Lesbian activist unmasks the bigotry of transphobic TERFs in must-read rant
In Norway lesbian LGBT+ activist Brita Møystad Engseth has published a clear challenge to lesbian TERFs.
Norway does not see the same amount of “gender critical” anti-trans activism as Britain, I am glad to say. But there are a some who are given ample space in mainstream media.
Recently one of the country’s leading lesbian feminists and LGBT+ activists, Brita Møystad Engseth (photo from LGBT-magazine Blikk above), had had enough of the activism of the lesbian trans-exclusionary radical feminist Tonje Gjevjon and her associates. Engseth published a fierce attack in the national newspaper Dagbladet.
Her observations are also relevant for the debate in other countries, which is why I will provide you with some highlights here.
Note that Gjejjon is known for her hateful attacks against Norwegian trans women, using misgendering and accusations about sexual deviance and potential violence as standard tools of oppression.
Lesbian privilege
The debate about gender and trans is far too important to be left to “boogeywomen” (literally “dark women”), Engseth writes, before going into the privileged position of lesbians like herself and Tone Gjevjon:
“Both Gjevjon and I belong to the generation of lesbians who were allowed to be ourselves without risking lives and limbs. We can thank the uncompromising gay heroes who went before us for this.
…for us it was never — never — anything other than a matter of course that we could occupy any public space and take part in any public debate like the ones we truly are.”
Engseth adds, though, that even if they were given room to be themselves when younger, many would experience loneliness, separation and the longing to find someone like themselves. This is why she finds it so hard to understand why Gjevjon and her fellow “radical lesbians” cannot empathize with others who experience something similar.
Pulling up the ladder
Engseth find it incomprehensible that members of a sexual minority will pull up the ladder and exclude people who will not or cannot follow the binary sex norm.
It is as if all the previous battles for freedom and justice have never happened, Engseth observes.
Gjevjon also claims to be an expert in many fields, Engseth says:
“…fields that actually requires more than posting selected links, statistics and reports fetched from the dark deep of American internet communities, only with the purpose of strengthening the TERF movement’s painfully ignorant universe.”
This is the photo of Gjevjon the newspaper Dagbladet used to illustrate Engseth’s article. It reminds us that most TERFs are white, privileged, middle and upper class women. (Photo: Hampus Lundgren).
Engseth finds it inconceivable that Gjevjon does not understand that she, through her attitudes and use of language (“which in no ways are censored, rejected or canceled”) actually harms other people, and not just in the figurative sense, but in the true sense of the word: “Injuries, wounds and destroys,” as Engseth puts it.
Criticizing Norwegian media
Engseth criticizes the press and the fact that large parts of “Culture Norway” seem to accept her statements without questioning whether they are based on facts.
“The identity debate is complicated,” she writes. “And it therefore requires the presence of adults who can talk calmly and sensibly using indoor voices.”
Queer people have to get up of their comfy sofas
Engseth points out that many sensible queer persons are reluctant to take part in this debate, because they are immediately accused of bullying and censorship.
“To Gjevjon and other anti-trans-activists I will just say: Really? Was someone mean to you online because you promote ideas which no one has seen since the boogeymen (“dark men”) of the Church had their heyday in the nineties? Did you present ideas that made someone think you are narrow-minded and mean?
“Not even the world’s smallest violin would bother to play for those who seeks the holy martyrdom of of cancel victims on such a weak basis. And to all of us, the party gay and party lesbians who surfed into the new millennium without a scratch: We have to turn off RuPaul’s drag race, get out of our comfortable couches and get a grip.”
Norwegian version of Engseth’s article.
Google translation of article.
Originally published at https://trans-express.lgbt.
