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Twitter screenshot of lesbian banner against transgenderism that led the Pride in London parade.
We told you it would happen, and it finally has. Conservatives long predicted that feminism and transgenderism were ultimately incompatible, but for a long time it seemed like the LGBT movement might just hold them together. Well, on Saturday that movement burst open, as lesbians led the parade in attacking transgenderism.
"Transactivism Erases Lesbians!" read a banner that temporarily led the Pride in London march in the heart of Britain's capital.
This banner naturally caused quite a stir, with London Mayor Sadiq Khan denouncing it in a statement. "Pride is about celebrating difference and London's amazing LGBT+ community," Khan's spokesperson told PinkNews. "It's about showing those round the world that in our great city you can be free to be whoever you want to be and love whoever you want to love. The vast majority of those present at today's march respected and embraced that and the Mayor condemns the tiny minority who did not."
Who is that "tiny minority"? The final statement made it clear: "Transphobia is never acceptable."
While Khan was meant to lead the march, he ended up stuck behind the group "Get the L Out," a lesbian organization dedicated to separating lesbian identity from transgender identity. They started demanding that activists take the "T" out of "LGBT," but settled for opting out themselves, demanding the "L" be removed.
Pride in London, the group behind the parade, gave various explanations for allowing "Get the L Out" to lead the way. An earlier statement suggested the organizations allowed the lesbian group, supporting their intent to protest. "As we found in our recent Pride Matters report, 24% of people say a Pride is protest. 78% said it was a celebration," a spokesperson said.
In a second statement, the organizations pointed to the "hot weather" and a concern for the crowd's safety in allowing "Get the L Out" to lead the parade. The organizers insisted they "do not condone" the group, although they did not condemn the lesbians.
"Given the hot weather and in the interest of the safety of everyone attending today's event, the parade group was allowed to move ahead," the organizers said. "We do not condone their approach and message and hope the actions of a very small number [of] people does not overshadow the messages of the 30,000 people marching today."
Many activists have called for the organizers to resign. "I am appalled that transphobic protesters were allowed to lead the march and the crowd asked to cheer them on," LGBT+ Lib Dems Chair Jennie Rigg said. "This is a betrayal of the thousands marching. The Pride organizers should resign and offer a full apology."
Others attacked the sign on Twitter.
So, why do Jennie Rigg and Sadie Khan consider "Take the L Out" so "transphobic"? They disagree with transgender activism, but with an interesting twist. They're not just the run-of-the-mill feminists complaining about biological males usurping the title of feminism. No, they accuse transgender activists of promoting conversion therapy and rape culture.
According to their website, "Get the L Out is a group of lesbian and feminist individuals and organizations, opposing the increasingly anti-lesbian and misogynistic LGBT movement and the erasure of lesbians."
Yes, "Get the L Out" believes that transgenderism means erasing lesbians, and they've actually got a very good point.
"Get the L Out" opposes "trans politics" because they promote "the social transition of lesbians, encouraging them to present as straight men thus favouring the pretence of heterosexuality over lesbianism — this is nothing more than a form of conversion therapy."
In one move, this lesbian group has tied transgenderism to the most hated bugbear among the gay community — the effort to reverse same-sex attraction and destroy homosexual identity. Transgenderism encourages some lesbians to "identify" as male, and as soon as they "transition" — assuming these "ex"-women still like women — they're suddenly straight!
This isn't the only beef "Get the L Out" has with transgenderism, however. According to the lesbians, the "T" involves promoting "the medical transition of lesbians and pushes harmful drugs (untested hormone blockers, Lupron etc.) as well as unnecessary medical practices on perfectly healthy bodies – these are a form of misogynist medical abuse against lesbians."
Indeed, transgender hormone "treatments" and the more drastic transgender surgery have left people scarred, as they later rejected their cross-sex identity. Max Robinson, a 21-year-old woman who once identified as a man, regrets having taken male hormones and removing her breasts, calling such "treatments" "not a cure at all."
Cross-sex hormones for those who have already gone through puberty carry serious health risks. While the longterm medical and psychological effects remain unknown, testosterone in biological females increases the chance of developing ovarian cysts later in life. Testosterone in biological females will cause irreversible deepening of the voice and augmentation of the clitoris.
Finally, "Get the L Out" charged that transgender activism "promotes the right of heterosexual males who 'identify' as women and lesbians (despite most of them still retaining their male genitals) over the rights of lesbians to choose their sexual partners. This new ‘queer’ LGBT politics thus coerces lesbians to accept the penis as a female organ and promotes heterosexual intercourse between male and female as a form of lesbian sex."
"This is simply a new facet to rape culture and compulsory heterosexuality," the lesbians declared.
This may be the most interesting charge. Because transgender activism pushes the idea that biological males with penises can identify as women, it follows that these "trans women" with penises can want to have sex with real women and consider themselves lesbian.
Transgender activism has also involved stigmatizing people who want to have sex with "cisgender" people. A preference for biological women over "transgender women" or a preference for biological men over "transgender men" is considered "transphobic."
Thus, when a biological man — who still has a penis! — "identifies" as a transgender woman and wants to have sex with a lesbian, it is be considered transphobic for that lesbian to refuse ... on the grounds that he is a man.
This creates the hilariously ironic situation that the L in LGBT is fundamentally at odds with the T in LGBT, and cannot be reconciled. A lesbian who has sex with a "trans woman" — i.e. a biological male with a penis who identifies as a woman — has arguably become straight. But if she refuses sex for that reason, she is "transphobic."
Or in the words of "Get the L Out," "The trans movement with the complicity of 'queer' LGBT politics is coercing lesbians to have sex with men. We firmly condemn this vicious form of lesbophobia disguised as progress."
In order to preserve lesbianism, these women are marching against transgenderism.
Under "What We Believe," the lesbians made some rather powerful statements against transgenderism. "We oppose the transition of young lesbians on the basis that their appearances or behaviour does not conform to socially accepted images of women. Having short hair and disliking pink is not a sign of having a male brain and does not mean one requires transition," they wrote.
Then there's this: "The trans movement is a conservative movement which reinforces sexist sex stereotypes." Yes, yes, I know, transgenderism is a racial Leftist push against reality and DNA, but bear with these lesbians for a moment.
Feminism has often pushed back against "gender stereotypes." Transgenderism, by contrast, encourages those who identify with the stereotypes of the gender opposite their biological sex to take that identity as gospel truth and "transition" into a person of the opposite sex. This goes against biology, but it also goes against the idea that women should not fear their femininity just because they don't like dolls.
Woman Who Thought She Was a Man on Transgender Treatment: 'It's Not a Cure at All'
But the most malicious part of transgenderism may be the danger it poses to women. "Take the L Out" had one strong demand: "We demand stronger sex-based protections for women and girls and that women maintain the right to sex-segregated spaces at the exclusion of male regardless of their 'identity.'"
This echoed the complaint that transgender acceptance allows men to enter women's restrooms and changing rooms, a voyeur phenomenon that has been documented at Targets across America.
LGBT activists in England have attacked the lesbians as "transphobic," but they bring up excellent complaints that should resonate with feminists across the globe. Transgenderism and feminism — and even transgenderism and lesbianism — are not compatible. No matter how much LGBT activists insist on keeping their acronym together, the fissures are starting to show.
Conservatives should stand up and articulate an alternative understanding of sexuality and gender that conforms with biology and makes sense of an increasingly out-of-control sexual revolution. If the people start waking up, they will need voices to listen to.
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