Over the past week, guest bloggers have provided a range of responses – formal and informal, personal and political – to the Welsh Government’s LGBTQ+ Action Plan. Whatever their vantage point, all share our concerns – in terms of the evidence-free inadequacy of the document itself, the lack of engagement with those who do not accept the gender ideology that underpins the entire Plan and, most powerfully, the implications for same-sex attracted people, particular for lesbians.
Sarah Tanburn, co-founder LGBAC summarised the problems in Let’s talk about sex:
The Welsh Government’s ‘LGBTQ+’ Action Plan is allegedly for lesbian, gay and bisexual people as well as those falling under the trans umbrella. We disagree with the government’s approach; this Plan has disturbing implications for all of us who believe that sex is real, immutable and important.
We refuse to be silent when we see the rights and protections based on sexual orientation and sex trashed by a Government which dares to call itself feminist.
We call on Welsh Government to withdraw their Plan and start again. Next time round, they need an honest and open process of consultation, which recognises the different views and respects the issues being raised by gender critical campaigners.
Lesbian Labour has rejected the Action Plan in its entirety, pointing out that it ignores both lesbians and the attacks on them by others in the LGBTQ+ ‘community’.
As Lesbians, we are being defined out of existence. We are constantly accused of transphobia and bigotry when we try to assert and maintain our sexual boundaries. Due to this, our mental and emotional health suffers greatly. Worryingly, the frequency of physical assaults against Lesbians and Gay men is also on the rise.
LGB Alliance Cymru member Mary Douglas, who organised the Wales Lesbian Millenium Festival in 2000, is clear that discrimination against same-sex attracted people is increasing in Wales. She is also clear about where the blame lies:
It makes me want to weep when I think of how hard we fought for equal rights for LGB people and how we mistakenly believed that homophobia was gradually being eradicated. The LGBTQ+ Action Plan and the Stonewall agenda are all part of the problem we face. They are actively, in their insistence that transwomen are women and that a person is whatever they self-identify as, working against LGB rights.
It’s homophobia still — just a new, Welsh government-backed form of homophobia.
Her view is reiterated by another LGB Alliance Cymru member Lee Davies:
It is clear that Pride and Stonewall, the organisation that is driving the gender identity juggernaut, no longer represent lesbian, gay and bisexual people. In fact, they are actively harmful to the interests and boundaries of lesbians and bisexual women.
The Welsh Government needs to listen to the voices of LGB people who are now under attack by the very organisation that was set up to defend them. Instead, they have consistently refused even to meet with lesbians, gay men and bisexuals who are not toeing the Stonewall line.”
Welsh Government’s LGBTQ+ Action Plan is biased, partial, and incoherent. If enacted, the recommendations will have a negative impact on anyone who doesn’t accept the ideology that underpins it – including LGB people.
We do not consent. And #WelshWomenWontWheesht.
