#LwiththeT – why the TERFs’ London Pride bullshit spectacularly failed

Yesterday was like Christmas for grown-ups. I woke up like a kid on Christmas morning, so excited about seeing England in the World Cup Quarter-Final (OMG, what a football match!) But, like a transphobic relative on Christmas Day, there had to be someone to spoil it, didn’t there? Enter the TERFs.

I’ve not blogged about these vile f*cking bigots for a while. I think a rant is well overdue. I woke early yesterday morning, switched on the radio and listened to the build-up about the big game.

I also turned on my laptop and read everything I could about England. I was an England sponge. This was a great chance for our brave boys to reach a World Cup semi-final for the first time in 28 years – and I missed the one in 1990 (long story).

Then I saw on Twitter the news about a group of vile TERFs hijacking the London Pride march. For those who’ve been living in a cave the past 24 hours, eight lesbians thought it would be a great idea to display transphobic banners and hand out transphobic flyers.

They were right at the front of the march (it should have been LGBT+ heroes from the NHS) and they were NOT stopped. The Pride organisers let them carry on and the police did nothing. Shame on them.

I watched a live stream on Pink News – and the comments on there said it all? Why aren’t they being stopped? Why aren’t they being arrested? This went on for about three quarters of an hour.

Naturally, these bigots had their own hashtag – #GettheLout. And a quick glance at it on Twitter showed all the usual suspects – Posie fucking Parker and her mates – crowing about what was happening, about how these eight lesbians were doing such an amazing public duty.

Their argument is that trans women are “erasing lesbians”, which is of course absurd. They argue that cis lesbians are being “forced” to have sex with trans lesbians. Except they’re not.

Some cis lesbians I know only want to have sex with other cis lesbians. Some are fine with having sex with trans lesbians, too. Either is fine. Nobody’s telling anyone else who they should and shouldn’t have sex with. Why would they?! It’s kind of a personal choice, no?

But the evil TERFs don’t see it that way, do they? Any fucking excuse to slag off transgender people and they go for it, even if what they’re spouting is total bollocks.

Here’s the flyer. And remember this is not considered a hate crime by the Met Police – it appears no arrests were made. Seriously?!

In the past few days, some of them have said on Twitter that trans “isn’t a thing” – that there’s no such thing as “being transgender”. If they relieve believe that, they sure make a hell of a lot of noise about people who don’t exist.

And there’s been a lot of repetition about their theory that trans people are really just regular gay, cis people. So trans men, who “butcher” their breasts (TERFs’ descrption, not mine) are really just lesbians, according to the TERFs.

And trans women are just regular gay men. Except that the theory falls down when you consider the fact that so many trans women are “into women”, not guys. I’ve always fancied women – whether trans or cis. I’ve said this before. I could never have sex with a bloke – I’d literally be physically sick.

But never let the truth get in the way of TERFdom, eh? So there they were yesterday, protesting about their fantasy of trans people “erasing lesbians”. And yet they believe being transgender isn’t real. You couldn’t make it up.

I guess being trans is something that you can never truly understand unless you’re trans yourself. I’ve known since I was six or seven that I’m trans. It’s something cis people will never truly be able to understand because they’ll never experience it in their lifetimes – just like I’ll never know what it’s like to be cis.

So to be told that what I feel – and what all trans people feel – is just pure fantasy really pisses me off. We have enough shit to deal with from people every day without twat TERFs (pun intended) telling us that we don’t feel that way.

And then they childishly refer to “oooooh, teh feeeeeelz”. Well, yeah, it IS a feeling. Just like being gay or bi or lesbian is a feeling. So how can “teh feeeeeeelz” be OK for LGB people and not trans people?

It’s all utter bollocks!

Anyway, the Hateful Eight carried on their march and their mates banged on about it on Twitter (those whose accounts haven’t been closed YET for hateful conduct anyway).

But their protest failed. The hundreds of thousands of people lining the streets just looked at them with incredulity. They’d turned up to see the 30,000 LGBT+ people in the parade – not a few ragtag TERFs and their pathetic protest about a situation that doesn’t even exist.

Some people jeered at them. Shouted “TERFs!” at them. Not a slur at all – but a word they hate all the same. They got very upset about that. But what did they expect, the LGBT+ community of London to welcome them with open arms?

And all it meant was that the transgender people in the proper parade got even more support, even louder cheers, than they would ordinarily get. Hurrah!

Matters continued on Twitter today. While Posie and the Fuckwits continued with their hateful hashtag, everyone else used one of their own: #LwiththeT. And when I say everyone else, I don’t just mean trans people – thousands of cis people, too, including shedloads of lesbians keen to point out that these TERFs don’t represent lesbians at all – apart from a tiny minority of bitter and twisted man-haters.

Even Stephen Fry stepped in!

I’ve always admired Stephen Fry. Naturally, he faced an onlslaught from Poison Posie and others in response, but I guess he really doesn’t give a shit about that.

And the event has made national news in most media outlets. But only because Pride London apologised about what happened and because so many right-thinking people criticised the bigots. Even Sadiq Khan had a pop at them.

So at least, out of a negative, the reaction from most people, including cis people and lesbians, has been overwhelmingly positive.

I suppose I could thank the TERFs for shooting themselves so spectacularly in their collective feet.

But I won’t. They can get fucked!

Andie xxx