We are now in Terf Month ( to counteract Queer Month) and we are featuring great speeches on the theme of women’s rights. Please keep those suggestions coming in. Please send a link if you can. Thanks to those readers who have already sent in great suggestions.
There are loads of useful and interesting news, analysis and opinions coming into Dusty Towers, so this is another two parter, dear readers.
Next up is Lierre Keith from the Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) in the States, a tour de force journey through the rise of ‘transgenderism’.
Thanks to three wonderful readers for suggested pieces.
Some of the linked pieces below may be behind a paywall.
Terf Month. Abolish Pride.
Great piece on her substack by Julie Bindel and I totally agree with her. All thoughts gratefully received.
A Pride of Perverts
The Holy Month of Pride has become a shrine to narcissistic kinksters with a woman problem. It's time to put an end to this shameful spectacle and rebuild what was once a great liberation movement
Jun 04, 2025
Brighton Pride (where else?)
The holy month of Pride is upon us once more. For the next few weeks, you won't be able to visit a supermarket, order a takeaway coffee or board a bus in many cities without being confronted by that lurid rainbow flag.
Every time throughout June when I see a rainbow zebra crossing, a rainbow train or a host of rainbow flags all the way down Regent Street, I shall feel it as an attack on lesbians (the old fashioned female sort).
Pride parades are no longer about equal rights for gay and lesbian people. They have been hijacked by sexual fetishists, many of them heterosexual men, and turned into outdoor porn extravaganzas.
Gay Pride has become Pervert Pride. I would earnestly advise anyone with children to steer well clear of these marches, because you are likely to encounter men in bondage gear with bare buttocks and even their genitals on display.
The full piece is here:
https://juliebindel.substack.com/p/a-pride-of-perverts
Free Speech
Picking up on the case of Hamit Coskun who burnt his own copy of the Koran outside the Turkish Embassy in London, Andrew Doyle on his substack provides an excellent Free Speech charter.
How to save free speech in the UK
Some practical suggestions.
Jun 04, 2025
Freedom is never secure. It is a global and historical aberration. Those of us who live in countries in which liberty is valued have little conception of how fortunate we are. Free speech, as I have argued for many years, must be continually defended. It is not some indelible condition that, once achieved, can never be erased. Complacency is our greatest enemy.
Those of us of a liberal disposition have been sounding the alarm for many years over what is quite palpably a concerted effort among the ruling class to erode our freedoms. We have seen both major political parties calling for greater online censorship, ramping up ‘hate speech’ laws, drafting nonsensical definitions of ‘Islamophobia’ to curb criticism of religion, and justifying draconian jail terms for offensive remarks. Two-tier policing is now an observable reality, ‘non-crime hate incidents’ are still being recorded, and not even the judiciary is immune to the spread of the censorial woke ideology.
There have been many watershed moments when we should have realised that our liberties are in peril. There was the case of Lucy Connolly, a mother who had posted a rash and unpleasant tweet (swiftly deleted) and was sentenced to 31 months behind bars. There was the arrest and conviction of David Wootton, the man who wore a provocative Halloween costume as a joke. There was the revelation that police in the UK are arresting more than 12,000 people each year for words that cause offence. That’s more than 30 per day.
Yet a verdict this week at Westminster Magistrates’ Court should be the final tipping point, the moment when UK citizens must surely take action. Hamit Coskun has been found guilty of ‘disorderly behaviour within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress’, motivated by ‘hostility towards members of a religious group, namely followers of Islam’. That is to say, he burned his own copy of the Koran in a peaceful protest outside the Turkish consulate.
The full piece is here:
https://www.andrewdoyle.org/p/how-to-save-free-speech-in-the-uk
In the comments to Andrew’s piece, I said:
Thanks, Andrew and I agree with your excellent charter with two quibbles:
1. I think the protected characteristics should remain in the Equality Ac but 'gender reassignment' should be removed since it is meaningless ( I think other bits of the Equality Act need significant amendment).
2. More use should be made of Article 10 of the HumanRights Act, freedom of expression which has been successful in cases before including in one major case where it was quoted even before it was brought into force - see my piece here:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/free-speech-the-story-of-lucy-connolly
EDI Jester makes some excellent suggested additions to Andrew’s charter.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-165172054
Fascinating discussion between Andrew and Baroness Claire Fox ostensibly about his new book, The End Of Woke? though it ranges beyond that largely because Claire has not yet read it.
The For Women Scotland Judgment
Excellent analysis of the judgment by Michael Foran.
UK - A Stitch In Time!
At the National Trust’s Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire there is an exhibition celebrating ‘Virtuous Women’ where the names of women including JK Rowling have been stitched into a dress. Someone had come along and stitched the ‘trans colours’ over JKR’s name.
Jean Hatchet and her ‘wingwoman’ ‘Lightinlex’ turned up and unstitched the trans colours 😃 Good job, ladies!!
https://x.com/JeanHatchet/status/1928791016909279683
UK - Family Court Case
Sarah Phillimore on her substack analyses a recent important family court case.
Expert Evidence on Gender Affirming Treatment for a child
The courts are right to warn against making an individual child part of an attack on a wider ideology - but I think they are wrong to deny medical transition as a 'special category' of treatment.
Jun 04, 2025
On 3rd June 2025 the High Court handed down judgment in the case of N v N (Expert Evidence on Gender Affirming Treatment) [2025] EWHC 1325 (Fam)
This case involved a child B who was 17 in May 2025. The court refers to the child as ‘she’ but it is clear that B is male so I will use male pronouns. His parents wanted a declaration that B lacked capacity to consent to taking cross sex hormones as ‘gender affirmation’ treatment. The child had a Guardian but instructed his own legal team. The father had also made an application for judicial review of the decision of B’s GP to prescribe hormones to children.
B lives with his parents and had been prescribed female hormones by a GP since October 2024 pending referral to a specialist gender service. B forged his mother’s signature to get this prescription. In March 2025 CAMHS confirmed that B had ‘gender incongruence’ and accompanying distress.
B’s parents were concerned that there had been no proper holistic assessment of his overall mental and physical health to inform such treatment and this was not in line with the Cass Review and other professional guidance.
This judgment followed a case management hearing, all parties agreeing it was necessary to instruct an expert endocrinologist to assist the court. However, they couldn’t agree that expert’s identity. The parents also wanted to instruct a psychiatrist to report on B’s capacity and asked the court to agree that this was a special ‘medical treatment’ case so each party should be allowed to instruct their own experts.
The judge ordered a report from an endocrinologist but chose the child’s suggested endocrinologist. The judge refused the request for a psychiatric report.
Sarah concludes:
There is a huge and broad canvass of worry and doubt over what is being done to children in the name of ‘gender identity’. It is difficult for me to see how any child has the capacity to consent to a course of treatment that is unevidenced and irreversible. It is not meddling in policy for a court to agree that great caution is needed here. The fact that a child simply refuses to engage in a psychiatric assessment is not an indication that one is not needed (I would argue the reverse), however I agree it makes it practically difficult to arrange.
Of course, the court should never be asked to determine who is on the ‘Right Side of History’ as this cannot be their role in a democratic society. We have to leave the creation of law and policy to the elected politicians.
But the court interprets the law and it cannot do so in a vacuum. Any court dealing with the welfare of a child ought to be willing to consider the wider negative impact of unevidenced and dangerous medical practice in this field on a child’s ability to offer informed consent. That is neither playing God nor dabbling in policy decisions but rather doing the job with which the High Court is entrusted - to exercise the ancient parens patriae jurisdiction to secure the welfare of every child before it.
EDIT - I am grateful to the commentator who has reminded me of Devin’s case in Australia, which I wrote about here and which makes a valuable contrast to this case, with a judge who was on much higher alert about the dangers of medical transition. My worry is that these cases seem to depend on the views of whichever Judge is hearing them, which again points to ideological corruption. We also see this in the different approaches of senior lawyers in the world of podcasts - Double Jeopardy showing admirable scepticism re gender identity but Law and Disorder offering some very worrying assumptions about the power of ‘passing’.
The full piece is here:
UK - Ursula Doyle
Ironic that Kathleen Stock’s publisher should herself face discrimination and harassment! Feminist Legal Clinic reports:
Ursula Doyle settles with Hachette
In April 2024 Ursula Doyle, publisher of Kathleen Stock’s Material Girls, left a successful career in publishing after finding herself subjected to discrimination and harassment because of her gender-critical beliefs. She subsequently launched a crowdfunder which raised more than £60,000 and brought a claim against Hachette at the employment tribunal for discrimination on the grounds of her gender-critical beliefs. The case was settled last week. Doyle’s case follows a number of tribunals, including the highly publicised settlement of Prof Jo Phoenix with the Open University, and the ongoing Peggie and Darlington nurses cases, which highlight widespread discrimination against those sceptical of gender identity ideology across a range of professions. In a statement, Ursula said: ‘I am hopeful that UK employers are beginning to realise that a policy they might have adopted in good faith and with the best intentions might have unforeseen consequences which harm women.’ It is high time for publishers to act to ensure that their internal policies respect the rights of both people who identify as trans and women and do not go beyond the law. We look forward to working with them to ensure a fairer system for all.
Source: Ursula Doyle settles with Hachette – SEEN in Publishing
https://feministlegal.org/ursula-doyle-settles-with-hachette-seen-in-publishing/
Denmark - A Fightback!
Bernard Lane on his substack, Gender Clinic News reports on some fightback in Denmark against draft guidance from the Government on ‘gender incongruence.’ This includes strong submissions from the Danish Autism and Asperger’s Association and the Danish Rainbow Council! However, there does still seem to be a lurking belief that there are still some ‘true trans’ children! Nevertheless, it is heartening to see this pushback. All thoughts gratefully received.
Autism alarm
A Danish autism association breaks the taboo on talking about the extra risks of gender medicalisation for neurodiverse young people
Jun 04, 2025
Time warp
Young people with autism may be at risk from an unethical form of “medical conversion therapy”, according to Denmark’s Autism and Asperger’s Association.
In a sharp critique of the Danish Health Authority’s draft guidance for handling cases of “gender incongruence”, the autism association notes the approved “use of potent hormone preparations that were originally developed for the treatment of hormone-sensitive prostate cancer and are in some cases used for the chemical castration of paedophiles.”
“This raises a serious question: Are we witnessing a new form of medical conversion therapy aimed at autistic children and young people?
“Less than 20 years ago, attempts were made to ‘normalise’ autism and cure homosexuality using the same types of hormone preparations that are currently used for gender-modifying treatment, including cyproterone acetate (Androcur), spironolactone, GnRH analogues (puberty blockers) such as Leuprorelin, and similar drugs.
“History has shown that medical experiments on autistic children have had serious consequences—and yet we are on the verge of repeating the mistakes of the past.”
The strong pushback to the health authority’s draft “Professional framework for healthcare assistance in cases of gender incongruence”—issued in December last year and yet to be finalised—is noteworthy because many autism organisations elsewhere have been silent on the heightened risk of medical harm to autistic people misled and disoriented by the “gender-affirming” treatment approach and social promotion of self-declared “gender identity”.
The full piece is here:
https://www.genderclinicnews.com/p/autism-alarm?publication_id=627677&r=1v403b
Regret - The 1% Myth
‘Trans rights activists’ ( or, as Dennis Kavanagh calls them, ‘political transvestites’) are very fond of peddling the myth that there is only a less than 1% regret rate for those who have ‘transitioned.’ Feminist Legal Clinic reports:
The Zombie Study Behind the ‘1% Regret’ Myth for ‘Gender-Affirming’ Surgery
It is frequently claimed that fewer than 1 percent of patients who undergo “gender-affirming” surgery come to regret it. This talking point is everywhere, deployed in courtrooms, legislation, news segments, and policy debates as proof that these surgeries are safe and effective.
What most people don’t know is that this widely repeated claim comes from a single paper published in 2021: “Regret after Gender-affirmation Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Prevalence” by Bustos et al. The study appeared in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Global Open, a pay-to-publish version of the flagship journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. And although systematic reviews are generally considered the highest tier of evidence, this particular review has been shown to contain so many major flaws and data errors that it should not be relied on for any public health decision.
And yet it remains one of the most cited pieces of evidence used to justify gender-affirming surgery—including for minors. It is perhaps the most influential zombie paper in gender medicine, being dragged around like Bernie Lomax in the movie Weekend at Bernie’s by activists, journalists, and supposed “experts” who need its corpse propped up to sell the illusion that it’s alive.
The central claim of the paper is simple: that among 7,928 transgender patients pooled across 27 studies, only 77—less than 1 percent—reported regret, and just 34 expressed what the authors categorized as “major” regret. They conclude that “there is an extremely low prevalence of regret in transgender patients after GAS.” This is the origin of the “1 percent regret” statistic for gender surgeries that has been repeated ad nauseam ever since.
But serious problems emerge the moment you look more closely. Shortly after publication, a Letter to the Editor by Pablo Expósito-Campos and Roberto D’Angelo appeared in the same journal, cataloging a list of serious concerns. The authors pointed out that numerous relevant studies fitting their search criteria had been omitted from the review. At the same time, the paper included studies that should have been omitted. More troubling still were the blatant data extraction errors, with sample sizes misreported, outcomes misrepresented, and methods misunderstood.
Source: The Zombie Study Behind the ‘1% Regret’ Myth for ‘Gender-Affirming’ Surgery
The Misuse Of Language
Language is central to the Terf Resistance. Lucy Leader on her substack, Bodies get in the way… looks especially at the misuse of language. Here is one excerpt:
What’s more disempowering than the adults around you all agreeing that you’re too feeble to handle reality?
The requirement to offer everyone “safe spaces” and to be guarded against being “triggered” has infantilized an entire generation of today’s young adults.
I had a wonderful friend who was one of those young men who stormed the beaches on D Day in World War II. When he was 19 years old, fresh out of a small-town high school and in addition to surviving the D Day landings, he went on to be one of the Allied soldiers who liberated one of the Nazi concentration camps. After the war, he returned home, married his high school sweetheart and supported her and their five children working for the Post Office. Needless to say, he was never offered a safe space while fighting in Europe and no one cared if any further life events triggered any of his wartime experiences.
Comparing his experiences to the stated “traumas” occurring everywhere, particularly in Western university campuses now, is it any wonder that all many people can feel is contempt for the lack of resilience on display?
Today people seem to need protection from the sorts of normal social gaffes that used to be just brushed off. Hearing a culturally insensitive comment, someone forgetting your birthday or a group displaying insufficient diversity can be used as an excuse to have a mental health meltdown.
All thoughts gratefully received. The full piece is here:
Endpieces
I am splitting the endpieces between the two parts.
From Liz
#BeMorePorcupine
#LeaveKidsAlone
#AdultHumanFemale
#LetWomenSpeak
#LGB✂️TQ
#JoinFreeSpeechUnion
#HoldTheLine
#BeMoreDeplorable
#NeverSurrender
#NeverForget
#TruthWillTriumph
Thanks Dusty, so many good pieces on the two updates. Thanks for reposting the amazing Lierre Keith piece, I love it.
Totally agree with Julie Bindel, I’ve sent it to a couple of big companies which support gender drivel. And let’s hope that the autism research in Denmark will have some knock on effects elsewhere.
Shame on whoever stitched across JK Rowling’s name but well done to the ladies who unpicked the ‘silencing stitching’.
Interesting discussion from Claire Fox and Andrew Doyle but I have to take issue with their concern at an authoritarian backlash against woke. Whilst I don’t want our side to turn into authoritarians who call for cancellations etc, I do think we need a backlash in order to squash woke. If that involves a bit of schadenfreude when their side takes a bashing, I can only say, it’s their own fault. As Mia Hughes says ‘I want vengeance’. 😁
The wind & rain have battered my poppies. 😡 Thanks, Dusty. A lot to take in.