1./ A thread on the trans movement and why it now increasingly resembles a religious cult. It's often claimed that opposition to the unscientific trans notion 'gender identity' is linked to religious conservatism. If anything the opposite is true and here's why.
2./ That oft repeated claim bubbled to the surface again this week after @pinknews who try daily to redefine the word 'moronic' took a pop at @GaryJPowell whose crime was standing on a @Heritage Foundation platform. Why do they care so much?
3./ They claim Gary is a "leading member" of trans ideology's bête noire @ALLIANCELGB 👇even tho he isn't and never has been. Don't get me wrong Gary is wonderful and we welcome support from Tories like him to counterbalance our rather incorrigible leftieness. But... 
4./ Gary takes such a strong stance on surrogacy he insists on lobbying organisations we don't and indeed can't engage with because our Code of Conduct prevents us forging links with those who undermine women's reproductive rights. 👇
5./ The only evidence @vicparsons_ cites to support Gary's involvement in @ALLIANCELGB is his signature on an open letter in our name to @stonewalluk about its trans obsession. Here's the letter. You'll look in vain for Gary's name. Whoops 👇ipetitions.com/petition/dear-…
6./ One day a new technique called "research" may catch on at the morass of prejudice and ignorance masquerading as journalism that is @PinkNews When it does they'll realise Gary wrote for their own paper for years including articles lambasting religious conservatives. Whoops👇
7./ Anyway who are @PinkNews to lecture about religion? Here they are describing @ruth_hunt as "baroness of our hearts"; the same Hunt that's just published 'Queer Prophets', a book celebrating religious faith. I read it and trust me by the end I was praying. That it would end.
8./ In the book the "baroness of our hearts" describes Jesus appearing to her in a nightclub. Jesus said to her "I have never left you". She wept. I'm not mocking people of faith. Honestly. But how come Hunt gets a free religious pass and Gary doesn't?
9./ Ruth says she's a practising Catholic & weekly churchgoer. Good for her. But I hate to be a party pooper and point out this institution's teaching is still homophobic. As for its stance on surrogacy and abortion the Heritage Foundation applauds it.
10./ Hunt gets to argue she's changing minds within an institution steeped in ancient ritual that bans women's priests whereas @GaryJPowell is assumed to have signed up uncritically to every tenet of organisations he's agreed to engage with tactically? And that's not all.
11./ In her book Ruth says she rediscovered her faith just after she took the reins at Stonewall which was a few months before she decided to prioritise trans rights. These may not be as unrelated as they seem. Trans ideas and religion have much in common. theguardian.com/world/2014/jul…
12./ David Hume argued all religions rely on elements of the miraculous; phenomena or events that transcend (no pun intended) rational explanation and therefore require of an adherent TRUE faith. Like Jesus appearing in a nightclub. Or someone changing their sex.
13./ The core tenet of trans ideology isn't a leap for most religions either. Hunt's church says human beings' authentic selves are their inner invisible 'souls'. Trans activists say their authentic selves are their inner invisible 'gender identities'. A rose by any other name...
14./ Maybe this explains why the mullahs of Iran find it so easy to embrace the notion of 'gender identity'. The country is home to some of the world's busiest sex change clinics. The fact gays are executed unless they agree to it helps boost business. economist.com/middle-east-an…
15./ But there may be a connection between trans ideology and Christianity that's deeper than vague 'spirituality'. In his book 'Dominion' the historian @holland_tom traces the influence of Christian thought on the western mind and one idea above all. theguardian.com/books/2019/nov…
16./ He argues Christianity embedded in our culture the idea "the lowest shall become the highest". The conviction those who suffer are blessed and will be raised drove everything from peasant revolts to the Civil Rights struggle. And what's this to do with trans rights?
17./ In this wonderful debate with @acgrayling hosted by @UnbelievableJB Holland argues (9 mins in 👇) our Christian inheritance makes us look for and revere the most 'broken' among us. The upside of that is it has made our society progressively fairer.
18./ But what happens when you run out of obvious victims to revere? In 2014 when Stonewall decided to obsess about trans rights perhaps LGB people were just no longer oppressed or 'broken' enough to satisfy that age-old religious-like itch to succour victims?
19./ This wouldn't matter much if groups didn't sometimes have competing interests. Trans people have the rights in law we all have. But what happens if they want to impinge on the rights of women? A religious-like desire to sanctify trans needs won't help us negotiate that.
20./ It's also harder to find compromise the more self-righteous and cult like the trans movement becomes. Here's a trans deacon called Joy (!) arguing homosexuality can't exist any more and will soon disappear. The future is reserved for the trans Chosen Ones apparently. 👇
21./ Joy's contempt for gays is shared throughout the trans movement and fuels the rewriting of lesbian and gay history to centre trans people. Did Marsha P Johnson play a role at Stonewall? This interview by the @nytimes should have settled that but Martha is a Chosen One🙏
22./ A dynamic of all religious cults is now driving the trans movement. Believers can only prove their TRUE faith by accepting ever more fantastic things. Now we're asked to believe Alex Drummond (with a penis and a beard) is a lesbian 👇
23./ The trans movement holds to increasingly absurd beliefs that defy all reason, relies on spirit identities, reveres miracles of inexplicable trans-formation and sanctifies saint like victims who appear in places seen only by the faithful. And it's us that are religious?
24./ A sign of the movement's increasingly irrationality is its desperate search for heretics. Nothing infuriates it more than good people who value their independence of mind like @GaryJPowell It's as if they'd burn him if they could. The way good Catholics used to
