The Hole In The Wall Gang Part 1
Update 583. Conversion Practices Special. #BeMore Porcupine.
Despite the fact that the aftermath of the Supreme Court judgment is still, of course, continuing, I am returning to the film season at last! There is so much going on that I am splitting this into two parts.
I explained the new Dusty’s Film Series here:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/empire-of-light-dustys-film-series
Please let me have any suggested additions. I have been updating it with additions so this is the latest list for you to double check. Please bear in mind the original series of films.
Next up is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. This 1969 film is loosely based on fact. Butch Cassidy ( Paul Newman) and The Sundance Kid ( Robert Redford) are members of the Hole-In-The-Wall Gang in America who rob trains. Eventually the two of them flee to Bolivia with Etta Place ( Katharine Ross) where they start robbing banks and become known as Los Bandidos Yanquis.
Spoiler alert- the clip below is the ( very famous) final scene.
Thanks to two wonderful readers for suggested pieces.
Some of the linked pieces below may be behind a paywall.
The For Women Scotland Judgment - Even More Aftermath
Stop Press
Barclays Bank Reverse Ferret Special
https://x.com/ripx4nutmeg/status/1917566697013194759
Meanwhile….
Clive Simpson and Jack David on their podcast ( the name of which has now changed to The Dumb Ages) have fun with the Mantrums that have been taking place.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-162236441
Kellie-Jay also has fun with the Mantrums but also calls on us Terfs to stand firm.
Transgender Trend have done an excellent piece on the implications for schools.
UK Supreme Court judgment – what does it mean for schools?
April 29, 2025
The UK Supreme Court judgment on April 16th confirmed that the words ‘man’, ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biology, not to ‘certificated sex.’ In other words, a male person with a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) saying he is female is not counted as female for the purposes of the Equality Act (EA2010). The judgment also clarifies that the protected characteristic ‘sexual orientation’ is based on biological sex. A lesbian is protected as a same-sex attracted woman, and not as a heterosexual male who is in possession of a certificate.
The For Women Scotland v the Scottish government case at the Supreme Court was about whether possession of a GRC changes a person’s sex for the purposes of the Equality Act. As a GRC can only be issued to those over the age of 18 it was not about children.
So does the Supreme Court judgment have any relevance for children in schools? It shouldn’t be necessary to use it, because separate provision of male and female toilets is already a statutory requirement in schools. Operation of single-sex services on the basis of self-identification of sex was never lawful anyway, and children don’t have a GRC.
Children’s privacy and dignity and the safeguarding of girls requires that schools separate the sexes in toilets, changing-rooms, overnight accommodation and sports. The question of GRCs has never arisen, so there has been no confusion there.
But of course many schools haven’t been doing this. If they have followed Stonewall (or another trans or LGBT lobby group) guidance they have been operating policy on the basis of ‘gender identity’, not ‘sex.’
So yes, the UKSC judgment is relevant for schools and this has been confirmed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) in a brief Interim update. The critical point of the judgment is that it clarifies the meaning of ‘sex’ in the EA 2010. It means (and has always meant) biological sex, not ‘gender identity.’
The full piece is here:
https://www.transgendertrend.com/uk-supreme-court-judgment-schools/
Feminist Legal Clinic looks at a larping male judge who wants to appeal the Supreme Court judgment to the European Court of Human Rights. FLC are quoting from an article in The Telegraph hence the use of wrong pronouns!!
UK’s first trans judge takes Government to ECHR over Supreme Court ruling
The UK’s first transgender judge is planning to take the Government to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling.
Victoria McCloud quit the profession last year after claiming she could no longer do the job without politicising the judiciary.
Earlier this month, Supreme Court judges ruled the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act referred to biological sex and not to acquired gender.
The 55-year-old now intends to use the European courts to have the ruling declared unlawful.
In a separate interview with the BBC, she (sic) said: “Trans people were wholly excluded from this court case. I applied to be heard, two of us did. [ Dusty - she applied with larping woman Stephen Whittle. They were represented by Jolyon Maugham KC] We were refused.
“[The court] heard no material going to the question of the proportionality and the impact on trans people. It didn’t hear evidence from us. The Supreme Court failed in my view, adequately, to think about human rights points.”
She (sic) added: “Just as the Prime Minister didn’t know what a woman was, actually the Supreme Court doesn’t know, because they haven’t defined biological sex.”
Assuming Ms McCloud files her (sic) case against the Government in the next six months, the ECHR will proceed to look at whether it is “admissible”.
Ms McCloud transitioned in the 1990s, becoming the first transgender barrister and judge in the UK. She (sic) was the youngest person to become a King’s Bench Master of the High Court at the age of 40 in 2010.
In her (sic) resignation letter last year, she (sic) said the leaking of her formerly private transgender identity eight years ago “came at a cost because I became a public figure and a target”.
“More prosaically, for me, I am now political every time I choose where to pee. Less prosaically, the judiciary, by continuing to let me be a judge, is now at risk of being political.”
Dusty - as is mentioned above, Whittle and McCloud were refused permission to intervene in the Supreme Court case. Since she was not an intervener, I do not see how she has any standing at all to apply to the ECHR but doubtless more crowd funded money will be poured into famous fox killer, Jolyon Maugham’s giant pockets.
Source: UK’s first trans judge takes Government to ECHR over Supreme Court ruling
Katrina Biggs on her substack, A B’Old Woman looks at the kick back against the judgment in New Zealand. I think a legal case ( or two) may now be required in NZ.
Sex is biological, but women and men mustn't be defined as such, says the RANZCP.
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists does a 'what about trans' media release over defining women and men in law.
Apr 29, 2025
Last year in December, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) made a position statement which included saying that “Sex refers to the biological characteristics that define humans as female or male”.
It was pretty radical stuff coming from them. A quick search of their website shows they’re not shy about flogging the ‘poor trans’ line.
Fast forward to April 2025, and hot on the heels of the UK Supreme Court ruling that the word ‘sex’ in the Equality Act means biological sex, NZ First submits a Member’s Bill to define a “woman” as “an adult human biological female” and “man” as “an adult human biological male” in law.
Although NZ First had already planned their bill prior to the UK Supreme Court ruling, nobody could have planned the perfect timing that turned out to be.
However, the RANZCP, which had previously acknowledged that sex was biological and defines humans as female or male, was aghast at the idea of actually legally defining those biological human females and males as ‘women’ and ‘men’.
In her media release, RANZCP President Dr Elizabeth Moore said the bill “risks further marginalising intersex, trans and gender-diverse people and undermining their rights, dignity and access to care.” Somehow, this risk will come about just from defining women and men in law. Why that would be so, is anybody’s guess, but she’s bound to have a reason full of more holes than a colander. And although being intersex has got nothing to do with people claiming to be the opposite sex to that which they were born, it’s been too much of a useful red herring in the past to let go right now.
The full piece is here:
Free Speech - Wings Over Scotland Exonerated
Hooray!! The attempt to criminalise Wings Over Scotland has failed.
This is reported by Dr Frederick Attenborough in Conservative Woman.
High Court rejects attempt to criminalise ‘gender critical’ speech
April 27, 2025
IN A striking defence of free speech, the High Court has reaffirmed the core democratic principle that the law protects not only polite or popular views, but also those others may find offensive, upsetting, or wrong. The ruling dismissed a legal challenge to Greater Manchester Police’s (GMP’s) decision not to prosecute gender critical blogger Stuart Campbell, a member of the Free Speech Union (FSU) and better known online as @WingsScotland. It also pushed back against a growing trend to treat psychological harm as grounds for criminalising dissent.
The case arose after the murder of Brianna Ghey, a 16-year-old transgender girl [ sic] who, in February 2023, was stabbed to death in a park in Warrington. In a series of posts on X, Campbell criticised what he described as the politicisation of Brianna’s death by trans activists and expressed his view that gender is biologically fixed. A trans woman [ sic] who saw the posts reported him to police, alleging they breached Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 or Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003.
The full piece is here:
Conversion Therapy
The UK Government still insist they are going to introduce a Conversion Practices Bill. James Kennedy does a guest post on James Esses’ substack, looking at the situation in Northern Ireland and, guess what…it is a non-existent problem!
Conversion Therapy: No Evidence. No Complaints.
Apr 28, 2025
This article has been guest written by James Kennedy, the Northern Ireland Policy Officer for The Christian Institute.
It is the basic principle of good governance that legislation should be grounded in evidence. In Northern Ireland, we are now witnessing a troubling push for a new law on so-called ‘conversion therapy’. So, where is the evidence?
I sent Freedom of Information requests to every Health Trust in Northern Ireland, and the responses paint a remarkably consistent picture: in practically all cases, no complaints have ever been received relating to conversion therapy.
The same response came back from the official body for patients (the Patient and Client Council); the Public Health Authority; the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority; and the Public Services Ombudsman. No one had ever received a complaint about a medical practitioner, practice or other body.
The single exception was the Belfast Trust, which cited ‘fewer than five’ complaints (refusing to be more specific – it might have been a single complaint for all we know). Crucially, the Trust added that “no concerns were identified by the Trust relating to clinical treatment and care provided.”
Yet there remains significant pressure for a new law to tackle this apparently non-existent problem. Why are groups like Stonewall and The Rainbow Project so keen to push this through?
We need only look at recent legal developments to understand the broader context. Many of the same organisations advocating for this legislation were central to the misinterpretation of the Equality Act – insisting that ‘sex’ included self-declared gender identity. The Supreme Court has now clarified what most of us knew all along: that sex means biological sex. Sadly, the false, ideologically driven position has been parroted by too many public bodies.
This same ideology, and the same willingness to redraw the legal language, is also at the heart of the conversion therapy debate. A ‘ban’ risks criminalising ordinary, compassionate conversations – between parents and children, teachers and pupils, church leaders and their congregations, doctors and patients.
What does ‘conversion therapy’ even mean in this context? Many of the campaign groups now consider it abusive to ask a young person to take time, to reflect, to consider the long-term implications of a decision to medically transition. You can see why their claims of widespread ‘abuse’ aren’t entirely consonant with the on-the-ground reality.
The full piece is here:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-162133686
Kellie-Jay Keen
Great interview by Tanya de Grunwald on her This Isn’t Working channel with Kellie-Jay mainly looking, as is the theme of the channel, at the situation in the workplace. They cover: language in the workplace; trans widows; staff groups; dress codes at work; in house training and much more.
The States - Penn University - ‘He’s A Man’
Penn University allowed Lia Thomas to compete in the women’s swimming competitions. FLC reports:
Trump administration says Penn violated sex discrimination laws after transgender swimmer competed (29 April)
Trump administration says Penn violated sex discrimination laws after transgender swimmer competed – The Trump administration says the University of Pennsylvania illegally denied women equal opportunities by letting a transgender swimmer compete on the school’s women’s team and into team facilities.
Source: Trump administration says Penn violated sex discrimination laws after transgender swimmer competed
Transhumanism
Great interview by Dr Petra Bueskens on her new podcast, Veriditas with Jennifer Bilek. They discuss: trans humanism; trying to get kids undertaking activities rather than stuck in their rooms; third spaces for ‘transgender people’ ( Jennifer B is very against this and I agree - all thoughts gratefully received); the importance of telling stories; the need for use of accurate language; and much more. Unfortunately this interview took place a while ago so is before Trump’s executive orders and the Supreme Court judgment. It would have been good to get Jennifer’s take on those.
Endpieces
I am splitting the endpieces between the two parts.
From Tenaciously
#BeMorePorcupine
#EndGenderAffirmingCare
#AdultHumanFemale
#LetWomenSpeak
#FightForFreeSpeech
#NoMenInWomensSport
#WitchesRUs
#NHSTheGameIsUp
#KeepOnKeepingOn
#NeverForget
#PartyOfWomen
Two great updates Dusty, your workload isn’t reducing at all! Really enjoying the podcasts and Dr Miriam Grossman’s piece was lovely. I left a comment and she replied that she’s thinking of doing something for affected grandparents.
Films….How about A Beautiful Mind and Time Bandits. Did you add The Dig?
I agree with you and Jennifer Bilek. By having third spaces it implies that there’s a third kind of person. Also there’s a danger that many organisations will convert all spaces to mixed sex in order to avoid confrontations. But we need to get back to reality and the only way to do that is to stand firm. If men who think they’re women don’t want to go into male spaces because they feel threatened 1) how do they think women feel? 2) try dressing in jeans and a t shirt like most women, instead of tarting yourself up.
Thanks Dusty. #TruthWillTriumph