Michael Biggs: LGBT Facts and Figures

[SunsetBeetch]

Michael Biggs has charted the focus by organisations on each letter of LGBT.

Few people will be surprised at how focus on lesbians has dropped, whilst focus on the T has grown:

users.ox.ac.uk/~sfos0060/LGBT_figures.shtml

[CuriousaboutSamphire]

Crikey!

That's very stark!

[FlippinFumin]

Not a surprise. Still shocking to see it all laid out like that though.

[partystress]

Really interesting - thank you for sharing. Made me go and look at the Equality Network website. The campaign FAQs section is actually written in quite measured tones and addresses questions such as sport and prisons, albeit via rather vague reassurances which are meaningless in practice.

But the circularity of the arguments is just astonishing. I’m utterly baffled as to how these organisations have secured so much public funding.

[SunsetBeetch]

I think this gif says it all. The flag looks like an invading army taking.over.

[PumbaasCucumbas]

Are same-sex attracted women yellow and green?

[Whatsnewpussyhat]

That flag is ridiculous, why do we need to celebrate masculinity or femininity or people who are somewhere in the middle of the two.

[nauticant]

That flag is a work of art. In addition to it being clear that race is used as the cutting edge of the wedge, with other identities occupying the cleared territory, it also has this amusing vibe:

www.dailymotion.com/video/x2x3os6

[Shedbuilder]

This is interesting. I'm a lesbian. Back in the early 2000s when I was involved with the local women's centre and the lesbians wanted to find money to hold lesbian or women's events it wasn't too difficult to access various grant-giving foundations and apply for grants for anything from £500-£2000.

By around 2008 lots of these sources began to dry up. We would be turned down unexpectedly and then told that we needed to be inclusive if we wanted to be successful. Even some of the more obscure funds that were for women-only projects became difficult to access. It began to be clear that the money wasn't available to lesbians any more.

Some venues started saying that they couldn't provide money or premises if lesbian events excluded transpeople. The local university, which had several times hosted very successful lesbian club nights, suddenly decided we couldn't rent the SU bar (out of term) for a lesbian event and eventually said it was because we weren't inclusive.

The women's centre folded not long after it came to the attention of TRAs. I'm not sure which did the worst damage — lack of funding or transwomen.

My point is that there is money attached to words and if your word goes out of fashion, the money dries up. If there's no money to pay the £1000 deposit for a venue and a DJ for a lesbian club night, or a lesbian activity weekend based in a hostel out of season, or a festival in a field where women and lesbians can meet and attend talks and sing and dance and cook together and create networks, or a mental health support group for lesbians facing issues with coming out and being themselves, then what used to be a vibrant and supportive community fragments. Lesbian women only events go underground (there are private events still happening) and young women don't know about them and only have access to the woke lesbian world they find on FB and Instagram.

[ThePurported]

And people wonder why it was necessary to set up LGB Alliance

By around 2008 lots of these sources began to dry up. We would be turned down unexpectedly and then told that we needed to be inclusive if we wanted to be successful. Even some of the more obscure funds that were for women-only projects became difficult to access. It began to be clear that the money wasn't available to lesbians any more.

So the rot had set in before the Equality Act 2010 clarified that it's ok to exclude all men from spaces that are intended for women, and now it's even worse. The Equalities Office regularly lumps lesbian women and men who 'identify as lesbians' together. It's hopeless, no wonder so many young lesbians are driven to transition.

"The eloquence of a 23-year-old German who goes by “Satan Herself” (@ sathananas on Twitter) prompts tears among many. She talks about the difficulty of living as a young lesbian without cultural role models or social networks, in a world that values women only insofar as men find them attractive. Meeting other detransitioners was a revelation, she says. “Where have these women been all my life? . . . It was just so normal to be a lesbian and a masculine woman and I’ve never felt that, ever.”

standpointmag.co.uk/issues/february-2020/speaking-up-for-female-eunuchs/

[persistentwoman]

What a lot of money devoted to groups trying to remove women's rights.

[StandUpStraight]

But, but...they’re the most powerless and voiceless group of people ever!

[SunsetBeetch]

@Shedbuilder

This is interesting. I'm a lesbian. Back in the early 2000s when I was involved with the local women's centre and the lesbians wanted to find money to hold lesbian or women's events it wasn't too difficult to access various grant-giving foundations and apply for grants for anything from £500-£2000.

By around 2008 lots of these sources began to dry up. We would be turned down unexpectedly and then told that we needed to be inclusive if we wanted to be successful. Even some of the more obscure funds that were for women-only projects became difficult to access. It began to be clear that the money wasn't available to lesbians any more.

Some venues started saying that they couldn't provide money or premises if lesbian events excluded transpeople. The local university, which had several times hosted very successful lesbian club nights, suddenly decided we couldn't rent the SU bar (out of term) for a lesbian event and eventually said it was because we weren't inclusive.

The women's centre folded not long after it came to the attention of TRAs. I'm not sure which did the worst damage — lack of funding or transwomen.

My point is that there is money attached to words and if your word goes out of fashion, the money dries up. If there's no money to pay the £1000 deposit for a venue and a DJ for a lesbian club night, or a lesbian activity weekend based in a hostel out of season, or a festival in a field where women and lesbians can meet and attend talks and sing and dance and cook together and create networks, or a mental health support group for lesbians facing issues with coming out and being themselves, then what used to be a vibrant and supportive community fragments. Lesbian women only events go underground (there are private events still happening) and young women don't know about them and only have access to the woke lesbian world they find on FB and Instagram.

This is honestly tragic. It's like we're going backwards into misogyny and homophobia.

[SunsetBeetch]

Somebody attached some helpful labels. (Not me, I don't know who.)

[SunsetBeetch]

I'll try again!

[Fallingirl]

I wonder if the slight increase in Stonewalls use of the word ‘lesbian’ in 2017 and 2018, reflects the increase in men identifying as lesbians?

[ThePurported]

I wonder if the slight increase in Stonewalls use of the word ‘lesbian’ in 2017 and 2018, reflects the increase in men identifying as lesbians?

Quite possible. Alex Drummond is/was one of the most prominent 'lesbian' figures at Stonewall.

[OvaHere]

That's truly awful @Shedbuilder

As someone not part of those circles I had no awareness of it happening at the time but reading about it enrages me. My first inkling of all this was reading about the targeted harassment and eventual cancellation of MichFest but it's quite clear it's been happening on some level going back decades.

[Shedbuilder]

And I'd meant to add but forgot that Diva, the only national lesbian magazine, now has a large online social media community which is where most younger lesbians will end up. They'll think Diva is the lesbian community. Diva is owned and run by publisher Linda Riley. Riley has long been a member of the TWAW clique — pals with Ruth Hunt et al. Imagine all the extra advertising and sales to be made to a new 'lesbian' community of transwomen...

The Diva line, when last I looked, is a 'be kind and inclusive' one in which TWAW and can be lesbians. If feminism is mentioned at all it'll be intersectional feminism. Older second-wavers like me and Julie Bindel and Linda Bellos will be beyond the pale.

[ItalianHat]

Ooof, those figures are - scary.

I suppooooose (just trying to anticipate the Stonewall/TRA argument) that the TRAs could argue that for a long time, they've been ignores, and their needs have escalated because of widespread discrimination (and actually, I think that yes, a lot of transwomen probably do experience discrimination for being trans ie not properly performing masculinity - not because they're "women").

Although women, particularly lesbians, suffer such entrenched structural sexism, that it's hardly comparable.

But entrenched structural sexism is our society's "normal." And it only happens to women. So we don't take much notice of it.

[Delphinium20]

@Shedbuilder my lesbian family members say dating used to be so much easier - but events, online sites and festivals are so inclusive they feel overwhelmed trying to actually FIND lesbians.

[Shedbuilder]

Yup. Over the years there have been large-scale events and festivals (Libertas, LFest, WIT, Camping Out, Surf Camp, the women's festival at Skala Eressos on Lesvos, Michfest and others I've forgotten/ never knew about) where you could rock up and encounter hundreds of lesbians. Most have now gone. It's often a combination of burn-out, lack of funds (they often aren't particularly lucrative for the organisers) and attacks from TRAs. Camping Out was originally for lesbian and bi women but now says it's for LGBTQIA+ — so basically now anyone is welcome. It might be a place for someone just out to start and there will probably be a hard core of GC second-wavers there still, though probably not me and my partner.

Best bet for any lesbians would be to search for lesbian or women's groups in their area on social media, join them, go to events and get talking to some of the older women who are more likely to be GC and more likely to be able to provide an way into the secret world of lesbian women only events and groups.