Words Mean Things (but this post may contain a lot of screenshots) 😜

homophobia

/ˌhɒməˈfəʊbɪə,ˌhəʊməˈfəʊbɪə/

noun

dislike of or prejudice against gay people. 

So, a couple of days ago, amidst the ongoing fallout from Brighton  I came across this quote tweet:

An argument/ debate then ensued as to whether religious women can be feminists and included in the Womens movement. It then widened to encompass the quoted tweet presented as being indicative of homophobia when to my mind, it isn’t. Making a factually correct statement about the Bible isn’t homophobia in and of itself. 

I decided to wade in defence of a Woman called Amanda, who had pointed out: 

“I’m sure no one is arguing that all women are feminists. But there’s lots of different ways of being a feminist and, under the banner of centring the welfare of women and girls, different women will have different ideas about how to do that and where the priorities lie.”

She also pointed out that “We can’t make ourselves into paragons of universal virtue by a simple act of will. Complete belief in their moral superiority is where the SJW’s have gone wrong”, which Rose erroneously interpreted as being “forced teamed with homophobes”.

Amanda was not only responded to in thread by Rose, but also QT’ed to induce the inevitable pile on. Infact, Amanda was hounded so badly, she was forced to delete this tweet: 

“Rose, you can participate in your own tiny ultra-pure women’s movement if you want. No one’s forcing you to do anything. Just don’t expect any meaningful political results other than your own sense of moral superiority.”

Here is my opening Tweet:

“No, Amanda was pointing out that there may be women who have different perspectives on whether homosexuality is a sin, but still believe a biological male is not a woman. If Rose wants to set her boundaries around associating with such women, that’s fine, but… not everyone may feel similar. Especially when the mere notion of being “Twitter mutuals” with a person who factually points out Abrahamic Faith doctrines is a huge issue for Rose.”

I do not follow Piper or Amanda, and it seemed to me, especially in the wake of Brighton, that this was yet another singling out and weaponisation of a protected characteristic to develop the “never right wing, talking to the right gives you wrongthink cooties” narrative we’ve all been subjected to ad nauseam over the last month.

Well, for the “Sin” of pointing out that there are sometimes irreconcilable differences between sexual orientation & religious beliefs; there is a world beyond ones immediate environs and sometimes worlds collide, and, it is important to have mutual respect for each other’s boundaries, I’ve spent the last 3 days being called a “homophobe”, “homophobia apologist”, been subjected to racial micro-aggressions, told to tolerate misogyny, been told I’m “clueless” and “fuck you”, and to “fuck off” by my so-called “sisters” in “feminism”. Oh, and of course, had my views deliberately misrepresented in order to induce a pile on by our dear feminist leader, @janeclarejones to her 60K followers to induce a pile on. Interesting times.

It all came to an end (hopefully)in the early hours of yesterday morning, when I made clear that MY boundary was that I don’t tolerate personal abuse from anyone on my “side” irrespective of sexual orientation & was promptly blocked and misrepresented to almost 60K followers on Twitter.

Obviously, I’m not a homophobe, as a quick glance at my timeline will tell you. I have a couple of people very close to me who are gay, & both online and in real life, I have fought to defend the rights of gay people to love whoever they want to love. As a woman, the right of lesbians to have their sexual boundaries respected is Bible (see what I did there😉❓). Incidentally, I am currently engaged with a prominent professional regulator, defending the sexual boundaries of Lesbians, even though I’m not a Lesbian.

I’m also a Woman who has lived, studied and worked on 3 different continents, and encountered many people from different cultures with varying views on homosexuality. I’m someone who believes in dialogue & not ostracisation. And I don’t condone abuse & intimidatory behaviour. I’m not sure how many minds you change by engaging in those actions. All 3 Abrahamic Faiths contain homophobic texts, but not all religious people are homophobic, in my experience. A woman said “The bible is clear. Homosexuality is wrong” in a discussion about whether God would approve of gay marriage, not as her rationale for believing homosexuality is wrong, but as her rationale for why God would not approve. She may well think it’s wrong (and I think a thorough look at the remainder of her timeline reveal a lot of views I’m not agreeable with) but we don’t know that from the tweet that was quoted to induce a pile on.

I have *never* said Lesbians should align themselves with Homophobes. I have said Lesbians have a complete Right to their boundaries & that outside of the Law, nobody gets to unilaterally impose their boundaries on others. This is what it means to live in a liberal democracy with a plurality of views. It sometimes means very difficult conversations & a degree of tolerance (which does not necessarily mean “acceptance”). Funnily enough, other Lesbians agreed with me!

“I’m a lesbian. The bible says homosexuality is wrong. I disagree with the bible. Some people believe that the bible is right. As long as they don’t think I have to abide by their beliefs & don’t aim to influence policy to take away my rights, their beliefs aren’t my concern.”

Another reason I have stuck to my stance amidst the tide of unpleasant behaviour I’ve encountered, is because I’m not a hypocrite. Nobody is entitled to be a homophobe, but everyone is entitled to freedom of belief. As a matter of fact, Maya Forstater’s win for UK women everywhere to be able to express that sex is immutable & binary is down to UK courts recognising women have a right to Freedom of Belief. 

I cannot defend my own right to freedom of belief to say a man can never be a woman, and then subsequently deny another GC woman her right to express her faith based belief. Depending on her manifestation of that belief, I may challenge her, I may criticise her. I’m not quite sure I will revert immediately to a pile on & abuse. I will defend any lesbian’s right to have her sexual partner of choice, but ultimately I don’t believe it is ‘homophobia’ to acknowledge that women who belong to The Abrahamic Faiths often know and have to negotiate their religion’s stance on homosexuality (it can vary) with their feminist beliefs & goals.

Honestly, Jane Clare Jones & her friends could really do with learning the difference between critiquing a belief system and mistreating a demographic group. Maybe this is not taught at PhD level, but it’s profoundly dishonest to weaponise sexual orientation to use against other GC/feminist factions, because of a dislike for KJK.

If you are interested in my views on Homophobia and lesbian boundaries, here they are a few in my own words, as expressed over the last few days & also in the past:

Jane & her acolytes have spread a lot of malicious mistruths about me in relation to my views on sexual orientation. I know the reason is to discredit me because I don’t believe in their totalitarian attempts to redefine feminism for every woman & because I am a supporter of Posie Parker & the work Sex Matters does.

Their attempts won’t work because Black don’t crack 😄💪🏾, and more importantly, the work we are all doing as GC women, is way too significant to be derailed by closed minded female bigots from the left, with very parochial, ignorant views of the world, beyond their immediate environs of Brighton and Wales.

Whilst JCJ and her mates bully women on Twitter, KJK is currently doing an excellent job highlighting the harms of gender extremism in the USA to children, LGB folk and to Women. And Maya & Helen, those indomitable powerhouses, crisscross the country from Wales, to Scotland, to London, highlighting the dangers of the Scots Gender Reform, putting out excellent position papers on Gender Identity and Teens, putting forward the GC case at the Battle of Ideas, etc. 

These are the Women I unapologetically align myself with. I’m a Gender Critical Feminist. Nobody gets to tell me otherwise. The idea that the only true feminism is left wing socialist feminism and that women from any other point on the political or religious spectrum are actually harmful, is a complete nonsense.

I also think trying to pressure other womens boundaries by calling them “fascists” & “homophobes”, because they believe in freedom of assembly and freedom of religious belief, is anti-feminist bullshit.

Words mean things. So do Principles. GC Love and Solidarity, Always.

P.S. A couple of GC action points:

There’s a Rape by deception consultation by the CPS:

‘Deception as to Gender’ legal guidance

Please do try and make a submission. The 12-week consultation begins on 26 September and will end on 19 December. Prosecutors are asked to consider issues such as how the suspect perceived their gender at the time of the offence and assess whether there has been an active or deliberate deception. 

NHS Specification Consultation for “Trans Kids”– The consultation on Interim service specification for specialist gender dysphoria services for children and young people is open, it closes on 4 December. If you’ve had doubts on puberty blockers for kids, the importance of therapy, “transing the gay” away, trans conversion therapy, now is the time to have your say!

Also, on the 2nd of December, I’m delighted to share a platform with: my favourite difficult woman, Sarah Phillimore, the indefatigable Maria MacLachlan, the incomparable Helen Staniland, the ineffable Dennis Kavanagh, a man who has paid a very heavy price for speaking out against Gender Extremism, Graham Linehan, and the amazingly erudite @FemmeLoves, whose gift with words has reduced me to tears once or twice. Join us at Conway Hall, London. Doors open from 7pm to discuss our Peak Trans Journeys, Transpositions — personal journeys into gender criticism. Our lovely event is already proving controversial, find out why here.