It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World!
Update 519. Welcome To Nutmeg Special. #BeMorePorcupine
With apologies, dear readers, I am just clearing out my backlog of reports so that I can provide you with a single issue report over the weekend about the Nottingham Let Women Speak rally that my wife and I and two friends will be attending tomorrow. Anyone coming?
As we move into 2025 I will be featuring, to start with, and in alphabetical order, those Readers’ Choices for best film ever that did not make the top seven ( see Update 500 for the top seven).
Next up is It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963).
Smiler Grogan, a recently released convict, crashes his car on California State Route 74. With his dying breath, Grogan tells a group of motorists who stop to help him about $350,000 buried in Santa Rosita State Park under "a big W." Failing to negotiate a satisfactory way to split the money, the four cars begin a mad dash to the park.
Thanks to two wonderful readers for suggested pieces.
Some of the linked pieces below may be behind a paywall.
Nutmeg’s Week
Following the wonderful JL stepping down from doing her twice weekly reports on the Glinner Update, ripx4nutmeg has stepped in to take her place and will be producing a weekly report, Nutmeg’s Week every Friday. You can find the excellent first edition here and I would recommend you, dear readers, to follow her weekly reports ( and I hope you enjoy my contribution in the Comments 😂):
https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/nutmegs-week
Sex Matters
Two pieces from the latest newsletter ( 07 February).
Bid launched to ban hormones for minors
Keira Bell has called on the government to prohibit all prescriptions, both NHS and private, of cross-sex hormones to under-18s. If if fails to do so, she has said she will seek to bring a judicial review of the decision.
In December the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, announced an indefinite ban on the routine prescription of puberty blockers to gender-confused children. Now Bell and two anonymous parents have instructed lawyers to write to Streeting urging him to also ban the sale of cross-sex hormones.
Bell, a detransitioner who previously took the NHS to court after she was treated with puberty blockers and testosterone, said: “Things can feel very urgent so it is important for young people to remember that your whole life is ahead of you… This sort of protection needs to be put into law.”
In a letter to Streeting, the campaigners highlight the irreversible consequence of taking cross-sex hormones and the risks to children’s developing brains, bones and reproductive systems. They argue that hormones are at least as dangerous as puberty blockers, which Streeting has banned.
Despite NHS England urging caution, private clinics continue to prescribe cross-sex hormones to minors.
Dusty - This is in addition to concerns over proposed clinical trials for puberty blockers which I have been reporting on in recent updates. Well done, Keira!
Trans film in schools
Children as young as 11 will be shown a film featuring a trans-identifying sixth former who uses cross-sex hormones and chest binders, as part of LGBTQ+ History month.
The film, 1 Year, follows the life of Ben Hodge, a girl from Merseyside who takes testosterone during her final year of school. Hodge experiences bullying as a young teenager and then changes her name and starts wearing chest binders and taking cross-sex hormones.
The film, funded by the British Film Institute, is one of 700 which will be made available to state schools through the educational charity Into Film.
Accompanying guidance for teachers says that 1 Year is suitable for 11-year-olds to watch.
Dusty - FFS!!!!! And see Nutmeg’s Week on this issue.
Ireland - Women’s Sport
Fatima Gunning in Gript News (Ireland must “immediately ban” male participants in female sports 06 February) reports:
Independent TD [Teachtaí Dála is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas, the parliament of Ireland] Carol Nolan has called on Ireland to “immediately ban male participants from female sports”.
The Offaly representative has said she is calling on all national governing bodies to ensure that biologically male participants will no longer be able to compete in female only sports or athletic activities.
Her comments come after US President DonaldTrump signed an Executive Order this week banning biological males from competing against women.
Deputy Nolan said she has been raising concerns around this issue for a number of years.
The Independent TD expressed her support of US President Donald Trump’s executive order saying that Ireland needs to follow suit.
“The tide is turning against the demands of well financed and radical gender ideologues who have dismissed and downplayed the concerns of women and girls when it comes to a level playing ground for sports and athletic competitions,” said Deputy Nolan.
“The influence these groups have exerted has been wholly disproportionate to the level of genuine demand that exists. They have effectively engaged in a hostile takeover of what were once female only spaces. That must end.” she said.
Nolan said that Ireland “must have the courage to point out the blatantly obvious; allowing full grown biological men to compete with young women or girls is nothing short of ludicrous.”
She continued,”It always was and it always will be despite the attempts of gender ideologues to refashion and outright reject biological reality.”
“If persons identifying as transgender or non-binary wish to compete the solution is to provide a distinct category that will allow for such participation while leaving female only categories to do what they have always done; cat for girls and women.” the Independent TD said.
Since the passing of the Gender Recognition Act in 2015, any biological male can have full access to female spaces and is seen by the Irish state as being fully a woman if he should apply for a gender recognition certificate.
To obtain this certificate, the man is not required to have undergone any gender reassignment treatments.
Deputy Nolan says she has also raised similar issues in a different context in terms of the Gender Recognition (Amendment) (Prisons) Bill 2023.
“I was happy to co-sponsor and act as a signatory to this Bill which sought to make provision for single-sex accommodation in prisons. My view is that this principle should apply to all female-only spaces, from sports to women’s domestic violence refuges to prisons and hospital wards.” she said.
“Women and girls need, demand, and deserve their own spaces. I will never apologise for holding or defending this basic principle rooted in common sense,” concluded Deputy Nolan.
As Gript previously reported, calls have been made for the Ladies Gaelic Football Association (LGFA) to cease allowing biological males to participate in its games.
Sports spokeswoman for the Countess Advocacy Group, Sorcha Nic Lochlainn, called on the LGFA Central Council to revise its Transgender Policy and protect women and girls in the sport.
The LGFA’s policy on the inclusion of trans-identifying males says, “The Association is committed to the inclusion of Trans-women into the LGFA. The Association intends that those Trans-women who have their LGFA Transgender Application Form (the ‘Application Form’) approved are supported in doing so in a safe and inclusive environment. The Association reiterates that it will not tolerate any harassment or discrimination within the LGFA.”
Ms Nic Lochlainn said, “The LGFA policy is a betrayal of women and girls in Gaelic football and needs to be overturned at the earliest possible opportunity.”
She went on to say,
“The policy allows males over the age of 12 to play against females and is totally unfair and unsafe. It seems to have been brought in to allow a specific player, Giulia Valentino, to play with Na Gaeil Aeracha. This team has no underage teams, doesn’t feed into development, etc., yet has been able to effectively undermine the sport by enabling a man who says he is a woman to enter the game. This is unacceptable.”
The Countess is campaigning against the policy, which was introduced in February 2023 and has been criticised by players, coaches, and referees. Ms Nic Lochlainn stated,
“The LGFA policy values the inclusion of men who say they are women over fairness and safety for female players. This leads to women and girls being excluded, either through losing places and opportunities or excluding themselves because of concern over competing against a male player. This is a particular issue when younger players are asked to play up an age group and their parents or coaches simply refuse to play when faced with a male on the opposing team.”
She also said, “This policy has come in at a time when more and more people are waking up to the reality that women’s sport is under threat from male incursion all over the world. The LGFA should do the right thing, admit they were wrong, follow the science, and limit participation to those born female only.”
Go, Deputy Nolan!!
Australia - Puberty Blockers
The Australian Government are preferring a discredited report from the Sax Institute to the Cass Review as reported by Gillian Spencer and Patrick Clarke on the substack, Gender Clinic News.
How not to do an evidence check
It's troubling that Australia's health minister appears to regard a low-quality Sax Institute review as a model of best practice
Feb 06, 2025
In July 2023, the NSW state government in Australia unveiled its blueprint for gender treatment services for children and youth.
The document, titled “NSW Framework for the Specialist Trans and Gender Diverse Health Service for People Under 25 Years”, outlined the expansion of the “affirmation model” for young people suffering gender distress, in line with guidelines endorsed by the Australian Professional Association for Trans Health (AusPATH) and from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health guidelines (WPATH).
The framework’s foundations were laid in an “evidence check” rapid review that was conducted by the Sax Institute for the NSW Ministry of Health in September 2020. This review supported the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, considering them effective and safe.
However, in October 2020, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the UK published two systematic reviews that cast doubt on the clinical value of puberty blockers and questioned the safety and effectiveness of gender-affirming hormones.
The disparity between the Sax and NICE reviews highlighted critical differences in approach to evaluating the quality of research literature.
The NICE reviews considered the research to be of too poor quality to guide clinical practice. The Sax Institute acknowledged the poor quality and high risk of bias in the research studies, but still cited their findings to justify their supportive statements regarding puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.[ Dusty - just read that last sentence again, dear readers!]
In July 2023, following an ABC Four Corners episode on gender treatments for children, the Sax Institute was commissioned by the NSW government to update the evidence check.
In April 2024, whilst the Sax Institute evidence check was in preparation, the UK’s Cass review final report was published. This report was the culmination of a comprehensive four-year examination of all relevant literature, including eight systematic reviews, and extensive community consultation.
It found that, due to lack of evidence of benefit and the certainty of harmful side-effects, puberty blockers should be restricted to ethics-approved research trials, and that cross-sex hormones should be used with extreme caution in people under the age of 18, with approval from an independent expert panel required.
It concluded: “the evidence does not adequately support the claim that gender-affirming treatment reduces suicide risk”. The review found no convincing evidence that the “gender-affirming” model improved the mental health of minors and provided detailed recommendations for an alternative model prioritising psychosocial interventions.
On 6 September 2024, the Sax Institute published their evidence check (“the Sax report”) which examined the literature between 2019 and September 2023 and concluded that the research supports the government’s gender-affirming services. The Sax report did not refer to the Cass review.[ Dusty - and read that last sentence as well, dear readers!]
The full piece is here:
https://www.genderclinicnews.com/p/how-not-to-do-an-evidence-check?publication_id=627677&r=1v403b
When Harry Became Sally
Very interesting change of heart here by Amazon!
Jason Osborne in Gript News ( Amazon reverses ban on famous transgender-critical book 06 February) reports:
Amazon has returned a book critical of the modern transgender movement to its shelves after banning it four years ago.
When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment was removed from the Amazon store in 2021 after the platform claimed that the book violated its guideline prohibiting books that promote hate speech.
Revealing its u-turn in a statement, Amazon said that “balancing free speech and content that could be construed as hate speech is one of the most difficult adjudication decisions we make as a company”.
“A few years ago, we removed ‘When Harry Became Sally’ from our store after concluding that it violated our guideline prohibiting books that promote hate speech. This was not an easy decision and was hotly debated. Since then, many other retailers (e.g. Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Powell’s, etc.) have continued to sell this book, and we’ve continued to receive feedback from customers that the ideas presented in this book, while controversial, should be available for those who want to read and understand the perspective of its author.
“The combination of our peer retailers continuing to sell the book and the ongoing feedback made us re-examine our decision. As was the case when we reviewed the book a few years ago, it was not an easy decision, but we concluded that we erred on the side of being too restrictive last time, and decided to return the book to our store,” the statement said.
Author of the book, Ryan T. Anderson posted on social media to say “love to see it” in response to his book’s return.
He followed this up with a screenshot of a summary of the customer reviews of his book generated by Amazon’s own AI, which concluded that the book had a “charitable motive”.
“The AI-generated summary of the customer reviews may be my favorite part of all this. For just how starkly they contradict what Amazon claimed about the book when they banned it,” Anderson said.
President, CEO and General Counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Kristen Waggoner hailed the development as “wonderful news,” adding that while she’s thankful for Amazon’s “change of heart,” “I’d love to know what the company is doing to ensure it won’t be swayed by the censorship demands of gender ideologues again”.
Author and journalist Abigail Shrier, whose book Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters was similarly delisted by American retailer Target, said that “the deletion of Ryan’s book from Amazon was one of the darker moments in the Left’s war of suppression in support of ‘social justice’.”
“Would be good to have Amazon Files released so that we can see the process by which Earth’s Biggest Bookstore made this indefensible blunder,” Shrier added.
Good point, Abigail. Let’s see the files, Amazon!
Just Say No
There is no trans child. There is probably no gender dysphoria ( or maybe it’s a symptom of something else as argued by Dr Miriam Grossman). These are issues I am working on separately, so I fully agree with wonderful Kat Highsmith in her latest piece on her substack.
But-but-but...Adults can do whatever they want and identify however they like!
NO, THEY CANNOT
Feb 07, 2025
Readers, the title of this post may be something you have heard during discussions of cross-dressing scrotum-havers in women’s sports, prisons, bathrooms, shelters, locker rooms, changing rooms, and I can go on.
There is no area of womanhood that men will not colonize, and allowing mentally unbalanced males to claim that they are girls and celebrating them in the media are great examples of this.
I think it is something that is said reflexively and thoughtlessly because it sounds well-balanced and completely reasonable.
Except that it is not.
Allow me to explain why.
More and more people are becoming comfortable with saying that there is no such thing as “trans kids,” even though that seemed unthinkable just a few years ago. It is wrong to sterilize and mutilate mentally unbalanced and anxious children with puberty blockers, hormones, and surgery.
According to this ostensibly fair view, it is totally logical to force someone to wait until 18 years of age to make the declaration that he was born in the wrong body and therefore eligible to engage in self-mutilation because he is part of the tiny percentage of “true trans” adults who are actually delusional—but the really good ones truly know that they cannot be the opposite sex!
This simply cannot work in a functional society.
If we can say that there is no such thing as a “trans kid” then we can say that there is no such thing as a “trans adult,” and that is because there is no such thing as “trans.”
That is the only approach that makes sense.
The full piece is here:
Endpiece by Liz
#BeMorePorcupine
#EndGenderAffirmingCare
#AdultHumanFemale
#LetWomenSpeak
#GrassrootsArmy
#FightForFreeSpeech
#ByeByeStonewall
#GenderEnders
#NeverSurrender
Well done Deputy Nolan. At least there are still some sane Irish ministers.
I agree with Kat Highsmith. We can’t just accept the idea of ‘true trans’. Firstly, there’s no such thing and secondly, it normalises insanity meaning that we all have to reconfigure society around insanity,delusion and fetish. It also leaves the door wide open for predatory males.
That filmfor children is pure indoctrination.
Thanks Dusty, I hope you’re beginning to come up for air! 😁
#BeMorePorcupine