“Having a sexual orientation is bigoted”
Stonewall is losing friends.
In case your memory of it has faded that’s from the BBC report on the coercion of lesbians to have sex with men who call themselves lesbians.
Stonewall is the largest LGBT organisation in the UK and Europe. I asked the charity about these issues but it was unable to provide anyone for interview. However, in a statement, chief executive Nancy Kelley likened not wanting to date trans people to not wanting to date people of colour, fat people, or disabled people.
In other words ugly cruel bigotry. In other words Nancy Kelley of Stonewall is saying sexual orientation is ugly cruel bigotry. What do the L and the G stand for again?
She said: “Sexuality is personal and something which is unique to each of us. There is no ‘right’ way to be a lesbian, and only we can know who we’re attracted to.
“Nobody should ever be pressured into dating, or pressured into dating people they aren’t attracted to. But if you find that when dating, you are writing off entire groups of people, like people of colour, fat people, disabled people or trans people, then it’s worth considering how societal prejudices may have shaped your attractions.
“We know that prejudice is still common in the LGBT+ community, and it’s important that we can talk about that openly and honestly.”
In other words if you’re a lesbian and you don’t want to have sex with men, you’re a bad person and you should feel bad. Says Stonewall in the person of its CEO.
It’s also insulting to everyone else with sexual preferences, though I take the point that the homo- and bi- are considerably more marginalised than the hetero-, and so are more vulnerable.
Stonewall’s stance is ignorant of how sexual preferences work, and while they make a mealy-mouthed concession that of course people get to say yes or no on the basis of sex, the thrust of their statement is that they shouldn’t – all people who do have sexual preferences are evil. The organisation used to be an advocate for and a protector of those people whose sexual preferences are non-mainstream. They are now abandoning the very idea of sexual preferences, and in doing so, are abandoning all those people they once championed. Their L and G and B advocacy has been replaced with advocacy for the T.
Some “protected characteristics” are more protected than others. Sexual orientation? Not really. Sex? Oh, hell no. Not if your sex is female.
Strange times we’re in, when an organization theoretically founded to advance gay rights has now become one of the leading organizations trying to abolish gay rights.
Two of the most common complaints I see about the LGB Alliance is that they don’t do any charity works (but soup kitchens and clothing drives are not referred to in their mission,) and tthat their conference was all anti-trans speakers. And even if that last were true, defending themselves against the assault of homophobia, more specifically lesbophobia, is pretty much called for when we see what the organizations putatively tasked to defend LGBTIQAA2S+ have prioritized gender over sexuality. It’s a matter of self-defense.
As Kelley shows, kicking LGB people to the curb is cool again, as long as the needs of the trans identities are served.
So according to Nancy Kelley, everyone who isn’t bisexual is a bigot. Gay, straight, and asexual people are automatically bigots. What makes this really funny is that this also makes every trans woman who doesn’t want to have sex with a man a bigot as well. Do these people ever think through the implications of what they’re saying? Of course not, it’s all just rhetorical weapons for attacking women.
No, because that’s punching up. Cis men are higher on the totem pole than transwomen. The totem pole is like this:
Cis women (the most privileged people ever)
Trans men
Cis men
Trans women (the most oppressed minority ever)
Stonewall began its life as the champion of sexual orientation as a protected right. Stonewall post-2014 should be ashamed of itself, turning on all the people who gave the name any credence and respect in the world. Stonewall should be forced to change its name; it does not represent the principles that Stonewall stands for. It should also be prohibited, by reason of false advertising, from calling itself an “LGBT” organization. It has not only abandoned LGB, it has actively become hostile to LGB people. The Stonewall of today is solely a T organization, and should be required to call itself such; to all itself an LGBT organization is akin to fraud.
To be fair (and advance notice – this is going to be a very weak defence) the castigation of Lesbians seems to only be a central plank in Stonewalls wider belief that anybody with any kind of sexual preference is a bigot.
I wonder how many dead bodies I have to find sexually unappealing before being labelled necrophobic?.