Letter from feminists against Pride protest

[MillyTheKid]

Link to letter and article in The Independent:

solidaritystatement650530505.wordpress.com/

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/london-pride-lgbt-anti-trans-protest-transphobia-a8442366.html

The fact that Stella doesn't even understand the need for anonymity online for many women was just another sign that women can say they stand for equality and liberation and even start political parties for this purpose and still not actually be feminist.

YY.

ffs, I missed the great big pile of stinking shite about Ireland and abortion. Who the fuck to they think they are?

I know women who have spent almost their entire lives fighting for abortion rights in Ireland, and now it looks like we are finally there we are meant to be thankful to TRAs and fucking MEN?

FUCK. THIS. SHIT.

It's quite hard for lesbians (particularly young lesbians, speaking from my own experience) to have these views or these discussions anywhere else without being called bigoted and being told to sit down and shut up. Privately, a lot of the lesbians I have spoken to, even the most liberal minded people, feel uncomfortable with the idea of letting someone with a penis into their sex life regardless of their gender identity. Regardless of whether the trans woman wanted PIV sex or not.

I can't talk about how the trans woman I dated coerced me into having PIV sex and carried on when I had completely frozen and dissociated without people telling me 'not all trans women are like that'. If I point out that she is now living as a man again and I feel completely manipulated and lied to, well, that's not something that ever happens, that's not a good reason to be wary of bepenised people. I'm with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Trans women are trans women. It's okay to be different but equal. Maybe the protesters were too antagonistic, but I can understand why, it sometimes feels that's the only way to be heard.

Orpheliac

orpheliac

Orpheliac.

Orpheliac

That awful. You have that space here if you need it.

Orpheliac So so sorry to hear** what you've been through

Thank you so much. I feel like here I finally have space to talk.

Orpheliac, so sorry you went through that

That’s awful Orpheliac, I am so sorry you went through that.

Yanno that thing where men don't know any women who have been raped or any rapists because no women they know trusts them enough to tell them?
The same appears to be true with regard to transgenders and Lesbians.

I know 2 men who have openly stated in what was otherwise a pleasant conversation that they don't know anyone who was abused as a child. Neither comment was in context or appropriate, and the only logical explanation was that their comments were aimed at the women they were with.

That's awful, Orpheliac. I'm so sorry.

IamtheOrpheliac I am so sorry. . Straight women like me can never speak for lesbians but you have our support.

Please tell us how we can help to turn this tide. I know straight women who are celibate, whatever reason any woman wants to say no to any kind of sex ever, that is enough. (Same for men too, of course).

And I can't believe anyone would minimise any person's experiences ever. Who cares if not all trans women are like that, you still have every right always to exclude anyone you want to from your private, romantic or sex life.

Same stuff same men sometimes they just wear differen5 clothes

Hugs I am orthp to u

Bloody hell, Orpheliac. I am so sorry he did that to you.

Then she said she felt bullied and wanted to deactivate her account.

The thing is she was just getting reasonable tweets like mines, challenging her position, a position she could not defend, and they were not great in number either, but I didn't push anything with her as she then said she has MH issues so I just told her to take care of herself.

I am so heartily sick of people like Stella Duffy who make grand public statements about how mean gender-crit feminists are, who parade their rape apologism (which directly hurts those women whose experiences they are flat-out denying) and who put back the progress of women's rights by 50 years, but when they are called out on it, however gently and respectfully, cry about how vulnerable and fragile they are and run away.

Many of us have had times of fragile mental health, not helped by the ongoing death threats, rape threats, gaslighting and threats to our livelihoods made to us by transactivists, never mind the constant threat of having our spaces invaded and colonised by abusive, entitled males, but somehow our mental health doesn't matter and we should just suck it up. Funny how that works, isn't it?

Oh, and well done, leyat, for trying with her.

Yup, I agree, this is distressing for all of us and I made that point to her too before she went. The whole thing was yet another demonstration to me that in order to support this stuff you really need to not actually be understanding the issue and what's at stake. The thing is this is often due to not wanting to face that, ie. it's willful. I think often it's those who don't think that they have anything much to lose so just ignore all the issues so they can essentially virtue signal, and then they just frame any challenge as bullying.

IamtheOrpheliac - I echo what the others have said. There is welcoming space for you here.

Sandy Draws Badly. Sums up the situation.

The whole thing was yet another demonstration to me that in order to support this stuff you really need to not actually be understanding the issue and what's at stake. The thing is this is often due to not wanting to face that, ie. it's willful. I think often it's those who don't think that they have anything much to lose so just ignore all the issues so they can essentially virtue signal, and then they just frame any challenge as bullying.

Agreed.