Tell the T to go home
The discussion gets so laughably (but maddeningly) incoherent, thanks to the secret but binding law that requires us to use ALL the letters EVERY time. LGBTQ Nation (see?) tries to report:
A trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) organization called the Lesbian Action Group applied for an exemption from Australia’s anti-discrimination act so it could hold a lesbian event that excluded trans women.
Or to put it in normal language, a lesbian feminist group applied for an exemption from Australia’s anti-discrimination act so that it could hold a lesbian event.
Why, you might wonder if you didn’t already know, is an anti-discrimination act telling lesbians they can’t hold an event? Why is an anti-discrimination act discriminating against lesbians? Aren’t lesbians the kind of people who should be protected by anti-discrimination acts? Haven’t lesbians faced discrimination over the years?
AHRC has asked for public comments regarding the application, and LGBTQ+ activists are speaking up.
But what about L activists? What about G activists? (I daresay they sometimes want to have G-only events themselves, no?) Are all L activists and G activists “speaking up” to oppose L rights to meet without men present? Of course not, but the stupid LGBTQ+ makes it sound that way, which is the point of it.
One letter signed by 15 LGBTQ+ organizations, including the Melbourne chapter of Dykes on Bikes
Excuse me excuse me, sorry to interrupt, but isn’t Dykes on Bikes an L organization, not an LGBTQ+ one? Can’t we just let L organizations be L organizations instead of forcing them into the umbrella one, in which they instantly disappear? And, worse, in which anything they say is vetoed by the T?
This is in fact the same struggle as the one this article is discussing. Can’t lesbians and gay men just talk to and about and with other lesbians (in the case of lesbians) and gay men (in the case of gay men) any more? Can they never escape the fucking TQ+ when the fucking TQ+ is choking them to death?
Trans is not the same as lesbian and/or gay. In some ways they are deeply opposed in the sense of having opposite interests. It’s insane to keep lumping them all together on all occasions, and it’s turning out to be lethal to lesbian organizing and activism.
One letter signed by 15 LGBTQ+ organizations, including the Melbourne chapter of Dykes on Bikes, the Trans Justice Project, and the Parents of Gender Diverse Children, proclaiming it is “not appropriate or necessary” for bisexual and trans women to be banned from lesbian gatherings.
It is of course both appropriate and necessary to ban men from lesbian gatherings. If men are there the gatherings are no longer lesbian gatherings. Ever heard of freedom of association? For that matter, ever heard of lesbians?
But of course (please do correct me if I’m wrong) it’s perfectly appropriate and necessary to ban the LGB from TQ+ only events.
I suppose that the key issue here is ‘what constitutes an event.?’ Does one need to seek government exemption in order to hold, say, a kids’ birthday party; or any kind of exclusive party? How about a private conversation? That could surely constitute an ‘event.’
The mind boggles at the implications.
It’s still possible to find LGB in print media of old, but try to find it anywhere on the (easily edited) internet. I think they have systematically tacked on T (and usually more) just about everywhere. “One of these things is not like the others” — Sesame Street ca. 1968. A lesson for children that we are being commanded to unlearn.
So, how long before someone comes along and mimics the “It’s freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion” crap.
A clarification, the Lesbian Action Group Lesbian Action Group are not apply for “permission to hold an event”; they are seeking to overturn denial of a space in which to hold the event.
They wanted to hold the event in the Victorian Pride Centre, the first purpose-built centre for Australia’s LGBTIQ+ communities. It is a place to pave new directions for LGBTIQ+ communities, while honouring and celebrating their brave – and at times difficult – past.
You can find their contact details on their website if you’d like to know why the L is being excluded from their space.
https://pridecentre.org.au/
Excellent submission to HRC from a woman who is also being hounded by her employer for simply holding to the line that lesbians are born, not worn. Reccomend a follow.
https://twitter.com/aytchellesse/status/1708766087968661579