Talking TERF

What do you really believe?

That’s a question I have to ask myself every day, along with:

• Do you believe that there is still no god?
• Do you believe that science is still a good thing?
• Are you sure?
• Do you believe in life after love?

Well aren’t I a big smuggy smug face with all my self-examination? Yes. Yes, I am.

The reason I ask those questions is not because I’m a radiant beacon of self-awareness but because I’m afraid.  It is so easy to be led into a delusion that one is the righteous goodie, when in fact you have slipped unnoticeably into the role of the moustache twirling bad guy.

For instance, I used to be vehemently opposed to people who are religious.  I believed that anybody who held any religious faith were at best idiots and at worst mentally ill. It took me a long time to look at my own beliefs and realise that I had become a nasty bigot. What does it matter to me if somebody chooses to have religious beliefs? It is only a problem if those beliefs are used by people to do harm. Then let’s face it, those people lose their faith long before they chose to replace it with anger and hatred.  So being angry at religion is a waste of time and energy.  The people who do those things are just using a name of something better than them. They may as well be doing it in the name of Woolworths.

“Praise Pick & Mix!” *boom*

These days I’m rather sanguine when it comes to religious folk. They exist, I exist, and we don’t really bother each other. Except when I hang around church fetes buying delicious chutneys. I love delicious chutneys.

So why am I saying all this stuff with words?

Mainly because I need to confess my intransigence before accusing others of the same.

The others I wish to accuse on this day and at this hour are Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFS),

It is possible, if you have little contact with the LGBT community, that you will have never heard of TERFS. Unfortunately I have, and I want to talk about them.

TERFS are a hate group directed at transgender people. Like the delusional Pick and Mix bombers I mentioned earlier, they are completely certain that they are morally correct  and believe that they are acting in the best interests of the human race.

Their techniques include shouting ‘penis’ at transgender women in the street, hijacking pride parades and accusing trans men of being butch lesbians. They have created websites designed to fan hysteria about the ‘transgenderization’ of children. Sites disguised as educational tools, purporting to give parents the ‘real’ information about the ‘Transgender Narrative’. Yes, I am using a lot of quotation marks.

Their techniques will be familiar to people who have studied the rise of Donald Trump in America and our own home-grown political manoeuvrings around Brexit. Like the National Socialists of 1930s, they believe that they are protecting people from their definition of degenerate beings.

Sadly, like the Pick and Mix bomber their enemies don’t really exist. They have shaped monsters out of their own ignorance and stupidity and allowed them to grow and flourish in their own shit.

The greatest of these myths is that trans people are trying to convert children to what they call ‘transgenderism’. They actually believe that trans people are the Borg!

It pains me to see the word feminist used by these people. I was brought up to believe in feminist ideals and I have always endeavoured to be an example of how masculinity can embrace the feminine, even as a cis and gay man. So let me deliver this warning.  If you are a TERF, you are part of the dark forces that are engulfing the world and history will judge you as it has other groups like yours. Is that really how you want to be remembered? What do you really believe?

Sadly, if you are a TERF you will never read this because I have a penis.

PENIS!