Antifa organize to shut down ‘transphobic’ lesbian rally in England

“It has come to our attention that Trans Action Bloc and Leeds Antifa are planning to protest our peaceful march a rally to come together as exclusively same sex attracted lesbians and celebrate who we are and who we love," rally organizers Lesbian Strength Collective said in a statement.

They went on to say that their “primary commitment is to the safety and well being” of all their attendees, and that they intended to update the police and their security firm about the situation.

The statement was issued following this call to action on the Trans Action Bloc Twitter page:

“CALL TO ACTION!" They wrote. "Lesbian Solidarity, a counter demo to Lesbian Strength, will celebrate lesbians while opposing transphobia in Leeds next Saturday. The trans and lesbian communities have always been intertwined! Come along, bring your friends, and spread the word!”

They describe Lesbian Strength as a “gathering of transphobes” and suggest the march is “deliberately used to marginalize and target non-binary and trans lesbians.”

A “trans lesbian” is a biological male who identifies as a woman and is attracted to women. The majority of “trans lesbians” still have their male anatomy fully intact.

Attendees of the counter-protest are encouraged to wear masks for “covid and doxxing reasons.”

Lesbian Strength tweeted to say that the woman named by Trans Action Blog as the organizer of the rally is not the organizer and called their naming of her “untrue and a disgusting thing to do.”

The Leeds Antifascist Network also announced its intention to participate in the protest.

“We will [be] joining Trans, Non-Binary and cis feminists in opposing the transphobic Lesbian Strength march”

This situation is the result of a clash between two opposing worldviews. On the one hand, there are people who believe sexual orientation is grounded in the material reality of our biological sex. So a heterosexual person is a person attracted to members of the opposite sex; a homosexual person is attracted to members of the same sex.

On the other side, there are those who believe that sexual orientation refers to attraction to gender identities. So a homosexual woman is a person with a female gender identity who is attracted to people with a female gender identity, regardless of whether they are anatomically male or female.

The response on Twitter reflected this clash of opinions.

One man called out what he believes to be “blatant transphobia”, stating that “no one has an issue with some lesbians celebrating being lesbian … but when they use the term exclusive same sex attraction that means they are planning to be anti trans.”

While a member of Lesbian Strength had this to say:

“So us #Lesbian are having a march next wknd. We plan to say things like lesbians are female homosexuals & Lesbians don't have penises

Apparently this is "transphobia"

"This has has made the #homophobes mad. They plan to counter protest us.”

Many lesbians feel that the trans rights movement is turning the clock back and stripping them of their hard-won rights. One Twitter user said:

“At some point the only way we'll be able to gather peacefully is if we do it in secret. It's a scary time we live in and I never thought we'd be back in this place again.”

Lesbians weren't the only ones to make their feelings about this known. Many gay men also joined in the Twitter storm.

James Dreyfus called it utterly and patently absurd to call same-sex attraction transphobic.