In the 1990s, Dr. Robert Smith, a surgeon at Falkirk Royal Infirmary, performed a pair of amputations on two men. Neither of the men involved had anything physically wrong with them, but both were suffering from apotemnophilia – a rare psychiatric condition involving the desire to have healthy limbs amputated.
Sufferers, counterintuitively, claim not to feel “whole” with four limbs and obsess over having their unwanted body parts chopped off. Smith argued the surgeries were life-saving, claiming the patients would commit suicide otherwise.
Apotemnophiles, like autogynephiles, insist that there is no erotic element, but it was later discovered that one of the men Smith operated on ran an amputee fetish website.
But in fact the headline on the STV News website – whether intentionally, through innocent misunderstanding or, as we suspect, a result of being deliberately misled by government ministers – is a flat-out lie.
In fact the Scottish Government has done the exact opposite. It has taken Dr Hilary Cass’s four-year report and set it on fire, so that it can continue to irreversibly destroy the lives of Scottish children in the name of gender ideology.
You’d have to be living in a pretty strict prison not to have heard the big story from today’s Olympics in Paris, in which male Algerian cheat Imane Khelefi was put in a boxing ring with young Italian woman Angela Carini and allowed to hit her in the head for 46 seconds until she retired, in tears and in fear for her safety, saying “I had to preserve my life”.
Sound like your kind of fun, men? It’s surprisingly easy!
The average rape sentence in Scotland is seven years, so to get six years plus three years’ supervision for the technically lesser crime of sexual assaults means they must have been pretty grim ones.
So we know that Cameron Downing is a very bad man. Which does rather invite the question of why he was so popular in the SNP.
Last week’s controversy around the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre put the spotlight on the need for single-sex services to protect vulnerable women, but it’s very far from the only example of how Scottish women are being let down in this regard by both the Scottish Government and civic organisations.
The homelessness system in Scotland has collapsed. Emergency accommodation is dangerous, sub-standard, and overcrowded. There has been an epidemic of deaths in hotels and B&Bs in recent years.
As a writer, feminist and literary events organiser in Scotland, I’m regularly sent links to information someone thinks might be of interest to me. This week it was a document commissioned by one of Scotland’s leading and most powerful publicly-funded literary organisations, Literature Alliance Scotland (LAS).
Nobody, of course, objects to transgender writers being included or supported, but the content of the guidance raises several extremely serious and concerning issues.
Mridul Wadhwa, a man with whom Wings readers have been familiar for some years, was found by the tribunal judge to have been “the invisible hand behind everything that had taken place” as Roz Adams, a conscientious, caring and highly professional woman with a long history in the sector, was systematically and methodically hounded out of her job for holding, privately and sensitively, the belief that biological sex is real.
Onlooker on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Aye, nae bother, likes. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nhsfife_nhsfifelifechanger-activity-6989148339782963200-BB6u” Jul 20, 18:14
Alf Baird on The Pillars Of Sanity: “The ‘A’ team in charge of Fife NHS, some of whom were also invited here to run St Andrews uni…” Jul 20, 17:59
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Pillars Of Sanity: “An Edinburgh University webpage has this: ‘The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft 1563-1736’ https://witches.hca.ed.ac.uk/faq/” Jul 20, 17:48
sarah on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Thank you for these facts, Robert Mellish. It is appalling that the Scottish Civil Service is officially present – not…” Jul 20, 16:16
Mark Beggan on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Come on Rev when we getting the low down. I’m starting to argue with James…” Jul 20, 15:43
Mark Beggan on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Fair point. How many Scots fill the Westminster corridors.” Jul 20, 15:35
Alf Baird on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Yes James, this is of course the reality in a colonial society which is run by external interests/values, as pointed…” Jul 20, 15:34
Lorn on The Pillars Of Sanity: “dearieme: accused ‘witches’ were nearly all women (albeit both men and children were also accused) but they were blameless of…” Jul 20, 14:59
Lorn on The Pillars Of Sanity: ““The transcripts of NHS Fife’s Kate Searle in particular bring into sharp focus how the NHS became a partisan lynch…” Jul 20, 14:44
James Cheyne on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Most of the Scottish government executors, advisors and Civil Servants are not born and bred backgrounds, I have just spent…” Jul 20, 14:31
Mark Beggan on The Pillars Of Sanity: “That’s exactly what is not being said but everyone is thinking. Thanks for that sane, refreshing summary of this evil…” Jul 20, 14:09
Mark Beggan on The Pillars Of Sanity: “You started so well and descended into ‘ how can I blame the British government for every disaster, crime, theft,…” Jul 20, 14:05
Mark Beggan on The Pillars Of Sanity: “NHS Fife is digging the biggest of all holes in front of the whole World and the Health secretary plays…” Jul 20, 13:32
Captain Caveman on The Pillars Of Sanity: “@Revstu On behalf of my wife, daughters and granddaughters, heartfelt thanks and gratitude to you and those other brave souls…” Jul 20, 13:13
James Cheyne on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Rev Stu, Thank you for all you’re constant and hard work that you put in on this issue, and to…” Jul 20, 12:33
C MacKay on The Pillars Of Sanity: “There’s a multi-coloured bus going round Glasgow with Pride markings all over it. They forget Pride’s a sin. Brilliant in-depth…” Jul 20, 11:00
C MacKay on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Great stuff- there’s a multi-coloured bus going round Glasgow with Pride markings all over it. They forget Pride’s a sin” Jul 20, 10:59
sarah on The Pillars Of Sanity: “That is excellent, Lorn. Please send to the best newspapers for wider viewing. It makes the topic so clear and…” Jul 20, 10:52
Grace Green on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Dearieme, Dearieme, you’ve got that all wrong! Witches were neither bad, mad, nor deluded. They were practitioners of natural medicine,…” Jul 20, 10:20
Willie on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Excellent article Mr Campbell. Summarises very well how the wheels have now been taken off the insanity bandwagon. The transcripts…” Jul 20, 08:50
stuckdoonhame on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Massive kudos to you, Lorn, not only for your ever sensible analysis of this nonsense but for your correct use…” Jul 20, 02:20
stuckdoonhame on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Massive kudos to you, Lorn, not only for your ever sensible analysis of this nonsense but for your correct use…” Jul 20, 02:13
Rob on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Its perfectly obvious that NHS Fife are trying to find something, anything, to blacken Peggies character t try and salvage…” Jul 20, 00:26
Lorn on The Pillars Of Sanity: “The National is a disgrace as a national newspaper. Its pages are in vested with ‘trans’ dogma and its support…” Jul 19, 23:23
dearieme on The Pillars Of Sanity: “James VI decided, later in life, that he’d been wrong about witches. They weren’t bad, they were mad. He supported…” Jul 19, 22:43
Alf Baird on The Pillars Of Sanity: “UKSC, Court of Session and ScotGov and other state institutions all serve the English (as British) Crown, i.e. they do…” Jul 19, 20:25
agent x on The Pillars Of Sanity: “@ Kelpie If they withdraw their defence then it becomes a default judgment and every point raised by the clamant…” Jul 19, 20:03
agent x on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Notice also that Upton is described as “she” despite having a cock and bollocks.” Jul 19, 19:34
Aidan on The Pillars Of Sanity: “@Kelpie – you are exactly right, that is definitely what they are planning to do” Jul 19, 19:22
Aidan on The Pillars Of Sanity: “@Alf – how does that relate specifically to the comments raised?” Jul 19, 19:20