Comments against the community
A heavy foot on the scale again:
A Tasmania-based lesbian woman and supporter of the anti-trans group LGB Alliance, is raising funds to take her battle to ban trans women and men from her drag shows, to the High Court.
The LGB Alliance is not “anti-trans.” Journalists get away with such flagrant lies when reporting on trans-related stories. Lies and libel.
That’s the first paragraph; the second is:
Trigger Warning: This story discusses comments against the transgender community, which might be distressing to some readers. For 24 hour crisis support and suicide prevention call Lifeline on 13 11 14. For Australia-wide LGBTQI peer support call QLife on 1800 184 527 or webchat.
There’s no such trigger warning for lesbians, and no such offer of crisis support and suicide prevention. Also the comments are not “against the transgender community.” They just lie, and lie and lie and lie.
Jessica Hoyle has raised over $3,300, since she launched her campaign on a fundraising platform last month.
Her campaign to be allowed to do women-only drag shows. It’s not monstrous or evil to want to do women-only events.
Last year, Hoyle failed in her bid to get an exemption from the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Commissioner to hold her “female-only event” and now plans to take her fight to the High Court.
Scare-quotes on “female-only event” as if there’s something outlandish about that.
Advocacy group Equality Tasmania said that Hoyle’s attempts to get the High Court to rule on watering down the state’s stringent anti-discrimination laws could set a dangerous precedent.
Another egregious lie. It’s not “discrimination” for groups with less power and status to meet without their overlords present. It’s not “discrimination” for women to want to have some spaces and events without men.
“As a queer, cisgender woman, I know the overwhelming majority of Tasmanian queer, lesbian and bisexual women support equality for transgender women and oppose attempts to exclude them,” Equality Tasmania spokesperson, Dr Lucy Mercer Mapstone, said, in a statement.
As “a queer, cisgender woman” this bizarre spokesperson is treating women as the oppressive bosses and men as the vulnerable victims. That’s backwards.
“Trans women are women. To say otherwise is inaccurate and distinctly anti-feminist,” said Dr Mapstone.
Wrong again. Accurate is precisely what it is. Trans women are men: we know this because of the two words, trans and women. It’s only women who are women. If you put “trans” in front you’re telling everyone that you’re talking about a man (who says he’s a woman or says he identifies as a woman or whatever the magic formula is that day). It is not in any way inaccurate to say that trans women are men. As for anti-feminist, fuck off with that.
Hoyle’s application for an exemption was refused by Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Sarah Bolt last year. The commissioner said it was “offensive, humiliating, intimidating, insulting” to ask people to prove that they were biologically female. Hoyle’s application, the commissioner said, went beyond other exemptions and required “people to provide intimate information about their body to gain access to the proposed events”.
Whose fault is that? It’s the fault of the men who insist on forcing themselves on women’s events and spaces.
At the end of the story there’s yet more concern and cuddling.
If you feel distressed reading the story, you can reach out to support services.
For 24 hour crisis support and suicide prevention call Lifeline on 13 11 14
For Australia-wide LGBTQI peer support call QLife on 1800 184 527 or webchat.
That’s if you’re a trans woman of course. Actual women cannot reach out to support services.
If they keep calling reasonable people transphobic or anti-trans, there will come a point when people start embracing the labels. Creating the very bogeyman you fear is about as stupid as you get.
Erm, coddling, I think, not “cuddling,” but maybe that’s how they perform the coddling.
I guess we have found our drag kings, then.
One of the things I have found complicated in this ruckus about DQSH is that I think there are appropriate places for drag performances.
I support these women in their preference to keep it amongst themselves.
Do you *really* know that, Dr Mapstone?
*How* do you know that?
musubk: You should know better than to demand epistemic justification from these people. Not just because they consider beliefs about gender identity to be self-justifying, but also because the use of “to know” here is not epistemological. It is moral and imperative. It’s like saying, “I know you aren’t trying to reach the cookie jar, young man,” with your arms akimbo. Or warning, “And I know she won’t give her babysitter any trouble, will she, young lady?”
I think this is an excellent point. The same could be said about the so-called racial reckoning. Insofar as either statement is true of Democratic candidates/the Party, I fear this November, and even more, 2024.
maddog @ 2 – No, I meant cuddling. It is also coddling, obviously, and the cuddling is only figurative, but I was underlining the wet, patronizing, ludicrously exaggerated Concern and Caring for men who say they are women compared to the brutal hostility toward women, especially lesbians.
Tasmania is an island, as is Jersey in the English Channel. Jersey and Guernsey were also the only parts of the British Empire to suffer German occupation in WW2.
Some years back while on a visit to Jersey, I was told a story about one of their famed Jersey stud bulls. Jersey and Guernsey were also the only parts of the British Empire to suffer German occupation in WW2, and the Germans had a great respect for their famous dairy cattle, and the law that once a bovine had left either island, it could never return, lest the purity of the race, I mean breed, be sullied.
So they brought over some cows from Germany to supply milk to the occupation force, but repecting the local laws, no bulls. Instead they mated their German cows on Jersey with one particular local bull. Duly calves were born and milk became available.
At the end of the war, the German cows were got rid of, I think to the English mainland. But in their patriotic high dudgeon, the outraged citizens of Jersey shot that wayward bull. So, somewhat incredulous, as asked my local host: “Why on Earth would they do that? Did the bull have a dose of VD?” He just smiled, gave me a wink, and replied: “No. But remember: this is Jersey.”
In similar vein, I would say: “remember, we are talking about Tasmania here.”
If I had to make a guess I’d say that these cringing trigger warnings & suicide hotline information will peak the average reader at least as much as the constant application of the word “transphobia.” If the example of the transphobic statement or action seems reasonable they can always imagine that it’s just the tip of an appalling iceberg of hatred and fear.
But the Trigger Warning is very specific: THESE words, these statements, these ideas right here are what makes trans people want to kill themselves. They’re awful. You might be effected yourself. So go ahead if you must, but don’t say we didn’t warn you. Careful, careful. It’s really bad.
Brave reader nervously continues. Brave reader thinks WTF. Transactivism looks stupid.
It does seem very peaky, doesn’t it…but then SO MUCH about this religion seems so very peaky. I’ll never understand how it got such a grip on so many so fast.
On meeting a Taswegian for the first time the appropriate greeting is “Show us yer scar”, that being where the second head was removed.
If you fancy a Taswegian woman you will ask her to “Show us yer map”. I’ll leave it to the reader to decide which part of the female anatomy is to be shown.
Yes, we Big Islanders love our Little Island mates.