Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling. Part 1.
Update 674. Queering Society Special. #BeMorePorcupine.
I have returned from deepest Hampshire and I am inundated with news and views so this is going to be a two parter, dear readers.
We are continuing with Dusty’s film series and the latest version of the list is here:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/empire-of-light-dustys-film-series
Please let us have your suggestions for films but please check the list first to see if it is there already. I am updating the list as we go along. We are going through them alphabetically and have got to H.
Next up is High Noon (1952).
In Hadleyville, a small town in New Mexico, in 1898, Marshal Will Kane ( played by Gary Cooper), newly married to Amy (Grace Kelly), prepares to retire. The happy couple will soon depart for a new life: to raise a family and run a store in another town. However, word arrives that Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald), a vicious outlaw whom Kane sent to prison, has been released and will arrive by the noon train, one day ahead of the new marshal. Miller's gang—his younger brother Ben, Jack Colby, and Jim Pierce—await his arrival at the train station.
For Amy, a devout Quaker and pacifist, the solution is simple—leave town before Miller arrives—but Kane's sense of duty and honour make him stay. Besides, he says, Miller and his gang would hunt him down anyway.
Marshal Kane tries to get together men to support him but nobody will come forward and, therefore, he is left to deal with the final showdown on his own. Amy, as a Quaker, ends up with a difficult decision to make as well!! Spoiler alert. The clip below is the final shoot out.
Thanks to two wonderful readers for suggested pieces.
Some of the linked pieces below may be behind a paywall.
UK - Queer Theory
As many of you will know so called ‘queer theory, is behind a lot of the gender madness that we face. James Esses on his substack does a nice round up of examples from the UK. All thoughts gratefully received.
The Queering of Society
Aug 21, 2025
Usually, I have to spend time crafting striking arguments, in order to persuade people to come round to my point of view.
Well, not this time. Because for this topic, I can simply let the facts speak for themselves.
The term ‘queer’ has multiple meanings and has gone through various revisions over the years. Well, one lesser-known definition of the term ‘queering’ is to “ruin or spoil something”. In my opinion, that is precisely what will happen to society if we allow it to be ‘queered’ – it will be ruined and spoiled. Some of what I will now report is crude, even shocking, but I think it’s important that you see it. So here are just some of the examples of ‘queering’ that we have witnessed over recent years.
Cambridge University Press published an article, entitled ‘LGBTQ…Z’. In case you were wondering, the ‘Z’ stands for ‘zoophilia’, which is another term for bestiality – human beings sexually abusing animals. The article argued that the ‘Z’ should be brought into queer theory, in order to bring about “the revolutionary power of love”. This is abusive.
Children’s charity, Mermaids, ran a residential weekend for young children. Speaking about the weekend, one of their staff members described watching a young pubescent girl trying on a breast binder for the first time, saying that it made her “queer heart soar”. This flies in the face of child safeguarding.
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival put on a performance called ‘Blowhole’, described as “a celebration of queer life and love”, teaching audience members how to “perfect the perfect bum-hole selfie in the work toilets”. This is crass and crude.
The full piece is here:
New Zealand - Free Speech
Ani O’Brien of the Free Speech Union NZ writes:
I’ll be honest with you, I’ve been watching the rapid disintegration of speech rights in the UK with horror. More than 700 people arrested in a single week, police knocking on doors to warn against even attending protests, and of course Lucy Connolly still sitting in prison because of a tweet.[ Dusty - update - Lucy Connolly has now been released on licence - at last!!!!]
And I’ve caught myself feeling a little smug. I’ve thought: New Zealand isn’t so bad. We’ve managed to hold the line.
But then Matthew’s case landed in my inbox.
I’ll cut to the chase: I know you will be as appalled as I am about what Matthew is being put through and I am writing to you to see if you’ll chip in so we can join the fight for him.
Matthew is a counsellor with decades of experience helping people through some of the darkest chapters of their lives. He is respected by clients and has committed his career to the wellbeing of others.
But now, he is being dragged through a professional inquisition. They honestly may as well be holding pitchforks at this point.
21 separate complaints have been laid against him. Not by clients, not by families who feel let down, but by his fellow counsellors.
His offence? Speaking openly about the counselling profession’s adoption of gender-affirming ideology. Actually, worse… he has dared to question it.
On social media and on his blog, Matthew has often pointed to the Cass Review. (This is an independent investigation commissioned by the UK’s NHS, which found that the evidence for gender medical treatments in children and young people is weak, risky, and often driven more by ideology than science.)
Matthew wrote about how he agrees with the review that young people deserve time and space to explore their feelings, not to be rushed into drastic medical interventions. He has also warned that “affirmation-only” therapy could itself be a form of conversion therapy because so many of the children being transitioned would otherwise grow up into healthy gay adults.
As a gay woman myself, I could not agree more, but this is not a perspective the establishment in New Zealand is very fond of. But whether you agree or not is irrelevant. Why is an experienced counsellor unable to question their profession’s stances and practices?
Surely we are better off when professionals are free to do so. How can we trust individuals in these positions if they’re forced to self-censor?
Surely engaging with credible evidence and research from overseas is a legitimate endeavour in any profession. We cannot stand by while the bullies in our institutions control to the most minute detail which professional research is beyond the pale.
Will you join us in standing up to this censorship?
It is his professional opinions that the NZ Association of Counsellors (NZAC) now alleges amount to Matthew “causing harm.”
He is accused of disrespecting colleagues, spreading “discredited views,” and practising “outside his competence.”
Let’s be clear: these are not good-faith disagreements. They’re not presenting their case, arguing their points. They’re simply silencing an idea they don’t like and punishing anyone who doesn’t toe the line.
If the complainants succeed, Matthew faces suspension or expulsion from NZAC. Membership isn’t legally required to practise, but it is the profession’s key credential. Without it, his credibility is shattered, referrals dry up, and his livelihood could collapse.
Think about that: after decades of service, his career could be destroyed not because he failed his clients, but because he was punished for his opinions and daring to voice them.
This is why the Free Speech Union exists. We are standing with Matthew and helping him prepare his response, and have contacted NZAC reminding them of their duty to respect the speech rights of their professionals. And if NZAC delivers an unjust ruling, we are ready to take the fight to the next level.
UK - The Polari Prize
I recently reported on all the complaints being made because Terfy Irish author John Boyne was shortlisted for the Polari prize:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/doctor-zhivago?utm_source=publication-search
The Polari committee have decided that the answer to all this is to….cancel the prize altogether for this year and make sure that, for next year, they get more ‘transgender people’ on the judging panel. I hope some people set up a separate prize and tell Polari to **** off. Feminist Legal Clinic (FLC) reports:
Polari book prize cancelled after row over gender-critical novelist | The Guardian (20 August)
A prize celebrating LGBTQ+ literature has cancelled its awards this year, after a row over the longlisting of an author who has described himself as a “Terf” – the acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist.
From a total longlist of 24, 16 authors and two judges withdrew from this year’s prize, and more than 800 writers and publishing industry workers signed a statement protesting against the inclusion of John Boyne, the author best known for The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
Polari said it had decided to “pause the prize this year” while it increases “representation of trans and gender non-conforming judges on the panels for all the awards” and undertakes “a governance and management review”, organisers wrote in a statement on Monday.
Polari had previously told the Guardian that it was “committed to going forward” with this year’s prize. In a statement on 7 August, it said that Boyne had been longlisted “on merit” and that it was “inevitable” that “even within our community, we can at times hold radically different positions on substantive issues”.
Source: Polari book prize cancelled after row over gender-critical novelist
EDI Jester also addresses this:
Australia - Melbourne Protest
I recently reported on the Women Will Speak rally in Melbourne:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/doctor-zhivago?utm_source=publication-search
Avi Yemeni for Rebel News was there ( and even he had to have a minder!!!!):
The States - This Never Happens
FLC reports via Genevieve Gluck:
EXCLUSIVE: Transgender MS-13 Gangster Convicted in Killing of 14 Year-Old Boy Files Discrimination Suit Against Donald Trump | Genevieve Gluck (20 August)
A former gang member serving a 21-year prison term for charges related to the 2016 abduction and murder of a 14 year-old has filed a lawsuit against President Trump and the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) alleging that he is being discriminated against on the basis of his “gender identity.” Oscar Contreras Aguilar is claiming that the BOP “refuses to recognize” him as a woman.
Australia - Women’s Handball
Irene Brit USA reports on a giant larping man who plays for the Australian handball team who is being prevented from attending the next Olympics. HOORAY!!!
Trans Widows
Excellent second interview with Ute Heggen by Kelly Dougall.
I was delighted to see that, amongst other things, Ute recommends gardening, walking and exercises for keeping your sanity in the midst of the gender madness. I totally agree😊 I am a keen amateur gardener, a 10,000 steps a day fanatic and try and do a bit of Pilates every day. I love her idea of ‘pocket gardens’ as well😊
Pretend Medicine
In the last update we featured three pieces which really drove home the argument that so called ‘gender affirming care’ is not actually medicine at all. A parent writing on the PITT Parents substack, calls it Frankenstein Medicine - sounds like a good description to me 😊
Frankenstein Medicine
Aug 21, 2025
What is “gender affirming care”, really? We all know the definition from the medical community - it’s the collection of cross-sex hormone treatments and surgeries prescribed for our children so they can live out what they think are their “true” lives, looking like the opposite sex. As euphemisms go, “gender affirming care” is a whopper. The drugs are dangerous and damaging and sterilize our children, and the surgeries are grisly. But how can anyone possibly oppose any treatment that ends with “affirming care”, or even “care”? If my son dressed up as Leonardo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fame, would doctors prescribe Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle affirming care? Would I be a bad father if I opposed such care?
“Gender affirming care” needs a better name, something that describes the treatments more accurately.
“Gender Plastic Surgery” is a possibility, especially since most gender doctors are just plastic surgeons with no ethics or diagnostic skills who are more than willing to take new customers. But most conventional plastic surgery procedures are strictly cosmetic with few real negative side effects.
“Gender affirming care” has sometimes been compared to lobotomies - surgeries on the brain that were used to treat a variety of mental health conditions. But lobotomies by definition were only on the brain, so a phrase with lobotomy doesn’t work.
Fiction provides an answer. In 1818, Mary Shelley wrote “Frankenstein”, the classic story where Dr. Frankenstein creates a creature from collected body parts and then animates the creature through a mysterious process. Depending on which movie version of this story you see, the result was either a short-term success that later failed or was an immediate failure. Either way, Dr. Frankenstein clearly engaged in experiments that violated the laws of nature and were wildly unethical for any doctor with principles. Gender doctors fit that description perfectly, and “gender affirming care” is all about rearranging and modifying body parts in an otherwise healthy living body. “Gender affirming care” is Frankenstein medicine.
Imagine how different articles would sound with this new, more accurate term: “Stanford halts Frankenstein medicine for youths”...That sounds like a positive development. “Frankenstein Medicine Saves Lives”...Really? “Supreme Court OKs Tennessee Ban on Frankenstein Medicine”...That’s the right thing to happen.
I would like to ask my son’s doctor, “Are you a follower of Dr. Frankenstein? Dr. Frankenstein would certainly approve of what you’re trying to do with my son’s body parts.” Perhaps all gender doctors are somehow related to the fictional Dr. Frankenstein. They are undoubtedly related in spirit. Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy of the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is really a type of Dr. Frankenstein. Although Dr. Frankenstein is a fictional character, I wonder if he would become an honorary member of The American Academy of Pediatrics? Is the president of the AAP, Dr. Susan J. Kressly, also related to Dr. Frankenstein?
“Gender affirming care” is not care by any definition. It is Frankenstein medicine.
Terf Island Discs
Thanks to an excellent suggestion from Tenaciously Terfin, we have paused Endpieces for the time being and we are giving Tenaciously and Liz a well earned rest from their hard work. So , since 07 July, we have been running Terf Island Discs.
Several readers have chosen up to 4 songs or pieces of music each and we are going through those one at a time in each update. This is going so well that I am going to continue it a bit further and you can now choose up to 6 songs or pieces of music each. They need to be reasonably short. We can’t expect to have readers listening to the whole of Tchaikovsky's piano concerto in B flat minor, albeit it is magnificent.
They don’t have to be from Terf Island BTW - anywhere in the world 😊
Please send links as well if you can.
So for those who have already chosen 4, please choose 2 more and, if you have not yet taken part, please choose 6!! If you repeat a song or piece of music that has already been chosen, I’ll let you know and you can choose another one. Please let me know your choices in the comments at this link:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/beware-of-the-flowers-terf-island
Next up!
Chosen by: Sarah Barratt
‘Dragonfly’ by Fleetwood Mac
#BeMorePorcupine
#DontFollowTheHerd
#AdultHumanFemale
#LetWomenSpeak
#LGB✂️TQ
#KeepSpeaking
#LeaveKidsAlone
#JustSayMen
#NeverSurrender
#NeverForget
#TruthWillTriumph
#WeWillWin
Thank you for linking to 'Dragonfly'! I hope other people enjoyed listening to it too.
This update illustrates just how much insanity there still is everywhere. What on earth is there to say, especially about Queer Theory. If only people realised.
What a strapping lad that handball player is.
Really glad to see Ute Heggen getting some attention, she does great work.
I must remember to send my extra music choices! Thanks Dusty.