Anti-LGBTQ is anti-feminist

There's been far more traffic here lately than in the past, due to the events with AWARE. One thing I'd like to address is where this website is coming from. Some of the Internet commentariat seem to believe this is a gay rights website.

As a matter of fact, Glass Castle is primarily a woman-centred, feminist website focused on gender equality. However, as I've argued many a time, no advocacy for women's rights is complete without advocacy for LGBTQ rights. Primarily, this is because lesbian, bisexual, queer and trans women are women. Their rights are women's rights. This isn't a site that's intended to talk about issues relating to straight and cis (i.e. non-trans) women only.

Further to that, I would argue that heteronormativity (which considers one particular model of heterosexuality the norm and other sexualities deviant), cissexual supremacy (which assigns non-trans identities a position of superiority over trans identities) and gender oppression (misogyny and sexism both) are intimately related. They are all part of the same theoretical edifice which holds that women and men come in two distinct, binary, complementary flavours, each with their own neat little roles. Dismantle any one part and the rest is undermined, to the benefit of all women.

And even, I would argue, to the benefit of all men, of any sexuality. A straight cis boy can be subject to transphobic, homophobic and misogynist bullying - the word "sissy" sums it up - whatever the truth about his sexual orientation and gender identity. Consider what happened in Gitmo, where detainees were dressed in women's clothes in an attempt to humiliate them - that particular form of ill-treatment would not have been possible if being made to perform femininity wasn't regarded as a degradation. And everyone's favourite example of gender discrimination - the reservation to male persons only of National Service - is based on the misogynist idea of feminine inferiority and masculine nobility.

Advocacy for women's rights which ignores LGBTQ rights is incomplete at best, and may be downright detrimental at worst. (And the same may be said for human rights perspectives which don't take into account feminist and LGBTQ perspectives, amongst many other things.)

Anti-LGBTQ is anti-feminist.

http://forums.delphiforums.com/sunkopitiam/messages?msg=27084.1