lesbian organizing & fear of being taken to court

Since two court cases in 1995 (in SA) and 2000 (Victoria) when trans activists working for trans organisations took lesbian organisers to court over a flyer/poster, inviting lesbians born and raised female to a festival, it has become increasingly distressing for me and many of my lesbian sisters, to attend any kind of lesbian activities for fear of being accused of 'discrimination' against trans-identified males demanding to have access to our same sex attracted lesbian spaces. After a lifetime of fighting to be out and accepted as a lesbian, I feel I have been pushed back into the closet! For me it is unacceptable to share the lesbian spaces I have felt safe in with male-bodied "lesbians". As a result, our same sex lesbian events have gone underground and were forced to be private by invitation only events. This is very stressful since new lesbian members now have to be vetted and vouched for by two existing members and secrecy of locations have to be kept at all times. This has caused a sense of paranoia for fear of being taken to court again. I know many other lesbians who've been traumatized by these legal threats in the past, and for being accused of discrimination. The same anti-discrimination laws we fought for for decades, against women, against lesbians, have been used against us by trans activists to force us to open up our same sex spaces to them. We have continued to operate underground but we can't promote our festivals, workshops, and meeting places to younger lesbians in the community. We have been forced to become invisible again, back to the dark ages of the last century.

#australia #lesbian #organizing #legalthreats #backinthecloset

women-only recovery meeting

A trans-identified male started attending our anonymous recovery meeting of women only. There are no women-only or lesbian-only meetings any more. There are "queer" and "trans" meetings populated overwhelmingly with male-bodied people.

#canada #recovery #womensgroups #queer #trans

women-only cycling group, young women in their 20s and one 50+ year-old man

I feel afraid to try new 'women's only' groups. I'm a survivor and feel uncomfortable around men in mixed and public spaces. Women's only spaces have healed me over the last three years. Except now when I'm in a group, there is the fear a male can join at any time.

I joined a women's cycling group. We were all young women in our 20s and an old 50+ years old man called "Margaret". I felt creeped out. The atmosphere was weird as no one was saying anything about the incongruence of this man being in a young women's space. I felt horrible and had to leave. I've experienced a traumatic voyeurism offence against me and was scared he was recording us on Zoom meetings to watch afterwards. I could not be sure of his intentions. It just didn't seem right to me that we couldn't carve one little space for ourselves without men being able to enter. The culture of silence is frightening. I had a friend stop speaking to me after I raised some questions with her based on data from blogs like Fair Play for Women. She said she thought I was harsh and how could I discriminate against such marginalised people who fear their lives everyday. I feel fear every day as a woman from street harassment and knowing the UK feminicide statistics! Unsurprisingly, she didn't want to talk about that...

I feel like I'm living on an alien planet where I'm seeing one thing and others are seeing something else. At the same time, I don't know how many others are keeping silent and afraid of recriminations like myself. I daren't go public... I only try to sometimes talk to my closest female friends if I can. It's very difficult though. The party line of "you're a bigot" if you question the ideology seems all-pervasive, even amongst those who are ordinarily critical thinkers!

#unitedkingdom #england #cyclinggroup #womensgroups #survivors