The Long Goodbye - Marlowe's Cat
Update 277
Absolutely terrible news about the attack on women and children at Parnell Square in Dublin. Thoughts, of course, with the victims and their families.
This is a long one tonight, dear readers.
Back to our hunt for heroes. I have long been a fan of Raymond Chandler and his laconic detective, Philip Marlowe. I would like to see Philip Marlowe take on Peter Tatchell 😎 One of the greatest of the novels is The Long Goodbye ( the title is, BTW, a reference to death). In the 1973 film version the story is updated to the Swinging Sixties. Great beginning to the film where Marlowe ( played superbly by Elliott Gould) has to go to the supermarket in the middle of the night since he has run out of his cat’s favourite food and he also ends up getting something for his crazy hippy neighbours. Meanwhile his friend Terry Lennox ( played by Jim Bouton) is on his way to see him about a jam he has ended up in ( or his version of a jam he has ended up in). Great mixing of variations on the theme tune in this scene.
In the final scene ( second below - Spoiler Alert), the cat gets an honourable mention yet again!
The Great Debate
Hopefully most if not all of you will have watched the debate between Kellie-Jay Keen and Stella O’Malley on Benjamin Boyce’s channel.
I thought Kellie-Jay did a great job. She acknowledged the great work Genspect have done (eg trying to bring down WPATH - see my recent report on this) but honed in on what she (correctly) described as some ‘incoherence’ in Stella’s and Genspect’s messaging, namely:
In a 2018 film called Trans Kids: It’s Time To Talk, Stella interviewed AGP Debbie Hayton about his decision to transition (which, of course, caused immense distress to his wife and children) and said ‘well done’ to him and went on to ask his wife if she was now a lesbian(!?). Stella said she did not understand about AGP at the time and now accepts that that interview was unfortunate. KJK made it clear that the rest of the film was very good. Stella now accepts that she should have addressed this issue at the time.
Should someone like Debbie Hayton, who is a teacher, still be teaching children? Stella accepted that AGPs should not be around children.
At the Denver conference Genspect tweeted a photo of Mr Illy in his blue dress and further promoted his book about being an AGP, having already included it in their recommended books list. I should add that, though I have not read it, I have read bits and seen what others who have read it have said and it appears to be extremely dubious to say the least. Stella explained that neither she nor anyone else at Genspect had read the book and she relied on recommendations from three people (not belonging to Genspect) that she trusted. This does seem the most enormous error of judgment but she has finally admitted that error (which she should have done when the tweet was made in the first place). KJK said that Mr Illy should not really have been allowed into the conference dressed like that. I agree.
Stella paid tribute to the great work done by Kellie-Jay and Let Women Speak. I hope Genspect have learnt from their mistakes here and can continue with the great work they are doing aside from this. As I say above, they could have calmed all this down if they had admitted the glaring mistakes a bit earlier. As to their just released Gender Framework, I have not had time to read it but look forward to hearing from gender critical experts who have read it. I reported on EDI Jester addressing their Position Statement here:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/the-battle-of-britain
Look forward to getting your views on the interview, dear readers 😎
Hope you noticed some of my sixpennorth in the chat 😎
Portland Women’s Rally
I reported on the awful events at last Sunday’s rally here:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/zero-dark-thirty
Wonderful Genevieve Gluck at Reduxx has now provided a full report. The problem is clearly that the police did not show at all. Luckily none of the women were seriously injured but clearly it was a horrible experience for them to go through and many of them lost cameras and phones which were stolen. Well done the brave women. Do read the full detailed report - link below this short extract.
Women Protesting Gender Ideology Attacked By Trans Activists, Antifa In Portland
Genevieve Gluck at Reduxx
20 November
A group of women critical of gender ideology were physically assaulted in Portland by masked trans activists associated with Antifa, resulting in several women being taken to the hospital. Leaders and members of the US chapter of Women’s Declaration International (WDI), which aims to protect “the sex-based rights of women and girls,” were also threatened with death, called “fascists,” sprayed in the eyes with mace, and had their car tires slashed in the middle of the night.
On November 19, WDI planned an event at the Hollywood branch of the Multnomah County Library, quickly cancelling the plans due to security concerns. Speaking with Reduxx, WDI USA president and author Kara Dansky explained that the goal of the event was to “have a conversation about the importance of protecting women and children in society” and voice concerns about gender ideology.
“In the days leading up to the event, we were in communication with security about how to ensure the safety of ourselves, library staff and guests. Hours before the event was scheduled to take place, we were informed that county security would be unable to guarantee our safety,” Dansky said.
https://reduxx.info/women-protesting-gender-ideology-attacked-by-trans-activists-antifa-in-portland/
Lower The Flags
I reported on the Government guidance about flags here:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/rapid-onset-terfing
Some flags do not need planning consent to be flown including the old rainbow flag ( subject to certain conditions). Other flags, including the so called progress pride flag , do need permission.
Lily Zhou in The Epoch Times ( 2 Prisons Ordered to Remove 'Progress Pride' Flag 22 November) reports:
Two prisons have been ordered to remove the so-called pride progress flag following a complaint from an MP who said the flag "promotes the idea you can be born in the wrong body."
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said the "incorrectly flown" flags had been taken down from HMP Pentonville and HMP Wandsworth.
In a letter to Nick Fletcher, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on issues affecting men and boys, Mr. Chalk said while the six-striped rainbow flag is included in the list of authorised flags in England, the "pride progress" flag is not.
The flag is an updated version of the rainbow flag that contains more stripes to represent those who identify as transgender or other sexualities, and LGBT ethnic minorities.
The letter, published on X, formerly Twitter, by Mr. Fletcher, was a response to his letter from Sept. 26 in which he raised concerns over the flags.
According to the minister, the prisons put up the flags to "show support for the LGBT community among Prisons and Probation staff.
"However, the choice of flag was not the correct one in these instances," Mr. Chalk wrote.
The minister said the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and its agencies follow the flags guidance published by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities (DLUHC) and the Ministry of Housing to "remain consistent' across all government departments.
"Whilst every prison is expected to fly the Union Flag, and establishment may also fly additional flags. This is limited however, to those stipulated in the aforementioned guidance," he wrote.
According to the DLUHC's "Flying Flags: A Plain English guide," organisations in England can fly a list of flags, including the rainbow flag with six horizontal equal stripes of red, orange, yellow,green, blue and violet, without permission provided they comply with certain restrictions, but flying any other flags would require "express consent from the local planning authority."
"The six-stripe 'rainbow flag' is one of the flags authorised to be flown should an establishment wish to do so, but this permission does not extend to any other representative versions, including the one incorrectly flown. Therefore, those at HMP Pentonville and HMP Wandsworth have been duly taken down," Mr. Chalk wrote.
"We will work with our estates colleagues to remind all our institutions of the regulations regarding the flying of flags on MoJ property."
Mr. Fletcher said he's "pleased" about the minister's action, and that more needs to be done to remove the transgender ideology.
"The Pride Progress flag promotes the idea you can be born in the wrong body. You can't. This ideology harms vulnerable people," he wrote on X.
"Much more work is needed from government ministers to remove the influence of this ideology from across government departments. It undermines science, free speech, women's rights, and child safeguarding," he added.
Well done, Nick Fletcher. However I think the problem may be that the rainbow flag has become too tainted by all the variations imposed by the T and the Q mob. When I see a rainbow umbrella I think “Uh oh!”, even though the person carrying the umbrella may simply really like lots of bright colours! Personally I think that, if gender critical people want a flag, why not go for the old suffragette flag which I have always used for this substack. All thoughts gratefully received.
The full article is here (and goes on to discuss guidance on pronouns in prisons!!):
Times Roundup
Thanks to my mate, Fingers as ever for the cuttings from the Times. I have chosen two pieces.
I first reported on the Woman’s Hour interview with the chair and the new CEO of Endometriosis South Coast here:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/the-battle-of-orleans
I do not know the author of the piece that is headed Womb for manoeuvre at a women’s health charity (19 November), but I just liked the final sentence of this piece:
“Women deserve support, help and sympathy, but not from these professional wackos.” 😂 And great heading 😂
Alex Farber (Radio 4 has become too woke, says ex – presenter 17 November) reports:
Michael Crick, the former Channel 4 News and Newsnight political journalist, has taken aim at BBC Radio 4 for focusing too much on “woke” issues.
Crick, 65, said the station has adopted too much of a “liberal, left –leaning” approach in its non-news programming. “It spends too much of its time dealing with questions of race and gender and trans rights,” he said in an interview with Roger Bolton’s Beeb Watch podcast.
Hear, hear! The Woman’s Hour interview (and it did, after all, include a trans identifying man!) seems to have been the exception that proves the rule!
Whom By Fire
And here’s some more cancelled artists ( I think we may have a Terf Aid Concert in the making here!)
Transwomen ARE men: Unban Newcastle United fan
Please sign this petition
Trans Guidance for Schools
Thanks to a wonderful reader both for this report and the next one. I am leaving Maya Forstater of Sex Matters to comment on the first one!!
Martin Beckford for The Mail Online ( Schools are discouraged from letting pupils change their pronouns as ministers toughen up long-overdue transgender guidance 22 November) reports:
Pupils should be allowed to identify as the opposite sex only in very limited circumstances, schools will be told under strict new rules.
Long overdue transgender guidance will establish a 'presumption against' young people changing their names, pronouns and uniforms in classrooms, the Mail can reveal today.
It will also ensure that parents are informed if their children tell staff they want to change their gender identity because many schools are keeping them in the dark.
Headteachers will be told to abide by existing laws including the Equality Act and must keep boys' and girls' toilets, changing rooms and sports separate.
The guidance has been toughened up by equalities minister Kemi Badenoch after a year-long row behind the scenes over how far it should go and whether new laws are needed.
The guidance has been toughened up by equalities minister Kemi Badenoch (pictured)
Ministers ruled out a blanket ban on social transitioning after concluding it would require time-consuming primary legislation and could in any case be unworkable. Education Secretary Gillian Keegan is understood to have agreed the new draft, paving the way for it to be published within weeks.
Sources said the document was now in 'a good place' and Mrs Badenoch and Mrs Keegan were 'on the same page', having previously differed on how tough it should be.
It is due to go to 'write-round' for other Cabinet ministers to agree on soon and will finally see the light of day before schools break up for Christmas.
A Government source said: 'It's been toughened recently. Effectively it means there is a presumption against social transitioning.
'It will also say parents should be informed – it's wrong that such decisions appear to have been taken without parents being involved.'
However, some Tory backbenchers and campaign groups want the rules to go further, believing that anything less than a total ban on social transitioning will create confusion for headteachers as well as letting children down.
Tory MP Nick Fletcher, who sits on the Commons education committee and is part of the New Conservatives group, said: 'Affirming a child as the sex or gender they are not participates in a harmful delusion. It abnegates our adult safeguarding responsibility.
'Schools' guidance on this issue needs to make robustly clear that children cannot be affirmed as the sex they are not by adults in a school environment – and all children should be communicated with truthfully on this subject.
'A safeguarding-first approach needs to be taken to the resolution of this complex issue – and if this requires changes to other pieces of legislation then that needs to happen. We must protect our children.'
Maya Forstater of the campaign group Sex Matters said: 'We are relieved that the long-awaited guidance is coming out, and that it will rule out most aspects of social transition clearly.'
But she added: 'The idea that there is a 'presumption against' social transitioning passes the buck back to schools to negotiate and to face the risk of legal challenges.
'It is irresponsible and unworkable to suggest that there are some unspecified situations where a school may be obliged to pretend that a boy is a girl, or vice versa.'
She called for the Government to issue 'common sense guidance' stating that children are either born male or female and cannot change sex.
'Schools cannot meaningfully accommodate 'social transition' which means pretending that a boy is a girl or a girl is a boy, including by calling them 'he' or 'she' or applying different rules than to other girls or boys. It is not safe or fair on any of the children,' she said.
'This does not mean that schools have to ban children from changing their hairstyle or nickname. But they do have to ban boys from using the girls' showers, changing rooms and toilets and vice versa, which means that schools need to use clear language about each and every child and not be confused into thinking that some children have changed sex.'
EDI Jester also reported on this here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4qUtxV0w6A
The 2023 Dutch Debate Over Youth Transitions
This is an extremely important and detailed report looking at the original Protocol that started the whole process.
By The Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine
Published by Reality’s Last Stand, 19 November
The Netherlands, like the rest of the Western world, has experienced an unprecedented increase in the number of youth seeking to undergo gender transition. Like the rest of the West, this sharp increase has been driven largely by adolescent females. Unlike the rest of the Western world, where this dramatic epidemiological shift has led to scientific debate about the practice of youth transition, the Netherlands practice has been insulated from scrutiny—until now.
However, three recent events in 2023—a medical publication in a prominent Dutch-language medical journal, a legal publication in the Dutch legal weekly journal, and a two-part documentary by BNNVARA, a liberal Dutch public broadcaster—suggest that the debate about the practice of gender transition of minors has finally reached the Netherlands. Below, we detail the key points raised in the debate, discuss the factors that contributed to the debate, and reflect on the significance of this debate in the Netherlands and its implications for the greater international reckoning about the practice of youth gender transition.
The authors of this extremely important report conclude:
The authors argue that the core of the Dutch Protocol is an ethical rather than a medical issue and as such, society rather than medical professionals should decide whether early intervention of gender transition is an appropriate societal response to a gender incongruent child. They discuss three issues central to childhood gender transition, which are strongly ethically charged. First, the scientific basis is weak, and it is unclear whether puberty blockers actually “lock in” the state of gender dysphoria that may have otherwise naturally resolved. Secondly, given the invasive nature of transgender treatments and their associated medical harms, it is unclear that early transition is preferable to giving children a chance to experience natural resolution of gender dysphoria at a later point. Thirdly, given the weight of the decision, it is highly uncertain whether children aged 9-14 can be regarded as competent to give consent, and how such consent interacts with the children’s right to a future.
I don’t know about you, but the more I read of this increasing body of evidence that shows the total inadequacy of the original evidence and protocols and the failures involved, the more angry I get at the permanent harm the so-called experts have inflicted on children. More of them need to be in the dock!
The full article is here:
https://www.realityslaststand.com/p/the-2023-dutch-debate-over-youth?publication_id=225618&r=1v403b
Government Response to Petition
I have received the following response to a petition I signed.
The Government has responded to the petition you signed – “Do not allow people to have acquired gender listed as sex on Government ID”.
Government responded:
We are committed to protecting the rights of transgender people whilst ensuring that these rights are appropriately balanced with the rights of others.
The Equality Act 2010 provides protection against discrimination, harassment and victimisation across a number of grounds, including sex and gender reassignment. We are committed to upholding Britain’s long-standing record of protecting the rights of individuals against unlawful discrimination. The Government also believes in the principle of individual liberty and in the humanity and dignity of every person.
There are processes in place, with the right checks and balances, to allow for those who wish to legally change their gender to do so.
Transgender people, including those who are going through the process to change their legal sex, deserve our respect, support and understanding. Enabling people to change their gender, with appropriate checks and balances in place, is part of this, as it allows transgender people to live in their acquired gender. Systems are in place to support transgender people in obtaining a passport or driving licence in their acquired gender, with the appropriate security procedures in place, without the need for a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). Passports and driving licences are often part of the evidence provided by transgender people to the Gender Recognition Panel to obtain a GRC.
Dusty - repeal the Gender Recognition Act. This is a nonsense.
The Government is committed to maintaining the safeguards that allow organisations to provide single-sex services. It is important that the principle of being able to operate spaces reserved for women and girls is maintained, in line with the Equality Act. We are committed to tackling harassment and abusive behaviours by all individuals, and ensuring single-sex spaces are safe for those using them. The EHRC have published guidance on the existing legislation which provides much needed clarity to those offering single sex spaces.
On 21 February 2023, the Minister for Women and Equalities (MfWE) sought advice from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on the benefits or otherwise of an amendment to the Equality Act 2010 on the current definition of 'sex', as she was concerned that the Equality Act may not be sufficiently clear in the balance it strikes between the interests of people with different protected characteristics, particularly in the case of the protected characteristics of ‘sex’ and ‘gender reassignment’. Having received that advice, the Minister for Women and Equalities has asked officials to undertake detailed policy and legal analysis, as per the EHRC’s request, to understand the impact of its advice on various protected groups and related issues arising.
Dusty - this sounds like kicking it all into the long grass!!
We are absolutely committed to championing the rights of women and girls.
Dusty - Really? Well, sorry, you have failed!
Cabinet Office
The Rainbow Badge Scheme
In case you miss it, Rebecca Says No has done a piece on the Glinner Update about this terrible scheme.
https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/so-over-the-rainbow
Two excerpts:
As seen in the examples above, this is a clash between navel-gazing career EDI ‘specialists’ and clinical staff working in the real world, who treat patients’ physical well-being rather than their identities. The confusion that arises is inevitable when gender ideology meets the reality of healthcare. If Hospital Trusts behave responsibly and in the interests of patient safety then, like CUH, they should not agree to the NHS Rainbow Badge Scheme’s identity-based demands.
Rebecca concludes:
Can the UK medical profession really be expected to compromise patient safety around these issues solely to avoid offending the sensibilities of self-proclaimed ‘queer medical activists’? Why have such extreme voices been given this amount of power over the NHS with schemes such as NHS Rainbow Badges and Pride in Practice? Also the eternal question - why has the government allowed these fanatical activists to hold this power over the NHS, when the vast majority of the British public reject both them and their absurd ideas?
Hear, hear!
Let Women Speak
My wife and I can’t make this Sunday. Hope it all goes well. If you have never been to one of these before, these rallies are really great and these days they are well policed. The police keep the anti-women activists at a reasonable distance. There was trouble in Portland because the police did not show up. My wife and I have been to three this year and they were all excellent though Dublin was our favourite.
Reformers' Tree Let Women Speak
RSVP or donate
Time & Location
Nov 26, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM GMT
Reformers' Tree, London W2 2UH, UK
Endpiece
Here on Dusty’s substack we love to feature cancelled people. Here are the wonderful Whom By Fire. If you have heard of any artists, musicians, poets, comedians etc being cancelled please let us know.
I have paid work on Friday plus I am going out on Friday night 😎 so the next update is likely to be Saturday.
Another packed edition, thanks Dusty.
KJK is incredibly brave (as always) to take on such a big name and do it in a way that results in the organisation admitting mistakes. Hope they’ve learned something.
Michael Crick is sometimes on GB News and he comes across as pretty woke. I don’t think he wants it discussed because he doesn’t think it’s a problem.
I’ve signed the petitions and I got that useless reply.
I’m very disappointed in the schools guidance but am prepared to accept that they needed to at least get something done. But the problem is that it places the responsibility for deciding which child is ‘special’ enough to transition, firmly in the hands of the teachers. There are two possibilities- schools will cave in to woke, demanding parents, woke teachers will carry on as they are now. I can only hope that there are enough sane teachers and heads who will take courage from the guidance and ban transitions completely as part of their admissions policies.