Threats to Lesbians

Lesbian rights are under threat.

We are very concerned about the dangers to lesbians resulting from the advance of Trans Rights Activism (TRA) and the rapid, unquestioning adoption of trans perspectives by governments, institutions and community organisations. Not only are our rights to be lesbian, and to congregate as lesbians, being eroded there are even moves to completely erase lesbianism as a sexuality!

Lesbian Erasure

Trans Rights Activism is working towards erasing lesbianism (and indeed all homosexual identity).

We maintain that by definition, a lesbian is a woman who is attracted to women (of the female sex).

Radical trans ideology makes the claim that there is no such thing as sex. They conflate biological sex characteristics with gender identity, and promote the idea that we can choose our ‘gender’ (which they also, illogically, claim is innate).

They are seeking to erase same sex relationships.

How are they doing this?

They accuse lesbians of transphobia when we say we want to relate only to the female sex. In their ideology a male sexed body can be a woman and therefore a ‘lesbian’. Fully intact males call their penis a ‘lady-dick’ and insist on their right to call penetrative heterosexual intercourse ‘lesbian’.

Trans activists claim that even two males in relationship (i.e two ‘transwomen), or a woman and a man (‘transwoman’) in relationship can still be called ‘lesbian’.

By ideologically erasing the category of sex, TRAs insist that anyone can, and indeed should, relate to anyone of any ‘gender’ without prejudice. They therefore judge lesbianism as an innately discriminatory sexuality. One which should be eliminated.

The constant viral attacks on lesbians, lesbian social media and web sites and pro-lesbian comments etc. are designed to make it socially unacceptable, dangerous and ultimately illegal for any woman to be lesbian.

Transitioning

In the last few years there has been a sudden increase in the numbers of women choosing to transition rather than live as lesbians. Social media is strongly promoting transition, whilst accusing lesbians of being transphobic.

Gender Transition Clinics move rapidly to affirm gender transition. For example Dr. Matt Bristow, a gay psychologist, who worked at the famous trailblazing Tavistock Gender Clinic in the U.K., resigned because, according to him, the clinic was “ignoring the possibility that boys and girls who said they wanted to change sex might simply be gay.” The same thing is happening in Australia.

Gender Clinics are discouraging young women from exploring lesbianism as an option. Youth culture is strongly under the influence of pro-trans ideology which is heavily promoted on social media, etc. At the same time pro lesbian groups are targeted, trolled and cancelled. This causes girls and young women to tend towards choosing to become trans rather than lesbian.

A disproportionate number of girls transitioning are on the autism spectrum and studies show that many girls, who may well be heterosexual, are wanting to transition because they believe it will free them from the all pervasive sexist oppression they face as girls in the patriarchy. See: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1750946719301540

The figures for female transition are increasing at such a great rate they are surpassing those of males seeking to transition to feminine gender. (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7244783/Academics-medical-experts-fears-children-number-seeking-sex-change-operations-sky-rockets.html)

This is a reversal of trends from the pre TRA days. We believe this results from the extreme misogyny and anti-lesbianism inherent in TRActivism.

Transition is sometimes encouraged by conservative parents who would rather have a transgender child than a same sex attracted child. This has long been the case in very conservative religious countries such as Iran where homosexuality is punished whilst being trans (at least for males) is allowed. Thus parents who are outraged by the prospect of a lesbian daughter seem to accept that if she transitions she will be seen to conform to gender stereotypes.

References

https://pressfrom.info/au/news/australia/-140295-number-of-aussie-kids-referred-for-gender-hormone-therapy-hits-2-500-in-five-years-although-there-were-only-1-300-transgender-people-in-the-country-in-2016-as-experts-call-for-national-inquiry.html

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/4fabab40-9aa2-11e9-8301-b80bc8da9024?fbclid=IwAR3ERZ__5cmT07tSJMsridSCMMPk_tVYvgAZfF_I568-KD4zjhQ2948xx-U

Peer pressure against lesbians

Lesbians (especially young lesbians) are reporting to us that they are being put under heavy pressure from peers, friends and social media to transition if they present as anything other than ‘feminine’. They are even finding they are under attack if they call themselves lesbian – as elements of the trans rights movement consider lesbianism to be transphobic. Transphobic because to be attracted only to your own sex (female) precludes people of the opposite sex who identify as of the female gender.

Both lesbianism and homosexuality are now being positioned as unacceptable by Trans Rights Activists, who prefer to promote non-binary identity and attraction. They expect lesbians to be open to anyone who wants to have sex with them, irrespective of that person’s sex.

These pressures are harmful to lesbians.

Lesbian dating undermined

Lesbian online dating sites are now frequented by men (people of the male sex) who ‘identify’ as women and claim to be lesbians. If a lesbian complains about the presence of such men she is usually deemed to be ‘transphobic’ and barred from the dating site. Lesbians now often refrain from using these dating sites because they do not want to be pursued, harassed, ‘cancelled’ and accused of discrimination by men.

In real life encounters lesbians are routinely being pressured by their peers to date and sleep with men who claim to be lesbians. They are also frequently being pressured to sleep with men who do not claim to be women, but seek access to lesbian bodies. This has long been the case but now trans and queer ideology gives such predation a sheen of respectability and ‘coolness’. When lesbians resist such advances they are accused of transphobia and non-binary phobia and face censure and ‘cancellation’ from their social friendship groups.

Over the last half century there were meeting places such as clubs, bars, cafes, etc which were exclusively lesbian. Under the influence of post modern queerness these no longer exist. Now young people meet in mixed sex venues, which are also frequented by heterosexuals. This makes it much harder for lesbians to identify potential partners among the throng.

Lesbians are finding it very hard to date and meet other lesbians.

Lesbian isolation

Lesbians are too afraid to set up lesbian only social media sites and real life meeting spaces because they are considered to be discriminating and get trolled and/or cancelled. This makes it very difficult for lesbians to find other lesbians and form relationships.

It has become illegal to advertise and hold female only lesbian gatherings and social events. Advertising such events can lead to prosecution by various Australian state anti-discrimination boards. This has already happened several times and can lead to the cancellation of, or refusal to hire out, meeting spaces. A recent Tasmanian case can be found here 

Older women are clinging to endangered established networks and younger women are finding it almost impossible to create any lesbian spaces or connections.

Those of us who fought in the 1970s to come out as lesbians into a very hostile world, and establish some lesbian rights and visibility are distraught that our existence is so threatened. In some ways it is now even harder to be a lesbian than it was then; as lesbians are hounded and pursued via the internet by men (and their female supporters). It is somehow even more shocking to be forbidden to be ourselves and to speak our truth in this century than it was in the 20th Century. ‘Coming out’ has proved to be a short lived human right.

Whilst the harm to young lesbians seeking community, relationships and support is enormous there is also a serious cost to older lesbians who faced severe discrimination in their youth, and paid dearly for their courage at coming out and forging the path for lesbians to be more accepted and to obtain human rights and the ability to live a life as an ‘out’ lesbian. To see this now being threatened in many ways is heartbreaking.

Social media violence against lesbians

Lesbians who do not agree with the trans agenda are being hunted and threatened on a daily basis. The Trans Rights Movement mimics the Men’s Rights Movement (MRM) in the way they attack women. They promote the pejorative term TERFS (Trans Excluding Radical Feminists) whom they regularly threaten with violence. Some of their favourite threats to lesbians who refuse to have sex with trans identifying males or who promote lesbian rights are rape and murder threats such as: “I will shove my lady dick down your throat.” “Punch a TERF in the throat.” They carry baseball bats and shout “TERFS deserve to die” or chant “Kill a TERF today.” See https://terfisaslur.com for further examples of TRA violence.

Faced with TRA social dominance creating an altered reality, which they promote as ‘queer’ normality, young lesbians especially feel compelled to have essentially heterosexual penetrative sex with males who claim to be female. They feel unable to protest or refuse because they fear excommunication from a trans inclusive queer culture and their own social circles who regard ‘transphobia’ to be a cardinal sin.

Faced with excommunication from friendship groups many lesbians are choosing to transition – which will enable them to relate to women (their sex of choice) and be lauded rather than censured and threatened by their peers.

Anti-lesbian laws

Some governments are passing legislation making it illegal for anyone to encourage females to be lesbian instead of transitioning. Other laws are allowing men to identify as lesbians and outlawing any open affirmation of lesbian rights.

Conversion law

The Victorian government, which has been captured by TRAs, passed a law in 2021 making it illegal to encourage (affirm) a questioning woman or child to be lesbian, once they have expressed an interest in transitioning. Penalties for both individuals and professionals (teachers, counsellors, doctors) who attempt to ‘convert’ a girl or woman away from becoming trans by encouraging or promoting lesbianism are very heavy. e.g. 10 years imprisonment!

See https://www.victorianwomensguild.org/campaigns/conversion-therapy for details.

Other Australian state governments are proceeding towards introducing similar legislation. Several Western countries also have enacted anti-lesbian legislation in this paradigm.

Self ID law

The Self ID law also impacts on the safety of lesbians.

It allows anyone to simply walk into the offices of Births Deaths and Registration in Melbourne and apply to change their sex on their birth certificate, and thus on any public documents such as driver’s licenses, etc. There is no requirement to undergo any counselling or medical transitioning. Individuals can retain their bodily sex characteristics but be identified as the opposite based on their own self definition/diagnosis eg. a man can legally change his sex and thence forth cannot be legally challenged when he enters designated female only spaces such as toilets, change rooms, refuges, sports teams, etc. Or lesbian community or personal lives. People can change their legal gender multiple times if they so choose.

See: https://www.victorianwomensguild.org/campaigns/birth-certificate-changes

Anti-villification law

The Victorian Government is proposing to introduce a new anti-villification law in 2022. It has accepted in principle the recommendations of the parliamentary committee. Under the category of 'gender identity and gender expression' it is likely that penalties will be created which criminalise commentary that disagrees with the notion that male sexed people can be lesbian. It will introduce the notion that this constitutes hate speech, which may become a reportable offence. This form of censorship will have serious consequences for lesbians, who will no longer be allowed to advocate for male free spaces, etc. However we expect that people hostile to lesbian female only space will not be subject to such censure. 

Follow this link to read the full report.  https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/images/stories/committees/lsic-LA/Inquiry_into_Anti-Vilification_Protections_/Government_Response_to_Inquiy_into_Anti-Vilification_Protections_dQpQPK5P.pdf

Ageism

Lesbian activists of the 1970s-80s created a vibrant culture and community which fostered lesbian pride and self assuredness in a group which had been so long reviled by society at large. This cohort is now denied the right to continue that culture and community. One which has been vital to their well being for decades. They are now denied access to meeting spaces, government grants, public advertising of events and the right to be visible as groups to which lesbians seeking to come out can connect in with.

Further they are attacked and abused for seeking to maintain their lesbian community. They are subject to being cancelled and trolled on social media.

For older lesbians, having already lived decades of their lives without access to basic human rights, and facing prolonged discrimination this only adds to stress. Indeed to be a lesbian, who does not agree that men can be lesbians, has thrown older lesbians back into the closet and put them under attacks from many directions that are even more virulent than they were in the 1970s and before.

The denial of the right for older lesbians to continue their nurturing lesbian culture, which has for decades been lived and maintained separately from gay and queer culture, is a heavy burden to place on this doubly oppressed group. It denies the fact that many lesbians have never identified as LGBTIQ etc. but prefer their own autonomous lesbian and lesbian feminist culture.

LGBTIQ+ betrayal of lesbians

The modern LGBTIQ+ movement now promotes the rights and interests of transexuals at the expense of lesbian rights. The historical Lesbian and Gay Rights Movement has been taken over by a Queer Movement which is now synthesising all groups into one amorphous mass of gender diverse identities. The correct acronym for these organisations would now be Tgbiql. Indeed in some countries the T has now been put at the front of the acronym. (Tlgbiq+)

The trans are positioning themselves as THE most oppressed group and demand (and receive) the bulk of funding, attention and promotion.

Trans Rights Activism is working to erase lesbianism and indeed all homosexual identity.

The focus on ‘identity’ rather than sexuality has confused the general public who are misled into believing that supporting lesbians and gays is inevitably co-linked with supporting trans.

In response to this many lesbians and gay men are now forming new LGB groups to reclaim their right to be exclusively same sex attracted. They are working to expose the capture of LGBTIQ organisations by TRAs. The rights of intersex people are also confused and undermined by the overall Queer nature of LGBTIQ+ groups.

Trans people should form their own autonomous organisations to pursue their human rights. They should do so without actively attacking lesbian and gay rights.

Lesbians (and sometimes gay men) have been viciously attacked when participating in Gay Pride events and marches for holding up signs or wearing T-shirts affirming their lesbianism. e.g. Trans critical lesbians are now-a-days explicitly banned from GLBTIQ+ marches and events by the organisers.

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2018/07/why-were-lesbians-protesting-pride-because-lgbt-coalition-leaves-women

Capture of Human Rights Organisations

Human rights organisations are now fully committed to affirming trans rights over and above the rights of lesbians in particular and women in general. Where there is a conflict of interest women are expected to relinquish their hard fought for rights. If lesbians want lesbian only venues, or events, the Human Rights organisations judge this to be transphobic and disallow it. The rights of trans identified males are considered more important than the rights of lesbians as shown in this recent case.

The very definition of lesbian now promoted by governments and human rights organisations erodes the category of female in favour of people of indeterminate ‘gender’.

The new definition in the Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Bill which was introduced into the Victorian parliament and passed into law in early 2021 says:

a person’s emotional, affectional and sexual attraction to or intimate or sexual relations with, persons of a different gender or the same gender or more than one gender,” is unintelligible because sexual orientation is experienced on the basis of a person’s sex, not gender.

See https://www.victorianwomensguild.org/campaigns/conversion-therapy for further discussion of the questionable definition under the heading Don’t change the definition of sexual orientation or gender identity.

This effectively means lesbians are being denied protections they previously had under Human Rights Organisations.

Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria

Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD) is a growing novel phenomenon. It is becoming common amongst teenagers, primarily girls. A girl who is uncomfortable with, or questioning of her assigned feminine role, or is un-comfortable with her female body discovers (usually on social media) that she can transition to ‘male’ and identify as trans. Very soon a number of, or all of, her friendship group also start saying they are trans and seeking to transition.

Though not specifically exclusively a lesbian phenomenon it also captures young lesbians who are experiencing discomfort with their assigned social roles and lives as females.

A study done into this by Assistant Professor Lisa Littman of Brown University School of Public Health (USA) was later ‘cancelled’ by her University after protest from trans advocacy groups because it was judged to be transphobic. Trans activists want to deflect attention from Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria. Obviously that is because it exposes the popularity of transitioning as a ‘trend’ rather than an actual psychological predisposition.

One reason this is so prevalent is that the girls judge that their families, their schools, their social groups, etc will be more comfortable with them mimicking heterosexuality than living as lesbians. Another reason is that by seeking to live as males they believe they will be freed from the multiple oppressions of being female in a misogynistic patriarchy.

References:

https://ourduty.group/information/rogd-what-is-it/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/rabble-rouser/201903/rapid-onset-gender-dysphoria

https://www.parentsofrogdkids.com

Queer and non-binary displacing lesbianism

Queer

The term and concept of Queer is now replacing lesbian (and gay male) identity. Many young lesbians now identify, and describe, and name themselves, as queer.

Queer is an all embracing term which includes not only lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, intersex people, transexuals but an increasing number of poorly defined identities such as aromantics, asexuals, demiandrogyne, genderfluid, and up to 150 other ‘identities’.

Queer also includes people who call themselves non-binary which seems to mean they ‘identify’ as neither the male or female sex. The term Queer is so all embracing it now includes even heterosexuals who choose to call themselves any of the above for any indeterminate amount of time, or simply entertain the idea that they might try same sex relationships in theory only. Perhaps they just say they are Queer to be considered cool or fashionable.

Many lesbians now describe themselves as Queer. By adopting the term ‘queer’ to describe themselves such lesbians are naming themselves out of existence.

Non-binary

Non binary is a new ‘identity’ promoted by Queer culture and trans ideology. It is considered to be transgressive to hetero-normativity. A Queer woman calling herself non-binary is signalling that she does not want to conform to sex-stereotypical behaviour and appearance. Historically lesbians who did not conform to feminine appearance and behaviour have been called ‘butch’. However non-binary people tend to go further and deny that they are of the female sex at all. They claim to be of neither sex and therefore deny they are women.

Some Queer non binary women still choose to relate to males. Those who have sexual relationships with women are denying and erasing their lesbianism. This is becoming increasingly popular in queer culture and young people’s social relationships. Some non-binary identifying women also refer to themselves as transexual, just to make things more confusing. Under Queer ideology it is possible and acceptable to be both non-binary and transexual without making any physical changes to the person’s body. Non-binary may be signalled by modes of dress, hair do, adornments, etc. Or not. Even more confusingly some women maintain a feminine dress mode but also call themselves non-binary. This is a way to be both fashionable and transgressive in Queer culture.

This illogical and confusing identity is being recognised by government and other organisations as legitimate. For example it was included as a choice in the 2021 Australian Census where a question asked the respondent if they were: Male, Female or Non-binary.

Feminists have long advocated for the dismantling of strict sex role stereotyping because women are oppressed by these roles in our patriarchal culture. TRA non-binary ideology on the other hand tends to reinforce the oppression of women by offering an individual solution without challenging the ongoing sexist oppression of women.

Lesbian sexuality

Lesbianism is not an identity. It is a sexuality. Same sex attraction has always existed throughout history, and in all cultures. It is an innate human characteristic. To claim, as TRAs do, that gender fluidity disallows the existence of same sex attraction is an attack on lesbians. Attempting to impose it on lesbians is a denial of our rights.