BS so dense it has an event horizon
What are the UK Gender Criticals on about now?
It all went wrong when I opened up Twitter after ignoring it for a year or so. I should have known better. Let me tell you what I found, so you don’t have to make the same mistake I did. The transphobes, sorry, Gender Criticals are still at it, and this time the bullshit is so dense it has its own event horizon.
The infamous LGB Alliance claimed in a (since deleted) tweet:
Stonewall was a riot, for heaven’s sake! And hell yes, we demanded laws to be changed! And we certainly did get them changed: Ending Section 28, equalising the age of consent, civil partnerships then marriage equality, queer people serving in the military: these and many others were changes in the law. Pushing back homophobia, getting people to accept marriage equality, these were social changes. Remember the endless debates about marriage equality, how we were somehow changing the language so that marriage could also mean two women or two men. If you accept that argument, then yes, we did change the language.
All of these changes were won by dedicated campaigners, not all of whom were polite about it. Back in the day, lesbian separatists (how quaintly old fashioned) were all about burning bridges not building them.
Sorry, LGB Alliance, what you tweeted is 100% BS, and you know it. I guess that’s why you deleted your tweet. Could it be that the hypocrisy of this statement coming from an organisation that literally wants to change laws to cut away the hard-won rights of trans people had something to do with it? Hmmm.
This week Gender Criticals also dogpiled on 23 year old American swimmer Sierra Schmidt. They decided, without basis, that she’s trans: which she is not. They ruthlessly mocked her for dancing (adorably by the way) as she warms up for events. In the gender critical world view, trans people aren’t allowed to dance. Again, not that she is trans. Yes, her body is muscular, but isn’t that exactly what you’d expect of an elite athlete?
Here is a selection of gender critical hot takes on an athlete warming up for swimming events by dancing to her favourite K pop tunes:
“Years of porn addiction and misogyny”
“I think drugs may be involved here, lot’s [sic] of drugs”
“F***ing openly making fun of women, parodying exaggerated femininity. Black Pete in my country is benign compared to this! How is this not a minstrel show humiliating women!”
“You can hide the lies. You can’t hide the testosterone.”
That’s not being gender critical. That’s barefaced misogyny. It would be no more forgiveable if Sierra Schmidt were trans, and let me emphasise this one more time: she isn’t.
I hope that this BS hasn’t reached Sierra Schmidt’s attention, because I don’t want her to become self-conscious about what brings her joy and helps her do what she does so well. It would be a huge own goal for these so-called women’s rights activists that I hope they do not score.
It is really antisocial to throw things into someone’s garden. Such antisocial behaviour is rife in the UK. In my own street, people drop litter all the time, much to my annoyance. Of course it’s good that her dog is okay. What’s not okay is that this tweet is from a prolific transphobic poster on Twitter, who has leapt to the conclusion on the basis of nothing at all that she was targeted by trans people. Hence her “Right side of history my arse” jibe.
While it’s not impossible that she is correct, given the prevalence of such behaviour in this country, and the small number of trans people of whom practically nobody would do such a thing (we love animals too), I’d say that the odds that she is wrong about this is 99.[some number of nines]%. So why leap to that conclusion? Because it plays well with her followers who will doubtless seize upon it as indisputable truth, and it aids her narrative of being the victim of some kind of powerful trans rights lobby. Given that, I call BS on this too.
[Stop press: it turns out it was a neighbour’s kid]
100% Fact Free
These are just a few examples of Gender Critical people making up their own “facts” to suit their transphobic narrative. It would be laughable if it weren’t doing harm. Sadly, we live in an age where extraordinary claims are accepted without any scrutiny at all, and this is being weaponised against minority groups.
My request to you, especially if you’re cis, is this: when you hear trans people being talked about in a derogatory way, or people wanting to limit the human and civil rights of trans people, please ask yourself if it makes sense, if it has credible sources. Of course I want your compassion, but I also want you to apply your intellect too.