Here is a story about a lesbian who was sucked into joining the anti-transgender movement, only to reject it later.
The ‘gender critical’ feminist movement is a cult that grooms, controls and abuses, according to a lesbian who managed to escape
“TERF is hate speech and it’s time to condemn it,” gender-critical writer Amy Dyess announced in October 2018 – words she now regrets.
“TERF is a slur used to sexually harass, threaten, and silence lesbians,” continued Amy’s viral Medium post, which was liked more than 4,300 times.
Back then, Amy was connected to an international network of powerful lesbians.
She believed, like many people in the “gender critical” feminist movement do, that the lesbian community to which she belonged was under attack from trans-rights activists.
She believed that lesbian identity itself was being infringed on and erased by trans women, and that the media didn’t care – more than that, she believed that the media was being controlled by trans people.
She believed that she was part of the fight back against trans-rights activists – part of the fight back against homophobia.
Obviously, if there was evidence that transgender people in general were seeking to deny lesbians equal rights with others, wouldn’t they themselves have said so? If they didn’t why assume that was their purpose?
Amy, who is based in Seattle, doesn’t believe those things any more. Looking back on her time in the “gender critical” feminist movement, she is unequivocal: it’s a cult.
A cult that groomed her when she was vulnerable and sleeping in her car; a cult that sought to control her, keeping tabs on her movements and dictating what she could and couldn’t say; a cult that was emotionally and sexually abusive towards her.
As Amy began to notice more and more red flags about the GC movement – like how it defended abusive women, how it wouldn’t let lesbians speak out about sexual assault perpetrated by women, and how it was forming alliances with homophobic groups – she started asking questions.
You may read the rest of that article. The basic premise of the anti-transgender movement is as follows:
- Men by nature are morally inferior to women (reverse sexism)
- People cannot be allowed to change their gender, but must be kept in the gender they were assigned to at birth, regardless of their desires and feelings (gender essentialism)
- Therefore, the reason transwomen (who are still men) have for wanting to use women’s restrooms is to enable acts of rape or other forms of sexual assault against women.
THESE POSITIONS ARE DOGMAS, NOT FACTS!
And that is why the “gender critical” movement is a cult. It was discussed on reddit here:
Some people just need a reason to hate, and for TERFs, transgender people play the same purpose as Jews do for anti-Semites, blacks do for white supremacists, and gays do for homophobes. There is no difference; bigotry is bigotry and phony rhetoric to justify bigotry is just that.
I don’t see the relationship between lesbianism and attacking transgender people. Are most lesbians supportive of transgender rights?
Just like some try to manipulate American Jews and African-Americans against each other.
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I stumbled upon that sub one day and it was so painful to read. I can’t believe how horrible it is. Feminism is nothing if it’s not intersectional.
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I did the same. I thought ‘Gender Critical’ would be like a group to discuss gender roles. I remember seeing posts and comments just ripping trans people to shreds. Such vile horrible things they are would say. I floored it straight out’a there.
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TERFs are like the female version of the MRAs. Just women’s safety instead of men’s rights as the bullshit premise for a shit ton of hatred at their respective targets.
Which is exactly the same conclusion I reached!
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I remember when the term “radical feminist” was used by antifeminists to denigrate anyone who argued for women’s rights. When did it become a term to describe transphobes?
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Actual radical feminists have always been supportive of trans women. People will be able to discover 1940s pro-trans people radical feminist literature if they want. Charles Fourier who coined the word “feminist” was also supportive of trans people. Catherine MacKinnon’s first client was a trans woman. Andrea Dworkin was supportive of both trans and intersex people ( even before the term intersex was coined.). Actual radical feminists had already begun promoting the singular “they” nonbinary pronouns in the early 1970s .
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That is what I thought. It has always been my opinion that feminist and radical were synonymous. If the antifeminists think they are insulting us by calling us radical feminists, I say “smash the patriarchy.” I rather resent that the term has been co-opted by TERFs, who don’t seem to be feminist at all.
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Completely agree with you.
I can’t stand these particular branches of “feminists”:
TERFs
Choice “feminists”. — anything a woman “choose” to do is empowering.
Sex-positive “feminists” — originated in the U.S after actual feminists tried to pass a civil right legislature that would have granted “women, men, transsexual, and children” survivors of porn industry (revenge porn, trafficking, violence against performers etc.) civil rights to seek damages against porn distributors and websites such as pornhub in civil courts.
Mainstream/neoliberal “feminists” — more women billionaires .
These 4 reactionary groups of pseudo feminists just managed to completely colonize the movement.
That last comment is questionable for this reason, but I can let it slide.
