I understand @BoyzMagazine that you’ve made the decision to backdown in the face of public criticism.

I get it;

Flaming torches feel like a convincing argument even though I promise you they’re not.

But, I was at the @ALLIANCELGB webinar tonight:

There was no hatred, no right wing machinations, no denouncement of trans people, no pearl clutching about nonconformity. Quite the reverse. The four, decent and lovely men we got to hear speak talked about their own journeys, their own nonconformity and their experiences.

They talked about pivotal moments of the gay rights movement and about their own thoughts around conversations of gender. They talked in considerate ways about the rights of transsexuals and about how many of them feel harmed by current attitudes towards them, too (which they do)

The talk was good humoured&riveting. No one would have been unsafe or maligned if they’d sat down beside them to join in the discussion

That they believe their sexual orientation deserves to still be recognised in 2020 instead of rewritten is what really makes them controversial

That’s it.

Nothing more hateful and unacceptable than thinking that gay and lesbian and bisexual people should continue to be allowed to describe and define their sexual orientation without being called fetishists or denounced as old fashioned for being same sex attracted.

They talked about solidarity too and about how you don’t show solidarity by all trying to think, and be, the same. You do so by being individuals who often think differently, simply as a result of not being the same person, and then you fight for each other’s rights and wellbeing

So, on the one hand here are people who believe in diversity of thought and character, and who believe that respect is not what you get when you force people to obey your own ideas or see things from only your perspective. Who know solidarity is not one-sided either.

People who think we should allowed to have the freedom to speak,learn,discuss and *be*, whether lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans. On the other hand you have a small group of admittedly loud people who think you as an organisation&the gay people you support should be bullied&shamed

That you should be shouted&emoted at until you bend the knee. These arent people who represent all trans people, though some of them are trans. They often call trans people who stand up to them names as well.They’re just cross&online but they are trying to take something from you

They want you to accept that being gay,lesbian or bi is not about what sex youre attracted to but what gender you like. You cant see gender. You cant know gender ‘til someone tells you. Because the LGB were being redefined to be such an abstract concept the alliance now exists

It is no more hateful for them to stand up for their own rights again now than it was when the people trying to deny the LGB those rights were heterosexuals.

You say you want to heal the schism in your communities. That’s noble. It also isn’t achieved this way.

To heal rifts, it takes people from all perspectives who are willing to recognise the humanity and the diversity of everybody else.

By capitulating to those who expressly don’t recognise those things about you, you only widen the schisms further.

Worse, the often silent, and vast, group of people who are watching what is being taken from them in horror have less and less support.

I don’t want this to be a world where I have to watch my gay friend called a bigot for only dating other males.

One where our oh so progressive friends sit back&watch him called out of touch&treated with obvious disgust. Its insidious&recognisably homophobic.I don’t want lesbians increasingly told they are evil people, either, if they won’t have sex with males in the name of inclusion.

Do you want that?

If you don’t then I’m sorry but, sooner or later, you’re going to have do something more courageous than falling on your sword and giving the people who have been shouting at you such undeserved flowers

Please do it soon.