In November 2020, the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives (BCCNM) informed me that I was under investigation for my “off-duty conduct.” My disciplinary hearing is scheduled to take place from May 30th through June 3rd, and my career as a nurse hangs in the balance. I have been working throughout, apart from a stress leave and various sick days that I have taken to protect my mental health.

The BCCNM is a regulatory body whose stated purpose is to protect the public from harm, and to ensure that nurses and midwives meet defined standards of care and professional responsibilities. It issues a license to practice; and without it, you can’t work as a nurse in British Columbia. I’d never thought too much about the BCCNM before this investigation was announced. I did my job, and believe I did it well. I paid my license fees each year—that was it.

My troubles started when the BCCNM informed me that two members of the public had complained to the organization, to the effect that I am transphobic and so might be incapable of “provid[ing] safe, non-judgemental care to transgender and gender diverse patients.” One of the complainants is a social worker named Alex Turriff, who self-describes as “a passionate social justice advocate … interested in structural violence and oppression [and] influenced politically by Marxism.” The other has been awarded the privilege of remaining anonymous, even as he or she has attempted to ruin my career: The BCCNM apparently agreed with the anonymous person’s belief that I might “retaliate” if I knew who they were.

In my decade-long nursing career, I have never had a patient complaint, or otherwise received any type of workplace discipline. To the contrary, I loved my job and worked my way into leadership roles. I have worked with countless transgender patients. I am not transphobic by any reasonable or defensible definition of that word. Yet I now could lose my job because activists claim that I am a bigot.

About six years ago, I became interested in what some call gender-identity ideology—which is centred on the claim that one’s self-asserted gender identity should trump biological sex in all areas of service provision and policy-making. As many have observed (including here at Quillette), there’s been an ideological creep from niche Internet communities and academic faculties to the real world of bathrooms, prisons, and sports teams. I date my own publicly stated concern about this phenomenon to the first time I was denounced with the slur “TERF” (trans-exclusionary radical feminist), which was in 2016.

Before this happened, I did not self-identify as any kind of active feminist, let alone the “radical” kind. However, I could not ignore the harms that gender-identity ideology was inflicting on women and children. And over the last six years, I’ve written and spoken on the issue of gender; organized large events about gender-identity ideology; hired lawyers to prevent the Vancouver Public Library from cancelling one such event; attended a human-rights tribunal and court hearings involving the notorious grifter formerly known as Jonathan Yaniv; been investigated and threatened with arrest by police when the aforementioned grifter falsely accused me of rape and voyeurism in a courthouse bathroom; faced hundreds of protesters—some of them former friends—chanting at me and my six-week-old infant, “Save the baby from the TERF”; received threats of death and sexual violence; had my Member of Parliament refuse to speak to me; and, with a former friend, helped erect a Vancouver billboard expressing support for my fellow “TERF,” J.K. Rowling.

It was this last bit, the billboard, which triggered trans activists to attempt to get me fired. And when that happened, I engaged a lawyer, Lisa Bildy, then with Canada’s Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, as I had no assurances that my union-provided legal representative wouldn’t be ideologically sympathetic with my accusers. And as it turned out, this was a good call: My province’s nurses’ union has since lobbied the Canadian government (without, to my knowledge, consulting members) to pass a controversial bill that threatens healthcare workers with prison time if they do not immediately “affirm” the stated gender of any patient, no matter how young.

Nearly six months after the original BCCNM message to me—indicating “concern” that I “share the same transphobic views as J.K. Rowling”—I was sent 300-plus pages of “investigation materials,” comprised mainly of my published articles and social-media posts, along with a set of questions I was directed to answer. The college never responded to my lawyer when she wrote to the BCCNM’s in-house lawyer, Aisha Ohene-Asante, to inquire as to whether “the characterization of J.K. Rowling’s alleged views as ‘transphobic’ are the words of the complainant, and not yours as a representative of the College.” Ohene-Asante did not respond to this, nor pass the file along to anyone else, so we are left with the possibility that the BCCNM has already tipped its bias.

I had no intention of recanting my views, which, as my lawyer described them to the BCCNM, are as follows:



Likewise, when asked to “describe any lessons learned” thus far, I wrote that



The BCCNM attempted to prevent me from speaking out about its investigation by asserting that I had a legal duty of confidentiality. My lawyer advised that the cited legal provisions didn’t apply to me. The BCCNM never responded to us on this issue, either. And so we decided to go public with a press release. I received an enormous amount of support from people around the world, and continue to get positive messages to this day—albeit with the occasional nasty online message from trolls mixed in.

After I’d gone public, the BCCNM attempted to get me to sign a consent agreement, which would have ended the investigation. But I refused. The proposed agreement involved me receiving a public reprimand, signing a statement of facts agreeing that I’d made transphobic comments online, getting a two-week suspension that would remain permanently on my record, pledging never to discuss gender identity while mentioning that I am a nurse, and other assorted items (such as “education” in regard to the use of social media). The BCCNM wanted me to agree that I had breached my professional standards “related to Ethical Practice, Professional Responsibility and Accountability, and Client-Focused Provision of Service.” But they weren’t able to articulate the manner in which I’d breached any of these standards; nor could they back up their more recent claim that I’d made “medically inaccurate statements.” The reason they haven’t done so is because they can’t.

I mentioned earlier how I “loved” my job. Past tense. I don’t anymore, because of everything I’ve described. I am a single mother with two young boys, and my job is something I do to pay the bills. I care about the patients I see, and I still do my best. But these events have taken their toll in regard to the way I view the profession. And unless the ideological climate changes, I may have to find a new career (a move that, hopefully, won’t negatively affect my ability to provide for my children).

During my time under investigation, the gender-identity culture war has gone on. Unfortunately for the BCCNM, recent developments have not bolstered the College’s case. Just the opposite: Maya Forstater won at a UK employment tribunal after losing her job for saying humans cannot change sex; detransitioned woman Keira Bell highlighted the way in which Britain’s Tavistock gender clinic has been harming children; Sweden banned puberty blockers for youth; Dr. Marci Bowers, the famous vaginoplasty specialist who operated on none other than Jazz Jennings, blew the whistle against reckless trans healthcare practices; several compassionate, science-backed (and heavily critical) books about the transgender movement have become bestsellers; and both the gender-critical women’s movement (whose members are demeaned as “TERFs”) and the detransitioners’ movement have grown worldwide.

Gender-critical women’s organizations are popping up around the globe, including in Canada, the USA, Italy, Mexico, the UK, France, Scotland, and other countries. Just a year or two ago, journalists would have had to pretend that someone such as Lia Thomas was a brave and authentic women’s swimming champion. But that, too, has changed. I hate the oversimplified notion that history has a “right side.” But it’s clear that mainstream tolerance for the demands of radical trans activists has become much thinner recently, and that common sense is eventually going to win out.

Depending on the outcome of my disciplinary hearing, which could include being stripped of my nursing license, I will appeal the decision through Canada’s court system if I feel my constitutional rights have been violated. But regardless of the outcome, the process itself is a kind of punishment. What has helped me endure it is the experience of meeting other women who share my convictions—women who refuse to remain idle while our rights are dismantled by governments and civic institutions. We aren’t going to back down. And we don’t care who wants to cancel us for speaking unfashionable truths.

Centuries ago, scientists were sometimes persecuted by the church for rejecting holy scripture. These days, it’s secular ideologues who demand that science yield to dogma. And while the phenomenon has become common enough, it’s still something of a shock to see a nursing organization reject plain truths about human biology. For something like 300,000 years, human beings have known that they are a sexually dimorphic species, with men being men and women being women. It’s how we make babies. Nobody should have needed me, or anyone else, to come along and point this out. And it’s a disgrace to the BCCNM that one if its members has been put in the farcical position of having to prove that it’s okay to say that two plus two makes four, and not five.

But if I win my case, I believe that the dividends will accrue to nurses and midwives all across my province, and maybe even the whole country. The precedent will help ensure that we can call out gender-identity ideology without fear of reprisal or loss of livelihood. And I have it on good authority that there are many nurses who will be watching my case closely. Even if most haven’t raised their voice publicly as I have, they’re tired of watching ideology trump science, while the real concerns of women are ignored, or even attacked, by the professional organizations tasked with protecting our interests.

Whenever I read a news article that claims a woman has committed some horrendous crime that is uncommon for women to commit, such as murder or sexual assault, I have a new rule I apply.

To test whether this has really happened, I open the link and immediately search for the word ‘transgender’. Whenever I do this, I am almost always informed that the assailant was not, in fact, a woman.

So when I saw the news that a woman in Middlesborough had been caught flashing to children and using a wheelie bin as a sex toy, I expected my rule to once again come to the rescue. In this case, however, the Metro exposed the reality instantly, by including the phrase ‘her penis’ in the headline.

Chloe Thompson, 42, had an eventful summer’s day last August. Thompson was caught by a couple using a sex toy in an alley and rubbing himself against a wheelie bin. On the same day, he exposed himself to a group of children who were in a car driving past his house.

Thompson is an ex-soldier who was previously called Andrew McNab – no relation to the famous author. He boasts 17 convictions for 22 offences, including sexually assaulting an underage girl in 2011. He was already on the Sex Offenders Register when he decided that he was, in fact, a woman. After transitioning, he went on to commit more sex crimes.

Given the littany of offences he committed that day in August, and his proven record of sex crimes, you would expect a violent male offender of this sort to be handed down a custodial sentence and kept away from the public. But despite pleading guilty to all three offences in February this year, Thompson could still avoid a stint behind bars. A judge at Teesside Crown Court was due to sentence him on Tuesday. But the decision has been delayed so that the judge can determine whether Thompson can be given a suspended sentence.

Judge Stephen Carroll has asked the probation service ‘to find out… whether [the sentence] could be suspended, given the challenges [Thompson] faced at the time’. Thompson’s defence lawyer has clarified that Carroll was referring specifically to the ‘difficult time Thompson is having with her gender identity’.

So there you have it. A male sex offender, who retains male genitals, could be given a lighter sentence because he claims to be a woman.

Sadly, this case does not appear in isolation. There is now a spree of news stories involving male sex offenders who present as women while committing offences. The media dutifully use their preferred pronouns, and judges treat them with sympathy. Some are even sent to women’s prisons – if they are unlucky enough to be sent down at all while they deal with their ‘challenges’.

I’m not sure how many stories like this will force a reaction. Hopefully, there will soon come a point when people will grow tired of reading about a ‘woman’ committing an obscene sex crime, while the news outlet attaches a photo of a 20-stone beefcake equipped with a five o’clock shadow and an Adam’s apple.

But for now it seems there is little chance of a turnaround on this front, especially when so many politicians and leading lights of the liberal movement are struggling to determine who actually counts as a woman. Keir Starmer’s definition of the word woman seems to change every week, as he is clearly petrified of being pilloried by members of his own party who think womanhood is something you can dip in and out of as you fancy.

The prime minister reassured us last week that the ‘basic facts of biology remain overwhelmingly important’ when distinguishing between men and women. But his right-hand man, Rishi Sunak, perhaps sensing a return to his adopted Californian home where alternative biological facts run rife, has been more cautious with his assessment of what a woman is.

Few institutions and major public figures seem to know what a man is, either. Chloe Thompson’s underage victim certainly does – as do all of the unfortunate souls who were subjected to his indecent exposure and bin-shagging last year.

If our justice system is serious about prioritising the protection of victims, it would do well to rely on what they can see to be true, rather than on the ever-changing rules that pervade our loopy national conversation about gender.

Holy shit, that Twitter feed is a train wreck.

A murderer who changed gender is demanding to be treated as a baby by prison staff.

Sophie Eastwood was formerly known as Daniel and was jailed for life in 2004 for strangling a cell-mate with shoelaces.

The killer has now told the prison governor at Polmont jail that she wants to identify as a baby, wear nappies and have meals blended like baby food.

Eastwood has also demanded that prison officers hold her hand when she is escorted from her cell.

It is understood that prison bosses are treating the demands seriously and considering which protocols might be established in dealing with the prisoner.

Eastwood has already been supplied with a dummy.

A source said: “This prisoner has been difficult and manipulative over the years, which is why she is still behind bars after 17 years.

“She decided that she would ‘trans’ from a man to woman, which is becoming more common in jails these days.

“But this is obviously something else entirely and the Scottish Prison Service has no protocol in place for dealing with prisoners who decide they are babies.”

The source added: “Eastwood is a complex person and intelligent but she is pretty demanding on the resources of the prison and enjoys being the centre of attention.

"It’s difficult to know if she really does feel a natural inclination to be treated like a baby or if it’s just some kind of attention seeking.

“Modern prisons are very tuned in to human rights and the legal implications they throw up, so it’s being given proper consideration.”

Eastwood, 36, is serving a life sentence for killing Paul Algie, 22, in 2004.

Formerly Daniel Eastwood, she has been living as a woman in jail for four years and completed her 15-year minimum term in 2019.

One year after banning the sale of ‘gender critical’ book When Harry Became Sally, Amazon has listed a newly-released “LGBTQ Horror” novel, the plot of which is centered around trans-identified males graphically murdering feminists.

Written by trans-identified male Gretchen Felker-Martin, Manhunt follows the story of two trans-identified males attempting to navigate a post-apocalyptic wasteland in which anyone with high levels of testosterone turns into a zombie. The characters, having run out of synthetic estrogen, take to eating the testicles of the undead males in order to get their supply and to stave off the plague. Along the way, they hunt down women who are depicted as “TERF soldiers.”

The militant leader, or “Queen TERF,” is described with a reference to Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. MichFest was a women-only event that was targeted by a trans activist group. Two regular attendees, a lesbian couple and their adopted son, were killed in a triple homicide, and a trans-identified male named Dana Rivers is currently awaiting trial in a California women’s prison for their murder.

In his tweet, Felker-Martin alludes to the death of JK Rowling, which is treated as a point of entertainment for the trans characters. The “TERFs” are referred to as “the Knights of JK Rowling,” with the women participating in the brutalization and even sexual abuse of trans-identified males. There is a reference to the death of the Harry Potter author in allegory, with a “TERF” weapon called the Galbraith being violently destroyed.

The novel features egregious sexual themes, including an obvious fantasy by Felker-Martin in which the trans-identified males are made sex slaves called “daddies” for the “cis women.”

In one of the first chapters, one of the transgender protagonists gets an erection while attempting to kill one of the “TERFs.” The same character has repeated fantasies throughout the novel at imagining “TERFs” dressed in leather and acting as female dominatrixes.



Towards the end of the novel, Felker-Martin pens a particularly grotesque scene in which a Black woman is killed by having her womb removed while still conscious. The woman is verbally abused during the procedure.

The blatant violence, misogyny, and racism didn’t sit well even with pro-LGBT readers, with one who gave the book a 1-star review on GoodReads writing: “Was it really necessary to show a Black woman’s womb being removed by an amateur surgeon while she’s being called a c*nt and humiliated in front of her former comrades as she bleeds out and dies in utter degradation?”

Other reviews similarly took aim at the seemingly senseless violence towards women portrayed, with another stating: “Y’all want to worship this book because the main characters are trans but ignore the terrible writing, disgusting demonization of women, grotesque depictions of characters eating organs from zombified people’s bodies, and horrifying misogyny evident in just the first chapters available to preview.”

Capitalizing on themes of violence against women aren’t unfamiliar to Felker-Martin, who came to widespread criticism last year when he downplayed rape as an experience that’s not “uniquely horrible,” going on to proudly declare: “I’ve never written anything without at least one rape scene in it.”

Felker-Martin also wrote “I truly, sincerely believe art should have more rape in it.”

In a January interview with The Big Thrill, Felker-Martin clarifies his views on the feminists he refers to as “TERFs,” saying, “Essentially, if women are all the proverbial crabs in a bucket, TERFs are the ones making sure nobody gets out. They’re sick, evil, vicious people torturing other human beings for no real reason at all, and I wanted to splash that right across the page.”

In the acknowledgements, Felker-Martin credits trans-identified male author Torrey Peters as an inspiration. Peters’ novella Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones follows a similar premise as Manhunt: a trans-identified male creates a virus that prevents the body’s natural synthesis of hormones. Additionally, Peters has written extensively about “sissy porn,” a genre of pornography that involves men ostensibly being feminized against their will, with the loss of status and humiliation being a central source of arousal.

While Amazon has recently begun pulling “gender critical” books from its virtual store, citing violations of its appropriate content policy, it has continued to allow violent books such as Felker-Martin’s, as well as other highly disturbing works which border on written child sexual exploitation material.

Searches for transgender fiction turn up dozens of self-published ‘sissy’ erotic stories involving children. A common theme amongst them is the forced feminization of young boys, a subject also found in Manhunt, in which some male children are made to wear dresses in an effort to survive.

Notorious Porsche driver Richard Pusey has tried to quote the Ukrainian president during an extraordinary court appearance before hitting a roadblock over a crucial document.

Dressed in prison greens and with their hair in pigtails Pusey appeared via video link in the Sunshine Magistrates Court on Tuesday for a bail hearing, which was stalled before it barely began.

An unrepresented Pusey told the court they’d not received key documents relied upon for the bail application.

Pusey claimed they were “not armed the same” as the prosecution and it would be unfair to hear their case.

They also went on to misquote Volodymyr Zelensky.

“Freedom must be armed no worse than tyranny,” Pusey told the court, though Mr Zelensky’s words were actually, “freedom must be armed better than tyranny”.

Pusey is facing allegations they posted an image of a dead police officer to the website of a Melbourne Porsche dealership.

The 44-year-old, who was jailed for filming four dying police officers after a crash on Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway in 2020, has been charged with two counts of using a telecommunications device to menace and two counts of committing an indictable offence on bail.

The charges stemmed from an investigation into two separate incidents on November 25 and February 7, police said in a statement.

One of the charges alleges the former mortgage broker posted a Google review to the Porsche dealership’s website that included an image of an officer killed in the horrific Eastern Freeway crash.

Pusey was arrested earlier this year and has been remanded in custody ever since.

During Tuesday’s hearing the prosecution agreed with Pusey’s submission and Magistrate Jennifer Grubissa adjourned the matter until later this month.

Pusey then asked the magistrate how long they would need to be in rehab.

“How long do I have to be here until I get better?” Pusey asked.

“They this is a rehabilitation centre, so how long until I get better?”

Magistrate Grubissa said the court would not be answering that query today and adjourned his hearing to April 29.

Last month Pusey told the magistrate they almost missed their appearance because they were planning to visit some GPs in relation to gender reassignment surgery and had previously told the court their pronouns were they/them.

A number of charges against Pusey were dropped in the Magistrate Court last week.

They included two counts of stalking and four of assaulting an emergency worker, and committing an offence while on bail.

Police had previously alleged Pusey threw canisters of nitrous oxide at officers and left cat litter and faeces around a person’s home.

Pusey was sentenced to 10 months jail last year after pleading guilty to the rare charge of outraging public decency for filming the aftermath of the crash that killed Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor, Senior Constable Kevin King and Constables Josh Prestney and Glen Humphris.