Are You For Women's Lib? Part 2.
Update 609. This Is Terf Month. #BeMorePorcupine.
Here we go with Part 2.
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Women’s Liberation Movement, Trafalgar Square, London 1971.
Thanks to three wonderful readers for suggested pieces.
Some of the linked pieces below may be behind a paywall.
Remove The Gold Medals!
I reported on the recent World Boxing Council decision here:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/am-i-allowed-any-dignity?utm_source=publication-search
A leaked medical report shows conclusively that Imane Khelif is a biological male. Presuming the same is true for the Taiwanese boxer, Lin Yu-ting, the Gold Medals should now be taken from them!
Niamh Uí Bhriain in Gript News ( Women demand apologies after test shows boxer is male 04 June) reports:
Irish group, The Countess, are amongst many women’s rights organisations who are now seeking apologies from those who supported boxer Imane Khelif’s controversial inclusion in the women’s boxing at the Paris Olympics, after a leaked medical report at the weekend indicated the boxer is biologically male.
Khelif won Olympic Gold at the games, but the contentious match made global headlines as the Algerian boxer faced off against Italy’s Angela Carini who quit after a 46-second fight in which Carini said she had “never felt a punch like this”.
Ms Carini dropped to her knees after Algerian boxer Khelif was announced the winner of the fight by abandonment: having called out to her coach ‘non è giusto – ‘this is unjust’.
Journalist Oliver Brown described the “right hand from Imane Khelif that left Angela Carini unable to continue”, adding ” There was blood on her shorts”. He said that Khelif had been thrown out of last year’s World Championships after failing biochemical tests for testosterone,
Former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, weighed in at the time, attacking those opposing Khelif’s inclusion, saying they were a “bunch of bullies” and adding he would donate to legal fees incurred by Khelif in the complaint.
“Fair play to Imane Khelif. I hope she has financial support for her law suit. I’d be happy to make a donation,” Mr Varadkar said.
Broadcaster Matt Cooper and pundit Joe Brolly were also amongst those supporting Khelif – and women’s rights group The Countess has called on all who made such statements to apologise.
The full report is here:
DEI Must DIE
Simon Fanshawe, formerly director of the ( good old) Stonewall, has written in The Times saying that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion now needs a re-vamp. EDI Jester disagrees with him completely and I agree with the Jester. Get rid of it! All thoughts gratefully received.
Ireland - Free Speech
It looks like the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) and the Media Minister haven’t yet got to grips with what free speech entails!!
Credit: David Kernan (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Ben Scallan in Gript News ( No analysis of misinformation laws’ free speech risk 04 June) reports:
The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications has confirmed that it has not conducted any analysis or research into the potential free speech impact of misinformation and disinformation regulations.
In response to a query from Gript, a spokesperson for the Department stated: “The Department has not undertaken any analysis or research on the potential impact of mis/disinformation laws on free speech.”
The confirmation comes as Taoiseach Micheál Martin defended the Government’s efforts to regulate misinformation, telling Gript outside Government Buildings this week that “it’s not freedom of speech, really, when it’s just a blatant lie and untruth, which can create a lot of public disquiet, as we have seen.”
“There are very strong protections in our constitution and in our laws and freedom of speech,” he said.
“So I wouldn’t overstate the impact on clamping down on blatant lies online as a sort of incursion or an undermining of freedom of speech.
“We believe in freedom of speech in this country and we will always support it and protect it to the best possible degree.”
Martin was responding to questions about the Government’s plans to regulate misinformation and disinformation, which are referenced nine times in the Programme for Government.
When asked if it was irresponsible not to carry out research into the free speech implications of such regulation, Martin pointed to a recent discussion on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme.
“Well, there was a good bit of research this morning on Morning Ireland about misinformation last Sunday in respect of the shooting in Carlow,” he said.
“There was a researcher on identifying the blatant misinformation on truths and lies surrounding what happened in Carlow. So I do think it’s absolutely important that government focuses on this issue.”
The Taoiseach further criticised the spread of false claims online about the Carlow shooting incident.
“I watched social media,” he said.
“People were saying on social media that seven people had been killed, that people had been shot that were not shot. And I’m conscious that there was a family in mourning right now.
“The level of misinformation on Sunday was quite shocking,” he continued.
“And you can’t just ignore that and say, well, we don’t have to do anything about that.”
In response to concerns raised about potential restrictions on free speech, Martin said he believed the risks were being overstated.
“I believe that people are overstating the dangers to freedom of speech in efforts to address misinformation and untruths,” he said.
“And I think we have to do that too. The same focus doesn’t seem to apply to the untruth part of this or the misinformation part of this.”
Ireland has introduced a number of major pieces of legislation targeting misinformation and disinformation. The Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022 created Coimisiún na Meán as Ireland’s national media regulator, with powers to issue Online Safety Codes against harmful content.
Ireland is also bound by the EU’s Digital Services Act, which imposes transparency and accountability requirements on major online platforms in their handling of illegal content, including disinformation.
The Electoral Reform Act 2022, meanwhile, defines “misinformation” as false or misleading online electoral information that may cause public harm, regardless of intent, and disinformation as false or misleading electoral information intended to deceive and cause harm. It grants An Coimisiún Toghcháin (the Electoral Commission) authority to regulate online political advertising and combat disinformation during election periods.
Independent TD [ A Teachta Dála is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas, the parliament of Ireland]. Nolan has criticised the Government’s approach, saying: “Given the gravity of the issues at stake, and the threat to fundamental freedoms that so-called mis/disinformation strategies represent, it is utterly remarkable that basic due diligence, in the form of even the most minimal impact assessment was not conducted.”
Meanwhile, Aontú leader and TD Peadar Tóibín also raised concerns.
“The Government is in very dangerous territory in terms on encroaching on the freedom of speech,” Tóibín said.
“Freedom of speech is the foundation of democracy. The competition of ideas allows the best ideas percolate to the top and become policy. The fact that the government hasn’t even undertaken any research on the potential negative impacts on restrictions to freedom of speech is incredible. This is not evidence based policy.”
Gript previously asked then-Media and Communications Minister Catherine Martin a question about the same issue, the clip of which can be viewed below.
Regarding the Carlow shooting that is mentioned, see here: https://news.sky.com/story/man-dead-and-child-injured-after-shooting-incident-at-shopping-centre-in-ireland-13377972
Australia - Moira Deeming
I reported on Moira Deeming’s lawyers starting bankruptcy proceedings against Mr Pesutto here:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/celebrate-diversity-by-silencing
As reported by Feminist Legal Clinic, The Australian are rightly outraged at the suggestion that the Liberal Party might bail our Mr Pesutto:
Liberals have no business bailing out John Pesutto | The Australian (05 June)
When you’re in a hole the best advice is to stop digging. But not if you’re a former Liberal leader in Victoria. Instead, you bring in an excavator, as well as a couple of sticks of gelignite, for good measure. How else do you explain the madness that’s being suggested by John Pesutto, Jeff Kennett, Ted Baillieu and others that the Liberal Party pay the $2.3m in indemnity costs ordered by the Federal Court after Pesutto defamed fellow Liberal Moira Deeming?
In what other workplace would people in a position of authority get bailed out after a court found they had reputationally destroyed a colleague, concealed secret recordings from evidence and generally made someone’s life a living hell?
And yet the Liberal Party wonders why it has a problem with women if this is how one of their own is treated. But to merely equate this with rank misogyny misses the rich vein of snobbery that runs through this whole sorry saga. I mean how dare a former schoolteacher from struggle street in western Melbourne stand up to the lawyer-turned-party-leader from the leafy suburbs of Hawthorn? And in taking him on, how dare she win?
All through this case, the word around Melbourne Liberal circles was that this would be a laydown misere win for Pesutto. Anyone seen to be defending Deeming was to be ostracised and in not-so veiled threats from Kennett, he declared her supporters inside the parliamentary Liberal Party “disloyal and perhaps even treacherous” and threatened to have them “dealt with in due course when preselections are called for the next election”.
What is staggering is that Pesutto, a former solicitor and shadow attorney-general, refused to countenance losing this case and rejected a pre-trial offer to settle for $99,000 without even an apology. Indeed, part of the reason for the massive costs order against him is because he ignored opportunities to mitigate damage and deliberately prolonged proceedings, as repeatedly referenced by Justice O’Callaghan in his judgment.
https://feministlegal.org/liberals-have-no-business-bailing-out-john-pesutto-the-australian/
New Zealand - Broadsheet Is Back!
Some good news from NZ care of the loosening up by Facebook and as reported by Katrina Biggs on her substack, A B’Old Woman.
NZ feminist mag, Broadsheet, is back live on Facebook, after being frozen for 33 months.
After having their Facebook page stopped cold, Broadsheet's back in action.
Jun 05, 2025
Good news! After 33 months in the frozen tundra of cancel culture, due to the successful efforts of transactivists, Broadsheet NZ’s Feminist Magazine is back on Facebook.
Broadsheet magazine - not to be confused with Broadsheet, an NZ/AUS food, drink, travel & art website (which might actually also be worth a look) - “was a monthly New Zealand feminist magazine produced in Auckland from 1972 to 1997. The magazine played a significant part in New Zealand women's activism. It was to become one of the world's longest-lived feminist magazines”¹.
In 2015, Broadsheet re-emerged on Facebook as a public page, and was openly not on board with gender ideology. They committed the cardinal sin of not believing that men could ever magically, surgically, medicinally, or simply by the power of their feelings, become women. Naturally, that didn’t sit well with transactivists, who relentlessly trolled the page, and made coordinated mass complaints to Facebook about Broadsheet.
Eventually, it seems that Facebook HO became riddled with enough wokesters drooling at the mouth in their excitement to cancel anything which dared defy gender ideology, and in August 2022 Broadsheet’s Facebook page was frozen. There was no explanation given for this, and Broadsheet got no response to their enquiries. There’s little doubt, though, they were put into limbo in response to yet another dogpile by transactivists who claimed Broadsheet made them very sad.
The full piece is here:
Let Women Speak
In case you missed it, there was an excellent session of LWS outside the General Medical Council ( or, as someone in the chat called them, the Gender Medicine Council) yesterday.
Stop Press. NHS Guidance Withdrawn.
Daniel Martin in The Telegraph ( NHS chiefs forced to rip up trans guidance 05 June) reports:
NHS chiefs have been forced to rip up their pro-trans guidance after it was rendered illegal by the Supreme Court ruling.
The NHS Confederation, which represents trusts, has quietly withdrawn guidance telling hospitals that they should allow trans people to use their chosen toilets and changing rooms.
The group told The Telegraph it had taken the guide down from its website because it had become “dated” since the Supreme Court judgment that the word sex in the Equality Act means biological sex.
Reached in April, the decision means trans women, who were born male, should use men’s toilets and changing rooms, contradicting the previous stance of a string of public sector organisations.
The confederation’s advice is now being updated in line with the Supreme Court ruling and new guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and will be published later.
On Thursday night, women’s rights charities demanded that the confederation apologise for the guidance, which they claimed may have led to unfair decisions, such as the case of Darlington nurses who were disciplined for demanding single-sex facilities.
They said that rather than deleting the guidance, the confederation should actively inform all trusts that it was now null and void.
Maya Forstater, the chief executive of Sex Matters, said: “Its guidance encouraged a hostile, humiliating and unsafe environment for NHS workers and patients. It was published with much fanfare but withdrawn by stealth.
“NHS Confederation should now apologise publicly for undermining women’s rights and the culture of care. It should also undertake to contact all NHS trusts, telling them that its guidance was flawed and that policies based on it should now be torn up.”
A growing number of public bodies are changing their guidance in light of the Supreme Court judgment, including the Football Association, which has said trans women would be banned from women’s sport.
However, neither NHS England nor the NHS Confederation have put forward new guidance.
Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, has said he wants the new guidance in place by the summer.
The confederation’s now-withdrawn guidance stated: “In all types of workplaces, trans and non-binary people should be supported to use the bathrooms they feel most comfortable using. At no time is it appropriate to force staff to use the toilet associated with their assigned sex at birth against their will.”
It also tells management, senior healthcare leaders and human resources directors to take a “zero-tolerance attitude” to transphobia.
The confederation also promoted individual trusts’ guidance, such as Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust, which said: “You are entitled to use single-sex facilities in accordance with your gender identity.
“For non-binary people, this may mean using gender-neutral or accessible facilities, or using a combination of different facilities. A non-binary person can choose to use facilities they are most comfortable using, if gender neutral facilities are not present.”
‘Will not change our commitment’
A spokesman for the confederation said: “We have withdrawn our guide from our website as elements of it were dated following the ruling of the Supreme Court in April and interim guidance from the EHRC.
“Our intention remains to provide our members with information that helps them best support their staff and patients, and so we will update and reinstate our guide as soon as the EHRC has updated its Code of Practice, which will need to be approved by the UK Government, and when NHS England has then updated its guidance for what the changes mean for NHS organisations.
“The withdrawal of our guide does not change our explicit commitment to support our members to reduce the unacceptably high levels of bullying, abuse and discrimination at work that trans and non-binary staff and patients face.”
The spokesman said the guidance had not been taken down immediately after the Supreme Court ruling because the initial response had been to keep it on the NHS Confederation website with acknowledgements that certain elements of it had become dated.
It was later decided that to avoid the risk of any confusion, it was best to remove the guide in its entirety and update it later.
Ms Forstater said: “NHS Confederation’s now-withdrawn guidance on trans issues is among the worst we have seen. Not only did it encourage hospitals to break the law on workplace facilities, it directed NHS managers to regard anyone who correctly cited the law as a ‘transphobe’ and to treat them with a ‘zero tolerance’ approach.
“This is the approach that led to NHS staff such as Sandie Peggie and the Darlington nurses being disciplined in their workplaces simply for asserting their right to safety, dignity and privacy in single-sex facilities.
“Hospitals should always have been places where staff understood that sex matters. But NHS Confederation has been dragging its feet since the Supreme Court judgment was handed down.”
The full article is here:
Endpieces
I’m joining in 😃
From Tenaciously
Cat Day Of Visibility
From Dusty
Volley Dog Day of Visiblity
#BeMorePorcupine
#LeaveKidsAlone
#AdultHumanFemale
#LetWomenSpeak
#LGB✂️TQ
#JoinFreeSpeechUnion
#HoldTheLine
#BeMoreDeplorable
#NeverSurrender
#NeverForget
#TruthWillTriumph
Dear readers
Another heads up for this evening, namely a premiere from Menno about young LGBs in Ireland at 21.00 GMT.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMRpVek5KD8
See some of you in the chat I hope!!!!!
Dusty
Imane Khelif is a smug, sly, smiling bully; he should be on his knees begging for forgiveness & have his titles and medals stripped from him in full view of the women of the world, & Varadkar with him. Nothing less would satisfy me. Andrew Doyle’s article was very good & I agreed with the Jester’s additions to free speech protections. Ireland seems to be governed by lunatics & ideologues; I can hardly believe what they are doing. The arrogance and entitlement of Aussie liberals is astonishing, especially Pesutto. They didn’t realise who they were dealing with by attacking Moira Deeming. Well done to her. #LetWomenSpeak outside the Gender Medicine Council was excellent. #WomensSport4Women #JoinTheFSU #FreeSpeech Thanks, Dusty