You Can Count, All The Way Up To Two
Update 408 Puberty Is A Human Right Special #BeMore Porcupine
Next in The Western Season, a quick return to Mr Harmonica ( Charles Bronson) in Once Upon A Time In The West up against the baddies but staying very, very cool! To be fair, Cheyenne ( Jason Robards) turns out to have lots of saving graces in the end!
Keep those suggestions for westerns coming in.
Thanks as ever to two wonderful readers for suggested pieces.
Puberty Blockers
We have been discussing the determination of the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting to continue the puberty blockers ban in recent updates.
The reprehensible suicide myth being peddled by Jolyon Maugham of the Good Law (Laugh) Project has been well and truly demolished by a report from Professor Louis Appleby of Manchester University commissioned by the Department of Health directly in response to the outrageous GLP claims. Thanks as ever to Feminist Legal Clinic.
Review of suicides and gender dysphoria at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust: independent report – GOV.UK (20 July)
Aim of this review
I have reviewed data provided by NHS England (NHSE) on suicides by young patients of the gender services at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, based on an audit at the trust. The specific aim is to examine evidence for a large rise in suicides claimed by campaigners.
Summary of conclusions
The data do not support the claim that there has been a large rise in suicide in young gender dysphoria patients at the Tavistock.
The way that this issue has been discussed on social media has been insensitive, distressing and dangerous, and goes against guidance on safe reporting of suicide.
The claims that have been placed in the public domain do not meet basic standards for statistical evidence.
There is a need to move away from the perception that puberty-blocking drugs are the main marker of non-judgemental acceptance in this area of health care.
We need to ensure high quality data in which everyone has confidence, as the basis of improved safety for this at risk group of young people.
The report is short and I recommend reading the whole thing.
From one reprehensible individual to another, Susie Green, former CEO of Mermaids, has found a loophole to the puberty blockers ban. OK, Mr Streeting, please block this loophole.
Patrick Strudwick in i News ( Former Mermaids CEO sets up clinic to avoid ban on puberty blockers for children 19 July) reports:
The former CEO of trans youth charity Mermaids is launching a private clinic that will “exploit a legal loophole” to bypass the ban on puberty blockers, i can reveal.
Susie Green, who left the controversial charity in 2022, will open Anne Health this weekend to provide a range of medical, pharmaceutical, and psychological support services – including puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and counselling – to transgender people of all ages.
In an exclusive interview with i, Ms Green said her clinic will be “as safe an avenue as possible” for trans youth but the announcement is expected to provoke a backlash.
The article continues:
The main route is enabled by a simple, glaring omission in the legislation – the government could have banned the importation of puberty blockers but did not.
Ms Green told i she sought legal advice from David Lock KC, one of the lawyers challenging the ban in the high court, and prior to that had contacted Jolyon Maugham, a KC, and a campaigner for trans rights. He is the director of the Good Law Project, which is supporting the high court case.
Last month, Mr Maugham wrote on X about the parameters of the ban and its “loopholes”: that the former health secretary’s new regulations “prohibited the sale or supply [of puberty blockers] – but not the importation”. And that the ban, despite its stated aims, doesn’t stop EU doctors providing prescriptions for puberty blockers nor EU pharmacies fulfilling such a prescription. Instead, he explained, it stops (in most cases) UK pharmacies dispensing the medication.
You can find the full article here:
https://twitter.com/ripx4nutmeg/status/1814566878200627614
Dennis Kavanagh has stepped down from Queens’ Speech to concentrate both on his employed work and on his role as co-director of the Gay Men’s Network where he will be especially looking at the Conversion Practices Bill ( see further below). The podcast has now, therefore, become Two Poofs and a Podcast featuring Clive Simpson and Jack David and, in the first episode, they report on puberty blockers and the good news that Helen Webberley has failed to get licensed as a doctor, albeit that Gender GP will, unfortunately, be continuing.
Mr Streeting will also need to address the rest of the gender ideology embedded in the National Health Service - see Kellie-Jay Keen’s latest video as a great example:
The National Curriculum
Worryingly, the Government have appointed a ‘feminist professor’, Becky Francis to report on the whole of the national curriculum. Why is it worrying - see especially the papers she has written as referred to after EDI Jester’s second video below.
There will be a consultation phase so we will have to get stuck in when that happens. If gender identity and other such madness gets placed into the curriculum I think we will then have to move on to a legal challenge stage.
Poppy Wood in The Telegraph ( Feminist professor to lead shake-up of national curriculum 19 July) reports:
Prof Becky Francis
A feminist professor will lead a shake-up of the national curriculum for schools in England, the Government has announced.
Prof Becky Francis, the chief executive of learning charity the Education Endowment Foundation, will chair a wholesale review of the school syllabus “to breathe new life into our outdated curriculum”, the Education Secretary said on Friday.
The review will scrutinise all aspects of teaching material for pupils aged five to 18 and will “look closely at the key challenges to attainment for young people,” the Department for Education (DfE) said.
All state schools will be required to teach the updated curriculum once the review is completed next year. It will include academies, which do not currently have to follow the national curriculum.
Prof Francis, who previously served as an adviser to the House of Commons education select committee, specialises in education inequalities and gender stereotypes in the classroom.
The full article is here:
EDI Jester does a two part analysis of this crucial issue.
https://edijester.substack.com/p/part-two-education-review-the-dangers
And for the problems that are already embedded in our schools, here is Kellie-Jay’s recording of attending an interview at a school with a parent about an inappropriate book, teaching of gender identity and unisex toilets.
Conversion Practices Bill
I mentioned this in the last update:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/the-mexican-standoff
The evidence of detransitioners will be vital in the battle against this bill - see this piece from today’s Women’s Rights Network newsletter:
Labour to Ban Talking Therapies
As Labour appears to be including gender identities in its ‘conversion therapy’ ban, WRN wants to echo the warning of detransitioners – who understand the price of the “affirmation only” approach to body dysphoria/distress.
Written in 2020, this article by Laura Dodsworth is just as relevant today. The piece features five women with very different stories who all recognise they needed to address the reasons for wanting to alter their bodies rather than be “affirmed” and given hormones and surgeries.
Dodsworth says, “... interviews, and my wider research, have uncovered common themes of girls who felt they didn’t fit typical feminine stereotypes, and felt uncomfortable in today’s hypersexualised culture. High rates of sexual abuse, harassment, autism, self-harm, personal rejection of being lesbian and homophobia all play a part.”
Lucy, 23, had suffered anorexia and lesbophobic bullying. Her therapist ignored her eating disorder, her OCD and her sexuality, opting to “affirm” her gender. Within a year, Lucy had her breasts, ovaries and womb removed. Looking back she says, “I’m horrified that when I went for the hysterectomy they didn’t emphasise to me how important these organs are. Now it’s too late. I’m 23 and I am basically in menopause already, with all the health implications that come with that. I can’t comprehend how doctors could let this happen, because they would never approve a 21-year-old woman for a complete hysterectomy for no medical reason. But once that woman identifies as a man, suddenly it’s really easy to get.”
Lee, 62, said, “I went to see a gender doctor privately in London [age 44]. On the first appointment he said, ‘Let’s not waste any more time,’ and injected me with testosterone. It was what I wanted, but I now think it was wrong – what I really needed was psychotherapy. I was screwed up. It was my head that needed help, not my body.
“I’ve tried to talk about background issues with therapists, but gender dysphoria was seen as the cause of my problems and not a symptom of them. Actually I think my gender issues came out of mental health issues, not the other way around.”
Labour’s proposed ban on “conversion therapy” will make that vital exploration and routine mental healthcare almost impossible.
As mentioned above, Dennis Kavanagh will be looking at this Bill and the Gay Men’s Network have previously provided excellent pieces on this issue when two private members’ bills were attempted in the last Parliament.
News from Wales
The WRN Newsletter also reports on this awful Welsh Bill. I previously reported on this Bill here:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/the-mirror-of-galadriel-part-2?utm_source=publication-search
The Senedd Gender Bill
This week, the Senedd saw a return of the Electoral Candidate Reform Bill that purports to benefit women by introducing a statutory ‘gender’ quota on the new electoral system [including allowing men to declare themselves women].
Ahead of the vote, WRN Wales wrote to the Reform Bill Committee detailing the Bill’s flaws, concluding, “Women's Rights Network wants to see a more equal society that ensures equal opportunities for women by removing barriers. However, this Bill attempts to enforce an equality of outcome that runs counter to the provisions of the Equality Act 2010, and potentially unlawfully tinkers with the definition of ‘woman’. For that reason, we cannot support it. We invite Senedd members to consider this to be a critically flawed Bill and to reject it.”
The vote was 39 For and 14 Against. WRN Wales says, “This ultimately doomed Bill has already had considerable Welsh public money spent on it. Yet more will be spent at the Supreme Court and in further legal battles.
“In meetings with your own Senedd Member when they seek your support, remember their own input and voting record on this Bill. Ask why they deserve YOUR support when they approved permitting men to self-ID as women. And vote accordingly.”
News from Ireland
Niamh Uí Bhriain in Gript News ( TD SAYS MINISTER MAY BE SEEKING “RIGHT ANSWER” AS REPORT ON GENDER DELAYED 18 July) reports:
Independent TD [ Teachta Dála, equivalent of MP in Ireland], Carol Nolan, has said she believes the delay in publishing a report of research – submitted five months ago – into gender self-declaration for children could be because Minister Roderic O’Gorman is seeking what he considers the “right answer” on the contentious issue.
The Minister did not respond to the charge, but told Gript that the report is “being currently being finalised for publication”.
The Laois Offaly TD made her remarks after it was revealed that Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys was opposed to allowing a change to the law take place before the general election to allow persons aged under 16 to legally change their gender – a stance which seemed to put her at odds with the Minister for Children who has previously supported plans to allow children under 16 undergo a legal process to change their sex.
Both Ministers had jointly undertaken to commission research on gender change for u-16s in order to examine the experiences of other countries – but although an FOI request showed the “final report” from Cambridge University Technical Services was received five months ago – on February 14 – neither Minister O’Gorman nor Humphreys cleared it for publication.
Carol Nolan said: “My sense is that Minister O’Gorman is very likely adopting a Lisbon Treaty approach to this Report, in that he expected the research to come back with the ‘ right answer’ regarding gender self-declaration for children. However, the delay or unwillingness around publishing the research strongly suggests to me that he will sit on it until he obtains the right answer elsewhere.”
“I am completely opposed to allowing children, who in the majority of cases in this context are developmentally, psychologically and emotionally vulnerable, to ‘choose’ their own gender. Children deserve better than to have adults endorsing and affirming their temporary gender dysphoria as a permanent and otherwise unresolvable phenomenon,” she added.
Last November, Carol Nolan had asked the Minister Humphreys “to provide details on the research commissioned by her Department to examine issues of concern relating to children aged under 16 years of age being able to access a gender recognition certificate and/or self-declare their gender”.
In response, the Minister said that while “the research was commissioned jointly by my Department and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, that Department undertook the lead in relation to the detailed procurement and contract management arrangements for the research. Accordingly, the question is proper to my colleague, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.”
Minister O’Gorman subsequently told Deputy Nolan that “the Programme for Government contains a commitment, in terms of gender recognition, to examine arrangements for those aged under 16.”
He confirmed his Department had jointly commissioned research with the Department of Social Protection in order “to identify the mechanisms used in other countries which govern legal gender recognition of children aged under 16 and to provide practical advice in relation to recognition for this age group.”
“The research will provide practical advice to inform consideration of how the issue may be approached in Ireland,” he said, adding that the research had been awarded to Cambridge University Technical Services Limited in September 2022 and that the total cost of the research was €35,000 ex VAT.
Last weekend, Minister Humphreys said the report “has not been finalised and there are no plans to introduce changes in relation to the provision of gender recognition to children aged under 16 years.”
Gript asked the Minister if Deputy Nolan was correct in her assertion that Minister O’Gorman is delaying publishing the report because he is seeking the “right answer”, and what the reason for delay in publication of the report was.
A major review of the issues around gender dysphoria in Britain, the Cass Review, found that some of the treatment being offered to children who said they wished to change gender was unsafe – and that it overlooked other mental health problems in children, failed to collect data on the safety of puberty blockers, and did not subject the treatments administered to children to normal quality controls.
In response, the Minister’s Department said that, “in line with the Programme for Government, research was jointly commissioned by the [ sic?] and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and the Department of Social Protection. The report is being currently being finalised for publication”.
“Minister O’Gorman has no role in regard to the Gender Recognition Act. Policy in this area is a matter for the Department of Social Protection, who hold responsibility for that Act,” they added.
“The Department understands from colleagues in the Department of Social Protection that there are no plans to introduce changes in relation to the provision of gender recognition to children aged under 16 years.”
‘Trans Ideology’
Excellent discussion by Stephen Knight on his substack The Knight Report on this subject in the context of the American Presidential election:
Why trans ideology does matter at election time.
The left still has its head in the sand on the impact of trans ideology, and the right is grateful for it.
JUL 19, 2024
Hot on the heels of surviving an assassination attempt, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump took to the stage at the Republican National Committee in Milwaukee on Thursday. One moment in particular caught my eye:
“We will not have men playing in women’s sports, that will end immediately” Trump declared, to rapturous applause and cheers.
How did we get here? How did we arrive in a universe where a Republican presidential nominee understands it will bolster his election campaign by making proclamations of this kind?
The full piece is here:
https://sknight.substack.com/p/why-trans-ideology-does-matter-at?r=7ogxh&triedRedirect=true
Cancel Culture
Excellent piece on cancel culture from Andrew Doyle on his substack. I think this should be read with his last piece about Donald Trump. Saying Trump is Hitler is ridiculous nonsense, but if you want to do that, knock yourself out. Saying he deserved to be shot is reprehensible but, if you want to do that, knock yourself out.
Saying 'go and shoot him' crosses the line.
Cancel culture is always wrong
Whether it comes from the left or the right, this form of public retribution cannot be justified.
JUL 19, 2024
Imagine a world in which no unpleasant statements were ever uttered. A world in which one could never be insulted or mocked. A world in which anyone who ever dared to offend us would be immediately silenced and confined to an oubliette.
Ever since the advent of social media, many have attempted to create a simulacrum of this utopia through online censorship. This has taken the form of Silicon Valley tech giants intervening to prohibit the expression of certain opinions, or users actively campaigning to have other users removed from platforms. Many have taken it further, using the internet to track down offending parties and complaining to their employers. This attempt to destroy people’s livelihoods and reputations for causing offence has become known colloquially as “cancel culture”.
Typically, this is a tactic of those who identify as left-wing, but the authoritarian instinct is common throughout humanity and is therefore not tied to any one specific political group. This week, we have seen many campaigners on the right attempting to cancel those who have made unpleasant comments about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump and the murder of Corey Comperatore. The less imaginative have repeated the identical joke – “Make America Aim Again” – while others have expressed what appears to be genuine irritation that the gunman missed his target.
Grim stuff, obviously, but hardly unexpected. For years, we have seen that those who style themselves as being on “the right side of history”, who apply hashtags such as #BeKind and #LoveWins to their online bios, are often the most ferocious and unrelenting bullies. Their confidence in their own compassion seems to bear an inverse relationship to their actual capacity for empathy. The guise of virtue is naturally appealing for sociopaths seeking a cover for their cruelty.
The full piece is here:
https://andrewdoyle.substack.com/p/cancel-culture-is-always-wrong
The Gender Experiment: The Truth Revealed
Excellent short documentary from the Australian Christian Lobby featuring a brave young detransitioner, Dr Andrew Amos, Frank Pangallo and Michelle Pearse.
Reality Check
Excellent discussion on the Paul Brennan Show on Reality Check Radio in New Zealand with Katrina Biggs and Helen Houghton about Sall Grover’s tour of New Zealand and the fight back against the gender madness.
Solzhenitsyn
I recently mentioned Solzhenitsyn here:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/the-man-who-shot-liberty-valance?utm_source=publication-search
Lucy Leader on her substack Bodies get in the way… links The Gulag Archipelago to the current gender madness.
“One Death is a Tragedy but a Million is a Statistic” - Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin
How many children and young adults have to be mutilated before this stops?
JUL 18, 2024
Fifty years ago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's masterwork The Gulag Archipelago was published and read in English for the first time. Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was a Russian author and Soviet dissident who helped to raise global awareness of political repression in the Soviet Union.
This autobiographical work was pivotal in shattering the lingering sentimental attachment to communism and the USSR. In countries like France, where it was always fashionable to be a Marxist, this book irrecoverably altered the course of intellectual lives and in the USA, it halted the new left’s celebration of the disciples of Marx, including Stalin, Lenin, Castro and Mao.
It may be difficult for people in the present day to realize just how well Soviet propaganda worked and how many people who were not living there considered to be smart, clever and big thinkers were used to spread the myths of the “paradise” of the Soviet Union. Solzhenitsyn's firsthand accounts of life there, including detailed and accurate word pictures of life in the gulags (prison work camps) spared no one’s sensitivities with his graphic, but accurate tales of freezing, starving and being worked to death, right down to the smaller indignities that are in place when the guards feel as punished as the prisoners do and no one feels as though they have anything left to lose.
One of the key points in this work is Solzhenitsyn's revelation that he had to learn to separate true and implanted beliefs. In other words, did he believe something because he had been conditioned to believe it, or because he had given it a due amount of thought and truly embraced it as a valid thought?
How do we recognize beliefs that are truly our own?
This is a question I find myself asking, not just of those who believe that somehow their bodies are all “wrong” and need fixing, but of those who from the relative safety of their own acceptable bodies seem hell bent on supporting practices that cause harms to others.
When as a society, did we trade honesty for deception and truth for falsehoods? At what point in history did we decide that parental mental angst was a good enough reason to allow adults to strip away from children, their right to grow into an optimized adulthood?
The full piece is here:
Endpieces by Dusty and Liz
#BeMorePorcupine
Some amazingly powerful pieces Dusty, thanks as ever.
I’m afraid I’m a bit stumped for words at the moment, now that the reality of a Labour govt is upon us. All I can think about are those wonderful little children I taught and how new generations will continue to be harmed psychologically and physically by being taught delusional crap. Gender ideology is evil.
Soldier Blue. Firm fave.
A Man Called Horse.
The Trinity series: hilarious!