Article by Lauren Black

[CeriBlack]

My wife wrote this and I'm so freaking proud of her!

Just leaving it here.
Xx

lesbianandgaynews.com/2021/03/lauren-black-i-am-a-butch-lesbian-i-live-with-gender-dysphoria-i-do-not-believe-my-deep-discomfort-with-my-female-body-means-that-i-should-take-steps-to-change-it/

Thanks, Lauren and Ceri. People, especially young women, need to hear this.

Heard Lauren speak (was it on Glinner?) recently. She was eloquent and courageous. And when she spoke about you her face lit up. So lovely that you have found each other.

Fantastic article.

Hi I'm not really used to mums net, I just lurk and read things, so I don't know if this will reply to everybody? I hope it does.

Anyway I've read all of these to Lauren, who's kind of half butchly, bemusedly unbothered ("glad they like it, needed saying") and half really, really pleased.

She asked me to say thank you, anyway for taking the time to post.

Hope I'm doing this right!

Saw this being circulated on facebook a few days ago.

Really good. It was getting lots of shares.

And hopefully something that younger women coming under pressure to follow a medical pathway will get comfort from.

@CeriBlack - re replying to comments, anyone on this thread will know you have replied (and will hopefully read) but if you want to reply to a particular comment you just add a @ at the front of the user name.

Thank you, this was a wonderful article. Please thank your wife for the opportunity to hear her voice. I think she is the definition of brave.

Great piece by Lauren @CeriBlack, you must be so proud of her

Brilliant article, Lauren. Thank you for posting it Ceri.

This is really powerful

Such a well written clear article. Thank you!

On this kind of theme I get quite upset with Grace Petrie.
She clearly is a butch lesbian and has said that she is not trans although people often assume she is.

For the first verse and chorus I love her song Black Tie. She sounds like Billy Bragg and I admire her ability to rhyme 'fucked ya' with 'patriarchal structure'. The song is about not feeling you fit within gender structures growing up and the hope of finding your way out of that 'no you won't grow out of it but you will find the clothes that fit'

Her way out, like Lauren, is in proudly being a butch lesbian and yet she is fully supportive of trans ideology and in the second verse gets in some digs about Germaine Greer and a 'terf war' which completely ruins the song for me.

Despite having to regularly tell people that she is not trans she doesn't see that trans ideology is erasing women like her, reinforcing the gender binary she is railing against and making things worse and not better for the Y11 self she is singing to.

It's such a shame as I otherwise really like the song and the video.

What an amazing article. Thank you, Lauren and Ceri.

@CovoidOfAllHumanity

On this kind of theme I get quite upset with Grace Petrie. She clearly is a butch lesbian and has said that she is not trans although people often assume she is.

For the first verse and chorus I love her song Black Tie. She sounds like Billy Bragg and I admire her ability to rhyme 'fucked ya' with 'patriarchal structure'. The song is about not feeling you fit within gender structures growing up and the hope of finding your way out of that 'no you won't grow out of it but you will find the clothes that fit'

Her way out, like Lauren, is in proudly being a butch lesbian and yet she is fully supportive of trans ideology and in the second verse gets in some digs about Germaine Greer and a 'terf war' which completely ruins the song for me.

Despite having to regularly tell people that she is not trans she doesn't see that trans ideology is erasing women like her, reinforcing the gender binary she is railing against and making things worse and not better for the Y11 self she is singing to.

It's such a shame as I otherwise really like the song and the video.

Yes, I have lesbian friends who are uncritical Grace Petrie fans and kept trying to get me to attend her gigs (pre-Covid) and I just can't do. Love seeing a visible lesbian up there, doing her thing, but can't bear the trans ally stuff.

Interesting perspective and well written article- thanks.

I personally always really enjoy meeting confident butch lesbians, and unapolagetically camp gay men.

@CovoidOfAllHumanity - another one disappointed with Grace Petrie - strong woman/socialist/lesbian/musician - could be a great role model for young lebsbian women but tied herself up in the trans ideology. Pity

Love this so much. Amazing article.

Fantastic article. Thank you for sharing.

Re: camp gay men I think they are also under threat of being forced to describe themselves as 'non binary'

I stumbled across an episode of Ru Paul's drag race recently (probably shouldn't admit it on here but I was intrigued enough to watch) and when looking at the contestants they looked like a room full of camp gay men to me which is exactly what most of them said they were. The two that were 'non-binary' looked just the same and seemed to me to just be using a more modern phrase for the exact same thing.

Apparently Ru Paul has been in trouble for not welcoming trans contestants but it seems to me only logical that if you already are a woman (allegedly) then it is a bit of an unfair advantage in a competition about dressing up as one. By their logic if trans women can compete and TWAW then all women should be allowed and Kim Kardashian can win!

I'm not saying I agree with the entire premise of drag race but the idea that trans people rather than camp gay men were the originators of drag and that you can still do drag and be trans and those be two separate things seems like one of the more bat shit crazy things I've yet heard.

Camp gay men and butch lesbians are a huge challenge to trans ideology because they are showing that you can accept your biological sex and still present and just be however you want to be.

Great and insightful piece. And good to see a familiar Twitter face on MN!

That's a really good article, thanks for sharing.

Fantastic article.

waves

Thank you SO MUCH for this article. Anyone reading my posts recently will have seen my frustration at no-one answering my questions on this - (although I appreciate Lauren does not identify as male) - why is masculinity so bound up with being physically male? Don't get me wrong, I understand (to some extent!) body dysphoria. It just makes me really sad that the societal perception of masculine=male is so strong that people feel they must change their bodies so drastically.

If you are lucky enough to be healthy and able when young, I think you don't appreciate having a healthy, functioning body until you get a bit older and it stops being so healthy and functioning. Health is not something to be gambled with unnecessarily. I do understand why some people physically transition and it works for them, but it shouldn't be the go-to option because you like certain toys or clothes or recognise the patriarchal power structure all too clearly.

That's a fantastic article, so clear and honest, thanks for sharing it. I hope at some point I'll be able to share it with a few of the nonbinary and trans young women I've met in the course of my job without fearing getting sacked, I think it would really speak to some of them and it's a point of view I don't think they ever hear.

I love everything about this article. And being a bit of a soppy romantic I especially love how she writes about you- it’s so moving. Bravo! ❤️