Julie Bindel
Lesbians are being erased by transgender activists
When did ‘lesbian’ become a dirty word again? Perhaps it is since the trans-Taliban decided that we were a group of bigots and fascists, motivated by hatred of transgender people, existing solely to remove the rights of non-binary, sapiosexual, polyamorous blue fringed narcissists. When I came out in 1977, lesbians would be routinely physically and sexually assaulted by men who took offence at being sexually rejected. We were sacked from our jobs, bullied and harassed on the street and in bars, and told we were freaks and perverts.
Today, the job of making our lives a misery has been taken over by some trans-activists, aided and abetted by their bearded ‘allies’. They turn up to ‘support their trans siblings’ by pouring scorn on lesbians at Pride events unless they become hand maidens that put natal males before women.
This year’s interminable Pride events, spread throughout June, included disgraceful attacks on lesbians. At the big marches in Paris and Barcelona, some men appear to have been spotted wearing T Shirts decorated with the slogan ‘Kill the TERFS’. Video footage shows violent attacks by what appears to be trans-activists towards lesbians.
Attacks on lesbians by ‘queer’ activists is nothing new. In 2010 I was invited so speak at Queer Question Time, an event at the notorious LGBT venue the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. On my way in I was jostled and screamed at by a baying mob, and inside the venue, things got so heated, with trans-activists throwing objects at me and shouting threats, that Ken Livingstone, also a panel member, stepped in to defend me. I was frightened and intimidated. As I left the venue a group of gay men informed me: ‘Some trans women are lesbians’. I replied that I tended to prefer lesbians without a penis.
At Manchester Pride in 2018, one of the male organisers said of a small group of lesbians who were demanding better representation and inclusivity at Pride events, that they should be dragged off by their ‘saggy tits’.
In 2019 I was assaulted on the doorstep of Edinburgh University as I was leaving a public event at which I had spoken against male violence. My attacker was a trans activist who objected to my presence on campus due to my ‘transphobia’. The perpetrator had been chanting as the speakers entered the building, ‘Get those lesbian Terfs!’
Much of the press coverage, including in the Guardian, appeared to put the blame of the attack on me. The press report used a photo of me with the headline: ‘Edinburgh LGBT+ committee resigns over “transphobic hate on campus”’ and ‘University staff network say their opposition to feminist event with speakers critical of transgender reforms was censored’.
There are many other examples of such attacks on women by these new ‘progressives’, and lesbians often bear the brunt. The threats and violence have become so normalised that supposedly respectable academic journals appear to be inciting hatred towards women, so often lesbians, that dare question trans ideology. The cover of the May 2021 edition of the peer reviewed academic journal, Transgender Studies Quarterly has a charming image on the cover of three individuals wearing balaclavas and brandishing weapons, including a gun and a large knife.
I interviewed several young lesbians in a number of countries for my forthcoming book on feminism and each told me a very similar story: they have been under pressure by men dominating the LGBTQQI societies and feminist groups at universities to adopt the label of ‘queer’ or ‘non-binary’– anything but lesbian. As one told me, ‘“Lesbian” is now equated with “transphobia” thanks to the so-called trans-allies, so women are put off using that label and have gone back into the closet.’
The flag supposedly representing Pride currently includes more stripes than a zeal of zebras, and lesbians only appear welcome if we drop the word so as not to offend.
This new wave of bigots – misogynists thinly disguised as progressives – are every bit as toxic as the old sexists that would beat us up on the street, or tell us that all we needed was a ‘good seeing to’. And what is particularly shameful is that many of the liberals that would have condemned such bullies in the past now seem to be supporting the very people that wish to drive us back into the closet.