Gaslight
Update 482. Vote Aontú Special. #BeMorePorcupine
VOTE AONTÚ TOMORROW, PEOPLE OF IRELAND!
For my analysis of the manifestoes, see:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/irelands-call
To quote Gript News:
…cast your vote for those who will at least – in the words of the great American writer William F. Buckley – “stand athwart history, shouting stop”.
On Tuesday and Wednesday I sat in the Supreme Court ( see last two updates) and listened to men who are clutching a gender recognition certificate ( to quote the Scottish Minister’s barrister) ‘becoming women’. So my next choice in the British Heroes season is the 1944 film Gaslight.
Gaslighting is a manipulative tactic in which a person, to gain power and control of another individual, plants seeds of uncertainty in another person's mind. The self-doubt and constant questioning slowly cause the individual to question their reality. The term comes from the 1938 stage play Gaslight which was made into a film in 1944.
In 1875, when world-famous opera singer Alice Alquist is murdered at her London home, her niece Paula ( Ingrid Bergman) is sent to Italy to follow in her footsteps as an opera singer. As an adult, Paula marries her accompanist Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer), after a two-week whirlwind romance. At his suggestion, they settle in London and occupy her late aunt's long-vacant townhouse.
Paula grapples with the memory of her aunt's murder, and Gregory suggests storing Alice's furnishings in the attic. When Paula finds a letter to her aunt from a man named Sergis Bauer, Gregory reacts violently but apologizes. He hires a young maid, Nancy (Angela Lansbury), and insists that she never bother his "high-strung" wife.
Paula is surprised when Gregory chides her supposed forgetfulness, but on a visit to the Tower of London, she cannot find an heirloom brooch he gave her, although it was stored safely in her handbag. She is plagued by noises coming from the boarded-up attic, and notices the gaslights dim for no apparent reason when Gregory is not home, which he assures her is only her imagination.
It becomes apparent that Gregory is trying to make his wife lose her mind including by making the gaslights dim. As to why and how, you’ll just have to watch the film if you haven’t seen it before.
Thanks as ever to two wonderful readers for suggested pieces.
Some of the linked pieces below may be behind a paywall.
For Women Scotland
I have just been listening to the barrister for the Scottish Ministers arguing that the word ‘woman’ under the Equality Act includes natal men with gender recognition certificates and that there are only two genders but the Scottish Government has often said something entirely different especially that there are lots of genders - see the tweets in the link below from Wings Over Scotland:
https://wingsoverscotland.com/what-went-on/
There was also extensive discussion before the Supreme Court about ‘pregnant men’ ie. larping women with a GRC who become pregnant. But hold on….( thanks to Feminist Legal Clinic)
SNP leader John Swinney forced to admit that men cannot become pregnant | The Telegraph ( 28 November)
Scotland’s First Minister has been forced to admit that men cannot become pregnant.
John Swinney said he did not believe that it was possible for males to bear children, at the same time that lawyers for the Scottish Government presented their case to the Supreme Court that includes references to “pregnant men”.
In a landmark case, For Women Scotland, the campaign group, is seeking to overturn rulings in the Scottish courts that state gender recognition certificates (GRCs) change the legal sex of those who hold them.
Source: SNP leader John Swinney forced to admit that men cannot become pregnant
More NHS Gender Madness
James Esses on Matt Goodwin’s substack looks at the NHS Blood Transfusion Service.
EXCLUSIVE. How the NHS Blood and Transplant authority is infected by Woke Ideologies
A whistleblower reveals what is really happening
Nov 25, 2024
A few months ago, I published an exposé about the National Health Service (NHS), revealing how it’s been fully captured by radical gender ideology. Despite the recent Cass Review concluding there’s insufficient evidence to support the claims of this ideology, the NHS has continued to use terms like “childbearing people”.
Not long after, I was contacted by a longstanding member of staff from NHS Blood and Transplant. The importance of the work of this branch of the NHS cannot be understated – they are responsible for the donation of blood, organs, tissues and stem cells to save the lives of those in need.
For this reason, one would have thought that the basics of biological reality would be at the forefront of their practice model. If only. Instead, as I’m going to show you in this exclusive post, they too have been fully captured by radical ideological dogma.
My whistle-blower sent me several internal documents, which demonstrate how militant NHS staff networks are forcing ideology into NHS Blood and Transplant.
One of the clearest and most shocking examples of this is a recent change made to it’s Standard Operating Procedures, in particular, SOP361 (and the associated document, DAT4547). These are documents that staff must sign off on and pledge to adhere to.
These documents relate to blood packs. In this update, staff are told they must now reference “gender codes” when it comes to blood packs. The documents also reference “sex assigned at birth”. This language is grounded in radical gender ideology, not reality. Sex is not ‘assigned’ at birth. It is observed and recorded.
The full piece is here:
British Transport Police
I previously reported on this issue here:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/we-will-never-surrender?utm_source=publication-search
Thanks again to Feminist Legal Clinic and well done Sex Matters.
British Transport Police threatened with legal action over new guidance allowing trans officers to strip-search woman |MSN (26 November)
The British Transport Police (BTP) is facing legal action over new guidance allowing transgender officers to strip-search women.
Campaigners from gender-critical group Sex Matters have sent a pre-action letter to the BTP challenging their new policy, which is the first step towards taking them to court for a judicial review of the guidelines.
Referring to the BTP’s new rules, Maya Forstater, the chief executive of gender-critical campaign group Sex Matters called the guidance “state-sponsored sex discrimination and sexual abuse.”
Forstater added that too many officers have been found guilty of sexual offences, and that men are responsible for 98 per cent of sex crimes.
“Abuse of position for sexual purposes is the largest area of corruption that the Independent Office of Police Complaints deals with,” she said.
The Welsh Government - Trying The Back Door Again!
One piece from the latest Women’s Rights Network newsletter ( 24 November).
The Welsh Government is trying again. Very trying.
Attempting to bring gender self-ID in by the back door is beginning to look like a hobby for some of the members of the Welsh Senedd.
Back in April, WRN women made representation to the Welsh Government in Cardiff, led by the magnificent Cathy Larkman, and whilst that element of the Electoral Reform Bill has been dropped, the ambition has clearly not.
In guidance released for consultation last week the Welsh Government has included a new proposal to include quotas for women that explicitly detaches the definition of “woman” from the protected characteristic of sex.
We’d like the Welsh Government to know: we’re watching.
New Zealand - The Plot Sickens
Thanks to Katrina Biggs on her substack, A B’Old Woman who brings us a piece from Yvonne Van Dongen on The Platform about the New Zealand Government’s response to the Cass Review:
The Plot Sickens
Labour continues to support gender affirmation and courtesy of puberty blockers, the sterilisation of children.
Yvonne Van Dongen
Contributing Writer
November 26th, 2024
Eight months after the comprehensive Cass report on gender affirming care was released in the United Kingdom, the Ministry of Health (MoH) has finally responded to its findings.
Their evidence brief and position statement on the use of puberty blockers for gender identity issues has been both applauded and derided by interested parties.
Optimists take heart at MoH statements such as “the evidence brief shows a lack of good quality evidence to back the effectiveness and safety of puberty blockers when used for this purpose.” They applaud the Ministry’s emphasis on a more precautionary approach for adolescents with gender identity issues.
“We’re winning,” said Jan Rivers of Genspect and Public Good while Family First head Bob McCoskrie called the report “good news.” He said it indicated New Zealand was beginning to align with jurisdictions around the world where puberty blockers have been severely restricted or even banned for young people such as in various American states, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland and Norway.
Act and New Zealand First welcomed what they saw as new rules restricting the use of puberty blockers for gender identity issues. New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said he was pleased to see the first steps have been taken by the ministry to restrict their use - once feedback and consultation has been completed. To date New Zealand First has been the only major political party to tackle this issue head-on.
But enthusiasts for medicating gender dysphoric children like Labour MP Shanan Halbert dismisses these claims and says the Ministry’s edict makes it clear access will be maintained. “Puberty blockers are still to be used as part of comprehensive care plans.”
Labour continues to support gender affirmation and courtesy of puberty blockers, the sterilisation of children. Halbert made the usual genuflections to “our rainbow rangitahi and their whanau” and added that “NZ First has no rainbow representation in caucus and are out of touch with the needs of the rainbow community.”
Indeed but in touch with reality. Little does Halbert realise that this lack will be regarded as a plus amongst the working people Labour used to represent. Trans activism has been a losing strategy politically everywhere. The recent Trump victory “for you” and Kamala loss “for they/them” should signal the foolishness of sticking to this unpopular ideology.
Meanwhile the first response from a medical professional, was from endocrinologist Prof Paul Hoffman, who actually said “Encouragingly the evidence published to date, while of low quality, all indicates the use of pubertal blockers is safe.” Even the Ministry of Health has removed that claim from its website.
So no change then. Suzanne Levy from Speak Up For Women (SUFW) is inclined to agree.
“We have never had the evidence to say they were safe. Puberty blockers have always been off-label, that is, not developed for the use to which they are now put. They were initially devised to suppress puberty in children showing signs of precocious puberty and also for the castration of male sex offenders.
“The Ministry’s statement changes nothing. Those who were cautious before will continue to be cautious and those who think it’s safe and effective will continue to prescribe.”
The full piece is here:
New Zealand - Gaslighting Children
Genspect New Zealand writes about this issue on the substack, Inspecting Gender:
Trust depends on truth
Expecting us to lie that boys can become girls and that women can become "fathers" damages the social contract.
Nov 26, 2024
“He has been lied to by his teachers… And he is now no longer sure who is telling the truth… Should he trust the teachers, who told him she was a boy, even though all the boys could see in the changeroom that she was not a boy?”
So says a parent in a testimonial accompanying a submission to the Education Review Office (ERO) from Resist Gender Education, a group that advocates for scientifically factual and age-appropriate relationships and sexuality education in New Zealand. ERO is currently undertaking a review of the Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide (RSE), a Ministry of Education publication that was launched with much fanfare in 2020.
Tracey Martin, the Associate Minister of Education at the time, praised the new Guide, saying, “What this is about is actually about helping young people understanding [sic] how to have healthy relationships, how to know themselves and accept themselves, as well as those around them without fear.”
Regrettably, those high ideals have not materialised because the RSE Guide is seriously flawed. Rather than teaching children to accept themselves, it promotes as fact the idea that a person’s feeling of being masculine, feminine, or neither, is more important than their physical sexed body. The use of ideological phrases like “assigned sex at birth”, “cisgender” and “gender fluid” demonstrate that the Guide is a highly politicised document that is pushing an agenda with which most teachers and parents (including, perhaps, the Associate Minister) were not familiar in 2020.
However, four years later, the general public is much more aware of and concerned by the falsehoods being taught in RSE under the guise of kindness and inclusion. Prompted by voter pressure, the new government promised the “removal and replacement of the gender, sexuality, and relationship-based education guidelines.” That a year has passed and the only action has been to ask ERO to review the current delivery of RSE is a source of great frustration to those, like the above parent, who have witnessed the multiple harms caused to children by teaching them ideological untruths.
The full piece is here:
Australia - Gender Voodoo
On his excellent substack, Gender Clinic News Bernard Lane reports on a doctor turned politician who is speaking out against so called ‘gender affirming care’.
'Gender voodoo'
A doctor-turned-politician warns that gender medicine has substituted mere opinion for hard evidence
Nov 28, 2024
An Australian politician trained in paediatrics has declared medicalised gender change for minors to be lacking in evidence, a breach of the rule “First, do no harm,” and “a blot on the medical profession.”
Dr David Gillespie, who spent 33 years in medical practice before he entered federal politics as a National Party member, said he had been “flabbergasted” to be in Australia’s parliament when “eminent doctors and professors” whom he had thought “sensible people” declared their support for “gender-affirming care.”
He was speaking this morning in Canberra at the Parliament House launch of a book titled Devastated: How gender ideology is tearing Australian families apart, edited by Kirralie Smith from the group Binary.
The book includes accounts by parents who oppose what they see as the harmful medicalisation of their children, as well as a practitioner’s take by former professor of psychology Dr Dianna Kenny, a critic of the gender-affirming treatment approach.
Dr Gillespie welcomed “the current groundswell against bad policy, unevidenced medical therapy, [and] the removal of parental rights in favour of voodoo gender theory.”
“It is really a societal nightmare, and we’ve got to keep fighting back.”
He contrasted the bad old days of “leeches and cupping” with the rise of evidence-based medicine, double-blind controlled trials and placebos—“all the things that we built our profession on, but then, all of a sudden, for this particular subset [of paediatric gender medicine], it’s all thrown out the window.”
“It's really a blot on the medical profession… I just didn’t realise how far advanced it got.
“[I don’t understand] why New South Wales Health and other state health departments haven’t responded like the grown ups in the UK, and even in Holland, which is very progressive, and in Scandinavia.”
The full piece is here:
https://www.genderclinicnews.com/p/gender-voodoo?r=7ogxh&triedRedirect=true
An Update On Chile
Also on his substack, Bernard Lane discusses the situation in Chile and some good news from there:
No hormones on Chile's public purse
The health ministry's plan to finance puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors, in defiance of the weak evidence base, has been blocked
Nov 24, 2024
No money
Chile’s Ministry of Health is prohibited from funding poorly evidenced hormonal or surgical treatments for gender-distressed minors following a historic vote by legislators in the National Congress.
On November 20, senators of the upper house of Chile’s bicameral congress voted 22-19 to block any allocation of funds for puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones in the 2025 health ministry budget, rejecting a government attempt to override a similar veto by deputies of the lower house.
Debate about the safety and extent of medicalised gender change has opened up rapidly in the South American republic following mobilisation by concerned parents’ group Kairós; game-changing coverage on May 29 by journalist Sabine Drysdale in the national media outlet BíoBío; the final report from England’s Cass review; and scrutiny of activist policy making by a committee of investigation in Chile’s Chamber of Deputies.
“Until May 29, when my article in Bíobío was released, most Chileans were in the dark about gender-affirming therapies being given to minors,” Ms Drysdale told GCN. “The terms gender dysphoria, puberty blockers, or cross-sex hormones were not in the public domain.”
“Chilean people had no idea doctors were freely prescribing these drugs at the first appointment to vulnerable and mentally distressed children who went to see them with their terrified parents who had been told, ‘Trans your kid or they will commit suicide’.”
“Very few people knew these drugs were going to convert healthy children into infertile, menopausal, anorgasmic young people—into adults suffering osteoporosis, metabolic diseases and other severe health conditions that lower the quality and span of their lives. It was not talked about.”
The votes of prohibition on public funding for youth gender medicine in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate came predominantly from members to the right of the political spectrum.
It is open to the government of Chile’s left-wing President Gabriel Boric to launch a constitutional appeal against the ban on the grounds that the legislative branch has interfered in an executive matter.
The private health sector is not affected by the prohibition.
The full piece is here:
https://www.genderclinicnews.com/p/no-hormones-on-chiles-public-purse?publication_id=627677&r=1v403b
Meghan Murphy
Meghan and Mary Lou Sullivan celebrate Trump’s victory and discuss what comes next.
https://www.meghanmurphy.ca/p/the-terf-revolution-is-upon-us?publication_id=666229&r=1v403b
Patreon Bans Reduxx
Meanwhile wonderful Reduxx battles on! Thanks once again to Feminist Legal Clinic via Exulansic.
Patreon Bans Reduxx Magazine – Exulansic (26 November)
A reduxxtionist argument for why you should not trust Patreon with money or data privacy.
If you want to support them, please use this link to check out alternative ways of helping to crowdfund the project.
Source: (3) Patreon Bans Reduxx Magazine – Exulansic
Pearl Red Moon
Pearl, Australian artist and Terf has an exhibition starting soon. She writes:
My exhibition called “Women Are Women (not men)” is dedicated to Sall Grover, the Australian woman who is challenging the Federal Govt in court in 2025 to clarify in legal terms what is a woman. I commit to donating 20% of any sales to supporting the legal costs of the court case.
The works are beautiful. Hope it goes well, Pearl.
Endpiece by Liz
#BeMorePorcupine
#LetWomenSpeak
#Grassroots Army
#GenderIdeologyIsEvil
#VoteAontú
No rest for the wicked, TT 😂
Yes good point re headlines in the past. I often wonder whether those who are currently’being kind’ wouldn’t have agreed with us ten or so years ago!! How did their brains make such a wrong turning??? There was a young woman with bright orange hair in our court room and I must admit I thought to myself ‘uh oh’ but then I saw her conflabbing with the Terfs, so well done her😊
Dusty
I really thought you might treat yourself to a couple of days off after your trip to the Supreme Court, but no, it’s up and at ‘em Masterson on a mission😁
Thanks Dusty, a wide ranging dose of insanity as ever. I can’t help but imagine the headlines around the world, ten years ago, if any kind of police force said that men could strip search women and that women would have to threaten court action to oppose it. Now, barely a peep. Well done Sex Matters.
#MenCantBeWomen