5
Written evidence submitted by Lesbian Rights Group to the Transgender Equality Inquiry
LESBIAN RIGHTS GROUP: we are a group of concerned lesbians, aged 30 to 70, who have come together to assert the importance of lesbian rights and lesbian equality, in response to the disappearance of lesbian issues from the mainstream. We have been meeting for nearly two years.
This submission focusses on the threat caused to lesbians by the ascendancy of transgender rights. We believe transgendered people should be protected by legislation, but not at the expense of other groups with a protected characteristic, i.e. women/ lesbians.
Those of us who hold particular views about the ideology and practice of transgenderism, have never advocated, or engaged in violence against transgendered people, or any other group. But we have been intimidated and threatened by transgender activists and their allies. As a consequence, a proper scrutiny of the implications of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and the Equality Act 2010 has not been aired, until recently.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY – MAIN POINTS
1. INTIMIDATION of lesbians and erosion of lesbian space
i. The Equality Act 2010 makes it illegal to discriminate against trans people. However, potentially, it is being used, wrongly, to erode the rights of other groups, specifically, in our experience, the rights of lesbians, to analyse, discuss, critique or even to meet in groups. For example, several conferences have taken place where keynote international lesbian feminist speakers were accused, in advance, of ‘hate speech,’ by trans activists. (1) With no evidence, one venue, well-known for hosting feminist events, withdrew their permission to hold the conference in 2012. The organisers had to scrabble around for another venue at short notice, and hire security as the threat of violence hung over the event. This has become a pattern when lesbians attempt to hold events for like-minded women, even though we have now
established that we have a legal right to do so.
ii. In the past lesbians had established the right to meet together, to hold conferences or simply to enjoy each other’s company at dances, writing festivals or other events. Nowadays, most venues where lesbians used to meet safely have lost funding or been closed down. The right to meet publicly is now being eroded further by some transgendered people, who, if they are not invited to attend, use a variety of intimidatory tactics to hijack the event. These include – accusing organisers and speakers of ‘hate speech’; contacting their employers to accuse them of ‘transphobia’; scaring the managers of venues they have booked; getting speakers ‘no-platformed’ at other venues and with other organisations; labelling them TERFS (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist). The irony is that some of these activists themselves are the perpetrators of hate speech, and violence against lesbians – through witch-hunts, as described above, online abuse and misogyny, and threatening behaviour towards lesbians in person. Examples of online abuse include – ‘Die Cis Scum’, ‘why are terfs even allowed to exist round up every terf …and slit their throats one by one’, ‘Ridfem kills radfems instantly’. Pictorial examples emulate the worst violent pornography, depicting self-defined transgendered people about to bash ‘terfs’ with baseball bats, or axe their cowering figures to death, or holding butchers’ knives to ‘slit TERFs throats.’ (2)
iii. Younger lesbians in our group report that they are called ‘bigots’ and ‘transphobes’ for refusing to call a penis a female organ and refusing to engage in sexual acts with people with penises. ‘It is a massive issue within lesbian communities and especially young lesbians, and leads many lesbians to be forced to have sex with" people with penises" even if they self-define as lesbians,’ added one young woman.
2. INVISIBILITY OF LESBIANS WITHIN LGBT HEGEMONY
i. Lesbian feminists are unhappy with the term ‘LGBT’, as it disappears us, our history, our interests, preoccupations and needs, often with the ascendancy of transgendered people’s rights. Throughout government and local council organisations, lesbians do not have a voice. For instance, the only specific reference to lesbians, at all, in the Coalition Government’s March,’11 policy paper, Working for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender equality: moving forward, is under Health, with brief references to smear tests and sexually transmitted diseases. (!) There is no sense that any lesbians were ever consulted.
ii. Another example of this approach is Bristol Council’s support of LGBT issues. When you open the LGBT website, ‘working in partnership with Bristol City Council’, two short videos appear, ‘A Day in the Life of a trans man’, and ‘Ryland’s story’. The first is a short cartoon by a transitioning female to male adolescent which talks of the difficulties faced, mainly about being mistaken for a girl. The tone is negative and one wonders – what would be the problem of becoming a young lesbian instead? But this choice is not offered, and there is no background as to how/why the young person decided to transition.
iv. The other (American) video, ‘Ryland’s Story’, is the story of a 3 year old girl, who, as
soon as she can speak, asserts she is a boy. The parents ‘sought the help of professionals and experts, did research, and ‘we all came to the same conclusion – Ryland is transgender.’ ‘What we have learned is that most children realise their true gender between 3 and 5 years of age’. There is nothing to back up this conclusion, and, indeed, NHS guidelines warn against hasty conclusions regarding ‘gender dysphoria’ in children. ‘Very few children who seem to be confused about their gender go on to live full-time as the opposite gender or be transgender (trans) as adults. In many cases, the gender-variant behaviour or feeling disappears as the child gets older – often as they reach puberty.’(NHS Choices – Think your child might be transgender?).
v. But these videos are presented, upfront, as advertisements for the LGBT community in Bristol. (3). Obviously, this approach has implications for (the disappearance of) young lesbians, as there is no sign-posting at all to find a young lesbian group – all the references are to ‘LGBT people and their friends.’ If there are no positive role models on offer, and if there is no support for, or visible presence of young, or older, lesbians, it is our experience that young women will retreat back to whatever is on offer, and what is increasingly on offer nowadays is a bewildering world of ‘shifting, Genderqueer fluidity.’ The silencing of Lesbian Feminism, and its lack of visibility, is finding its way to the UK via government and local policies that no longer recognise lesbianism, as an identity, or lesbian feminist ideas as valid. For instance, at a Women’s Liberation conference in Glasgow last year, two young women told me they do not identify as lesbians – they are ‘gender queer.’(4)
vi. In the past, we had a political presence, in terms of influencing government or local policies. For instance, Lesbians in Education was an active group of education professionals in London – teachers, lecturers, youth and community workers and council officials – which met for a number of years in the 1980s. Some of us in this group lobbied successfully within the youth service for girls and young women to undertake non-traditional activities, and set up lesbian youth groups and organised workshops for young women to learn manual trades and car maintenance, for instance. We also worked to overturn the discriminatory Section 28 law, especially challenging the ‘pretend family relationship’ wording, referring at that time to families with lesbian mothers. (5)
3. LESBIAN FEMINIST WIPE-OUT
i. Through the seemingly uncritical acceptance of the LGBT classification, by all political parties, trade unions and local councils, lesbian feminists appear to be consigned to history. Policy makers fail to recognise that there are many new lesbian feminists, who are involved in the violence against women sector, Rape Crisis and campaigns to end rape, health groups, academia, and organising many conferences and meetings – but we no longer have a lobbying voice as lesbians. At public meetings or council events, it has been the experience of our group that whenever we say we are overlooked in the LGBT category and didn’t ever agree to this classification anyway, we are met with incomprehension. Therefore, despite the progress that has been made towards LGBT rights, we feel, given the above-mentioned factors, that rights for lesbians have gone backwards, as we are invisible in policy terms.
ii. The stereotypical notion of masculinity and (often exaggerated) femininity that accompanies gender reassignment is another serious concern for feminists, who have spent years pointing out, with a great deal of success, that gender stereotypes exercise a form of control over women and girls and restrict their development as autonomous human beings. The feminist project aims to abolish gender – ‘a conservative ideology that forms the foundation for women’s subordination,’ yet transgenderism cannot exist without the stereotypes, and this appears to remain unquestioned by sections of both medical and legal professions. Zowie Davy, a trans lecturer interviewed on Women’s Hour, when challenged about stereotypes, admitted that ‘gender clinics do require people to perform a certain form of masculinity and femininity in order to get their transitioning technologies.’ (WH, 07/08/14).
4. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLS EDUCATION/ FUNDING
i. Trans activists and their supporters are increasingly influencing the school curricula, to the detriment of lesbian rights. Increasingly, reported in the media, there are examples of young trans students. Where schools are urged to support them (Guardian, Weale, 20/07/15), there is funding from the Department of Education to tackle ‘homophobic and transphobic bullying in schools’. This is in huge contrast to the situation in the 1980s, because of Section 28 of the Local Government Act (5). But there is a catch to the present ‘liberalisation.’ Now children and adolescents (and teachers, parents and policy makers) are increasingly subjected to the idea that if the young do not conform to gender stereotypes, they are ‘trapped in the wrong body’ and need to change sex to achieve fulfilment and happiness. Even though there are increasingly follow-up studies, and testimonies from unhappy transitioners, which show that the opposite is true, these are ignored. We fear that this focus on trans adolescents is having a devastating effect on young women, and young men, as they may see transitioning to the other sex as the only alternative in the absence of other possibilities.
ii. Despite the repeal of Section 28, in 2003, it is interesting to note that the present government has recently released a briefing paper (16 July, 2015) on Sex and Relationships in Schools, which states ‘It doesn’t promote …any particular sexual orientation’, p 4, and later, more specifically, under Sexual identity and sexual orientation ‘There should be no direct promotion of sexual orientation’ (p 6). (6) This seems somewhat contradictory given the emphasis on schools being made aware of the possibility of children as young as nine being fed puberty delaying drugs to enable them to ‘think about’ transitioning to the other sex, then ‘getting the whole school on board’, increasing understanding among staff and students of trans issues and tackling transphobic bullying’ (Guardian, 20/07/15). It seems it’s acceptable to promote a practice some would see as a human rights violation of children, while still keeping ‘becoming lesbian or gay’ under wraps, and it illustrates that some ‘rights’ are more important than others. Through the education system, supporting children to transition, while ‘not promoting’ sexual orientation, appears to us to be covertly re-introducing the notorious Section 28 and withholding support to young women and men
about the possibilities of becoming lesbian or gay.
iii. This is in contrast to the situation in the 1980s/ early1990s, when progressive teachers
and youth workers introduced young people to a range of discussions and activities, where they had the opportunity to experience non-traditional options and thereby extend themselves in both their thinking and life-choices, without being forced into narrow roles, or being restricted by having to dress a certain way. For younger children, there were giant moves away from ‘sex-appropriate toys and books’ and ways of behaving. (e.g. Girls must wear pink and like dolls, boys must like guns and cars). At the same time, training for teachers and youth workers and council workers focussed on ‘Challenging Heterosexism’, which dealt with the oppressive structures of society and challenged gender stereotypes, rather than the present essentialist focus that some individuals need to change their bodies to conform to a specific gender and those who do not accept this are ‘transphobic’.
5. PRESSURES ON YOUNG PEOPLE AND SMALL CHILDREN TO TRANSGENDER
Lastly, in common with a number of scientists, psychiatrists, parents, politicians and journalists, we have serious concerns about the pressure on the medical profession to put young children on puberty delaying drugs, as they are not yet experienced enough to make such a grave, and often irreversible, life change, and do not understand the implications. Others – parents, gender clinics, judges – are making the decision for them. Part of the reason young people and children may be defined as being trapped in the wrong body is a resistance on the part of older people to the idea that they may become lesbian or gay, or simply not fit into out-moded, but re-emergent, stereotypes of what girls and boys are meant to be.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Elaine Hutton, on behalf of the Lesbian Rights Group
(1) http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/may/29/transgenderism-hate-speech
(2) TERF ‘Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist’ – a derogatory term used by trans activists and their supporters to describe those who question their ideology in any way. ‘Cis’ – invented word used by same to describe everyone who isn’t a transsexual/ transgender person
(3) http://lgbtbristol.org.uk/.
(4) Jeffreys, Sheila, (2014) Gender Hurts (Routledge), p 45-8. ‘Gender Queers replace lesbians.’ This is a useful account of the way these definitions fracture lesbian feminist community, and enforce stereotyping – gender difference and femininity.
(5) (https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Section+28)
(6) BRIEFING PAPER, Number 06103, 16 July 2015, Sex and Relationships Education in Schools, by Robert Long https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Briefing+number+06103
21 August 2015