The Search For One Man!
Update 542. Toddler Activist Special. #BeMorePorcupine
As we move into 2025 I am 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 Saving Private Ryan (1998).
The courage in Saving Private Ryan is not only the squad sent in to find Private Ryan, the last surviving of four brothers ( the squad led by Captain John Miller played by Tom Hanks), but also the courage of all those soldiers who landed on the beaches on D Day. Without whom… The opening scene ( below) is the most amazing re-enactment of that day.
Thanks to three wonderful readers for suggested pieces.
Some of the linked pieces below may be behind a paywall.
International Women’s Day
Shocking behaviour from Darlington Council on International Women’s Day!!
Martin Evans in The Telegraph ( Man tries to evict protestors from International Women’s Day event for saying ‘no woman has a penis’ 09 March) reports:
A council worker attempted to evict a group from an International Women’s Day event after they distributed leaflets declaring “no woman has a penis”.
The incident occurred on Saturday afternoon in Darlington as women gathered at a council-run venue to celebrate the fight for female equality and liberation.
Representatives from Let Women Speak, a gender-critical pressure group, attended the function but were told they were not welcome and were even warned the police would be called if they did not leave.
The leaflets stated that women do not have penises and men do not have vaginas, and claimed transitioning children is “profound child abuse”.
Let Women Speak was just one of a number of groups that had gathered at the venue to mark International Women’s Day.
It was being hosted at a venue called Number Forty Skinnergate, described as a “safe space for everyone on a night out in Darlington town centre”.
But the delegates from the group, which describes itself as a global women’s rights movement, were told that they were not welcome at the event because the leaflets breached the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED).
The PSED is a law that requires public bodies to promote equality and reduce discrimination.
A video posted on social media shows a dispute between two members of the group and Andrew Allison, the former Darlington borough council community resilience officer, who now runs the council-funded venue.
In the exchange he is heard telling the activists: “This building is a safe space for all on Friday and Saturday nights, [the] Public Sector Equality Duty requires us to foster good relations between all groups and this isn’t doing that I’m afraid, so I am going to have to ask you to leave.”
One of the delegates countered that the slogans on the leaflet were “statements of fact” or “objective reality”.
But Mr Allison said while he was not disputing anything on the leaflet, his role was to ensure the PSED was applied.
He said while the venue was advertised as a “safe space”, it was not for those who voiced “those opinions”.
Asked about freedom of speech, Mr Allison replied: “Freedom of speech is fine but as far as Darlington borough council is concerned freedom of speech doesn’t mean thoughtless speech and we have a duty under the Equality Act and unfortunately are going to have to ask you to leave because that doesn’t comply with what we do.”
Despite being warned that the police would be called if they did not leave, the Let Women Speak delegates refused and stayed until the event finished at around 3pm.
‘You’re not welcome here’
Rose Cross, the North East co-ordinator for Let Women Speak said the exchange had left members feeling upset and harassed.
She told The Telegraph: “They demanded we shut down the event organised by a local Darlington woman because of the Let Women Speak leaflets we had on display at the open public event on International Women’s Day.
“Mr Allison stormed in, it felt very aggressive. He demanded to speak to the organiser and he talked about protecting safe spaces but where was our free speech and our safe space?
“He said ‘you’re not welcome here, with these views’, told us to leave and threatened to call the police. We felt very harassed, upset and Darlington Council are failing women and free speech.
“We felt discriminated against for being women and for holding perfectly legal views.
“For this to happen on International Women’s Day really illustrates how public bodies do not understand the Equality Act and how to apply it. Let Women speak are owed an apology for this sex-based discriminatory behaviour and harassment by Darlington Council. Let Women Speak.”
‘No right to speak’
Kellie-Jay Keen, the founder of Let Women Speak who is also known as Posie Parker, said it showed how local authorities had been “coerced and manipulated to accept the activist version of rights that means that women have no right to speak”.
The full article is here:
Rose Cross and Kellie-Jay are, of course, correct in stating that Mr Allison was misquoting the law ( which is typical of ‘trans activists’ sometimes basing their interpretation on incorrect material from Stonewall and others like them). I provide the text of the Public Sector Equality Duty below for ease of reference. The case of Forstater v CGD and several subsequent cases establish that gender critical beliefs are a protected characteristic under the Equality Act. Excluding women from a Women’s Day Event would also, as far as I can make out, be direct sex discrimination under the Act.
Let Women Speak are, at the very least, owed an apology from Darlington Council.
Section 149 Public sector equality duty
(1)A public authority must, in the exercise of its functions, have due regard to the need to—
(a)eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under this Act;
(b)advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it;
(c)foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.
UK - Clinical Trials of Puberty Blockers
EDI Jester deals with an article in The Telegraph by Dr David Bell, one of the original Tavistock whistleblowers. I wrote in the comments:
‘Like you I would go beyond what Dr Bell is saying. I agree with you when you say:'It ends, all of it. Is that not now the only way forward in a process that has a 100 percent failure rate from every standpoint.' Hear, hear.’
UK - British Psychological Society Off With The Woo!
James Esses has now returned to his own substack after posting recently on Matt Goodwin’s substack. He recently did a piece on how the British Psychological Society are in thrall to critical race theory. Now he shows how they are ( surprise, surprise) also in thrall to critical social justice and gender ideology. My only caveat to this excellent piece is that I now prefer the view that gender dysphoria is not an actual condition but, at most, a symptom ( see Dr Miriam Grossman, Lost In Trans Nation ). You don’t treat a symptom - you find what the cause is. All thoughts on this gratefully received.
Gender Agenda: The British Psychological Society
Mar 10, 2025
I have previously written an investigative article into the racism being spewed by the highly influential British Psychological Society (BPS) in the name of ‘anti-racism’.
For this follow-up piece, I examine the second ideology – gender ideology – that is being spouted by the BPS and shoved down the throats of members and patients alike. This is particularly concerning, given the fact that gender dysphoria is a mental health condition and the BPS exists to treat such conditions.
In 2020, the BPS published an article by Canadian researcher, Reubs J Walsh, entitled: ‘A blow to the rights of transgender children’. Crucially, the article remains live even after the final Cass Review Report, which clearly set out the risks of medically transitioning children and the harm caused by gender clinics in the preceding years.
Walsh begins with a patronising demand of readers: “I always refer to girls and boys based on their identities, not assigned sex; please do the same!”.
He goes on to tell psychologists that to prevent children from accessing puberty blockers is a “blow” to their rights. Especially abhorrent is when Walsh tells readers: “puberty blockers are completely reversible”. We know, particularly in light of Cass, that this is a complete and utter lie. Yet, the BPS do not pull this article on the grounds of misinformation. Nor do they print a correction. They simply include a note from the Editor, reading: “[Editor's note: Although note the NHS guidance on this, and the final report from the Cass Review]”. For such a false, dangerous assertion, this is simply not good enough.
Walsh then attempts to undermine the research which proves that most children will desist or grow out of their dysphoric feelings as they get older. He does this by referring to the researchers as “a small number of extremely cisgenderist authors”; hardly proper academic rebuttal.
Walsh goes on to make a troubling assertion that: “as diagnostic tests go, the test for assumed-cis youth to be permitted to undergo a gender-congruent (i.e. congruent with their stated or assumed identity) puberty seriously lacks specificity”. He appears to be suggesting that there is some issue with allowing children to simply go through natural puberty, without question. He goes on to claim that “interrupting a cisgender identity with a voluntary, self-initiated period of self-exploration” is preferable to not allowing children to explore gender freely. This is chilling. Should we be placing every child on puberty blockers on the basis that they might be ‘trans’?
He then conjures up the image of a young, vulnerable child: “Imagine at age 12 your body starts changing in ways you find terrifying, knowing that these changes aren't reversible…Now imagine you can pause it – fantastic news!” We know that children going through puberty often struggle with these seismic changes to their bodies and their own self-image. This is part of the human condition. The answer to this is to re-assure these children that things will be okay. It is not to offer them a pill so that they can stop their puberty altogether. That this is being published by the body responsible for psychology in the United Kingdom is unbelievable.
He concludes by celebrating the idea that children should be allowed to go through “multiple transitions” before comparing banning puberty blockers to “withholding contraception from unmarried women” or “legislation against interracial marriage”. This is not ethical psychology. It is dangerous dogma.
The full piece is here and I am pleased to see that James is practising as a therapist again:
https://www.jamesesses.co.uk/p/gender-agenda-the-british-psychological?r=7ogxh&triedRedirect=true
Ireland - Education - Indoctrinating Toddlers
A mother writes on the substack, Progressing Off The Cliff’s Edge about changes to the Curriculum for toddlers and early years. Very chilling stuff! Given the review of the National Curriculum taking place in the UK ( see: https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/you-can-count-all-the-way-up-to-two?utm_source=publication-search ), we should be forewarned!!!
Like Lambs to the Slaughter
How the government intends to sacrifice our babies and toddlers at the altar of social justice
Mar 07, 2025
This is a discussion of the literature review that was used to inform the updating of Ireland's early childhood curriculum. It concerns the corruption of the minds of our youngest, most innocent, and most vulnerable to manipulation. The literature review provides the academic argument for teaching our youngest children about critical race theory, critical social justice, and sustainable development (de-growth).
I have been researching the redevelopment of the curriculum for a number of years, yet nothing that I have read to date has disheartened me quite as much as the research that I have done into the updated Early Childhood Curriculum Framework, Aistear. It is now clear to me that not even our babies and toddlers will be able to escape the indoctrination that is happening in the Irish education system. The Aistear framework applies to all settings that care for children from birth to when they start primary school. The updated framework was informed by a literature review conducted by a team from DCU [ Dublin City University] in 2022. Why was the original 2009 Framework updated and what changes have been made?
Here is an extract from this lengthy piece though I do recommend the whole piece:
A further update was made to the principle “Equality and Diversity”, which now reads as “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” (DEI) within the new framework. As we all know, equality and equity are not the same thing. The 2009 framework already had a very progressive definition of equality, so this terminological shift seems unnecessary. If it were truly about simple fairness, as the document glossary indicates, then the prior use of equality should have been sufficient.
Dr Gillian Lake, who contributed to the literature review that informed these changes, states that the new framework asks that educators provide opportunities for children to engage with culture, languages, and “have experiences that are underpinned by social justice themes.” Why would babies and toddlers need to have experiences in playschool and creche that are underpinned by social justice themes?! What ever happened to providing a carefree childhood, where babies and toddlers are able to play and grow in an environment free from concerns that are beyond their ability to process or make sense of?
Small children lack the cognitive, emotional, and experiential tools needed to understand or contextualise global “social justice” issues. This is not a controversial statement. It’s a position backed by the corpus of literature in developmental psychology. Young children are concerned with their immediate environment and the important people with whom they have daily interactions. By forcing exposure to social justice issues which extend to the global scale, children are robbed of their innocence and ability to experience wonder, joy, and a sense of security. The world becomes a negative and threatening place, overwhelming their cognitive and emotional capabilities. Small children think in very concrete terms. Social justice, power imbalances, systemic oppression - these are highly abstract concepts which small children do not have the cognitive ability to make sense of. Introducing them to these very abstract societal concerns, which would require solutions that are too big for them to handle, threatens to stifle their budding sense of self-efficacy.
Let us turn to the literature review to get a better understanding of what is going on here. Firstly, I want to make clear that references to a social justice approach within Aistear documentation is not to be understood as simply teaching children to uphold the principles of fairness, equality and respect for the basic human rights of others. This can be done without adopting the propositions of critical theory. However, the literature cited within the literature review make it absolutely clear that they are referring to critical social justice. This definition of social justice is rooted in a critical theoretical approach, which views society as structured in such a way that inequality and oppression are embedded in the very fabric of society. Society is believed to be stratified along social group lines (race, gender, class, sexuality, ability etc.), with those in “dominant” groups (white, Christian, male, middle-class, able-bodied, heterosexual, cisgender) having access to unearned power and privilege, while “marginalised” groups are denied access. This inequality is believed to be reinforced both on the individual and structural level, with all of society being set up in such a way that provides unfair advantage to member of those dominant groups. From a critical social justice perspective, education is viewed as something that perpetuates and reproduces inequalities by reinforcing what are believed to be existing power structures which oppress individuals from “marginalised” groups. Social justice education, therefore, seeks to disrupt these power structures and redistribute power from dominant to marginalised groups (therefore creating equity). This is the theoretical lens through which they intend to teach our babies and toddlers.
The full piece is here:
https://progressingoffthecliffsedge.substack.com/p/like-lambs-to-the-slaughter
Ireland - Free Speech
Tim Crowley in Spiked Online ( How Irish academics are forced to toe the line on transgenderism 07 March) writes:
University campuses are meant to be places where people can express themselves freely. Officially, most Western universities have policies defending academic freedom. Some countries have even enshrined these principles in law. In theory, Ireland’s universities enjoy both protections. Despite this, academics are increasingly being forced to adopt and promote contentious political positions.
Both University College Dublin (UCD) and Trinity College Dublin (TCD) maintain that free speech is a core value of each university. In its statement on academic freedom, UCD insists that ‘no policy should be adopted that would deliberately or inadvertently diminish or inhibit freedom of expression among members of the university – staff or students’. TCD’s statement is almost identical. Both universities also say they’re opposed to compelled speech. ‘Academics should not be required to present as valid what they believe, on the basis of experience and informed opinion, to be untrue or inaccurate’, says TCD.
Academics also have a right to academic freedom that’s recognised in law. Ireland’s Universities Act 1997 offers protection for the freedom to question and test received wisdom, and to state controversial or unpopular opinions, either on or off campus. An academic, in other words, need not and should not self-censor out of fear of being disadvantaged or treated unfavourably by the university. Moreover, the law imposes a duty on the university not merely to protect, but also to promote, academic freedom.
And yet, despite all this, every university in Ireland has adopted, or is in the process of adopting, a set of commitments that explicitly undermine free speech and academic freedom. At the behest of Ireland’s Higher Education Authority, with the endorsement of then higher-education minister Simon Harris, almost all Irish universities are party to the ‘Athena SWAN Ireland’ charter.
This charter demands that academics accept and promote a particular view on subjects that ought to be – and indeed are – up for debate. For instance, the basic premise of Athena SWAN, to which it demands full allegiance, is that diversity, equity and inclusion policies strengthen higher education. But this is not uncontroversial. Indeed, it was vigorously contested only recently in the Irish Times by former University College Cork professor William Reville.
The most obviously provocative demand made by Athena SWAN Ireland is for academics to commit to ‘fostering an environment that creates collective understanding that individuals can determine and affirm their gender’.
The full article is here:
Australia - Free Speech
Talking of universities!!! Julie Szego on her channel, Szego Unplugged interviews Alan Davison, academic and President of the Australian Free Speech Union. They discuss, amongst other things, the loss of free speech at Australian universities, how the woke agenda in universities has leached out into wider society, hate speech legislation, and so called Islamophobia.
New Zealand - Puberty Blockers
On her substack, A B’Old Woman Katrina Biggs reports on letters sent to medical practices in NZ by law firm Franks Ogilvie on behalf of their client, Inflection Point and relating to the prescription of puberty blockers and cross sex hormones. Two of the letters are reproduced which is extremely useful.
The legal warning letters sent to 'gender affirmationists' and puberty blocker prescribers in NZ.
Continuing to professionally 'affirm gender' and/or prescribe puberty blockers may result in claims of exemplary damages down the track.
Mar 09, 2025
In mid-February, warning letters were sent to more than 20 different medical practices and organisations by the law firm Franks Ogilvie, on behalf of their client Inflection Point, about the potential for litigation due to prescribing, or promoting the use of, puberty blockers for minors. Two of these letters are now available for public perusal. One of them is to PATHA (Professional Association for Transgender Healthcare Aotearoa); and the other is to a gender affirming healthcare practitioner, who has already published it online.
People here in New Zealand have wondered how litigation against those who’ve promoted and/or prescribed puberty blockers would get around our ACC - Accident Compensation Corporation - scheme. ACC was set up to be a no-fault scheme for all New Zealanders for injury or accident. However, it seems that due to the increasing amount of information internationally available about the negative impacts of ‘gender affirmation’ this might “not preclude exemplary damages where a defendant is wilfully reckless, and does not preclude actions by disciplinary bodies”.
The letters to PATHA, and the gender affirming healthcare practitioner Michael Brenndorfer, are screenshot below in their entirety, and attached as PDFs at the bottom.
The full piece is here:
Psychosurgery Study
I reported on this study here ( ‘Trans Surgery’ Increases Mental Health Risks ):
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/red-sorghum
I was delighted to read Matt Osborne’s piece on The Distance dissecting the motivations behind this study.
Transgender Psychosurgeries Don't Work? Who Could Have Predicted This!
Huge survey shows mental health declines after sex lobotomy
Mar 08, 2025
Matt Osborne concludes:
Now an exhaustive database search cannot produce evidence that sex lobotomy works, but we supposedly must keep doing it anyway because the dysphoric people are convinced without evidence that they will die unless they have it. So the story is changing: they just want it, so they should be able to get it.
More to the point, society itself has been subject to this consent engineering. We have been sold the patent medical fraud that some identifiable cohort of people is ‘born in the wrong body’ and will benefit from ‘gender medicine.’
This latest study could not find a cohort that experienced clear benefits because no such cohort exists. That is the same finding that the Johns Hopkins Gender Identity Clinic cited when they closed down in 1979. Reality did not change. The evolved ‘engineering’ of human bodies remains immutable.
Instead, activists engineered a social-political shift on ‘transgender medicine.’ They claimed that our participation in the adopted ‘identity’ is a magic pill that cures what the surgeries and hormones cannot. When the spell doesn’t work, they blame society. But society is not the problem. The medical fraud of ‘sex change’ is the entire problem.
The full piece is here:
The Dark Money
If you want to know who is funding the ‘transgender industry’ and how they are advancing this, I think you need to refer to Jennifer Bilek. On her substack, Jonathon Van Maren, a writer for The European Conservative, supplies the questions and Jennifer provides the answers ( this was originally a piece in The European Conservative). All thoughts gratefully received.
The Dark Money Behind the Trans Movement
Jennifer Bilek with Jonathon Van Maren
Mar 09, 2025
Here is an excerpt:
There have been several significant victories against gender ideology in several Western countries: The UK’s Cass Review and resulting ban on puberty blockers for minors, the Trump administration’s executive orders, and a rejection of so-called “gender-affirming care” by several other European countries, for example. How, in your view, will the funders of the transgender industry attempt to navigate these new challenges, and what are opponents of gender ideology missing in their strategies?
From my perspective, there is nothing those driving this ideology have not thought of in terms of setbacks, so though I am thrilled with the executive orders Trump has signed against this ideology, I am extremely cautious about calling this the end of the madness. The attack on children’s healthy reproductive systems was obviously insane and was bound to be rolled back eventually. However, what has not been rolled back at all are these macabre surgeries and experiments on the healthy reproductive systems of people over 18 years, and the idea that this is healthcare.
The nonsense of ‘gender dysphoria’ has not been rolled back, and the idea of a ‘transgender’ person is more solidified than ever. The concept of a ‘transgender’ person normalized within the culture, our institutions—and more dangerously, the market—has already proved to be a huge success, and quite possibly was the goal all along. The men with this fetish of deconstructing womanhood for their erotic pleasure, are now walking the halls of power, miming womanhood, and speaking not only for women, but as women. A very dangerous precedent has been set with the development of ‘reasonable transsexuals,’ which seem to be on the rise if you follow this issue on social media. The ‘reasonable transsexuals’ in positions of power are there to change policy.
The one hundred top-earning international law firms all have LGBTQI+ platforms of support for this ideology and they are already preparing for battle against Trump’s executive orders. They knew this was coming.
The full piece is here:
Endpieces
From Tenaciously
From Liz
Queens of the Parade
William A. Ferguson
#BeMorePorcupine
#EndGenderAffirmingCare
#AdultHumanFemale
#LetWomenSpeak
#GrassrootsArmy
#FightForFreeSpeech
#ByeByeStonewall
#YouAreAGuy
#LarpersKeepOut
Thanks Dusty, some really interesting and infuriating pieces. Darlington man. 😡. Brilliant from Matt Osborne and Jennifer Bilek. Bilek’s work has been incredible but I don’t think it fully explains the rise of gender ideology which has been hugely influenced by Queer Theory. Transhumanist money and their agenda put it all on steroids with the Long March through the Institutions carving the pathway over decades for left wing ideology to take hold everywhere.
I agree re: dysphoria and I try to avoid using the term, preferring anxiety about the sexed body. Dysphoria is a catch all description of the symptoms of underlying anxiety and undiagnosed problems such as autism, sexual abuse. Most cases nowadays are the result of the proliferation of propaganda and indoctrination that surrounds us. If that were to disappear, so would the majority of cases.
It breaks my heart to see what we are doing to children. Shame on Ireland. Shame on the West.