Amidst a sea of hostility

Julie Bindel on lesbians and Pride:

The lesbian group Get The L Out UK, founded to protest gender ideology and the pressure on same-sex attracted women to date trans women, joined Pride Cymru yesterday to make their voices heard amidst a sea of hostility. Ever since the trans movement decided that lesbians who reject sleeping with trans women are somehow morally deficient, same-sex attracted women have been harassed, defamed and abused in the name of trans equality. Get the L Out represent those old-fashioned lesbians that reject the penis and all that is attached to it.

“All that is attached to it” is witty.

The women at Pride Cymru were carrying banners adorned with the words, ‘trans activism erases lesbians’ and ‘lesbians don’t like penises’, which caused a major kerfuffle amongst the crowd. Rather than having a word with the individuals that were screaming abuse, police decided to eject Get the L Out. So, lesbians were kicked off a so-called Pride procession whilst the rest of the LGBTQQIA2Spirit+ crowd, many of whom will doubtless be heterosexual kinksters, stayed.

In other words Pride, like the rest of the world, is male-dominated, and bullies or expels women whenever it feels like it.

The hostility towards any lesbian that stands her ground amongst the new cool queers has been building for some time. In 2018, at the first Get the L Out protest, the gay male MC joked on stage that the protesters should be dragged off the parade ‘by their saggy tits’.

New boss just like the old boss.

A brief history lesson: the very first pride-type march I attended was Lesbian Strength, in 1981. The majority of lesbians involved in the Gay Liberation Front in the 1970s had walked out, having become fed up with the sexism from the men in the organisation. It would appear that sexist stereotypes are not only confined to heterosexuals. The women have since reported that their needs are always placed second to the men; demeaning and often misogynistic comments were made about women; and that they were pretty much expected to make the tea and take care of the men, just as straight women were.

In other words, sadly, being gay doesn’t automatically block being a sexist pig. Misogyny is pervasive, and being gay isn’t a magical shield against it.

Lesbian Strength was a wonderful antidote to Gay Pride. It meant that lesbians, many of whom did not wish to be lumped in with men, could be front and centre of our own liberation movement. We argued back then, and I would argue now, that lesbians have very little in common with gay men, except that we are same-sex attracted. Gay men don’t face the double bind of sexism along with anti-gay prejudice. And, like it or not, some gay men hate women, just as do some of their straight brothers.

Emphasis mine. Gay men don’t face that double bind, and because they don’t face it, they’re not aware of it. That makes a difference.

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