanded be performed in Bangkok, Thailand.

The man, referred to only as KW in legal documents due to a publication ban on his name, originally lodged a complaint at the BC Human Rights Tribunal (BCHRT) in 2019 alleging discrimination. KW claimed that being denied funding for the out-of-country surgery was akin to sex-based discrimination on the basis of his transgender status.

In his legal complaint, KW insisted that a female would not have been denied the same laparoscopic sigmoid colon vaginoplasty — a procedure that is sometimes performed on females who are born with exceedingly rare disorders of sexual development. The surgery includes utilizing sections of harvested colon tissue to craft the appearance of a vulva and vagina.

KW claimed that he was unable to apply for the surgery because he could not find a specialist to complete his application form, and argued that a female could have accessed a gynecologist to do so.

The BC Ministry of Health (MOH) sought to dismiss KW’s claim on the basis that it held no reasonable chance of success, but was denied in a May 10, 2024 ruling. The matter will now be scheduled for a hearing.

The Ministry argued that they did not discriminate against KW, deny him medical care, or treat him differently “than any other beneficiary who requests out of country medical services.” They also noted that KW did not fully complete his application for surgery, adding that vaginoplasty procedures are available in Canada “and as such, the public health system was not obligated to fund the service [he] was seeking overseas.” 

The MOH gave approval for KW to undergo a fully-funded vaginoplasty at GrS Montreal in October of 2017. However, months later in January of 2018, KW applied to the MOH to instead fund his surgery in Bangkok, Thailand.

He was advised that the application had to be completed by a BC specialist, and not the plastic surgeon from Thailand.

A letter from the Ministry read: “When surgery is available in Canada, the attending specialist in BC may recommend surgery outside Canada. The specialist must include peer reviewed medical articles with the application to confirm surgery outside Canada will result in a significant difference in success. The recommendation for surgery is sincerely respected; however as surgery is available in Canada, provincial coverage was not approved for surgery in Thailand.”

Ultimately, KW never completed his application and accepted the vaginoplasty at GrS Montreal on January 6, 2020. The hospital performs penile inversion vaginoplasty, in which penile tissue is “flipped” to create a vagina-like canal. This is the most common vaginoplasty technique in North America.

BCHRT panel member, Shannon Beckett, wrote in her May decision that the tribunal is also going to consider discrimination on the basis of gender identity, though KW did not allege this in his filing. She argued that the Ministry of Health made a “problematic” statement when they refuted KW’s claim about females accessing this type of procedure. Beckett appears to have taken specific issue with the Ministry’s explanation that vaginoplasties are “rarely performed on cisgender women, and only in cases where it is medically necessary (i.e. due to disease or injury).”

Beckett wrote that the Ministry’s usage of the term “medically necessary “ has “implied that where transgender women are seeking the same surgery, it is not in cases ‘where it is medically necessary.’ This argument appears to be based on stereotypical and outdated ideas about the nature and reason for gender-affirming surgery. There is no indication in the context of this complaint that the gender-affirming care KW was seeking was not medically necessary.”

This argument is reminiscent of a 2019 procedural decision by BCHRT member Devyn Cousineau wherein she referred to notorious trans activist Jessica Yaniv having his male testicles waxed by unwilling women as “critical gender affirming care.”

The hearing dates for KW’s suit against the BCHRT have not been scheduled, and it will likely take months if not years as the BCHRT is facing an enormous backlog of almost 5,000 active files.

This case is not the first of its kind in Canada. Earlier this year, and as reported by Reduxx, an Ontario man successfully sued the Ontario Health Insurance Plan to have the province fund an experimental surgery in Texas that will leave him with his penis as well as a surgically created “neo-vagina.”

The man in this case broke his own publication ban when he posted about his diaper fetish on Reddit, and openly admitted he was the individual documented in the highly-publicized case. 

https://reduxx.info/transgender-canadian-launches-lawsuit-after-being-denied-taxpayer-funding-for-an-out-of-country-vaginoplasty-in-thailand

by Giulio Meotti

In 1991, the Soviet Union had 120 mosques. Within twenty years, they built 8,000.

These are the numbers that make Vladimir Putin sleepless, together with the massacre against the churches and synagogue in Dagestan.

In the next 15 years, a very probable scenario will be one in which in the largest metropolitan areas of Russia – Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg – the majority of the population will be made up by the Muslim community.

This is why in Moscow they blame “foreign forces” for the massacre in Dagestan. They are afraid of the immense black hole inside the country.

They are afraid of the family responsible for the attacks in Dagestan: the Omarovs. The patriarch, Magomed, provincial secretary of United Russia (the Kremlin party) who made a career in the times of the USSR when Marxist atheism was an obligation, had his children graduate from the best schools. Yet two of his sons, Osman and Adil, and a nephew, Ali, are among the terrorists who on Sunday set fire to churches and synagogues, slaughtered a pope and killed as many officers as possible.

From the videos you don’t get the impression that they are in a hurry to kill and then to run and hide. They know that someone will come to eliminate them. They are ready and remain calm. With the spray they wrote “2:120” and “8:39” on the door of the synagogue in Lenin Street which they set on fire. They are the suras of the Koran about Jews and Christians who must embrace Islam.

In January, the imam of the Grand Mosque of Moscow, Ildar Alyautdinov, said: “Muslims have a great demographic mission: due to the high birth rate to make Russia a Muslim-majority country.”

The chairman of the Committee on Family Affairs, Protection of Motherhood and Childhood, Dimitry Smirnov, responded to the statement of the head of the Council of Muftis of Russia, Ravil Gainutdin, according to which in 15 years a third of Russians will be Muslims Archpriest Smirnov said he agreed with Gainutdin’s predictions: “It will be more or less like this. Muslims have more children. Not Tatars, but Caucasians. Chechens have eight children, like the Ingush. The Russians will run out by 2050. Completely different peoples will live here: Chechens, Ingush, Arabs.” When questioned by a journalist about the possibility of changing the situation, the archpriest replied: “It’s already late.”

Journalist Ralph Schoellhammer is right: “Russia’s future is that of a semi-Islamic Chinese protectorate, not a revival of Peter’s empire”.

According to census data, the total number of representatives of traditionally Islamic peoples was in 1959 7 million people (6 percent of the Russian population), in 1970 9 million (7), in 1989 12 million (8), in 2002 15 million (10), in 2022 20 million people (15). If the trend continues, in 2050 Russia will have 110 million inhabitants, of which 30 million are Muslims (27 percent).

A report by the Jamestown Foundation, entitled “How Islam will change Russia,” explained what will happen:

“Given demographic changes, by 2050 Muslims will represent between a third (according to the most conservative estimates) and a half (according to the most ‘alarmistic’ assessments) of the Russian population. This ‘Islamization’ of Russia – not in the sense of radical Islam but of a number of citizens referring to Islam – will impact both Russia’s domestic situation and its medium- and long-term foreign policy options. The growing importance of Islam in Russia will shape the country’s future in five directions: the country’s demographic balance; the ‘normalisation’ strategy of the North Caucasus; Russia’s migration policy; the positioning of Russia on the international scene and the transformation of Russian identity”.

By 2035, a third of Moscow will be Islamic. And Pravda, in the English section, published an article entitled: “Will Islam be the first Russian religion in 2050?”.

Five of Russia’s republics – Ingushetia, Chechnya, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachayevo-Cherkessia – have Muslim majorities, and two others – Bashkortostan and Tatarstan – are approaching this figure (Chechnya is an Islamic state under the patronage of Moscow). Muslim nationalities are growing 60 to 90 times faster than the Russian average, with Chechens increasing by 1.82 percent per year. 7 of Russia’s 22 republics are already Islamic.

The scholar Leon Gouré in “The Russian federation: Possible disintegration scenarios” explains that, in the event of the disintegration of the Russian Federation, “a confederation of Islamic states will be born at the gates of Europe”.

Like Osman and Adil Omarov, the church and synagogue bombers, the Tsarnaev brothers, came from Dagestan. They were former students of Cambridge Rindge and Latin, one of the oldest and most illustrious schools in America, which “boasted” students from over 80 countries, a kind of Russian Federation in Massachusetts. The Tsarnaev brothers had spent most of their lives in the United States and lived the dream of “diversity”.

Six months after invading Ukraine in 2022, Putin signed a decree reinstating the Soviet-era “Mother Heroine” award, given to women with ten children. The first winner was Medni Kadyrova, wife of the Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov.

The old Europe, of which Russia was culturally a part, is over and the new one can already be seen in family photos.

Putin dreams of Third Rome. It will be a Second Mecca | Israel National News – Arutz Sheva

The Examinations Department of Sri Lanka has taken a firm stance on upholding the examination rules leading to the withholding of Advanced Level (A/L) examination results of 70 students from Zahira College, Trincomalee. Notably, these students did not comply with the rules as mandated by the Education Department which states that both ears of the student must remain uncovered for the entire exam duration.

In a statement, the Commissioner General of Examinations, Amith Jayasundara, said that this rule was not arbitrarily imposed but was established after consultations with all the stakeholders including Muslim religious leaders. The rule was then passed by the Parliament. Jayasundara said, “It is not enough to merely show the ears to the examiner when entering the exam hall as we cannot determine whether they will use a Bluetooth device afterwards. The rule is to leave both ears uncovered the entire time they are in the exam hall.”

Jayasundara further clarified that the rule is important as it ensures the integrity of the examination process. The officials had advised students to comply with the regulations. Those who followed the instructions did not face any problems in getting the result. He added, “There is awareness about this rule, so it must be followed in all instances.”

He noted that the students have not been disqualified yet and the Sri Lanka education department is reviewing the circumstances carefully before coming to any decision keeping in mind that the students are young. He highlighted that at other centres, the students complied with the rules without any problem.

Speaking to the media, a teacher who wished to remain anonymous claimed that students did not wear Hijab but wrapped shawls ensuring their ears were visible. However, adherence to the specific rule is crucial for maintaining standardized examination procedures. The teacher acknowledged that the students had travelled from different towns to complete their A/L education at Zahira College and indicated they should have adhered to the established rules to avoid complications.

Member of Sri Lanka Parliament MS Thowfeek who represents the Trincomalee district confirmed he spoke to the Education Department regarding the matter. He assured that the results would be released once the Executive Board approves the same.

Meanwhile, activist Shreen Saroor claimed that the students wore shawls so their ears could be easily visible. She claimed that the penalisations were part of anti-Muslim sentiments that have been pushed not only by the “Sinhala Buddhist majority but also the Tamil community”. She said, “It is systematic and it penalises Muslim girls systematically. Muslim girls rarely get the chance to sit for the A/Ls, so when they do, they should not face these systematic barriers. Politicians from the area are politicising the issue on Hindutva-Islam communal lines for their political gains, with elections just around the corner.”

A similar incident took place in October 2023 in Sri Lanka. Samagi Jana Balawegeya (SJB) Parliamentarian Mujibur Rahman said, “Thirteen Muslim women’s results have not been released for wearing the hijab during the principal-appointment exams. However, when they were entering the hall, they had shown their ears to the supervisor. Yes, they had violated the rule of leaving the ears uncovered during the duration of the exam, but the issue here is the supervisor’s attitude. The same supervisor who had allowed them to sit the exam after checking their ears on the first day had raised an issue on the second day. If the supervisor had informed, the women would have followed the rules and had written the exam trusting the supervisor, but the same supervisor had then said they had violated the rules.” The results were later released in March 2024.

The Karnataka Hijab Controversy

The Udupi Hijab dispute in Karnataka arose in late 2021 which concerned Muslim female students in the state who wanted to wear hijabs as part of their school uniforms which led to major protests and legal battles as well as spread to other parts of the country.

The debate started in January 2022. A Udupi college turned away a number of Muslim students who were wearing hijabs to class. There were countless images on social media depicting college administrators forbidding students who donned the head covers from entering their campuses. Afterwards, the college administration contended that the hijab was not included in the uniform dress code that the students had been instructed to follow.

The administration had requested that female students forgo the hijab during their time in college, in accordance with the new state regulations. Eight female students consistently disobeyed the rule and claimed it inhibited them from practising their faith.

A student of PES College of Arts, Science and Commerce in Mandya named Muskan Zainab who rose to fame owing to her theatrics during the row was disclosed to have links to the banned radical Islamic organisation Popular Front of India through her father Abdul Sukoor who was a leader of the extremist outfit. The development had exposed the role of the group behind the controversy.

The girl came to the limelight after she was seen yelling “Allahu Akbar” in a niqab in response to Hindu students who were chanting “Jai Shree Ram.” They were protesting against the Muslim students who were screaming Islamic slogans in hijab and burqa inside the institution.

Sri Lanka withheld result of students for wearing hijab during exam (opindia.com)

The European Court of Human Rights has upheld the right to life by striking down a challenge seeking to permit ‘assisted suicide’ in Hungary. In the new ruling handed down on June 13th, Europe’s top human rights court has held that Hungary is entitled to “maintain a complete ban on assisted suicide” and thus should not be forced to allow the practice.

The case at hand concerns Hungarian national Dániel Karsai, currently in the advanced stages of ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative condition, who sought to undermine Hungary’s legal protections for life by challenging its ban on assisted suicide. Karsai looked to assert his ‘right’ to obtain assisted suicide under the right to privacy established under the European Convention on Human Rights. Now, the Court has held that Hungary is under no obligation to allow Mr. Karsai to end his life by way of assisted suicide.

As stated in the judgment, there exists “no basis for concluding that the member states are thereby advised, let alone required, to provide access” to assisted suicide. 

We should applaud the Court’s decision to uphold Hungary’s essential human rights protections. Although we deeply empathize with Mr. Karsai’s condition, Hungary has both the right and the duty to safeguard human life. The Court is absolutely correct to affirm that Hungary has the right to safeguard the human life of its citizens. A hallmark of an advanced society is the investment of all available resources in providing the best standards of care and support for the suffering, not the promotion of institutionalized death.

The position of the Hungarian government before the Court was that there is no positive obligation on the state to support any form of assisted dying. ADF International, along with UK-based NGO Care Not Killing, intervened in Karsai v. Hungary, arguing that Hungary’s legal prohibition on assisted suicide must be upheld in line with the obligation under the European Convention on Human Rights (Article 2) to protect the right to life. 

In its submission to the Court, ADF International highlighted the inevitable abuses that ensue when legal protections for the right to life are eradicated. Removing protections for life under the law creates a dangerous scenario where pressure is placed on vulnerable people to end their lives in fear of being a burden upon relatives, caregivers, or a state that is short of resources. In essence, the acknowledgment of the false ‘right to die’ quickly morphs into a perceived duty to die.

Specifically at issue in this case was the law in Hungary, which would have imposed potential criminal liability on anyone who would have supported Mr. Karsai in obtaining assisted suicide, even if out of the country. The Hungarian law holds that “a person who induces or provides assistance for another person to commit suicide is guilty of a felony.” Hungary thus protects the lives of its citizens by criminalizing the act of supporting someone to obtain assisted suicide, whether the act is committed in Hungary or abroad. Mr. Karsai maintained that this effectively prevented him from ending his life via assisted suicide. 

While the Court came to the correct conclusion with regard to Hungary in this case, where it falls short is in failing to recognize the duty of states to reject assisted suicide. In its 2022 ruling in Mortier v. Belgium. the Court found that Belgium violated the right to life in the circumstances surrounding the euthanasia of Mrs. Godelieva De Troyer, given the lack of sufficient ‘safeguards.’ In Karsai, it ruled that the European Convention on Human Rights neither obliges nor prevents states from legalizing assisted death, as long as “appropriate and sufficient safeguards” are in place.

The Court holds in Karsai that should a state legalize euthanasia, it must develop a “robust regulatory framework” to keep it “safely applied in practice.” However, it is apparent the world over that the legalization of state-sponsored death leads to an onslaught of abuses. The Court is cognizant of these abuses, thereby leading it to affirm a state’s “margin of appreciation” to balance its ability to establish and enforce these safeguards against the desire of an individual to procure legal assisted death. It ultimately finds Hungary’s criminal ban “not disproportionate” on account of the risks of abuse. What the Court fails to recognize in its weighing exercise is the clear fact that there is no ‘right to die.’

As the Court pointed out, of the 46 member states of the Council of Europe, only six have legalized assisted suicide. But wherever it is allowed, legal ‘safeguards’ have proven insufficient to prevent abuses. These manifest as most harmful to the truly vulnerable, including the elderly, the disabled, and those suffering from mental illness or depression. Suicide, regardless of whether it is carried out by one’s own hands or under the auspices of the system, is always a tragedy. The intentional taking of human life can never be safe. Countries that have legalized euthanasia now allow the intentional killing of children, those who are physically healthy, and those who have not given their consent.  

Ultimately, a so-called ‘right to die’ does not exist and is fundamentally incompatible with the clear right to life enshrined in both European and international human rights law. However, the Court’s ruling in favor of Hungary’s sovereign jurisdiction on this issue is an important win. Should the Court have ruled against Hungary, forcing the state to allow assisted suicide, it would have ushered in a terrifying new era of overreach. Every state has both the right and the obligation to maintain laws that protect human life, and no body should ever wield its authority to contravene this basic role of the state in safeguarding its citizens.

https://europeanconservative.com/articles/commentary/european-court-upholds-hungarys-ban-on-assisted-suicide

Global voices have united in concern about the “hate speech” bill pending before Irish parliament, as 1 in 4 Irish say they are worried about the erosion of free speech.

Speaking at the Irish parliament this month, “Twitter Files” journalist Michael Shellenberger stated clearly that “there is no hate crisis in Ireland” and that the case for censorship was brought about by “elite panic” trying to stifle open conversation and discourse among the Irish people. 

The bill would make it an offence to possess (for distribution) material that could lead to “hatred” in Ireland, with punishment of up to 5 years in prison.  

The bill would also impact the right to share views on social media across much of the world, with directors and executives of social media platforms with international HQs in Ireland (X, Facebook, and more) held accountable to the Irish government if found to be platforming undefined “hate speech”. 

“The world is watching Ireland. As the home of various international social media headquarters, the bill would have a global impact on what we can all discuss online.”- Michael Shellenberger, “Twitter Files” journalist & author

“The world is watching Ireland. The censorial “hate speech bill”, if passed, would not only shut down conversation nationally – as the home of various international social media headquarters, it would have a global impact on what we can all discuss online.

“A sweeping ban on undefined “hate” gives authorities the power to determine which viewpoints are acceptable to voice. World history warns us that such power can be easily abused,” said Michael Shellenberger, international bestselling author and journalist behind the “Twitter Files”. 

Far-reaching consequences

On the same day, giving the keynote address at the Ireland Free Speech Summit, which sold out amongst members of the public, Shellenberger suggested the goal of the bill may be to “censor the entire internet”.

The bill offers no clear definition of what “hate” entails. Experts warn this could pave the way for the criminal prosecution of a wide range of expression considered unfavorable by authorities.  

The bill would further make refusal to give a password to an electronic device a crime, which would allow authorities to search and possibly find materials that are “hateful”.

1 in 4 Irish concerned about right to free speech being eroded

New national polling commissioned by ADF International reveals a deep-seated concern amongst the Irish for the erosion of free speech, with a quarter revealing they already feel restricted in expressing their views and opinions in social settings like a pub, or in their place of work or study.  

In the survey, conducted by Whitestone Insight*, 90% confirmed that free speech was “very important” to them – while the Irish parliament debates  new and wide-ranging “hate speech” legislation, with egregious implications for the basic human right to free speech. 

“The proposed “hate speech” legislation would be one of the worst examples of censorship in the modern West. The bill purports to stamp out ‘hate speech,’ but fails to define what ‘hate’” is – allowing authorities to censor any speech the state opposes. 

That’s why voices from around the world are speaking up for the right to debate and discuss ideas – here in Ireland, and everywhere,” said Lorcan Price, Irish Barrister and Legal Counsel for ADF International. 

Global voices speak out against censorship

At the 2024 Free Speech Summit in Dublin on 18th June, international free speech champions  gathered with politicians to highlight the issues at stake under the bill.  

“Father Ted” screenwriter Graham Linehan was among the famous faces gathered, challenging attempts to censor Ireland: 

“We’re all coming together with different viewpoints, beliefs, and perspectives – but we agree on one thing. We should be allowed to freely discuss and debate ideas in Ireland. Our free speech must not be curtailed by a censorial government. It’s essential that the parliament consider the draconian impact that the hate speech bill could have on Irish society – and keep the public square open for all,” said Graham Linehan, screenwriter of “Father Ted”, who is billed to speak at the Summit.  

Independent Senators Rónán Mullen and Sharon Keogan spoke out against the bill, with Mullen highlighting that thie bill is “far too vague”: 

“When it comes to democracy, I believe in it. When it comes to the right to test each other’s ideas, I believe in it. And we can’t do that if we’re operating under the chilling fear of giving offence to somebody who wraps that up as hatred, claims that it’s against the law, attacks you as a mob online, causes social media companies to take down your stuff so that you’ve failed to communicate before you even begin to try…If nobody was ever prosecuted under this law, the process itself would become the punishment,” said Mullen in his address. 

Also speaking up at the event were cleric and broadcaster Fr Calvin Robinson; Cambridge academic Dr. James Orr; Irish journalist Laura Perrins; Philosophy Professor Gerard Casey; feminist campaigner Laoise de Brún; GB News host Andrew Doyle; psychotherapist and Director of Genspect, Stella O’Malley; and international bestselling author Andy Ngo.

Speaking to censorship within the gender debate specifically, Genspect director and psychotherapist Stella O’Malley said: 

“I am finding the gender world increasingly hardline, and there is a lack of understanding about the importance of free speech, which is a cornerstone and a fundamental to a civilisation. We need to be able to speak about this freely rather than stumbling over what is the fashionable phrase to use right now.” 

For more information on the Ireland Free Speech Summit, click here. 

Ireland’s hate speech law could “censor the entire internet”, warns Michael Shellenberger  – ADF International

Polling stations for the surprise snap election called by President Emmanuel Macron to shore up his authority opened this morning, but predictions suggests his gamble may not pay off.

Globalist leader Emmanuel Macron suffered a stinging defeat at the European Union-wide elections in early June, prompting him to call fresh national legislative elections to assert his authority. The message to the French people appears to be one of rejecting what he saw as a protest vote for Marine Le Pen’s populists, defying the voters to give it a repeat performance for something that actually matters, the French Parliament.

Macron has some reason to feel this way, not least because the two-round French electoral system of the Fifth Republic — today’s votes will be resolved with a second ballot next Sunday — was designed to disadvantage non-mainstream parties. But Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) has been content to play the long game, and improves its standing every election.

As is common in European elections, there is over a dozen parties and groups thought likely to pick up seats, and make up the next national parliament. While the Presidency has executive control, as discussed as length in the French newspapers this week the Parliament holds onto the purse strings and making Le Pen’s man, Jordan Bardella, Prime Minister could block President Macron from governing meaningfully.

As it is, the last major poll before election day suggested RN could be in line to grab a third of the votes. The late-stage polling also shows a real surge of interest in this election from voters themselves, with turnout predicted to be as much as a fifth higher than the last election.

Whatever happens between today’s knockout round and next Sunday’s decider, be assured violent street protests are likely to follow. A pretty naked bid to scare the public into backing his globalist-managerialism leadership this week saw President Macron threaten “civil war” if the common man was foolish enough to vote against him. Unions are threatening to strike if Le Pen’s RN win, and the left wing coalition representing a rainbow of interests from pro-Brussels centrists to literal hardline communists have sworn “resistance” — we can probably assume of the black-bloc kind — to Le Pen.

Beyond such immediate concerns, the question remains what this unexpected snap election means for France. French broadsheet Le Figaro cites Elysee Palace gossip that President Macron’s camp is already preparing to call another fresh election if he loses, which by all indication he will. An insider cited said there was no way Macron would leave RN’s Bardella as Prime Minister and would seek to see him dismissed as soon as possible.

Just one problem, though. Under the French constitution, elections must have a 12-month gap before being re-run, so the Palace is allegedly looking at winter 2025 to try and again prop up Macron’s mandate. As things stand, President Macron’s term will not expire until 2027.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2024/06/30/france-elects-macrons-snap-vote-that-may-hand-le-pen-keys-to-government-starts-today

A trans-identified male and former drag queen residing in Berlin is currently involved in litigation against McDonald’s after alleging he was denied access to the changing room intended for female employees. Kylie Divon, 27, also known as Keil Li, is seeking financial compensation for “discrimination” after a Muslim woman and colleague told him to leave the women’s changing room, citing his male genitalia as a cause for her concern.

Divon, who is originally from Libya, has been living in Germany for the past seven years and began working at the McDonald’s in Berlin’s central station four years ago.

Leading up to the incident, Divon had been performing drag shows on weekends at SchwuZ Queer Club. In 2020, Divon told his employer that he wanted to be addressed as “Kylie” while working. In 2023, he requested to wear a women’s uniform going forward, stating that he was “a woman from now on.”

However, during court proceedings this week, the legal representative for McDonald’s told the Berlin court that Divon had never announced his newly-chosen identity to management.

For five months, the court heard, Divon used the women’s locker room until in December, a fellow employee, identified only as Ms. M, asked him to leave and to avoid using the women’s changing area in the future.

During a conciliatory hearing between Divon and McDonald’s management, both parties refused to reach an agreement. The company offered the plaintiff a three-months’ severance payment of €8,000 because he had consistently stopped showing up for work since the incident in December. Divon had taken sick leave, claiming to be the victim of “bullying” so severe that he “even had to take sleeping pills”.

Yet Divon insists that he wants to continue working in the branch where he is still employed and to use the women’s changing room. As Divon is now alleging he was the victim of discrimination, McDonald’s has withdrawn the settlement offer, stating that the discrimination claims were “false allegations by the plaintiff.”

The company argued in their defense that supervisors had not made any discriminatory statements, but rather had sought to speak to Divon on multiple occasions. In this context a payment would indicate an admission of guilt, McDonald’s attorneys argued.

On June 24, the day before the case was scheduled to be heard for the first time at Berlin Labor Court, queer magazine Siegessaeule published a sympathetic interview with Divon. According to him, the colleague who asked him to leave the women’s changing room was a Muslim woman who told him that he was “biologically seen as a man” – a statement that he alleges is discriminatory.

In the interview, Divon revealed that during discussions with the McDonald’s legal team, he attempted to “explain” to the attorneys that women are not “real.”

“I even tried to explain what a woman is: woman is included and means trans* and cis, all varieties of women,” Divon said. “There is no ‘lesser’ or ‘real.’ They still did not understand this.”

“I will go back into the women’s dressing area. But I hope McDonald’s has learned. By the way, there are not only males and women, but also non-binary people or other genders. Unisex dressings would be best,” he added.

Divon’s lawyer, Leonie Thum, said during proceedings, “According to European law, a trans woman is a woman and must be treated as such.” Thum also accused McDonald’s of a breach of duty of care, and argued that “supervisors should be trained appropriately so as not to behave in discriminatory ways.”

The representation for McDonald’s, Monika Zehetmair, refuted the claim and stated that “other employees feel disturbed,” highlighting the Muslim background of the woman who complained about Divon’s presence in the changing room.

Divon is seeking financial compensation and a formal apology. “I am suing for compensation – the punishment should also help McDonald’s put an end to such discriminatory practices,” he told Bild.

A spokesperson for McDonald’s told the news outlet: “The restaurant management tried to respond to the needs and suggested various solutions – such as using its own lockable changing room. However, this was rejected.”

Divon, who has claimed to have fabricated his surname as a portmanteau of ‘diva’ and ‘divan,’ actively promotes himself across social media platforms. Curiously, the day before his court appearance, Divon released a music video featuring himself in an apparent attempt to capitalize on the news of his lawsuit.

On March 9, Divon took to Instagram to complain about his experience at a Women’s Day demonstration, which is recognized internationally on May 8. “There were women in the street with signs, and I was just walking, feeling good, like, oh my god, it’s our day, amazing! When you feel good about yourself and feel happy and feel beautiful, you walk with a smile on your face,” he said.

“I got reactions from cis women looking at me like, ‘Why am I there?’ I don’t need you to tell me if I’m a woman or not. I got a b*tch that turned her eyes into a scanner… and the only creatures that were actually smiling at me back were men.”

@kyliedivon Trip to Brussels #berlin #germany #eu #belgium #eu4genderequality #idahobit #idahot #europe ♬ original sound – Kylie Divõn

On May 19, he posted a video to TikTok discussing a recent trip he took to Belgium, where he had been invited by the European Commission as a representative for drag event organizers Queens Against Borders.

The Belgian presidency of the Council of the EU hosted the Conference ‘Pride Alliances and Policy: Towards a Union of Equality’ on May 17 at the Residence Palace in Brussels, where, in footage shot by Divon, drag performances were also held. Also in attendance was Sven Lehmann, Germany’s Commissioner for the Acceptance of Sexual and Gender Diversity (also known colloquially as the “Queer Commissioner”).

At the European Commission’s conference, Lehmann praised the passage of Germany’s Self-Determination Act (SBGG) – one of the world’s most far-reaching sex self-determination policies – which establishes ‘gender identity’ as a protected characteristic and allows parents to change the sex marker on their children’s documents from birth.

“In April, Germany finally after two years of horrifying and very aggressive debates, finally passed the Self-Determination Act, which will allow trans and inter and non-binary people to go to the registry office and say, ‘This is my first name, this is my gender entry,’ without psychological or medical assessments, without legal procedures… I’m very proud of this,” Lehmann said.

The SBGG also creates the potential for citizens to be fined up to €10,000 (approx. $10,800 USD) for revealing a person’s given name and birth sex without their permission – an action that trans activists staunchly oppose and refer to as ‘deadnaming.’

In the video shared to his social media, Divon appears ecstatic about the SBGG, which will soon come into effect in the nation.

“We can now change our gender markers and names starting from November, but you can already apply for that in August,” he instructs his viewers.

Lehmann was one of the most vocal supporters of the SBGG. He has previously drawn criticism for confessing in an interview for Queer.de to using the application Grindr during meetings in Parliament, and justifying this by stating, “Grindr is also work.” In response to public outcry, Lehmann took to Instagram to denounce critics as “TERFs” – an acronym which means “trans-exclusionary radical feminists,” and is applied broadly to any woman critical of gender identity ideology, often used alongside threats of violence.

Through his role as State Secretary of the Family Ministry (BMFSFJ), Lehmann has secured public funding for Lambda Bundesverband, an organization that provides youth sexuality counseling services, workshops, and summer camps. Lambda also publishes a magazine titled “Out!“ which is co-designed with the input of, and aimed at, youth as young as 14 years of age, and has promoted various fetishes, including bondage, voyeurism and exhibitionism, medical play, and age fetishes.

Divon’s lawsuit against McDonald’s is the second widely-publicized case of a man leveraging legal ‘gender identity’ protections in a bid to access a space where women undress. Nicolas Holstein, 25, who uses the feminine name “Laura Hannah,” is suing a women-only fitness center in Bavaria, requesting for €2,500 in compensation for “personal injury suffered” after he was denied access to the women’s showers.

https://reduxx.info/exclusive-details-german-trans-identified-male-sues-mcdonalds-after-being-denied-access-to-womens-changing-room