There's a lot here I like and want to engage with but I'm tripping over "the LGBT community [is] at a crisis point." I think gay youth seem to be at a crisis point; as to the LGBT community, I doubt whether it exists. Or at least, even though I'm a lesbian I've never felt able to access the LGBT community (or to access a specifically lesbian community). I'm curious whether other gays see what I'm saying, particularly millennial lesbians. I mean, that could be part of the problem for gay kids -- there's no authentic scene to mature into, and the vacuum is being filled by tik tok testosterone dealers or whoever.
I need to train myself away from using that term, because yeah, I don't think there really is "a" LGBT community, just an LGBT population. Those are the people I'm hemming and hawing about, for the most part--the people who are LGB or T, and seeing this wave of backlash form that they had little or nothing to do with creating. They may even *agree* with the backlash in principle! But it's gonna hit them anyway. I mean us?
The only place I really see LGBT communities that get my subjective "actual community" badge of approval are in specific physical places. Like, my town in the Hudson Valley has a legit LGBT community--politically and civically active gay and trans people, who meet up in the real world and do stuff together. And hilariously, I am not really a part of their community either, further proving the point that I need to stop trading on that term.
As for the online LGBT community: nope, nope, nope as they say.
I am not gay, but fwiw the term "LGBT[Q] community" seems at least as fuzzy to me as the word "queer." It's an ill-defined, virtual space into which just about anyone can identify; it isn't clear what aspects of their identies the people in this space share. This is the inevitable result of habitually applying the word "community" to huge swaths of people who may have very little in common. It reduces individuals to a designation that many of them never asked for. I can see why gay kids today would feel no connection with the umbrella term with which they're expected to identify, especially now that it's become so focused on the T.
What I want to know is why any LGB or anyone accepts the notion of 'trans' 'gender identity' in the first place? The 'trans' nonsense is an invention the movement for which is driven primarily by male, heterosexual cross-dresser sexual fetisihists, autogynephiles/transvestic fetisihists, men often w/ other paraphilias. These wealthy, powerful men w/ an "erotic fixation"are described by Helen Joyce (author of the book, 'Trans, When Ideology Meets Reality') as the "nuclear reactor" of the 'trans' movement w/o which the movement wouldn't have advanced as it has. And it is the forced-teaming of the T onto the LGB that has caused the problems and a backlash on LGBs--many of whom are so-called non-conforming for their sex. But there have always been natural variations in human expression and sexuality and thus even so-called non-conformity is a misnomer.
There are males, females, heterosexuals, homosexuals, and bisexuals. And then there are heterosexual men w/ sexual fetishes and paraphilias that have nothing to do w/ being LGB. And but for the T glomming onto the LGB the general public would not have the misunderstanding that these delusional sexual fetishists have anything to do w/ being LGB. And that all of the legacy women's and LGB rights orgs were taken over or sold out to the 'trans taliban' is a disgrace.
So now vulnerable so-called non-conforming and often same-sex attracted kids and young adults w/ their internalized homophobia/ and or delusional notions about being 'born in the wrong body' think they're some nonsensical 'trans' thing. 'Tomboy girls' or 'girly boys,' many same-sex attracted, (as well as adults) are being hormonally and physically mutilated, sacrificing their health on the altar of the invented fiction of 'trans.' And all b/c some wealthy, powerful, mostly straight men, AGPs, w/ an "erotic fixation" have bought, bullied, and bamboozled their way into the LGB 'community' and the general public in the Western world. 'Transgender identity' ideology is the biggest con and disgraceful medical scandal of the 21st Century. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xUrtNW6Fzo&t=664s
Thank you! YES! 100 times yes! It IS a fiction! They have turned the word Queer into a meaningless Umbrella for anyone who has ever felt othered or ostracized! It has nothing to do with LGB's and in fact makes a mockery of decades of civil rights activism. The T is fiction the T is magical thinking, the T is destroying the future happiness of 1000's of innocents for a lie that props up a fetish.
You are quite right. There is no human right or civil right to be something you are not. And no other civil rights movement supplanted the rights of another group as men pretending to be women do where women's sex-based rights are concerned. These men already have rights as men, they don't get to have rights as women too. Women's protected rights based sex and rights based on the invented and incoherent 'gender identity' are in direct conflict and are irreconcilable. The material reality of sex trumps the fantasy in someone's head.
And under the 'trans' umbrella there are some very dodgy and undesireable characters that no respectable LGB wants anything to do with and are not welcome among respectable people of any sex or sexuality.
The LGBT scene has become too politicized. Hence why I believe there is a stark difference between being homosexual and being LGBT--one is a preference and state of being, while the other is a political affiliation. It's sad the two are different now, especially because it alienates the moderate to conservative gay youth
Thanks for this. It helps me name what makes me sad about my child’s trans identity. It’s not so much the transness. It’s that I worked hard to have my kid to grow up in places that allowed lots of safe exploration of gender and sexuality, and instead of being allowed to slowly figure out who she is, the world around her was so eager to pull her into specific narratives around gender nonconformity, and provide a narrative of exaggerated persecution. She really didn’t get that freedom to feel good about herself that I wanted her to have. As a middle school student, or as a high school student, in places full of gender non-conformity and relatively free of persecution or prejudice.
This is so well put - thank you for sharing. It resonates deeply. And when you multiply your one child by many (mine too) and their friends, peers, siblings - whether identifying themselves, or identifying as allies - it feels especially troubling.
I so hear that. My pre-pubertal 8-year-old was feeling the need to identify as "aromantic and asexual" after her elementary school was done with their indoctrination.
I’m in a location where my internet connection is dodgy, but this is an important conversation, so I want to try and offer some thoughts. I applaud Lisa for opening it, and in her usual nuanced way. Like Unyielding Bicyclist (and I hope sometime you might tell us something about how you came to choose this delightful “handle”), I find a lot of good things to engage with here, but am also tripping over “LGBT community.”
I am a lesbian --though not millennial, rather 74–and from that vantage point, I by no means see “LGBT” as a single, coherent community. This is not intended to express anything negative about anyone, it’s simply a fact of life that my interests and concerns as a lesbian are different from those of gay men, bi, and trans people. We can and do come together in support of one another, or simply to socialize, as we do with straight folks, BTW, but that does not make us a single, coherent “community” any more than anyone who is not white is a single community.
Right now, as the happy beneficiary of same-sex marriage, I am very grateful for so many who, in coalition, fought hard and long to make this a reality. At the same time, I also do think that, today, the gender identity activist ideologues are putting that specific gain under severe threat. I hold both these thoughts at the same time, and part of my presence here and elsewhere, and in speaking out generally however I can, is informed by what same-sex attracted men and women have gained, and also what we stand to lose. Acceptance of same-sex attracted people has always been a fragile thing, and the outsized, unreasonable demands of gender identity activists put this all under serious threat.
To Unyielding Bicyclist’s point, I worry very much about younger women who may be, or are, same sex attracted and are trying to find their way. I pay close attention to what is being reported from the LGBAlliance, formed by Bev Jackson and Kate Harris, as well as The Lesbian Project founded by Julie Bindel and Kathleen Stock. What they are reporting out shows plenty of cause for grave concern. At the same time, once again, these women are strong and brave and smart, and they give me courage and hope. So, on that score, color me grateful, indeed.
The LGBT community has always been dominated, controlled, and focused on issues concerning men over women. The men had fat incomes because gay couples have two male incomes, not just one. And lesbians were poorer because they were not attached to any male incomes. It was HIV that put the gay community on the map and where huge sums of money came from the government and private donors. I was in S.F. when HIV hit. Rape and breast cancer have always been at epidemic numbers, including in lesbian communities, but gay men never cared much about those issues. Eventually HIV became a universal concern. Big Pharma turns that into a money-maker (and probably killed a lot of gay men in the process). I don't remember lesbians ever benefiting from their alliance with gay men much at all. Some gay men may have been supportive of lesbians they knew, but as a political group the men were very self-involved.
Now transwomen have decimated lesbian institutions. When was the last time you attended the Michigan Women's Music Festival? The lesbian community appears to be fractured into various groups depending on whether you support transwomen or not, whether you're willing to accept them as "lesbians" or not, whether you are willing to "accept" or "validate" all manner of bizarre ideation including men becoming mothers, "chest"-feeding infants, pedophilia, etc. Or not. And many of the loudest voices raised against this insane ideology are not just radical feminist but lesbian. Thank god for the lesbians! If they don't support TRANS ideology, they are not allowed at PRIDE events. WTF?! And the leaders of these groups are threatened with--you guessed it--murder by transwomen. Why am I not surprised? Am I angry about this? You bet I am. For the record, although I bond primarily with women emotionally, I am not lesbian. But I have been "in the life" in the past. I am not lesbian, but I am livid about the damage that has been done to lesbian communities and institutions and friendship groups by this ideology. And every parent of every "trans" biological female should be too.
This isn't a new phenomenon. This is what men do. And have always done. To women.
If you live in a large city it has been very easy for a young girl or young woman to find her lesbian community. Just move to a part of the city where lesbians live. Just go to a women's bookstore or arts community or women's sexual trauma or child abuse healing groups. Oh, I forget. They include, by law, transwomen now. The British Women's Prize for Fiction is now including transwomen as candidates for their prize for women writers. Now men will be receiving the women's fiction prize. Of course. Again, why am I not surprised?
Gender non-conforming females need stronger feminist organizations and institutions to weather this storm. Most "trans" aren't trans at all. Violence and non-acceptance of biological women is what we should be looking at. If you are a biological woman, you have SIX TIMES the chance of being murdered than if you are a transwoman, adjusted for percentage of the general population. Yet are we worried about endangering biological women and girl? We are not. It's all about the men. As usual.
"The aspects of our selves that are celebrated by the LGBT advocates can take a long time to emerge. Expecting people to have a handle on them in their teens is absurd—and, as the growing ranks of detransitioners can tell you, potentially harmful." So simply stated. Thank you.
The trans ideology is an attempt by uncomfortable and lost people to connect and give purpose to lives bereft of interest and meaning. It is why it so populated by adolescents-a group that by nature is the most confused stage of life as their bodies and minds develop and shed innocence and childhood. It is also a microcosm of the larger lost group of IGen who see better worlds online but can’t figure out how to develop something good and personal in real life.
Yes, I agree that there is a crisis within the LGBT itself. It's like a gang war. I'm a lesbian and I see no benefit to being associated with gay men because they have clearly used the trans identity to undermine women, lesbians and heteronormative society as if heterosexuality itself was an oppressive force. See Scott Weiner. I had a longtime gay male friend who compared me to Anita Bryant for caring about children being transed and called me and JK Rowling an outdated gender essentialist. We are no longer on speaking terms.
And now California wants to give gay men health insurance money so they can exploit women (likely poor women overseas) as surrogates for their own genetic reproduction because they can now qualify as an infertile couple. If this is not a men's rights movement I don't known what is.
And no I do not think that children should be burdened with identifying themselves as anything LGBT. I think schools should treat this just like they treated gang warfare and ban all those idiotic flags and Rainbow what have you. I think the LGBT owes society an apology for messing with children's minds by introducing gender identity into schools as a protected category. California is all but forcing this down our throats under the shield of LGBT rights. Schools should be adopting the wait and see how you turn out model, not affirming whatever imaginary gender kids have been forced to adopt to stave off being a white oppressor.
The language changes are oppressive, manipulative and gaslighting. No journalist should go along with any of it. Unhinging society from an agreed upon reality paves the way for dictators. Fascism is what it is, wrapped in a Rainbow flag
I want readers to know that Amazon might ban comments or book reviews from your books.
I got banned for writing a review on:
1. Hannah Barnes “Time to Think”
2. Miriam Grossman’s “Transnation”
3. Abigail Shrier’s Irreversible Damage”
That initially posted my reviews which were not anti-trans they are always pro science and better information.
Now I can’t even review any books. This is censorship. I’m a big reader and I don’t review books I haven’t read but I’m concerned that Amazon will be blocking reviews for the book “PITT”.
Be aware they are censoring.
Here is the letter I received this morning..I thought it was left wing progressives who are against banned books... 🤔
Supporting LGB rights does not involve medical interventions, with their sterilization and other effects.
They have different struggles although some who identify as trans when young do it as part of growing up LGB.
Right now my political party is falsely saying that pointing out the lack of evidence behind medical intervention for gender dysphoria is anti trans. It actually pro trans in my book because trans identified people deserve evidence based medical care just like everyone else. It is not pro or anti LGB.
Although wpath claimed gender nonconformity or gender dysphoria are needed for puberty blockers in their "soc" 7, again, forced teaming.
I support the rights of LGB people and of T people but given that there is considerable disagreement about what the latter mean by rights, it's making a mess of things to mix them. One is who you are attracted to, the other, how you view yourself.
It looks from here like T has been added to the LGB to shame people from asking questions about T. To ride on the coattails of LGB battles which were hard fought and won with evidence and long painful efforts to reach people with the truth.
T should be treated like what it is, a condition with many different etiologies, possible pathways to develop and treatments that are poorly understood. With many anecdotes but literally thousands of medicalized minors right now where we have no idea even if it might help them. Obviously these people deserve their rights but by tying it to LGB the us is harming these young people. No differential diagnosis based on long term studies is available to help guide those in T.
We apologize but Amazon has noticed some unusual reviewing activity on this account. As a result, all reviews submitted by this account have been removed and this account will no longer be able to contribute reviews and other content on Amazon. If you would like to learn more, please see our community guidelines. To contact us about this decision, please email community-help@amazon.com.
Here is one of letters I received this morning from Amazon after writing a 5 star review for Miriam Grossman’s book. I would give the PITT parent stories 5 stars but I’m blocked and reported.
An initial warning has been sent to you. Because of your repeated violation of our Community Guidelines we've removed your ability to participate in Community features.
I reviewed « Time to Think » by Hanna Barnes and Abigail Shier’s book I did not anything disparaging just honest reviews of books I purchased. I wonder how many reviews have been blocked by Amazon and why they are intent on stifling free speech and not promoting banned books.
I hope the authors know the readers are being censored
I hypothesize that it’s both. But I’m certain this is happening to others. The authors deserve honest reviews and ratings. I’m guessing it’s 23 year old green haired they/thems moderating. But why would they have a problem with Hannah Barnes? BBC journalist.
I got a message yesterday that I was not allowed to a web-site--I think it was K. Lang's "Sovereign Women"--because I was a bot! News to me. It eventually went through but it said I was moving too fast to be human. First time I've ever been accused of that. The censorship is going to heat up. I'm SURE the authors know about this. I quit doing business with Amazon several years ago. I only use it to get information on books I am considering buying elsewhere.
Great discussion and I especially like the way this is stated:
The aspects of our selves that are celebrated by the LGBT advocates can take a long time to emerge. Expecting people to have a handle on them in their teens is absurd—and, as the growing ranks of detransitioners can tell you, potentially harmful.
The activists won. Like Alexander, they wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer.
"I know," said the street theater kids. "Let's say the world is filled with hate and everyone is doomed. Then we'll raise money to make things better. And punch Nazis."
"Genius," said the blogger bongo boys-with-boobs band. "Why just look how many clicks we get. Oops, better add the adblocker blocker to my site! Oh and everyone who disagrees with us is a Nazi."
"Perfect," said the plutocrats. "Here is the most generous funding plan we have ever unleashed on any progressive political project in American history. Go punch Nazis and we'll fly your flags on Wall Street."
Another issue I would like to address at the risk of coming off not only transphobic but homophobic as well. Back in the 80's I knew the person (I'll keep him anonymous even though he's dead) who began Manroot Press, one of the two major gay presses at the time. He was a big advocate for "Boy-Man Love" (otherwise known as pedophilia and child rape). He spent some time in prison for statutory rape of a 16-year-old. I went to a book collating party at his house when my son was 3 months old and this guy (and several other men there) promised to "take care" of my son in 18 years' time, wink wink, nod nod, pointing at his extremely large (by several definitions) condom collection displayed all around his living room. This attitude in S.F. is a major reason I left, proactively protecting my kid from possible sexual child abuse. My kid was a charmer and had charisma that wouldn't quit back then and the amount of attention he got from grown men frightened me quite a lot. Little boys pre-puberty age were targets at the time. I'm not saying only gay men rape little boys, but as you can see from the direction WPATH is heading, this was a well-developed meme in the gay community back then. That was 40 years ago. It's become much more acceptable now, which is crazy and enough to drive a mother completely batty. Beware the Primal Mother, boys.
Some things do not deserve support or acceptance. Now WPATH are trying to walk back Eunuchism a bit, and Nullification, because grown men castrating boys is a bit much to swallow, although they have managed to change the DSM re gender dysphoria which is pretty crazy. I mean, I always knew shrinks were more than a little psychologically tetched but this is beyond even my paranoid imagination. The one thing they are staying clear of is "transracialism". For now. But the ideology is getting close. Genevieve Gluck put out a story about a "transwoman" who is a recent "convert" to Islam (if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you) who is making a stink because she left her (surgically removed) balls in her ex's fridge and wants them back, along with $6500 "for pain and suffering". This guy wears gauzy dresses no self-respecting Muslim woman would be caught dead in. Misappropriation of religion/culture on top of everything else. And of course there are people who have tried to "change race" (good luck with that since it doesn't actually exist).
Frankly, gay men need to get a grip. And sympathetic though I am for gay young men who are bullied and attacked and even killed, the community at large needs to do some serious soul-searching and self-monitoring if it wants my sympathy. Your rights end where mine begin and vice versa. Tolerance is great, but clear boundaries are essential. Everything has gotten way too mushy.
Can I ask why you think men raping little boys has “become much more acceptable now”? I’ve seen the exact opposite, especially among Gen Z people, several of whom seem to see people in their late teens as equivalent to prepubescent children, not proto-adults. I’ve seen Gen Z-ers online castigate an 18-year-old dating a 16-year-old for “dating a minor as an adult.” (My husband and I dated each other at those same ages. He was a senior with a fall birthday and I was a junior with a spring birthday.) I’ve seen them claim that adult couples with large age gaps - say, 30 and 55 - indicates that the older partner is a secret pedophile “who’s just scared to go younger.” I’m not seeing any general trend of normalizing sex with little boys.
I suggest you follow Genevieve Gluck's substack or just do a search on WPATH and see what they are normalizing. I'm glad to hear it's less acceptable among young people. 18 year olds are not the people I'm talking about. A two-year difference at that age is still legally statutory rape so 18-year-olds need to be careful. But I'm talking about BOY (pre-pubescent usually or even junior high age) with a MAN (say over 30 and in this case a guy in this mid- to late-40's). Clearly the child isn't capable of true consent, any more than they are of true consent for hormone therapy or top or bottom surgery. And I don't think a 16-year-old boy is any match for a 45-year-old man.
"18 year olds are not the people I'm talking about. A two-year difference at that age is still legally statutory rape so 18-year-olds need to be careful."
Depends on the state - over half of US states have 16 as their age of consent, and "Romeo and Juliet" laws cover couples with age differences of a couple years in other states. I know you're not talking about small age gaps; my point was more that if 18 dating 16 is taboo to some people, surely sex between, say, 10 and 30 is even more so.
I'll look into Genevieve Gluck. Thanks for answering my comment. :)
Mara--I totally forgot about K. Lang. She is pretty young and worked at LBGT non-profits in NYC when the Dept. of Public Health funneled grants through the non-profits to send LBGT young people into the schools to teach staff, teachers, and kids about "tolerance". Slowly enough that Lang, who is pretty sharp, did not realize it for awhile, they were training them to groom these kids into trans ideology. When Lang realized this, she quit and now deprograms trans people. Her web-site is thedeprogrammer.com. It's full of great content. And addresses both porn and pedophilia (and how they are connected) plus where this ideology really came from. She's participating in a program in Seattle (I think) today with SovereignWomen (I can't access their web-site so maybe they've been banned too) I hope I can access after the fact online. She's been banned by a bunch of social media. Watch her documentaries.
Yeah. No problem. The world has very quickly become a very strange place. WPATH is trying to make Man-Boy Love or pedophilia defined as a sexuality and not an emotional problem. This normalizes it. They are also distinguishing between people who are pedophiliac (sexually attracted to children) and those who "act on it". Not sure how you tell the difference on a practical level.
Everything is getting flipped. Now people freak out about 18 and 16 dating but are edging toward accepting--somehow?--10 and 30. (New laws in CA to de-criminalize sex with minors) People's brains are just so addled now--anything new is deemed terrific and anything mildly traditional, like a 16 year old dating an 18 yr old--is horrific. I don't know how we can ever unconfuse it. Backwards logic everywhere you look.
I don't see acknowledgment here of how very much worse problems became when LGB allowed the "T" activists to take the lead and pull the rainbow in a direction very fast and far from the "live and let live" stance that won for the LGB the vast majority of its goals. People are very clear about how much overstepping is now occurring with the continual incursions of trans activists bullying straight people to change their view, language, how they raise and educate their children, and etc. Stop that, if LGBs have any influence over the substance and perception of the rainbow any longer, and half or more issues of the LGB will subside imo. *
I don't think I said when the T was added to the rainbow, but I recall when it wasn't there, in the beginning. My comment references the "T" activating itself and pushing an agenda much of the rest of the rainbow is not in alignment with.
The same thought came popping in my head as I read this piece as well as Lisa’s last. As much as activists like to highlight the parallels between the trans rights movement and the gay rights movement, there is absolutely no effort on their behalf to notice the very clear differences between the two movements. Not to say that the parallels are not existent, after all, in this culture war most conservatives also oppose the activists’ stance. It is nonetheless extremely myopic to continue to turn a blind eye on the many differences that exists between the current trans rights movement and gay rights movement. Because of such blindness, it seems as if too many people are completely unaware of those of us who are critical of the movement but who are secular and/or liberal or at least completely oblivious to why secular/liberals would opposite trans activism in the first part lace. This is something that radical activists have exploited to their advantage as they build a strawman of their ideological adversaries.
It’s kind of hard to forget AIDS I lived in the Bay Area and my parents’ friends lost lots of sons and it decimated the artistic world...how soon we forget ACT UP and the Reagan administration refusing to do anything about AIDs or even mention it. My friend is an infectious disease specialist and the only doc in the valley who treated AIDS patients, he quit about 10 years ago bc it’s now easy to control with an anti viral medication. I think the best thing these little wannabe “queer kids” could do is watch or read Angels in American. How soon we forget what Pride was all about and that even President Obama wouldn’t support gay marriage in either campaign until Biden forced him to in his usual clumsy Biden way.
I never understood why gays or lesbians would want to be part of such a patriarchal institution as marriage. I suppose equal rights which is why I supported it but I would never participate in it myself having seen where it comes from--chattel.
There's a lot here I like and want to engage with but I'm tripping over "the LGBT community [is] at a crisis point." I think gay youth seem to be at a crisis point; as to the LGBT community, I doubt whether it exists. Or at least, even though I'm a lesbian I've never felt able to access the LGBT community (or to access a specifically lesbian community). I'm curious whether other gays see what I'm saying, particularly millennial lesbians. I mean, that could be part of the problem for gay kids -- there's no authentic scene to mature into, and the vacuum is being filled by tik tok testosterone dealers or whoever.
I need to train myself away from using that term, because yeah, I don't think there really is "a" LGBT community, just an LGBT population. Those are the people I'm hemming and hawing about, for the most part--the people who are LGB or T, and seeing this wave of backlash form that they had little or nothing to do with creating. They may even *agree* with the backlash in principle! But it's gonna hit them anyway. I mean us?
The only place I really see LGBT communities that get my subjective "actual community" badge of approval are in specific physical places. Like, my town in the Hudson Valley has a legit LGBT community--politically and civically active gay and trans people, who meet up in the real world and do stuff together. And hilariously, I am not really a part of their community either, further proving the point that I need to stop trading on that term.
As for the online LGBT community: nope, nope, nope as they say.
I am not gay, but fwiw the term "LGBT[Q] community" seems at least as fuzzy to me as the word "queer." It's an ill-defined, virtual space into which just about anyone can identify; it isn't clear what aspects of their identies the people in this space share. This is the inevitable result of habitually applying the word "community" to huge swaths of people who may have very little in common. It reduces individuals to a designation that many of them never asked for. I can see why gay kids today would feel no connection with the umbrella term with which they're expected to identify, especially now that it's become so focused on the T.
Ava, thank you so much for these great, and truly empathetic, observations.
I would love you to write a piece on this!
Me too.
What I want to know is why any LGB or anyone accepts the notion of 'trans' 'gender identity' in the first place? The 'trans' nonsense is an invention the movement for which is driven primarily by male, heterosexual cross-dresser sexual fetisihists, autogynephiles/transvestic fetisihists, men often w/ other paraphilias. These wealthy, powerful men w/ an "erotic fixation"are described by Helen Joyce (author of the book, 'Trans, When Ideology Meets Reality') as the "nuclear reactor" of the 'trans' movement w/o which the movement wouldn't have advanced as it has. And it is the forced-teaming of the T onto the LGB that has caused the problems and a backlash on LGBs--many of whom are so-called non-conforming for their sex. But there have always been natural variations in human expression and sexuality and thus even so-called non-conformity is a misnomer.
There are males, females, heterosexuals, homosexuals, and bisexuals. And then there are heterosexual men w/ sexual fetishes and paraphilias that have nothing to do w/ being LGB. And but for the T glomming onto the LGB the general public would not have the misunderstanding that these delusional sexual fetishists have anything to do w/ being LGB. And that all of the legacy women's and LGB rights orgs were taken over or sold out to the 'trans taliban' is a disgrace.
So now vulnerable so-called non-conforming and often same-sex attracted kids and young adults w/ their internalized homophobia/ and or delusional notions about being 'born in the wrong body' think they're some nonsensical 'trans' thing. 'Tomboy girls' or 'girly boys,' many same-sex attracted, (as well as adults) are being hormonally and physically mutilated, sacrificing their health on the altar of the invented fiction of 'trans.' And all b/c some wealthy, powerful, mostly straight men, AGPs, w/ an "erotic fixation" have bought, bullied, and bamboozled their way into the LGB 'community' and the general public in the Western world. 'Transgender identity' ideology is the biggest con and disgraceful medical scandal of the 21st Century. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xUrtNW6Fzo&t=664s
Thank you! YES! 100 times yes! It IS a fiction! They have turned the word Queer into a meaningless Umbrella for anyone who has ever felt othered or ostracized! It has nothing to do with LGB's and in fact makes a mockery of decades of civil rights activism. The T is fiction the T is magical thinking, the T is destroying the future happiness of 1000's of innocents for a lie that props up a fetish.
Thank you.
You are quite right. There is no human right or civil right to be something you are not. And no other civil rights movement supplanted the rights of another group as men pretending to be women do where women's sex-based rights are concerned. These men already have rights as men, they don't get to have rights as women too. Women's protected rights based sex and rights based on the invented and incoherent 'gender identity' are in direct conflict and are irreconcilable. The material reality of sex trumps the fantasy in someone's head.
And under the 'trans' umbrella there are some very dodgy and undesireable characters that no respectable LGB wants anything to do with and are not welcome among respectable people of any sex or sexuality.
The LGBT scene has become too politicized. Hence why I believe there is a stark difference between being homosexual and being LGBT--one is a preference and state of being, while the other is a political affiliation. It's sad the two are different now, especially because it alienates the moderate to conservative gay youth
Thanks for this. It helps me name what makes me sad about my child’s trans identity. It’s not so much the transness. It’s that I worked hard to have my kid to grow up in places that allowed lots of safe exploration of gender and sexuality, and instead of being allowed to slowly figure out who she is, the world around her was so eager to pull her into specific narratives around gender nonconformity, and provide a narrative of exaggerated persecution. She really didn’t get that freedom to feel good about herself that I wanted her to have. As a middle school student, or as a high school student, in places full of gender non-conformity and relatively free of persecution or prejudice.
This is so well put - thank you for sharing. It resonates deeply. And when you multiply your one child by many (mine too) and their friends, peers, siblings - whether identifying themselves, or identifying as allies - it feels especially troubling.
I so hear that. My pre-pubertal 8-year-old was feeling the need to identify as "aromantic and asexual" after her elementary school was done with their indoctrination.
What a way to completely destabilize young people. How dare they teach this rubbish in schools.
I’m in a location where my internet connection is dodgy, but this is an important conversation, so I want to try and offer some thoughts. I applaud Lisa for opening it, and in her usual nuanced way. Like Unyielding Bicyclist (and I hope sometime you might tell us something about how you came to choose this delightful “handle”), I find a lot of good things to engage with here, but am also tripping over “LGBT community.”
I am a lesbian --though not millennial, rather 74–and from that vantage point, I by no means see “LGBT” as a single, coherent community. This is not intended to express anything negative about anyone, it’s simply a fact of life that my interests and concerns as a lesbian are different from those of gay men, bi, and trans people. We can and do come together in support of one another, or simply to socialize, as we do with straight folks, BTW, but that does not make us a single, coherent “community” any more than anyone who is not white is a single community.
Right now, as the happy beneficiary of same-sex marriage, I am very grateful for so many who, in coalition, fought hard and long to make this a reality. At the same time, I also do think that, today, the gender identity activist ideologues are putting that specific gain under severe threat. I hold both these thoughts at the same time, and part of my presence here and elsewhere, and in speaking out generally however I can, is informed by what same-sex attracted men and women have gained, and also what we stand to lose. Acceptance of same-sex attracted people has always been a fragile thing, and the outsized, unreasonable demands of gender identity activists put this all under serious threat.
To Unyielding Bicyclist’s point, I worry very much about younger women who may be, or are, same sex attracted and are trying to find their way. I pay close attention to what is being reported from the LGBAlliance, formed by Bev Jackson and Kate Harris, as well as The Lesbian Project founded by Julie Bindel and Kathleen Stock. What they are reporting out shows plenty of cause for grave concern. At the same time, once again, these women are strong and brave and smart, and they give me courage and hope. So, on that score, color me grateful, indeed.
The LGBT community has always been dominated, controlled, and focused on issues concerning men over women. The men had fat incomes because gay couples have two male incomes, not just one. And lesbians were poorer because they were not attached to any male incomes. It was HIV that put the gay community on the map and where huge sums of money came from the government and private donors. I was in S.F. when HIV hit. Rape and breast cancer have always been at epidemic numbers, including in lesbian communities, but gay men never cared much about those issues. Eventually HIV became a universal concern. Big Pharma turns that into a money-maker (and probably killed a lot of gay men in the process). I don't remember lesbians ever benefiting from their alliance with gay men much at all. Some gay men may have been supportive of lesbians they knew, but as a political group the men were very self-involved.
Now transwomen have decimated lesbian institutions. When was the last time you attended the Michigan Women's Music Festival? The lesbian community appears to be fractured into various groups depending on whether you support transwomen or not, whether you're willing to accept them as "lesbians" or not, whether you are willing to "accept" or "validate" all manner of bizarre ideation including men becoming mothers, "chest"-feeding infants, pedophilia, etc. Or not. And many of the loudest voices raised against this insane ideology are not just radical feminist but lesbian. Thank god for the lesbians! If they don't support TRANS ideology, they are not allowed at PRIDE events. WTF?! And the leaders of these groups are threatened with--you guessed it--murder by transwomen. Why am I not surprised? Am I angry about this? You bet I am. For the record, although I bond primarily with women emotionally, I am not lesbian. But I have been "in the life" in the past. I am not lesbian, but I am livid about the damage that has been done to lesbian communities and institutions and friendship groups by this ideology. And every parent of every "trans" biological female should be too.
This isn't a new phenomenon. This is what men do. And have always done. To women.
If you live in a large city it has been very easy for a young girl or young woman to find her lesbian community. Just move to a part of the city where lesbians live. Just go to a women's bookstore or arts community or women's sexual trauma or child abuse healing groups. Oh, I forget. They include, by law, transwomen now. The British Women's Prize for Fiction is now including transwomen as candidates for their prize for women writers. Now men will be receiving the women's fiction prize. Of course. Again, why am I not surprised?
Gender non-conforming females need stronger feminist organizations and institutions to weather this storm. Most "trans" aren't trans at all. Violence and non-acceptance of biological women is what we should be looking at. If you are a biological woman, you have SIX TIMES the chance of being murdered than if you are a transwoman, adjusted for percentage of the general population. Yet are we worried about endangering biological women and girl? We are not. It's all about the men. As usual.
"The aspects of our selves that are celebrated by the LGBT advocates can take a long time to emerge. Expecting people to have a handle on them in their teens is absurd—and, as the growing ranks of detransitioners can tell you, potentially harmful." So simply stated. Thank you.
The trans ideology is an attempt by uncomfortable and lost people to connect and give purpose to lives bereft of interest and meaning. It is why it so populated by adolescents-a group that by nature is the most confused stage of life as their bodies and minds develop and shed innocence and childhood. It is also a microcosm of the larger lost group of IGen who see better worlds online but can’t figure out how to develop something good and personal in real life.
Yes, and, the ideas of those "uncomfortable and lost people" have gained a lot of traction in all our (analog) institutions.
Yes, I agree that there is a crisis within the LGBT itself. It's like a gang war. I'm a lesbian and I see no benefit to being associated with gay men because they have clearly used the trans identity to undermine women, lesbians and heteronormative society as if heterosexuality itself was an oppressive force. See Scott Weiner. I had a longtime gay male friend who compared me to Anita Bryant for caring about children being transed and called me and JK Rowling an outdated gender essentialist. We are no longer on speaking terms.
And now California wants to give gay men health insurance money so they can exploit women (likely poor women overseas) as surrogates for their own genetic reproduction because they can now qualify as an infertile couple. If this is not a men's rights movement I don't known what is.
And no I do not think that children should be burdened with identifying themselves as anything LGBT. I think schools should treat this just like they treated gang warfare and ban all those idiotic flags and Rainbow what have you. I think the LGBT owes society an apology for messing with children's minds by introducing gender identity into schools as a protected category. California is all but forcing this down our throats under the shield of LGBT rights. Schools should be adopting the wait and see how you turn out model, not affirming whatever imaginary gender kids have been forced to adopt to stave off being a white oppressor.
The language changes are oppressive, manipulative and gaslighting. No journalist should go along with any of it. Unhinging society from an agreed upon reality paves the way for dictators. Fascism is what it is, wrapped in a Rainbow flag
The backlash is coming and I’m worried for the folks who are just trying to live their lives with or without glitter.
100%!
This is interesting. Thank you Lisa Selin Davis.
I want readers to know that Amazon might ban comments or book reviews from your books.
I got banned for writing a review on:
1. Hannah Barnes “Time to Think”
2. Miriam Grossman’s “Transnation”
3. Abigail Shrier’s Irreversible Damage”
That initially posted my reviews which were not anti-trans they are always pro science and better information.
Now I can’t even review any books. This is censorship. I’m a big reader and I don’t review books I haven’t read but I’m concerned that Amazon will be blocking reviews for the book “PITT”.
Be aware they are censoring.
Here is the letter I received this morning..I thought it was left wing progressives who are against banned books... 🤔
Why are we mixing LGB and T?
Supporting LGB rights does not involve medical interventions, with their sterilization and other effects.
They have different struggles although some who identify as trans when young do it as part of growing up LGB.
Right now my political party is falsely saying that pointing out the lack of evidence behind medical intervention for gender dysphoria is anti trans. It actually pro trans in my book because trans identified people deserve evidence based medical care just like everyone else. It is not pro or anti LGB.
Although wpath claimed gender nonconformity or gender dysphoria are needed for puberty blockers in their "soc" 7, again, forced teaming.
I support the rights of LGB people and of T people but given that there is considerable disagreement about what the latter mean by rights, it's making a mess of things to mix them. One is who you are attracted to, the other, how you view yourself.
It looks from here like T has been added to the LGB to shame people from asking questions about T. To ride on the coattails of LGB battles which were hard fought and won with evidence and long painful efforts to reach people with the truth.
T should be treated like what it is, a condition with many different etiologies, possible pathways to develop and treatments that are poorly understood. With many anecdotes but literally thousands of medicalized minors right now where we have no idea even if it might help them. Obviously these people deserve their rights but by tying it to LGB the us is harming these young people. No differential diagnosis based on long term studies is available to help guide those in T.
And this is on my account too:
We apologize but Amazon has noticed some unusual reviewing activity on this account. As a result, all reviews submitted by this account have been removed and this account will no longer be able to contribute reviews and other content on Amazon. If you would like to learn more, please see our community guidelines. To contact us about this decision, please email community-help@amazon.com.
Your editor sounds like a very nice and thoughtful person. I think that like many of us he’s spending too much time online and it’s bumming him out.
Here is one of letters I received this morning from Amazon after writing a 5 star review for Miriam Grossman’s book. I would give the PITT parent stories 5 stars but I’m blocked and reported.
Hello,
You have repeatedly posted content that violates our Community Guidelines (available at http://www.amazon.com/review-guidelines) or Conditions of Use ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=508088).
An initial warning has been sent to you. Because of your repeated violation of our Community Guidelines we've removed your ability to participate in Community features.
If you would like to contact us about this decision, please email community-help@amazon.com.
I reviewed « Time to Think » by Hanna Barnes and Abigail Shier’s book I did not anything disparaging just honest reviews of books I purchased. I wonder how many reviews have been blocked by Amazon and why they are intent on stifling free speech and not promoting banned books.
I hope the authors know the readers are being censored
Dang. Either it's a trans/woke activist on the Trust & Safety team at Amazon or trans/woke activists trolling the reviews reporting the positive ones.
I hypothesize that it’s both. But I’m certain this is happening to others. The authors deserve honest reviews and ratings. I’m guessing it’s 23 year old green haired they/thems moderating. But why would they have a problem with Hannah Barnes? BBC journalist.
I got a message yesterday that I was not allowed to a web-site--I think it was K. Lang's "Sovereign Women"--because I was a bot! News to me. It eventually went through but it said I was moving too fast to be human. First time I've ever been accused of that. The censorship is going to heat up. I'm SURE the authors know about this. I quit doing business with Amazon several years ago. I only use it to get information on books I am considering buying elsewhere.
I prefer independent bookstores. Good reason to ditch Amazon.
Coastal Elite, This is beyond frustrating. The shutting down of anything but the pro-trans narrative is everywhere.
Great discussion and I especially like the way this is stated:
The aspects of our selves that are celebrated by the LGBT advocates can take a long time to emerge. Expecting people to have a handle on them in their teens is absurd—and, as the growing ranks of detransitioners can tell you, potentially harmful.
The activists won. Like Alexander, they wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer.
"I know," said the street theater kids. "Let's say the world is filled with hate and everyone is doomed. Then we'll raise money to make things better. And punch Nazis."
"Genius," said the blogger bongo boys-with-boobs band. "Why just look how many clicks we get. Oops, better add the adblocker blocker to my site! Oh and everyone who disagrees with us is a Nazi."
"Perfect," said the plutocrats. "Here is the most generous funding plan we have ever unleashed on any progressive political project in American history. Go punch Nazis and we'll fly your flags on Wall Street."
Another issue I would like to address at the risk of coming off not only transphobic but homophobic as well. Back in the 80's I knew the person (I'll keep him anonymous even though he's dead) who began Manroot Press, one of the two major gay presses at the time. He was a big advocate for "Boy-Man Love" (otherwise known as pedophilia and child rape). He spent some time in prison for statutory rape of a 16-year-old. I went to a book collating party at his house when my son was 3 months old and this guy (and several other men there) promised to "take care" of my son in 18 years' time, wink wink, nod nod, pointing at his extremely large (by several definitions) condom collection displayed all around his living room. This attitude in S.F. is a major reason I left, proactively protecting my kid from possible sexual child abuse. My kid was a charmer and had charisma that wouldn't quit back then and the amount of attention he got from grown men frightened me quite a lot. Little boys pre-puberty age were targets at the time. I'm not saying only gay men rape little boys, but as you can see from the direction WPATH is heading, this was a well-developed meme in the gay community back then. That was 40 years ago. It's become much more acceptable now, which is crazy and enough to drive a mother completely batty. Beware the Primal Mother, boys.
Some things do not deserve support or acceptance. Now WPATH are trying to walk back Eunuchism a bit, and Nullification, because grown men castrating boys is a bit much to swallow, although they have managed to change the DSM re gender dysphoria which is pretty crazy. I mean, I always knew shrinks were more than a little psychologically tetched but this is beyond even my paranoid imagination. The one thing they are staying clear of is "transracialism". For now. But the ideology is getting close. Genevieve Gluck put out a story about a "transwoman" who is a recent "convert" to Islam (if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you) who is making a stink because she left her (surgically removed) balls in her ex's fridge and wants them back, along with $6500 "for pain and suffering". This guy wears gauzy dresses no self-respecting Muslim woman would be caught dead in. Misappropriation of religion/culture on top of everything else. And of course there are people who have tried to "change race" (good luck with that since it doesn't actually exist).
Frankly, gay men need to get a grip. And sympathetic though I am for gay young men who are bullied and attacked and even killed, the community at large needs to do some serious soul-searching and self-monitoring if it wants my sympathy. Your rights end where mine begin and vice versa. Tolerance is great, but clear boundaries are essential. Everything has gotten way too mushy.
Can I ask why you think men raping little boys has “become much more acceptable now”? I’ve seen the exact opposite, especially among Gen Z people, several of whom seem to see people in their late teens as equivalent to prepubescent children, not proto-adults. I’ve seen Gen Z-ers online castigate an 18-year-old dating a 16-year-old for “dating a minor as an adult.” (My husband and I dated each other at those same ages. He was a senior with a fall birthday and I was a junior with a spring birthday.) I’ve seen them claim that adult couples with large age gaps - say, 30 and 55 - indicates that the older partner is a secret pedophile “who’s just scared to go younger.” I’m not seeing any general trend of normalizing sex with little boys.
I suggest you follow Genevieve Gluck's substack or just do a search on WPATH and see what they are normalizing. I'm glad to hear it's less acceptable among young people. 18 year olds are not the people I'm talking about. A two-year difference at that age is still legally statutory rape so 18-year-olds need to be careful. But I'm talking about BOY (pre-pubescent usually or even junior high age) with a MAN (say over 30 and in this case a guy in this mid- to late-40's). Clearly the child isn't capable of true consent, any more than they are of true consent for hormone therapy or top or bottom surgery. And I don't think a 16-year-old boy is any match for a 45-year-old man.
"18 year olds are not the people I'm talking about. A two-year difference at that age is still legally statutory rape so 18-year-olds need to be careful."
Depends on the state - over half of US states have 16 as their age of consent, and "Romeo and Juliet" laws cover couples with age differences of a couple years in other states. I know you're not talking about small age gaps; my point was more that if 18 dating 16 is taboo to some people, surely sex between, say, 10 and 30 is even more so.
I'll look into Genevieve Gluck. Thanks for answering my comment. :)
Mara--I totally forgot about K. Lang. She is pretty young and worked at LBGT non-profits in NYC when the Dept. of Public Health funneled grants through the non-profits to send LBGT young people into the schools to teach staff, teachers, and kids about "tolerance". Slowly enough that Lang, who is pretty sharp, did not realize it for awhile, they were training them to groom these kids into trans ideology. When Lang realized this, she quit and now deprograms trans people. Her web-site is thedeprogrammer.com. It's full of great content. And addresses both porn and pedophilia (and how they are connected) plus where this ideology really came from. She's participating in a program in Seattle (I think) today with SovereignWomen (I can't access their web-site so maybe they've been banned too) I hope I can access after the fact online. She's been banned by a bunch of social media. Watch her documentaries.
Thanks for the info. :)
Yeah. No problem. The world has very quickly become a very strange place. WPATH is trying to make Man-Boy Love or pedophilia defined as a sexuality and not an emotional problem. This normalizes it. They are also distinguishing between people who are pedophiliac (sexually attracted to children) and those who "act on it". Not sure how you tell the difference on a practical level.
Everything is getting flipped. Now people freak out about 18 and 16 dating but are edging toward accepting--somehow?--10 and 30. (New laws in CA to de-criminalize sex with minors) People's brains are just so addled now--anything new is deemed terrific and anything mildly traditional, like a 16 year old dating an 18 yr old--is horrific. I don't know how we can ever unconfuse it. Backwards logic everywhere you look.
I don't see acknowledgment here of how very much worse problems became when LGB allowed the "T" activists to take the lead and pull the rainbow in a direction very fast and far from the "live and let live" stance that won for the LGB the vast majority of its goals. People are very clear about how much overstepping is now occurring with the continual incursions of trans activists bullying straight people to change their view, language, how they raise and educate their children, and etc. Stop that, if LGBs have any influence over the substance and perception of the rainbow any longer, and half or more issues of the LGB will subside imo. *
I'm pretty old and honestly I don't remember when "T" wasn't part of the LGB. But it meant something way different than it does now.
I don't think I said when the T was added to the rainbow, but I recall when it wasn't there, in the beginning. My comment references the "T" activating itself and pushing an agenda much of the rest of the rainbow is not in alignment with.
The same thought came popping in my head as I read this piece as well as Lisa’s last. As much as activists like to highlight the parallels between the trans rights movement and the gay rights movement, there is absolutely no effort on their behalf to notice the very clear differences between the two movements. Not to say that the parallels are not existent, after all, in this culture war most conservatives also oppose the activists’ stance. It is nonetheless extremely myopic to continue to turn a blind eye on the many differences that exists between the current trans rights movement and gay rights movement. Because of such blindness, it seems as if too many people are completely unaware of those of us who are critical of the movement but who are secular and/or liberal or at least completely oblivious to why secular/liberals would opposite trans activism in the first part lace. This is something that radical activists have exploited to their advantage as they build a strawman of their ideological adversaries.
It’s kind of hard to forget AIDS I lived in the Bay Area and my parents’ friends lost lots of sons and it decimated the artistic world...how soon we forget ACT UP and the Reagan administration refusing to do anything about AIDs or even mention it. My friend is an infectious disease specialist and the only doc in the valley who treated AIDS patients, he quit about 10 years ago bc it’s now easy to control with an anti viral medication. I think the best thing these little wannabe “queer kids” could do is watch or read Angels in American. How soon we forget what Pride was all about and that even President Obama wouldn’t support gay marriage in either campaign until Biden forced him to in his usual clumsy Biden way.
I never understood why gays or lesbians would want to be part of such a patriarchal institution as marriage. I suppose equal rights which is why I supported it but I would never participate in it myself having seen where it comes from--chattel.