What do you think of when you hear LGBTQ+?

[purpledaze24]

It seems these days, when people see/hear LGBTQ+ they think of trans people & the trans debate. Is this accurate do you think? Or AIBU? I read on here recently about someone rejecting a rainbow badge given to her to wear at work to celebrate pride month (presumably not cos she was homophobic but rather, anti-trans). As a lesbian, this makes me really sad. I’ve always been proud to be a ‘rainbow family’ and want my kids to be proud too, but this association, and takeover imo, of the rainbow symbol & LGBTQ+ acronym by the gender ideology brigade, is creating, at best erasure of LGB people, and at worst, (maybe unintentional) homophobia and discrimination. I respect & understand that trans people have played an important role in the LGBT struggle historically, but it’s this ridiculous escalation of it & all these ‘trans trenders’ and being able to identify as one of 72 different genders etc 🙄

B here. I think of my lovely lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, queer...etc friends and family. I think of all the fun we've had at Pride and how the community has helped me feel good in my own skin. Little bit of sadness nowadays at the vitorol and hysteria directed at my TQ+ friends and family, but I'm glad that in real life, and within our circles, they feel safe and free to live their lives.

I think I’m sick of hearing about a bunch of entitled bores and autogynephiles who want to run out right perverted marches and have well and truly lost the sympathy of the British people.

I support LGB people wholeheartedly- they were genuinely oppressed for years, and sometimes still face prejudice, especially abroad. But the TQ+ lot can get in the bin, along with all the adjacent woman-hating crap they support like puberty blockers, eroding women’s rights and promoting surrogacy.

Agreed.

If that’s what you said, I don’t see the issue. Their moderation seems to be quite inconsistent and nonsensical so I’d be interested to see what they say if you do contact them.

I have just contacted them via email to ask, so hopefully I'll get a response.

If I'd said it in the context of a trans person saying "I feel saddened when I'm not recognised as a woman" and if just wrote #hurtyfeelz I could understand it. But that isn't what I was replying to!? I'll update if there's a response....

What does the + stand for? I've always wondered.

The havoc this has caused in two particular schools I've worked in made me leave teaching.
A Libra rain tried to get a Y7 permanently excluded because the pupil ,quite rightly , pointed out humans can't change sex.
The librarian was in a hetero relationship but fully aligned with TRAs to the extent he wasted half of the library budget on LGBTQ++ material.
The shit hit the fan when the Heads of Department started to order texts , software and the Head of English tried to get a visiting author.
Shelves of books that no pupil was interested in because when a school uses iPads etc the pupils can access literature on these devices at home or at school so there's no real need to spend ,£3k on LGBTQ++ books or the massive amount of bookshelves to display them.
Worked at a Stonewall awarded school. PHSCE/ Relationship PowerPoints were appalling in what agenda was being pushed.
You are homosexual or bisexual. You may be asexual . I don't care a jot.
I care that my child and your children are being exposed to lies that breakdown safe guarding, and stigmatise autistic and gender non conforming children.
Gender neutral toilets? Male pupils urinating all over the stalls because they could because they'd been told there are no longer male and female toilets. This was before Andrew Tate.
The problem then becomes the decent young men can't use any toilet because the cubicles are disgusting and young women wearing Tena underwear because they feel unsafe and who'd want to use a cubicle that looks like squatting toilet like an aire on the continent?
But then what about using the accessible cubicles because surely they are clean?
Nope. Same issue.
Fuck me, back when I was at high school Stonewall et al would be pushing me towards surgery.
Love Sci Fi and horror? Love crime lit?
Off to Tavistock.
Don't like pink or Bross , Curiosity Killed the Cat or any boyband I was supposed to swoon over?
Off to the Tavi.
We are not being kind to our most vulnerable population when the ' captured' in education decide that because the school has paid £2k for a Stonewall plaque and more importantly FREE PowerPoints that take the pressure off SLT to produce schemes of work and resources it's ' a good thing.'
So. In answer to your question, LGBTQ,++ can go hang.
I donate to LGB Alliance. Not gay but I stand with my homosexual and bi brothers and sisters because LGBTQ++ etc have destroyed and deprived them of safe spaces and deprived vulnerable women and girls of care,compassion and support and made schools unsafe for children.

I know many young adult lesbians- I'm in my late twenties myself. I also know several young adult trans men, though none are exclusively attracted to women. I hear people say there aren't many young lesbians these days, but to be honest this is almost totally in contradiction to what I see around me. Some identify as non-binary as well as being lesbians, which seems to me an extrapolation of being butch or androgynous, but they still happily claim the lesbian name at the same time. It's a difference in labels and language more than a difference in experience.

There's been a real surge of young lesbian women in pop culture over the last couple of years, especially in music. Chappel Roan is the most obvious example, but there's also Renée Rapp, King Princess, PVRIS, and Girl in Red. Plus plenty of bisexual and queer women writing music about women who are really popular right now, like Billie Eilish and St Vincent. Young lesbians seem to be thriving at the moment even in spite of the seeming rise in homophobia lately; they're a strong group.

I think most people do not belong to this group. Fair enough people may choose to wear badges, wave a flag etc but these should not be on public buildings. I tend to avoid businesses who display these flags.

Why are trans people always saying how unsafe they feel then?

It is really upsetting to see how the actions of trans rights activists have damaged goodwill amongst natural allies. So it is especially important to keep being an ally - supporting the wider movement regardless of what trans activists do.

Bad actors will use any discord to amplify division and row back on hard won rights for LGB people. You can make a positive impact wherever you have influence.

I think of the gay weddings I've been too, the long standing lesbian friends I have, of campaigning against section 28

and then I think of the privileged they/theming Emma corrin type ppl of this world and wonder how it came to pass that ultra privileged straight ppl decided they were oppressed and belonged under this umbrella

and I wonder how middle aged straight men transitioning in their later life after marriage, children and a career became the most vulnerable ppl ever in the history of everything because they decided to present as female

and I think the world has gone barking mad

Lesbian - female attracted to female
Gay - male attracted to male
Bisexual - male or female attracted to both
Heterosexual - male or female attracted to the opposite sex

There are no other sexualities among humans.

"Heteronormative" reflects the reality that 93% of the population are 'straight'
and without straight sex, the species dies out

All of the identity stuff has greatly undermined tolerance of different sexualities

I think of the full rainbow & my amazing friends across it. Ally all the way!

At one point I and A were added for intersex and asexual, but then whoever decides these things thought that (a) it was getting all too long-winded and (b) there might be even more groups who'd like to hitch their wagon, so the + covers anyone else who might feel they're aligned on the basis of not being heteronormative.

I think of Fred Sergeant being attacked by TRAs.

I think people would be right to be suspicious about what these groups could encompass

@ilovesooty I'm guessing you now realise you had misinterpreted my post by your radio silence

Absolutely the trans community has hijacked the LGB community. Every lesbian I know is sick of it, whilst a frustrating number of gay men seem to be fine with it.

Excellent summary.

‘Intersex’ is an incorrect definition of people who have physical, chromosomal or hormone abnormalities. It has nothing to do with sexual preference or attraction.
To borrow a phrase from the 🏳️‍🌈 manual ‘educate yourself’.

Well luckily where I am we're in a bit of a bubble. Nobody gives a shit where anybody goes to the loo and I really can't see anyone 'challenging' any of my mates for going where they please. Plenty of inclusive groups for people to join and day to day, feeling safe and well. They feel unsafe when they go outside of the community. A fair few have been rejected and ostracised by their family, and of course the online discourse combined with the major u turn that the government is doing in now trying to score brownie points with the right has made for a nervous time.

On a train trip recently for example a good friend of mine sat opposite a mother and child, and the mum looked them up and down, muttered 'disgusting' and whisked the child away to another table. She wasn't wearing a frilly frock or whatever you're imagining, just jeans and a t-shirt with a pride pin. She's gorgeous and it made me sad to see her sad.

TLDR: the rhetoric in the media and online feels unsafe and is being seen in real life when they aren't in our little bubble.

I think the focus is on trans people because this is where the biggest fight currently is. People are a lot more accepting of gay people than they used to be. Not denying that there is still homophobia but I mean it used to be illegal which is crazy. We have gay relationships represented on tv, children books that include gay relationships, and gay parents are having children (this is even represented in the media on made in Chelsea). I feel like trans people don't have this level of acceptance and representation yet.

Maybe this person just want to remain neutral rather than being anti-trans. They might not oppose trans people but they might also not want to advocate either. I feel like it is a bit of a political issue at the moment and they might just prefer to stay out of it.

It makes me feel very awkward and i'm a happily married Lesbian. It feels like I'm being lumped in with a lot of very odd, attention seeking people, just because happen to have a wife. Nothing to do with identity.

So how do you feel about the vitriol thrown at lesbians who refuse to include males in their sexuality? Lesbians got thrown out of pride marches for saying a lesbian was a female homosexual . The head of stonewall referred to them as “sexual racists”. How do you feel about the meaning of lesbian being defined to include straight males?