Thread by @MitchBenn

BIG THREAD

1. First of all, my mute button is practically glowing: any Trumpers and transphobes been screaming at me since yesterday and wondering why I’ve stopped responding it’s because I can’t hear you any more.

But I’m gonna say this by way of clarification:

2. First of all, I didn’t jump into the trans/Pride “debate” in order to take a side EITHER way on the legitimacy of the protest at Pride, and I’m sorry if I mischaracterised the *specific* grievance of the protesters. God knows you gotta be meticulous on this one.

3. What I took issue with was Graham’s disingenuous framing of the incident as “Lesbians not Welcome at Pride”; as if ALL lesbians were ejected from the event just for being lesbian; as if Pride was now a pro-trans anti-lesbian movement. Absurd and (deliberately?) misleading

4. I was there yesterday and there were about half a million people in town, so at a rough estimate that’s around 250,000 Lesbians who WEREN’T being kicked out of Pride, so it wasn’t the protesters’ lesbianism that was the issue, it was their cause...

5. As regards the cause; I’ve been reading what people have been sending me and first of all there is NOT any consensus on how much of a Thing this is, with both sides accusing each other of hype/propagandising/gaslighting in equal measure, but here goes…

5. (Deep breath) OK, so the claim is that there is a branch of militant pro-trans activism trying to *coerce* cis Lesbians into having sex with trans women because to refuse to do so is to transphobically deny the trans women’s right to self identify. Am I right about this?

6. If that’s going on (and like I said, opinion seems VERY divided on how much of it is), then that’s fucked up and wrong. Nobody can OBLIGE anyone to fuck them who doesn’t want to, whether it’s using political/moral blackmail or Rohypnol.

7. There is a line between “respect my right to identify how I choose and accept my orientation is what I say it is” and “This now requires you to have sex with me”. If that line is being crossed then that’s wrong.

B U T ...

8. ... if the response to this is to proclaim -as some people now are - that “There ARE no trans women, they’re all just rapists in frocks” then THAT’S FUCKED UP AND WRONG TOO.

9. The irony of anti-trans lesbians taking the position that “Anything with a cock is a man and everything else is just fantasy” (as was expressed to me in those EXACT terms last night) is that “I can’t relate to what you claim to be your identity…”

10. “... and consider it to be unnatural, therefore I deny that it is your identity and choose to regard you as a self-indulgent deviant” is and has always been the CORE ARGUMENT against homosexuality in general...
You’re just treating trans women the way homophobes treat you.

11. Physiological and psychological gender are separate considerations and orientation is an entirely separate question AGAIN.
My best trans friend lives with her long term girlfriend; to suggest her orientation invalidates her gender identity is absurd.

12. The problem is that when we go to bed with someone, we don’t go to bed with “a gender” or “an identity”, we sure as hell don’t go to bed with “a movement”; we go to bed with A PERSON.
A person whom, for all sorts of at least partly imponderable reasons, we find attractive.

13. My second best trans friend has a long term boyfriend; I don’t know whether that boyfriend considers himself straight/bi/gay/flexible as a result of that relationship and frankly it’s none of my damn business. Evidently he wants her, she wants him and they’re happy together.

14. The thing is we can be as politically aware, inclusive and sensitive as we want, but unfortunately our genitals aren’t political entities. They want what they want, and moreover they don’t want what they don’t want.

15. And those of you telling me I’m not entitled to an opinion on this: fine, mute me then. DON’T spend all day trying to Actually me and make me justify my positions; either I’m entitled to my opinion or I’m not. If I’m not, ignore me and go on with your day.

16. So: trans militants trying to force lesbians to shag you against their will, if this is in fact a Thing, that shit’s fucked up, pack it in.
Anti-trans activists denying trans people’s identity and accusing them of all being rapists in drag: that shit’s fucked up, pack it in.

17. Those are my thoughts, and those are the last things I’m gonna say on the subject. It’s all about respect and boundaries, people.

And if you think I have no right to express these thoughts, the mute & block buttons are right there.

Peace xxx