Can I just ask, for those who have been on Twitter and other social media longer than me (so probably most people), have political parties and in particular their official LGBT groups always been like this or is this a new thing - and, if so, why do you think that is?
I'm a lesbian and have been involved (in a minor way) in various campaigns to change the law etc and I've never witnessed anything like the kind of behaviour we are seeing now - by which I don't mean strongly disagreeing or even calling people bigots - but I never saw any of this "they're murdering us all with their words" histrionics, promoting and justifying violence towards opponents etc. The whole tone of this is completely alien to me.
I wasn't involved in social media (or political parties) while involved in any of this so was this kind of behaviour going on and I was oblivious or is it something that has started (relatively) recently with the upsurge of transactivism?
I could kind of understand it just being a 'transactivists and trolls' on social media thing but it isn't. We now have the main political parties in the UK (and their LGBT groups) sharing this kind of extremist rhetoric through their official accounts. Have they always been like this and, if not, what has changed?
I've been involved in (non-party political) LGBT organisations and have seen them taken over by transactivism and, like many, have just had to back away because there is no room for dissent and they are not welcoming places for lesbians. Has something similar happened in the political parties and a new influx of extremists have moved in? If not and these are long-term members who have never behaved like this before, why do you think this has changed? Eg. Have they been whipped up by extremism on social media or, for some of the men, is it an opportunity to exercise their latent misogyny under the guise of progressiveness?