The Return of the Big Sleep Part 2
Update 355
We’re sticking with the Big Sleep, of course, for Part 2.
Marlowe up to his old tricks as usual! “Hello!”
Bogart as Marlowe, of course, and Sonia Darrin as Agnes Lowzier and, therefore, No 26 in the Leading Female Season.
Thanks to two wonderful readers for suggestions as to pieces featured.
UK Elections
There are local elections in England and Wales on 02 May and also Mayoral and Police and Crime Commissioner Elections.
As regular readers will know I am a supporter of the Party of Women (POW).
Five POW candidates are standing for local elections in England:
Charlotte Hawkins
Wolverhampton West
Fallings Park
Esther Knight
Lincoln City Council
Minster Ward
Sally James
Ellesmere Port
Wolverham Ward
Sarah Freeman
Lincoln City Council
Park Ward
Tara Hughes
Stockport
Davenport and Cale Green
Unfortunately, there are no candidates in our constituency so my wife and I are in the process of sending e-mails to candidates about ‘gender critical’ matters.
As far as I can make out, I can’t see how a Terf can vote for Labour, the Greens or the Lib Dems given their woo woo policies but do let me know if you disagree.
I am also aware, of course, that some of the other minor parties are wholly or partly in favour of the Terf cause, so please let us know if you support one of those parties and let us know why. If you want to write a longer piece, I am happy to include it in the next update.
Labour
Ahem…here is an example of why you can’t trust Labour!!
Brendan Carlin in The Mail Online ( Is Starmer a llama? Sir Keir's equality chief sparks ridicule for saying anyone can identify as the animal if they like... and everyone should treat them with 'dignity and respect' if they do! 21 April) reports:
Labour faced mockery over its stance on trans issues last night after it emerged that the party's equalities spokesperson said people could self-identify as a llama.
Ashley Dalton was ridiculed for saying that anyone who decides they're a South American cousin of the camel should be treated with 'dignity and respect'. She also came under fire for having insisted that if you identify 'as a female, then you are'.
The revelations come after Labour health spokesman Wes Streeting switched his stance on the trans issue earlier this month, admitting it was a mistake to say all trans women are women.
West Lancashire MP Ms Dalton, who entered the Commons in a 2023 by-election, was promoted by Sir Keir Starmer in November to Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities. But yesterday she was derided for her Twitter postings on trans issues and self-identification.
In 2016, she was asked by somebody in one Twitter exchange if a person decided they were a llama, should other people take them seriously. Ms Dalton replied: 'Yes. And treat you with dignity and respect.'
Top: Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer. Bottom: A llama. Just in case you are confused 😊
I’m voting for the llama 😂
The full article ( if you can bear it) is here:
Kevin Lister
I did a deep dive into Kevin’s unsuccessful tribunal judgment here:
I am delighted to learn that he has appealed albeit I can’t help feeling a bit sorry for Kemi Badenoch if she is named as a defendant. However, she is part of a government that has overseen this gender nightmare being imposed on us! Thanks to wonderful Feminist Legal Clinic.
Ministers face court action as woke indoctrination ‘runs riot’ in UK schools (21 April)
Three Cabinet Ministers have been warned they could face court action after being accused of letting woke indoctrination “run riot” in British schools.
Maths teacher Kevin Lister and two parents have approached the High Court about trans campaigners promoting gender identity ideology in classrooms.
The Bad Law Project, which is supporting the court action, argued gender ideology is a political matter and subsequently could fall foul of the Education Act.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch and Attorney General Victoria Prentis have all been accused by Lister of failing to uphold the law.
Lister, who was sacked for using the wrong pronouns, said: “My 20 years of teaching A-level came to an abrupt end when I was sacked and marched off the premises for refusing to call a girl a boy.
“The Education Department can waffle on endlessly about their meaningless guidance to schools – in practice schools and their trans activists allies are being allowed to run riot.”
Source: Ministers face court action as woke indoctrination ‘runs riot’ in UK schools
Title IX
The following is the opening of the text of Title IX, which is followed by several exceptions and clarifications:
No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.
The Biden Administration are in the process of destroying that!
Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) reports:
NEW TITLE IX RULES: A DARK WEEK FOR WOMEN’S SPORTS
Apr 19, 2024
This past week has been breathtaking in the swift evisceration of women’s sex-based rights. We have been thrust unwillingly into a new era of Endarkenment. From the very first day Joe Biden took office and promised to replace ‘sex’ in civil rights law with ‘gender identity’, WoLF has been on the ground fighting back. Today, we see the results of his promise: the erasure of 50 years of protection for women and girls in education on the basis of sex.
HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK:
Tuesday April 16th: The US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit issued a ruling that a boy can compete on the girls' team.
West Virginia passed a state law in 2021 that bans male athletes purporting to be transgender from participating in female-only sports. The court ruled in the case of B.P.J. v. West Virginia State Board of Education that West Virginia’s law violates Title IX — a law passed in the 1970’s to protect female athletes from discrimination. The court said the boy can compete on the girls’ team.
Thursday April 18th: The girls protest.
Female athletes affected by this ruling refuse to participate in a multi-school meet.
Five members of the school’s middle-school girls’ track and field team, aged 11-13, who were directly impacted by the B. P. J. decision, bravely chose to protest during this week’s championship event. They refused to be forced to compete with the boy. He ended up winning that event.
Friday April 19th: New Title IX Regulations drop, rewriting “sex” protections to include “gender identity.”
The new regulation includes “gender identity” as a part of “sex” and prioritizes the special gender feelings of boys and men over the safety, dignity, and educational opportunities of women and girls. Over 240,000 comments were submitted, a record for a proposed regulation change, and the vast majority opposed these changes. WoLF met with the Office of Management and Budget in March to express our concerns. The administration has canceled all further meetings.
BREAKING DOWN THE NEW TITLE IX REGULATION
The new regulations include 1,577 pages of intentionally ambiguous nonsense. Far from creating clarity, the new rules, effective August 1st, will cause additional mass confusion for schools. It’s already causing confusion in the media trying to report on it.
The administration is claiming the changes as a win, but left out a key provision: making it impossible for schools to ban trans-identifying males from women’s sports. Evidently, the administration was afraid of the growing backlash led by groups like WoLF against the total erasure of women’s sports. Yet, by replacing ‘sex’ with ‘gender identity’, they’ve successfully eviscerated protections for women’s spaces and sports in favor of trans supremacy. The summary document provided by the Dept. of Ed. specifically states that “policies and practices that prevent a student from participating in a recipient’s education program or activity consistent with their gender identity … generally violate Title IX’s nondiscrimination mandate.”
Women and girls deserved MUCH better than the garbage the Ed. Dept. delivered today.
We deserved protection. We used to have it.
Threats to Freedom of Speech
The new regulation not only fails to protect women’s sports but also poses major risks to freedom of speech by students, like the brave girls in West Virginia, who may wish to speak out against the males invading their spaces. Now, calling a man who declares he’s a woman a man would be considered “sexual harassment.” For example, in 2022, three eighth-grade students were charged with sexual harassment under Title IX for “mispronouncing.” These cases will only become more common under the new rule.
A Silver Lining: Protections for Sexual Orientation
Despite the many horrible components of this regulation, we are glad to see increased protections on the basis of sexual orientation. However, the other aspects of this new rule are likely to disproportionately harm LBG students, as Gender Identity has consistently been vaulted over sexual orientation as a protected class — something WoLF has communicated extensively to the administration.
NEXT STEPS
Our legal team will present an in-depth analysis of this new regulation and its impact on women’s sports. We’ll be joined by prominent women in the sporting world to talk over the impacts to women’s sports. We welcome you to join our Zoom panel discussion on Monday at 6pm ET!
To the Department of Education, we have only one thing left to say:
See you in court!
WoLF is the only feminist 501(c)(3) non profit fighting for women and girls in the courts and legislatures.
When you support WoLF, you champion our radical feminist mission to restore, protect, and advance the sex-based rights of women and girls using legal argument, policy advocacy, and public education!
Well done, WoLF!!
https://womensliberationfront.org/news/new-title-ix-rules-a-dark-week-for-womens-sports
One small good thing…
Collin Binkley in The Independent ( Biden’s new Title IX rules protect LGBTQ+ students, but avoid addressing transgender athletes 19 April) reports:
The rights of LGBTQ+ students will be protected by federal law and victims of campus sexual assault will gain new safeguards under rules finalized Friday by the Biden administration.
The new provisions are part of a revised Title IX regulation issued by the Education Department, fulfilling a campaign pledge by President Joe Biden. He had promised to dismantle rules created by former Education Secretary, Betsy de Vos, who added new protections for students accused of sexual misconduct.
Notably absent from Biden’s policy, however, is any mention of transgender athletes.
The administration originally planned to include a new policy forbidding schools from enacting outright bans on transgender athletes, but that provision was put on hold. The delay is widely seen as a political maneuver during an election year in which Republicans have rallied around bans on transgender athletes in girls' sports.
The full article is here:
Queer Paddleboarding
Charlotte Gill in The Telegraph ( Labour councils spend hundreds of thousands of pounds in grants on LGTBQ+ paddleboards and cooking 20 April) reports:
Two Labour-run councils have been criticised by campaigners over their use of taxpayer money after channelling thousands of pounds into activities including “Cooking with Pride” lessons and “LGBTQ+ Paddlesport” social events.
Since 2019, forum+, a charity, has received £627,710 in government grants, with Camden and Islington councils alone giving £250,000 in total for 2022 and 2023.
Forum+ states its aim as promoting “equality for LGBTQ people in Camden and Islington” through “hosting social groups and events which celebrate LGBTQ life in the boroughs” and “supporting victims of homophobic and transphobic hate crime”, among other activities.
For its Rainbow Paddlers event, attendees are invited to “join fellow LGBTQ+ pirates for a relaxing early evening paddle”. Tickets cost £10 per session, but forum+ says it’s “free to join”, with the event being marketed “for LBGTQ+ people aged 18”.
The charity also held a LGBT History Month Art Workshop forum+ in February, where participants celebrated “queer joy and creativity” and regularly posts links to its international film club where participants can “enjoy trips to the cinema”, a “free monthly spoken word event” and “Cooking with Pride” lessons.
Kate Barker, CEO of LGB Alliance, told The Telegraph: “Councils should have a clear idea of who they’re funding and what they’re up to. Lesbians, gay men and bisexuals would be as keen as every other ratepayer to understand what the T, the Q and especially the ‘+’ actually stand for.
“And, what any of those people have in common with those of us who are same-sex attracted. The forced-teaming of disparate groups serves none of the individuals within them well and obscures their purpose in a way that should ring alarm bells for councils.”
The full article is here:
Free Father Ted
APR 18, 2024
A few years ago I had an idea for a stage musical based on Father Ted, an idea I felt was equal to and respectful of the enduring affection many held for the residents of Craggy Island’s parochial house.
The story touched on themes that seemed big enough for a West End stage. Jimmy Mulville of Hat Trick Productions was excited by my pitch and accompanied me to Dublin to convince my old writing partner Arthur Mathews to embark with us on the project. We then enlisted Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy, who like Arthur, was one of my oldest friends and one whose development as a songwriter I had watched with delight over the previous three decades.
We began work on a script, encountering all the usual obstacles. Our first drafts were messy and overlong but soon we discovered the key to each character's story and it came alive.
Neil started delivering songs—each one better than the last. Through them, Ted revealed new, hilarious depths to his frustration. Mrs.Doyle had an absolute showstopper that I’m sure would have brought the audience to their feet.
All this to carry the audience merrily along to what I felt was the show's greatest strength, its ending. It was an ending that wrapped up the characters’ stories once and for all, and perhaps shook off some of the gloom associated with the show since Dermot Morgan’s tragic death only days after our final wrap party in 1998.
While we were working on the show, trans activists were busy trying to destroy my life.
I had noticed some years before that troubled children were placing themselves on an irreversible medical pathway that was deeply damaging to their health and peace of mind. In this, they were encouraged by legacy LGB organizations that had catastrophically lost their way. When I began speaking up about it, trans activists reacted as they always do, by contacting possible employers, smearing my name in propaganda outlets like Pink News, which would later come after JK Rowling when she entered the fray. The police were sent to my door multiple times. I was sued by a succession of activists, one of whom was a child predator and vexatious litigant.
But I felt that my colleagues, who were so close to me during all this, who saw the effect that the abuse was having on my life and my ability to make a living, would stand by my side.
That didn’t happen.
The last time I worked on the Father Ted musical. We presented the whole show to executive producer Sonia Friedman and her team. The story was almost there. The songs were exquisite. We'd even worked on a few rudimentary dance routines to give an idea of what audiences would see on stage. But then, I received a call to go to London and the Hat Trick offices. There I was told to remove my name from the show or it would not be made. Jimmy Mulville offered me £200,000 to do so. The money would have been incredibly useful as my other means of earning a living had largely disappeared.
But in the end, I refused for many reasons, not the least of which was that I did not want the legacy of Father Ted to be built on the ruined bodies of gay, autistic, abused and gender-nonconforming children.
Recently, my position in this debate has been vindicated by the findings of the Cass Report, which found that ‘trans healthcare’ in the UK has an inadequate evidence base, a toxic atmosphere within gender clinics that led to whistleblowers being vilified and smeared, and a rush to medicalize children without sufficient regard for the long-term consequences of such interventions.
Once at a meeting, Sonia Friedman, said to me “You’re on the wrong side of history.” I never received an apology from her. I would still appreciate one.
My beliefs—that biological sex is real and important, that women need single sex spaces for their safety and privacy, that their sports should be fair and finally that children should not be subjected to experimental medical protocols—are specifically protected in British law. Furthermore, polling shows that the same views are held by the majority of the British population. Mulville will not explain the problem he has with these views because he knows it will put him out of step with the majority of decent people in this country.
For too long now, Mulville has been sitting on a musical that would be a surefire hit. He is doing this for no other reason than to please the gender cultists on his staff and in the wider, captured media landscape. It’s pathetic, cruel and cowardly. If he doesn't want to make the show, he should get out of the way and let me do it.
Please share this message with your networks and use the hashtag #FreeFatherTed when you can. While it might not result in the return of my work, it will certainly make it more challenging for Mulville to pretend he had nothing to do with this disgraceful act of pre-emptive cultural vandalism.
Endpiece
While completing this two part update tonight I have been listening to one of my favourite singers, Irish tenor John McCormack, so here is So Deep Is The Night.
I’ve just received a resume of the candidates for the Greater Manchester mayoral election & I can’t support any of them; I don’t think a llama is standing. Democracy? Not if you’re a terf. Labour & the left in general have lost their marbles. I’m incandescent with anger at Biden’s butchering of Title IX; it’s a green light for every larping AGP to ignore women’s sex-based language, safe spaces & sports, never mind dismantling the guardrails for children’s safety. A good job Wolf is taking legal action. I’m equally disgusted at labour councils spending money on trans nonsense. Manchester City Council voted unanimously to allow men into ladies-only swimming sessions!! They didn’t notice that this is a contradiction in terms.
Glinner’s piece is heartbreaking; he writes about this in his book. Jimmy Mulville will be sorry one day. How can a friend do such a thing?
My Irish ma loved John McCormack; she used to sing ‘So Deep is the Night’ when doing the washing.
Thanks for this, Dusty.
I’d vote for the llama too, over any Labour, Lib Dem or Green. I’m still waiting for replies to my emails but it’ll probably be Tory for me unless I can find a terfy alternative. If you combine the llama article with the revelations about Labour council spending on alphabet soup issues- it’s all proof positive that no matter how much reverse ferreting Labour pretend to do, it’s got wokery/ gender ideology running through it like letters through a stick of rock.
What a body blow for women and children in the US. No wonder Wolf is howling. Women have had a few short decades of something akin to equality only to have it destroyed by bully blokes in dresses. I can’t believe we’re living in plain sight of a naked emperor and people are cheering him on.
Kevin Lister- that’ll be interesting.
Thanks as ever Dusty 😁