Do Lesbians go extinct with Transgenders to blame?

If this discussion is not for you, don’t read it and upset yourself.

No, Lesbians are not going the way of the Dodo. But there are a few Lesbian opinion leaders who claim that Lesbians are like endangered species but without any facts to support their claim. What is going on?

Trans-phobia and Other Hatred

Let me first clarify that being Feminist, Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual does not make a person holy, better, or left-wing, automatically. I remember this top neo-Nazi in the Netherlands who was Gay and wanted a platform as a neo-Nazi in the Gay Community — no joke. The Gay Community leaders responded: any GLB person is welcome but not to promote hatred.

TERFs are Trans-Excluding Radical Feminists. They form a hate group by Feminists trying to invalidate Trans-people. If a Gay activist can be a Nazi, a Feminist can be a hater of Trans-people, for sure. (Though a difference exists. Gay is an identity, Feminist a conviction. But, progressives are not necessarily free from bigotry, as I blogged before.)

There is only a handful of TERFs so they don’t give Feminists a bad name. But they do play an important role in trashing Trans-genders, especially in the UK. I’ve blogged about this numerous times.

Some of the TERFs are Lesbians who now claim that Lesbians are endangered to go extinct because of Trans-people. It sounds, at first, totally nuts. So, could there be any reason for their false claim?

I think there might be. Though the claim is still nonsense.

Timeline of More Options

At first, any healthy normal person was considered Straight. There are still communities and countries that deny the existence of any other type.

And, one could be a man or a woman and that was it.

Slowly, very slowly, the awareness grew that Gays and Lesbians don’t only exist in every group of people, but, on average, even close to 5%.

It took even more years before some acknowledgment grew that there are True Bisexuals, men and women who can have equally satisfying sexuality and relationships with men as with women.

Public awareness of Trans-genders was also slow. Psychiatrists already a century ago understood that that cannot be changed with psychotherapy, so the only way to help some extreme cases of sex unhappiness was a sex change. But, this awareness grew very slowly on the general population.

The sum-total of the above was that men and women received 6 options (we’ll abbreviate Lesbian as G(ay) and opposite Trans comes C(is)): SC, ST, GC, GT, BS, BT. That was a nice start. However, this would work best for most men but many women could not find themselves within those narrow ridged options. Many preferred ‘without label,’ or ‘I don’t know.’

Meanwhile, self-chosen labels for everyone mushroomed. Pansexual meant that gender was not important for their partner choice. Some people started calling themselves Bi-Gender, Non-Gender, A-Sexual, etc.

I think that especially women, whose sexuality seems more flexible than men’s, saw their options for non-Straight Cis women swell. There used to ‘be’ just Lesbians and Bisexual women; suddenly, women started calling themselves all kinds of other things. I think that that alarmed some Lesbians, as if they would end up without fellow-Lesbians. Not, of course.

Freaking Out, Seeking a Scapegoat

But some of these alarmed women decided to blame the Trans-men who betrayed their biological sex and wanted to be recognized as men — the ultimate anti-Feminist betrayal — for a woman, but not for a Trans-guy.

Yes, women who used to call themselves Lesbians or Bisexuals, now would call themselves A-sexual, Trans-gender men, Questioning, Queer, etc. But there is no sign that all Lesbians will disappear. And it is neither true that especially Trans-liberation robbed Lesbians of their numbers.

But that’s what must be happening for the Lesbians who blame Trans-men for endangering Lesbian survival. NB: 1.5% of all women call themselves Lesbian now, and 0.03% identify as Trans-men. That means that there are 50 times more Lesbians than Trans-men. Trans-people are an extremely vulnerable group, easy to pick on, but they are not to blame here.

In fact, no one is to blame. Women have more options and not every non-majority woman will now identify as Lesbian. Get over it, I would say.

And it seems too that some of the anti-Trans Lesbians envy the attention Trans-youths are getting. Well, they can be jealous of all youths having it better now. But, should they be jealous of those who have it the hardest?

Meanwhile, almost no Lesbian bothers anybody on what they want to call themselves. The anti-Trans sentiments only come from a few but very loud women. As I said above, that doesn’t hurt women, Feminism, Lesbians, or Bi-sexual women; but it fortifies the oppression of Trans-genders and self-hatred and hopelessness among Trans-people, and it needs to stop.

About the Author

MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, an almost daily blog contributor to the Times of Israel, and previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is (partly) generated by AI. * As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. He doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit about what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and education contribute to his visions. * If you don't know the Dutch, get an American peek behind the scenes here: https://youtu.be/QMPp6h6r72M * To find less-recent posts on subject XXX among his 2000 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog, to which one may subscribe, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/. * Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. Yet, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people who don't deserve that. He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. * Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. He has written a lot about Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (including basic statistics), Politics (Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, Activism), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA+, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust, and Jewish Liberation), the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Veganism, Affairs from the news, or the Torah Portion of the Week, or new insights that suddenly befell him. * His most influential teachers (chronologically) are his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim, Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. * One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. * He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. He loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, anti-elitism, anti-bigotry and supremacy, for Zionism, Intersectionality, and non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. * He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too. Bullies and con artists almost instantaneously envy and hate him. * He holds a BA in medicine (University of Amsterdam) – is half a doctor. He practices Re-evaluation Co-counseling since 1977, is not an official teacher anymore, and became a friendly, empowering therapist. He became a social activist, became religious, made Aliyah, and raised three wonderful kids non-violently. For a couple of years, he was active in hasbara to the Dutch-speaking public. He wrote an unpublished tome about Jewish Free Will. He's being a strict vegan since 2008. He's an Orthodox Jew but not a rabbi. He lives with his library in Jerusalem. Feel free to contact him. * His writing has been made possible by a (second-generation) Holocaust survivors' allowance from the Netherlands. It has been his dream since he was 38 to try to make a difference by teaching through writing. He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having an original peek outside of your cultural bubble. * To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me. * His newest books you may find here: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMoshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&s=relevancerank&text=Moshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1