I've noticed this cult accusation grow over the last couple of years. Obviously feminists called genderists a cult first, and they threw it back at us. But what is a cult? These days it doesn't just mean a group of people living with a narcissistic leader who exploits them and controls their every thought. To me a cult:
Has ideas sustained by faith rather than evidence.
Will not allow any questioning of the faith.
Beliefs tend to be bizarre and inconsistent, but cult members can't see this because they can't analyse them.
Has a very strong sense of being 'one of us', with everyone else being despised non-believers. Anyone who questions the faith will be shunned and even persecuted. Anyone who crosses from an opposing belief into the cult circle is seen as recanting and needing to be forgiven.
The difference between a cult and an oppressive religion/political system is just size and power.
All the stories I've seen about women who 'leave the GC cult' were based on emotion rather than logic. For instance, they developed GC views, but then someone told them they were bad, or a particular feminist turned out to be not very nice, so they span around and ran to the TRAs, begging for forgiveness like a sinner who had strayed.