This week, a couple of ‘not so keen on trans people’ weenies named Kathleen Stock and Julie Bindel started a new organisation called ‘The Lesbian Project’. I checked out their site, and to my surprise it isn’t an incentive to bring the price of Doc Martens down (something that must be done!), but instead - it’s main focus seems to be ‘a new initiative that highlights and champions the experiences, insights and sensibilities of lesbians in all their diversity’. That is, unless the ‘diversity’ in question includes trans people. That is too much diversity.
Stock & Bindel (not to be confused with Mel & Sue) are known for being keen advocates of trans exclusion. They’re all about LGB alignment, if you catch my meaning. You might be familiar with Stock’s book ‘Material Girls’ which outlines her sordid position pretty well. You might also be familiar with Bindel’s channel 4 sitcom ‘Sugar Rush’. At least I think that was her. I get my ‘terf lesbian hack writers named Julie’ mixed up sometimes.
As is to be expected, various mainstream ‘liberal’ media outlets - including my personal enemies The Guardian & Woman’s Hour did feigned ignorant puff pieces on the duo, legitimising their ‘legitimate’ concerns, legitimately. After all, trans women are telling lesbians they absolutely MUST date them. And we’ve been burning down all their butch bars and buying up all the Phoebe Bridgers albums. Ain’t we just little stinkers!
It’s really strange, because all of the cis-lesbians I know in real life are all really nice. And they like me! A few are some of my oldest and best friends. I didn’t even have to threaten them with a gun!
It’s weird hearing lesbians cry about feeling ‘social pressure’ to date trans women. A lot of the lesbians I happen to know would never, ever allow themselves to bend to social pressure. In fact, they’re some of the strongest willed people I’ve ever known. The lesbians I know are hard as nails, and live their lives on their own terms. Maybe that’s why, as a bisexual trans woman, we relate to one another so well. Also, the Phoebe Bridgers and Doc Martens help.
Kathleen Stock and Julie Burchill - I mean Bindel, sorry - don’t strike me as the same sort of lesbian I know. They aren’t the sort to protect a trans woman when she’s being berated in public, or having a drink thrown over her in G-A-Y. They come off as whiney little cry babies who just want to divide well established communities for their own personal gain.
The lesbians that I know are good people. Although, I have met a few recently that leave me guessing. I did a comedy gig a few months back, in an expressly queer LGBT bar, to a room of mostly lesbians. Most were incredibly welcoming and enjoyed themselves. After my set though, an older, white lesbian couple approached me. One of these women said to me “We really enjoyed your set, it was like watching a man and a woman perform at the same time”. I didn’t over-react, I just said “Ok!”. The woman then continued. She said “Oh, sorry. Have I offended you?”. As a trans woman, I have a very keen sense of when I’m being deliberately fucked with. “No…” I replied. “...it’s just a really weird thing to say to somebody”. They left shortly after, probably to go home and hot shower all the queer vibes off of their sacred, gold-star lesbian bodies.
Last night at a completely different queer gig, a table of older lesbians lamented to the MC that their group was only formally ‘Lesbian Only’. That must be really hard, to not have the will power, personality or sense of self enough to have to come to queer comedy nights and moan about the policies and procedures of your own gang. Then I came on and did a routine about pet shops.
Well, I could wax poetic about this topic all darn day - but I’ve got a lot of vital lesbian erasure work to be getting on with. I’ve got a bonfire going in the garden, and I’m just about to dump a whole heap of Jaqueline Wilson books onto it that I rented from my local library. All in a day’s work for a little trans stinker like me.