I'd Rather Be Rude Than...
Update 626. This Is Terf Month. #BeMorePorcupine.
This is a long one, dear readers, but I am resisting splitting it into two!
We are 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.
We could not go through Terf Month without having something from one of the great Terf heroes and one of the original founders of For Women Scotland who passed away tragically in 2019, Magdalen Berns.
Before you look at this ( pub quiz😊), can you complete the above sentence?
By the way, if you have got or put the Substack App on your mobile phone, go to my latest update and press the arrow in the top right corner and you can listen to a posh AI voice reading my update while you go on your walk, or do the gardening or just lie in the deckchair enjoying the sunshine 😊 You can listen to the posh voice saying things like ‘National Willy Council’ 😂
Thanks to two wonderful readers for suggested pieces.
Some of the linked pieces below may be behind a paywall.
UK - Conversion Practices Bill
Now that the Labour Government have confirmed that they will be proceeding with this Bill, Barry Wall in his role as Head Warrior Teacher addresses the issue. BTW there is no sign of any draft Bill on the Government website as yet.
The For Women Scotland Judgment - The Aftermath
Feminist Legal Clinic reports ( the word ‘transwomen’ is used since FLC are quoting from The Independent):
Trans women banned from using women’s toilets in parliament (25 June)
Dusty - The queue for the gender neutral toilet
Trans women visiting parliament will be barred from using women’s toilets under new guidance, The Independent can reveal.
Until now visitors to the estate could use toilets most appropriate for their gender, but new guidance advises them to use toilets based on their biological sex, or gender-neutral facilities – prompting accusations of a “knee-jerk response”.
On Monday, just days after the row unfolded, the Commons added a new clause to the guidance, with a spokesperson telling The Independent: “Visitors are subject to the provision of services elements of the Equality Act. As the Supreme Court judgment deals directly with interpretation of the Equality Act 2010 this applies to the provision of toilet facilities for visitors.
“Visitors should therefore use toilet facilities which correspond to their biological sex, or use one of the gender-neutral or accessible facilities that are available”.
Source: Trans women banned from using women’s toilets in parliament
JK Rowling
I dealt with dodgy Stephen Fry having a go at JK Rowling here:
Andrew Doyle joins in the fray on his substack.
No, J. K. Rowling has not been ‘radicalised’
Stephen Fry’s comments on the gender debate betray his fundamental misunderstanding of the issues.
Jun 24, 2025
What exactly is ‘radical’ about believing that there are two sexes, and that women’s rights depend upon a recognition of this fact? On the Show People podcast last week, Stephen Fry made the astonishing claim that J. K. Rowling’s acceptance of these basic truths is evidence that she has been ‘radicalised by TERFs’ and is ‘a lost cause’.
This, of course, is palpable nonsense. That a man as intelligent as Fry would make such a preposterous claim tells us a great deal about the culture wars of our time. On the one hand, it could point to the particular susceptibility of the most well-educated to be gulled by ideology. On the other, it could simply be another example of a phenomenon with which we have all grown depressingly familiar. That is to say, most of those who wade into these cultural disputes simply haven’t taken the trouble to understand what it is they are criticising.
Fry knows that there are only two sexes and that no human being has ever changed sex. Yet he has not examined his assumption that there is such a thing as a ‘gender identity’, and so is proceeding from a false premise. Furthermore, he is presuming that anyone who has not accepted this premise must have malevolent intentions. He has evidently not read Rowling’s essay on why she has taken her principled stand, or thought about the implications of men who believe they are women being allowed to enter female spaces. These are major flaws for one who claims to be so wedded to rational thinking.
The full piece is here:
https://www.andrewdoyle.org/p/no-j-k-rowling-has-not-been-radicalised
Wales - Cathy Larkman
Excellent speech by Cathy Larkman of Women’s Rights Network Wales to the Welsh Conservative Party Conference. I reported on WRN’s Step Up Senedd campaign in the last update: https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/i-have-been-to-the-mountain-top
UK - Ben Woods v Waitrose
Free Speech Union member Ben Woods, who worked at supermarket chain Waitrose for 25 years, ending up as a wine specialist at the Henley branch, was dismissed for expressing his ( perfectly lawful) conservative and gender critical views online. I last reported on his case here;
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/youre-a-man-with-true-grit?utm_source=publication-search
Here is his latest update on his Crowd Justice page.
Update on Support Ben's Fight for Freedom of Speech Against Waitrose
Dear friends and supporters,
I am writing to let you know that I’m going ahead and will issue my employment tribunal claim against John Lewis plc in July 2025.
It’s been a long time coming. ACAS early conciliation has finished and unfortunately there hasn’t been a resolution. We’ve received the documents from my DSAR [ Data Subject Access Request] and will use them against John Lewis in my claim for belief discrimination for my protected beliefs.
I never wanted any of this. My twitter handle had nothing to do with my work. I thought I would be able to carry on doing the job I loved until I retired, whilst at the same time anonymously expressing the same beliefs most of the public agree with. Unfortunately, I still haven’t been able to get a new job, and it’s been nearly 3 months since I was sacked. I’m worried I won’t be able to get a new job but at least this case gives me focus on doing what’s right for Britain and our great people. I’m fully prepared to stand in Court and speak up for freedom of belief and freedom of thought. I’m not worried about their legal team as I believe what I am doing it right.
So, the next step must be claiming at the employment tribunal. However, it really isn’t cheap to hire lawyers and I need to ensure I have the best legal representation possible in order that I can see this matter all the way to trial and hopefully succeed in my claims. Whilst your initial response has been amazing and I couldn’t quite believe how much support I’ve got amongst normal decent people in Britain and I’m so very, very grateful, but I’m still not fully funded yet.
I know there is a cost-of-living crisis and I know that this disastrous Labour government are causing us all problems with people losing their jobs, prices rising and so on, but if you could help me out I would be immensely grateful of you all. If we could raise the £60k then I should be able to get all the way to trial and able to show employers that people are lawfully able to tweet what they believe to be true, even if its anti-woke, anti-Labour, gender critical and pro Britain.
Any help you give will be a blow to woke jobsworths who believe they have the right to meddle in the common-sense thinking of the Great British public.
Freedom of Speech is a vital component of a democratic and free country if we have that taken away and are discriminated against because of our personal views we really do not live in a free society anymore. This fight is not just for me but for all employees who become victims of work place discrimination.
As always I will keep you updated and I’m grateful for any help received.
Ben Woods
25.06.2025
UK - The Hands, Knees and Boomps-A-Daisy Awards
Jo Bartosch has done a great article for Spiked on this year’s ‘LGBT’ Awards and EDI Jester enjoys it immensely!
The States - Skrmetti
I have been reporting in recent updates on the wonderful Skrmetti judgment. I first reported on the judgment here: https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/who-told-you-you-could-have-my-rights?utm_source=publication-search
Mr Menno discusses this landmark case with US attorney and lesbian campaigner, Glenna Goldis.
The States - Jamie Reed
In light of setbacks to the ‘trans rights movement’ in The States, congressman Sarah (Tim) McBride has argued that the movement simply hadn’t had the time to “open hearts and change minds.”
On her substack, whistleblower Jamie Reed, formerly of the gender clinic at St Louis Hospital, argues that American society has considered the trans rights arguments and roundly rejected them.
Where Society Is Headed in the Future
The Argument Against Trans Just Needs More Time
Jun 23, 2025
Recent attempts to explain the collapse of public support for transgender ideology have leaned on a familiar excuse: we just needed more time.
Jonathan Cowan, writing for Politico, urged Democrats to “meet Americans where they are today, not where advocates might wish them to be, or where society may be headed in the future.” Sarah (Tim) McBride, a trans-identified male and congressional representative, echoed that line on The Ezra Klein Show (June 17, 2025), lamenting that the movement simply hadn’t had the time to “open hearts and change minds.”
But the truth is: we did have the time. I saw what happened with it.
From 2019 to 2022, I worked in the heart of pediatric gender medicine at a major children’s hospital in St. Louis. What I witnessed during those years—what I now call the gap between “The Introduction” and “The Reckoning”—undermines every talking point offered by Klein and McBride.
The Introduction
In 2019, I helped lead what we called our “Trans 101” training for emergency room staff. The program was about 75 minutes long and designed to explain the medical model: pronouns, terminology, the WPATH model of care. It was clinical and non-confrontational.
This was St. Louis—not San Francisco, not Brooklyn. And yet the response was overwhelmingly polite, even supportive. These were smart, compassionate healthcare workers, most of them politically liberal, who absorbed the information in good faith. The idea of “transgender medicine” still existed in the abstract for them. They weren’t rejecting it—they simply hadn’t seen it up close.
This phase reminds me of the early gay rights era. Even when Americans didn’t fully understand homosexuality, they grasped the core idea: some men love men, some women love women. Over time, many changed their minds because the ask was human, bounded, and relatable.
The trans movement claims it never got that moment. That Americans turned on them before they had a chance to connect. But I contend the opposite: America did meet the movement—and what they saw disturbed them.
The full piece is here:
Australia - Research
On his substack, Gender Clinic News Bernard Lane discusses attempting to get the names from the National Health and Medical Research Council of those involved in a $5 million dollar research project. They refused his request but he got the information through another route. Lo and behold, our favourite Australian gender clinician, Dr Michelle Telfer is involved ( see, for example: https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/thats-who-we-have-to-fight-for-part?utm_source=publication-search ).
Naming the harm
Identifying the researchers awarded $5 million in taxpayers' money for a gender clinic study could expose them to harm, according to an Australian funding agency
Jun 25, 2025
A government agency in Australia has refused to release the names of 46 individuals entrusted with $5 million in public research funds.
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), which administers the grant, said that identification could harm these people by linking them to a study involving controversial treatment of minors who identify as transgender or non-binary.
The NHMRC was responding to GCN’s application under Freedom of Information (FOI) law.
The 2024-2028 grant of $4.99m to the Australian Research Consortium for Transgender Youth and Children is supposed to remedy the lack of long-term data on the health outcomes of “gender-affirming care”, and “help to build this evidence base and directly inform future clinical guidelines, policies and practices”, according to an official project summary.
The NHMRC said that while the lead investigator’s identity was already known—he is Dr Ken Pang of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and the gender clinic at the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) Melbourne—it was against the public interest to name the other people involved.
The NHMRC said that naming everyone would reveal that they “took part in, or were associated with, a grant and research involving the care of transgender and gender-diverse youth and children.”
The agency’s senior official handling the FOI request said the “NHMRC recognises that the care of transgender and gender-diverse youth and children is a sensitive community issue.”
“Noting these sensitivities, I have concluded that release of documents containing personal information could reasonably be expected to harm the personal and professional interests of individuals involved if personal information is disclosed.”
The only example of personal information specified by the NHMRC was “an individual’s name.”
However, all 47 names have already been published as part of the announcement of the award of the grant by the federal Department of Health and Aged Care, which together with the NHMRC is responsible for grants under the Medical Research Future Fund.
The full piece is here:
https://www.genderclinicnews.com/p/naming-the-harm?publication_id=627677&r=1v403b
The Sad Transvestite
Bill Moon on his Moon Blog urges us Terfs not to forget the sad transvestite with the wonky wig and the smudged mascara.
Uncaring: Do Gender Criticals need more empathy?
Understanding the other side is crucial in the debate over gender, and Gender Criticals often get this wrong.
Jun 25, 2025
It can be easy to get wrapped up in any ideology or political stance. These days we live in echo chambers online, often talking mainly to people who share the same views, arguing against any and all opposition to those beliefs.
People who hold Gender Critical beliefs are not immune from this effect, and recently a distinct lack of empathy for the other side, and the lived experience of trans people, has become more prevalent.
Yes, protecting women and children from the harmful effects of transitional medicine, puberty blockers and surgery they may regret is important work, but we do need to spare a thought and have empathy with those on the other side.
Specifically, sad transvestites.
I'm not talking about women who believe they are men, that's a different set of people altogether and Gender Critical people have always been keen on protecting their needs, even in the face of staunch and abusive opposition. I'm also not talking about young boys who may have been brought up under pressure - parental or societal - to transition. I'm not even talking about those who have actual diagnosed gender dysphoria.
I'm talking about the old men who wear make up and dresses for sexual kicks.
The full piece is here:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-166793266
Endpieces
From Tenaciously
Swan Day Of Visibility
From Liz
#BeMorePorcupine
#LiesAreNotFreedom
#AdultHumanFemale
#LetWomenSpeak
#LGB✂️TQ
#JoinFreeSpeechUnion
#TransNHS
#TRAsRewriteHistory
#NeverSurrender
#NeverForget
#TruthWillTriumph
#WeWillWin
As I've read elsewhere, Fry is stupid person's idea of intelligent person. Also slim.
Great update, Dusty; you’ve covered all the important stories, especially the basket-case of Australia. Malcolm Clark’s evisceration of Stephen Fry was brilliant. Such a pity that Magdalen Berns died so young; she was a very courageous woman. Thanks, Dusty. Will share. #BeMorePorcupine #WomenWillSpeak #DontTransKids