Great link above, Charlie.
I’m quoting from that document at some length, given the repetition of the argument that Stonewall and other LGBT groups still represent exclusively same-sex attracted women, they have just chosen to represent those whose orientation is “same-gender” based as well.
Our discussion paper addressed the attacks on lesbian women due to their sexuality, and how lesbian women are variously told that their orientation is not a sexuality if it excludes male bodied people, accused of having a fetish, told that their sexual orientation is ‘anti-trans’, and that to be a female homosexual means they are a ‘terf’... Our paper also covered how this has not been addressed by funded LGBT organisations or women’s organisations. In light of this climate, we wrote to four of Scotland’s foremost government funded LGBT organisations; LGBT Health, LGBT Youth Scotland, Stonewall and the Equality Network, in order to ask for their support for the lesbian community in Scotland. Specifically we asked if they would give their support to the following statement:
”Exclusive same sex attraction is a valid and real sexuality, there is absolutely nothing objectionable about being exclusively same sex attracted, and those who are should be able to live their sexuality free from any form of hate, discrimination, coercion or harassment, and are fully supported by our organisation as part of the LGBT community”
...LGBT Health did not respond to any of our attempts to secure a response from them in regard to our statement, even after discussing our email with us in a phone call and reassuring us they would respond. LGBT Youth Scotland replied to say they had received our emails, but did not give their support for our statement and ignored our further attempts at contact. Stonewall told us ‘we cannot help you with that’, so they formally declined. And the Equality Network told us they never provide support for statements they don’t write themselves, however they did go on to confirm with us that they do not consider women to be lesbians on the basis of being female homosexuals, because the only way they define the term ‘lesbian’, is based on gender identity (so for example they would not, then, consider women who are solely attracted to other females regardless of their identity, as lesbian women).
As such, none of these LGBT organisations gave their support to our statement, which would have given recognition that being exclusively same sex attracted (homosexual) is a sexual orientation, and would have been a clear statement that they support homosexuals as part of the LGBT community, as lesbian women and gay men, and that they reject the homophobia we outlined. Indeed all of these organisations appear to only define the terms ‘lesbian’ and ‘gay’ based on gender identity, i.e. there is not even a dual definition that recognises that many, perhaps most, lesbian women and gay men define themselves as such because they are homosexual.
Not only does this mean that these funded organisations do not advocate for, support, or represent those who are homosexual on the basis of being lesbian or gay, but this change in definitions is clearly having an impact on lesbian women in a number of ways. Perhaps most important of which is the fact that women who are female homosexuals cannot recognise themselves as lesbian anymore, or even that their homosexuality is a sexual orientation, without facing accusations of being exclusionary of male people, and facing exclusion themselves in a number of ways (as we have picked up in our survey).
Female homosexuals are being denied recognition as lesbian women by our foremost LGBT organisations, and it is this refusal to recognise female homosexuals as lesbian women that means they are unable to live their sexuality free from hate, discrimination, coercion or harassment, because these women are shamed and referred to as bigots for not being sexually open to male bodied people, and for wanting to organise in any way that does not include transwomen who self- define as lesbian.
In other words, this homophobia is solely justified by the idea that lesbian women should be romantically/sexually open to male people who identify as women. Women have to endure this kind of homophobia, as well as exclusion and self-exclusion because of it, without any national level organisations advocating for, supporting or representing them in the face of this, or even willing to recognise this as homophobia at all, or indeed how their redefinitions are contributing to this situation for lesbian women.
Stonewall couldn’t even agree that those who are exclusively same sex attracted “should be able to live their sexuality free from any form of hate, discrimination, coercion or harassment”. Nor could a single one of the other “LGBT” orgs. What is this if not homophobia?
This quote from a participant in the survey also stood out for me:
I can’t find a lesbian group in my area that is exclusively female. There are no spaces available to me where I can be with other female lesbians, discuss my experience as a lesbian, and find support exclusively from other female lesbians because all of the groups now include male bodied people who identify as lesbians. I do not wish to discuss my body or my sex life in the presence of a male”
This should be so entirely obvious, should go without saying. Women talking about their bodies and sex lives without the presence of a male person who has neither a female body nor the lived experience of growing up attracted to the same sex nor the experience of actually having sex with a person of the same sex. Moreover this is a male person who is attracted to female people - with all the history of the fetishisation of lesbians by that demographic, the history of corrective rape, of coercion and pressure and attempts to “turn” lesbians.
How could any exclusively same-sex attracted woman possibly be comfortable in that setting? It’s insane.
This person who is by all empirical measures a heterosexual male, but who by being allowed to self define as a “lesbian” has fundamentally distorted the nature of the group, and stripped it of its ability to perform the service for which it was designed, ie to be a space for lesbian women to meet and connect without the presence of anyone who is not a lesbian woman.
This is one of the ways the 21st century is worse than the 70’s for women, and having been around then I never thought I’d say that.