Celebrating Pride in the Era of Gender Identity
For many same-sex attracted women, the rainbow flag no longer feels like home
“I used to see the rainbow flag as a symbol of acceptance, but I no longer assume those are my people. There’s been a hostile takeover.”
This sentiment has been expressed over and over by lesbian and bisexual women in the past few years, especially among radical feminists. June, pride month, is a landmine of contradictions for those of us who no longer support what “Pride” has come to stand for.
On one hand, many of us hold fond memories of attending Pride parades and events, late nights out at “ladies” bars, and the joy of finding women like us and forming community.
On the other hand, though, is the dark, painful, realization that Pride has left women, lesbians, and even gay men behind, all in favor of a misogynistic and homophobic ideology — one that is already undoing years of hard-fought progress by the gay rights movement.
“The last time I went to Pride was a few years ago. Everything was about trans — pink and blue everywhere. It was hyper-sexualized; workshops centered around anal sex and kinks. There was nothing for lesbians. The city’s Trans Alliance sponsored a dance called “Queer Qrush” that advertised that “exclusionary” lesbians would be hanged by their necks if we dared to attend. During the Pride march, friends and I held signs including “Lesbian NOT Queer,” and “Violence Against Lesbians is an Epidemic.” People tried to intimidate us and shouted, “Go home TERFs!” Afterwards, we experienced doxing and threats. So much for being a safe space for same-sex attracted women.”
– Kacie Moon, WoLF Board President
“Gender identity,” an essentially meaningless concept, is not only distinct from sexual orientation — it is fundamentally at odds with the interests of lesbians and gays, who are same-sex attracted. The push to force lesbians, especially, to accept men pretending to be women as not only members of their community but also sexual partners erases the very reality of lesbians as women who are exclusively attracted to other women. These men have a name for lesbians’ resistance: “the cotton ceiling.” Stealing from the feminist concept of the glass ceiling, the phrase posits that women’s underwear is an unfair barrier to men. Trans activists have shamed and coerced lesbians into sexual contact with men who ‘identify’ as bisexual women or lesbians. The name for this is corrective rape. Angela Wild, co-founder of Get the L Out, described her research findings at the FiLiA conference in 2019:
50% of lesbians report being excluded from their “LGBT” communities for stating that lesbians are exclusively same-sex attracted. Over half of lesbians (56%) reported being pressured or coerced to accept a man as a partner based on his claimed “gender identity.” Two-thirds of lesbians reported being intimidated or threatened from within their “LGBT” community, just for stating they are lesbians. This harassment included: “verbal abuse, death and rape threats, pressure to commit suicide, threats of physical or sexual violence, threats to kill family members, receiving ‘transwoman nudes’, threats of ‘doxing’, actual online ‘doxing’ (including exposure of their name, picture and home address), threats of exposure to employers…”
If any of this surprises you, dear reader, I’m sorry to say you must not have been paying particularly close attention. The “trans” contingent of the forcibly-teamed “LGBT community” is blatant about the goal of eventually fully overtaking the movement. This is made clear by the new “progress pride flag,” designed in 2018 to feature a transgender triangle encroaching into the rainbow. Many radical feminists have aptly dubbed it the “trans invasion flag.”
“The harassment of lesbians by straight men who identify as ‘transbians’ (ie, heterosexual male ‘transgender lesbians’) is a dirty little secret that the LGBT lobby is embarrassed to discuss. It is the 21st-century manifestation of that gruff bloke saying ‘I’ll turn you, love’. But because it comes with a woke gloss the perpetrator is no longer considered a creep – he is a brave and beautiful translady.”
- Jo Bartosch, The Homophobia of the Trans Lobby, Spiked (October 28, 2021)
All of this is before even considering the ways in which “gender identity” ideology and “gender affirmation” directly harms young people who are primarily same-sex attracted (we’ve already written extensively about this).
Read what WoLF supporters have experienced in the “LGBT Community”:
So how can lesbian and bisexual women celebrate pride?
Same-sex attracted women deserve celebration, recognition, and community. We deserve the ability to have pride in everything we have survived, accomplished, and been — as whole people, not just a label existing to prop up a movement that left us behind long ago. Visit WoLF’s recommended reading on “Lesbian Herstory” here, and add to our list.
Radical lesbians can proudly raise the lesbian flag (of course, deemed “transphobic,”) and refuse to water down their language when boldly stating they are exclusively same-sex attracted.
Radical women of any sexual orientation can support LGB people this month by speaking out against the forced teaming of same-sex attracted people with people who believe they have a “gender identity.”
Take action by writing your members of Congress to educate them about why many LGB people and allies do not support the Equality Act, which promises to end the unfair treatment of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people, but is poisoned with the destruction of the law’s ability to allow any accommodations for women on the basis of sex.
This month, WoLF will be focusing on the historical contributions of radical lesbian and bisexual women including Andrea Dworkin, Mary Daly, Sheila Jeffreys, and more. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s #FeministFriday post kicking off this series on WoLF’s Instagram!
