There has been a lot of online discussion (perhaps not here as not so relevant to feminism) of trans ideology on gay male bathhouse culture, which is obviously similar to cottaging but in a fully contained, designated space (which is better for the general public than randomly stumbling across someone else’s encounter!)
The creeping loss of single sex spaces/social activities is going to affect gay men more than straight men (because gay men need all the same things as straight men in terms of dignity, privacy, healthcare, mental health support, plus some extra services and spaces on top) which is perhaps why they’ve started to pay attention to terves, having largely ignored the lesbians who’ve been sounding the alarm for 20 years?
Hopefully a balance will be restored because while we don’t want women (or GNC men) to be completely shut out of old style members clubs where men network business etc, men should still be able to have their own hobby groups and support groups and yes, I suppose that DOES include fully-consensual-sexual-activity-culture without worrying about having their fully informed consent nullified (although frankly I am too tired out caring and advocating for women and children to offer an assistance on that!)
Lesbians haven’t generally wanted this particularly type of sex club/culture but they are being disproportionately affected by ‘transbians’ in social groups, in the publications for lesbian and bi women and on dating apps (because lesbians are a smaller percentage of the population than gay men and tend towards dating one person at a time, thus the number of single-and-looking lesbians within easy geographical dating range can be tiny. This means any male transitioners and/or part time gender fluid/cross dressers on the same dating app search result are really noticeable, which makes the apps unappealing and not very useful for any exclusively same SEX attracted women looking to find other same SEX attracted women).
That the looking-to-date-lesbians are a small percentage of the single-and-looking market as a whole further compounds the issues as the companies that build and run the apps don’t see them as an important factor in a financially viable business. Lesbians are seemingly no ones priority except other lesbians (and a few bi and straight women who stand with them) and even then, as women, they are socialised not to centre their own needs and desires from birth, same as all girls.
it’s a proper shit show. Lesbian social groups have had to go back underground like it’s still the 1930s, which is obviously shit for young lesbians who are growing up in isolation again (or automatically sucked into Q culture, because the L is almost invisible, bar the transitioned males who identify as lesbian).
I met a young German lesbian who told me that as a teen she assumed she couldn’t possibly BE a lesbian because amongst her generation Transwomen Are Women and she knew instinctively she would never, ever find a transwoman attractive.
instead, being naturally butch-of-centre, she assumed she was a transman, and as she was attracted to a similar look/attitude to her own in other females, she found herself identifying as a transman who exclusively fancied other transmen! Aka a ‘gay trans guy’ in TRA parlance!
it was only after her transman partner started looking into radical feminism that they both slowly came to accept that they were two naturally GNC lesbians! And subsequently detransitioned.
Sadly, by that stage both had had double mastectomies and experienced irreversible changes from testosterone.
Fortunately, like many of the current crop of detransitioners they are sensitive, insightful and intelligent and are coming to terms with what they’ve been through via friendship with other detrans people and hope to offer an alternative message of gender to teen girls and young women like themselves.