A Song Is Born Part 1

Update 552. Do No Harm Special. #BeMorePorcupine.

Another two parter, dear readers! I hope this makes it more digestible!!

As we move into 2025 I am featuring, to start with, and in alphabetical order, those Readers’ Choices for best film ever that did not make the top seven ( see Update 500 for the top seven). Next up is A Song Is Born (1948).

In the Totten Foundation’s Victorian mansion in New York City, mild-mannered Professor Hobart Frisbee (Danny Kaye) and his seven fellow academics, among them Professor Magenbruch (Benny Goodman), are writing and recording a comprehensive musical encyclopedia. They have been living cut off from the world for 9 years, living without a radio. Thanks to two window washers (Buck and Bubbles) seeking help with a radio quiz, they discover that there are many forms of popular music that they know nothing about. Hobart, the expert on “folk music” goes out and explores the music scene before, during and after hours, inviting all the artists he meets to come to the Foundation.

The professors become entangled in the problems of nightclub singer Honey Swanson (Virginia Mayo). She needs a place to hide out from the police, who want to question her about her gangster boyfriend, Tony Crow.

Thanks to two wonderful readers for suggested pieces,

Some of the linked pieces below may be behind a paywall.

Scotland - Care Inspectorate Doesn’t Care!

One piece from the latest Sex Matters newsletter ( 21 March):

Scottish Care Inspectorate enforces self-ID

Children in the Scottish care system are expected to share spaces with members of the opposite sex.

A newly published policy from the Scottish Care Inspectorate says that children in care who identify as trans “should not be made to use the toilet or bedroom of their sex assigned at birth”. It claims there is “no law in Scotland” mandating single-sex spaces.

Georgia Edkins for the Scottish Mail on Sunday broke the story and quoted Helen Joyce as saying that the guidance is a terrifying failure of the state’s duty to protect some of Scotland’s most vulnerable young people. She added that the policy is grossly negligent and puts young people who deserve so much better at significant risk.

According to the Cass Review, published last year, a disproportionately high number of children in care identify as transgender.

The Care Inspectorate defended its stance, stating that care providers should determine appropriate facilities based on individual needs. The guidance aligns with Scottish Government school policies on children who are questioning their gender.

This is despite women’s campaign groups in Scotland such as Murray Blackburn Mackenzie and For Women Scotland publishing in-depth analysis and writing repeatedly to ministers and regulators to explain that single-sex spaces are indeed lawful, and that in some circumstances not providing them is likely to be unlawful.

The States - University of Pennsylvania

EDI Jester reports on the Trump administration freezing $175 million in funding to the University of Pennsylvania for failing to stop larping men competing in women’s sports. We so need this happening over here in the UK!!! Lia ‘The Liar’ Thomas swam for this university, you will recall, against Riley Gaines. You don’t remember!!??

EDI has also done a wonderful and very detailed piece on his substack called ‘Reclaiming Reason’:

https://substack.com/home/post/p-159538094

Canada - Vancouver East

The lucky voters of Vancouver East are getting Meghan Murphy as their candidate in the next election as reported on her substack, The Same Drugs!

I only just reported on the story of Vancouver Rape Relief!

https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/hell-is-coming-to-breakfast-part?utm_source=publication-search

Meghan Murphy: Adult Human Female for Vancouver East

I'm running for the People's Party of Canada and could use your support!

Mar 20, 2025

Hello, it’s me, your friendly neighbourhood TERF. You might remember me as the woman who testified against Bill C-16, Canada’s gender identity legislation in 2017, who was then cancelled into oblivion by Canadian media, politicians, and leftists.

Well, it didn’t work.

Rather, I continued my fight for women’s sex-based rights and spaces—writing, speaking, and raising the alarm about the threat posed by gender identity ideology. While many have caught on and joined the pushback against males in female sports, prisons, changerooms, and other spaces where women and girls are vulnerable, and while countries like America and the UK have restricted the transitioning of minors, Canada remains a holdout.

Violent male criminals are transferred to women’s prisons, men compete as women in sport, adult males access girls’ changerooms, and nothing is done to stop them. Few parties and candidates have challenged any of this, certainly not in progressive strongholds like Vancouver.

This election, that changes.

I’m running in the next election in the Vancouver East riding for the People’s Party of Canada (PPC). Having lived and voted in East Vancouver for many years, I am well aware that this is an NDP [ New Democratic Party] riding through and through. Indeed, I voted NDP for many years, until I came to the point where I could no longer vote for a party that had abandoned women and common sense so unapologetically.

Come 2015, I didn’t vote at all, as no party would stand up for women, kids, and biological reality. Once the PPC was formed, I was relieved to find candidates like Karin Litzcke, who were standing up for the things I cared about (that no other parties were). Indeed, party leader Maxime Bernier was unapologetic and bold, right out the gate, in rejecting gender identity ideology.

I cannot and will not vote for a party who pretends not to know what a woman is. And neither should you. That’s why I’m running in Vancouver East—so all of those who feel politically homeless, silenced, vilified, ostracized, and abandoned by the very people claiming a vested interest in the marginalized, the working class, women, kids, and families have someone they can vote for who refuses to lie to and gaslight Canadians for political capitol, to maintain their social status, and to protect their bottom line.

I am beyond excited to force a conversation about the things that have been ignored, silenced, and labelled as untouchable topics of debate for far too long.

The NDP may have the vote in Vancouver East, but they can no longer dictate the conversation.

I hope you are as excited as I am to see a Terf on the ballot in a riding that has done its very best to terrify, bully, and cancel those who can define the word “woman” and “man” into silence.

While I have been approved by the PPC as a candidate for Vancouver East, one important thing needs to happen in order for Elections Canada to put my name on the ballot: I need to collect 100 signatures from eligible voters in my riding (Vancouver East) via an official Electors Consenting to Candidacy form.

Individuals who sign do not need to be registered to vote, they do not need to plan to vote for me, they do not need to support me or even like me—they just need to consent to my name being on the ballot.

So even if you hate my guts, but you like democracy, and believe that Vancouver East voters should be granted the opportunity to vote for someone who believes women and girls deserve sex-based rights and protections, that men aren’t women, that no child is born in the wrong body, and who will tell the truth where others fear to tread, please consider signing an Electors Consenting to Candidacy form!

Best of luck, Meghan!

https://www.meghanmurphy.ca/p/meghan-murphy-adult-human-female

Riley Gaines Joins Substack!

Talking of Riley, she has joined substack!

https://substack.com/@rileygaines11/note/c-101792682

Do No Harm

Excellent piece on the Glinner Update from Rebecca Says No about an anonymous GP who will not affirm. We need more doctors and other medical professionals to ‘come out.’

Testimony of a GP Who Will Not Affirm

A Message to You, GPs

Mar 21, 2025

This article was written by an anonymous doctor who is concerned about gender-affirming care and the expectation that GPs in the UK will prescribe hormones for young adults who have been seen by Gender Identity Clinics.

The author would like to thank Nick Wallis, who first published the article on his blog.

Introduction

I am a GP working for the NHS in the UK. I am writing this piece anonymously because I am worried I might be targeted, either by activists, or by people within my profession who don’t share my views and have the capacity to harm my career.

I want to explain why I don’t prescribe hormones for people who identify as trans. I also want to explain my serious concerns about the way people who present with gender dysphoria are being treated. I also want to empower other GPs to think about what they are prescribing and why.

Currently, GPs are leaving themselves open to litigation by prescribing off-licence medication in a specialist area which lacks robust medical evidence and is known to cause irreversible harms.

There appears to be a basic misunderstanding of the Equality Act 2010, which leads GPs to fear being accused of discrimination if they do not give these patients what they want. The Equality Act does not state this. Instead, it mandates that transexuals must not face discrimination and should not be treated differently due to their protected characteristic—gender reassignment."

Internal activists and external lobby groups have a stronghold within organisations such as the Royal College of GPs (RCGP). This activism has enabled the indoctrination of the NHS by an ideology, and as a result it has discarded its ethical framework under the guise of caring, or being kind. However, ‘being kind’ necessitates striving to practice evidence-based medicine, striving to do no harm, and striving to practice the art of medicine, which requires exploration, not affirmation.

GMC guidance states: “You are responsible for the prescriptions you sign”. Doctors are therefore responsible for any short and long-term harms caused by what they prescribe.

The Chalmers Gender Identity Clinic shared care protocol ends with:

“This shared care agreement does not compel a primary care prescriber to prescribe if they feel that it is out with the scope of their competencies (as per GMC [General Medical Council] guidance on safe prescribing) or resources, as ultimate responsibility lies with the prescribing, not the recommending, clinician.”

I have looked at six other shared care agreements from Gender Identity Clinics (GICs) and a statement to this effect is absent.

Most children who trans-identify do not trans-identify by adulthood. Yet affirmative care (agreeing a child or young adult is what they say they are, and helping them attain their short-term goals) is the dominant model.

This causes problems for GPs from the moment a trans-identifying individual walks through the door. Gender-affirming care means using chosen pronouns and allowing, accepting or encouraging social transition.

The Cass review states: “In an NHS setting it is important to view [social transition] as an active intervention because it may have significant effects on the child or young person in terms of their psychological functioning and long term outcomes“. [p.158]

I think, in any event, that ‘gender dysphoria’ is, at most, a symptom ( see Dr Miriam Grossman) and you don’t treat a symptom! The full piece is here:

https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/testimony-of-a-gp-who-will-not-affirm

New Zealand - Resist Gender Education

On their substack, Resist Gender Education respond to an article in the magazine Principals Today on the ongoing review into Relationships and Sexuality Education ( I have been frequently reporting on this issue - see, for example: https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/my-old-mans-a-dustman-part-1?utm_source=publication-search ).

Ben, your bias is showing

Response to an article in Principals Today

Mar 21, 2025

Principals Today, a magazine sent to all schools once a term, carried an article entitled "Relationships and Sexuality Education to be Reviewed" by Ben O’Connell in its 16 January issue.

https://principalstoday.co.nz/relationships-and-sexuality-education-review-nz/

Although Ben made an effort to cover this very contentious topic with some balance, he has fallen short because he does not fully understand the issues. Plus the they/him pronouns he uses in his Linked-in profile suggest an impediment to reporting objectively about gender ideology because he is a true believer.

Value children as the sex that they are

Without speaking to anyone in RGE he has labelled us an "anti-transgender group". In the article he does not say anything about the composition or motivation of our group, meaning the "anti-transgender" pejorative stands uncontested in readers' minds. RGE is an alliance of very experienced educators, parents, grandparents, and others, including some from the rainbow community, who are motivated, not by conservative or religious views, but by the imperative that children should not be told untruths about their bodies. We welcome gender nonconformity and the breaking down of sexist stereotypes. We advocate for children to be free to be themselves and, whatever their interests, to be accepted and valued as the sex that they are.

Journalistic courtesy breached

Ben quotes accurately from one of our Substacks but does not cite the source, giving readers the impression that he had spoken to someone from RGE in person. This becomes troublesome in the section entitled "Debunking RGE's Approach". Readers may think that Ben had raised the supposed flaws in RGE's argument and we were not able to satisfactorily counter them but, if Ben had contacted us, we would have readily rebutted the criticisms he made. When a journalist writes negative comments about a group, it is standard practice to ask the group for comment before publication. Principals Today has breached this normal journalistic courtesy.

What really happens in schools

In his attempt to 'debunk' RGE's position on gender ideology in schools, Ben shows less than adequate knowledge of the reasons why parents have raised concerns and why the RSE Guide has been removed from the MOE [ Ministry of Education] website. He purports to know what is being taught in primary schools, yet he doesn't seem to understand the difference between the curriculum and lesson content. While the curriculum is a broad outline and mostly not contentious, it is the detailed lesson content recommended in the just-removed RSE Guide that contains the harmful messages about 'gender identity' that many parents and teachers object to.

The full piece is here:

https://resistgendereducation.substack.com/p/ben-your-bias-is-showing?publication_id=1390174&post_id=159538044&isFreemail=true&r=20xc5g&triedRedirect=true&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Endpiece

I am splitting the endpieces between the two parts 😄

From Tenaciously

#BeMorePorcupine

#EndGenderAffirmingCare

#AdultHumanFemale

#LetWomenSpeak

#GrassrootsArmy

#FightForFreeSpeech

#ByeByeStonewall

#XYYouAreAGuy

#LarpersKeepOut

Part 2 will follow shortly, Terven.

If you like this update, please send to a friend. Until next time, Terven. This isn’t over yet! Please subscribe for free or paid or buy me a coffee, like and comment.