Evangelical Christian who thinks homosexuality is a sin now says anti-trans lesbians are his ‘heroes’
Conservative anti-abortion commentator Tyler O’Neil described UK anti-trans group ‘Get the L Out’ as his heroes. (Twitter)
A conservative commentator in the US who is staunchly anti-abortion and thinks homosexuality is a sin has demonstrated how close the ideological links are between evangelical Christians and anti-trans lesbians, by writing an op-ed describing how UK group “Get the L Out” are his new heroes.
Tyler O’Neil, a senior editor for PJ Media who has written for outlets including The Christian Post and the National Review and appeared on Fox News with Tucker Carlson, wrote a November 12 column titled, ‘I’m an Evangelical Christian. Here’s How Some Lesbian Feminists Became My Heroes.’
The links between so-called “gender critical feminism” in the UK with both rightwing Christians in the US and far-right white supremacists is increasingly well-documented.
Most recently, prominent UK “gender-critical feminist” Posie Parker did a YouTube interview with a well-known Canadian white nationalist, and UK lesbian activist Linda Bellos travelled to the US Supreme Court to speak out against protecting trans people from employment discrimination, in a case brought by an evangelical Christian anti-abortion law firm called Alliance Defending Freedom.
O’Neil’s column shows why the Christian right find anti-trans lesbian feminists so appealing.
“I’m a conservative evangelical Christian. I still oppose abortion, support traditional marriage, and push back against the false narrative of the gender pay gap. But I cannot help but be impressed by these feminists who vehemently disagree with me on all those issues,” he said.
“The topsiturvidom of transgender activism has united strange bedfellows, bringing WoLF [Women’s Liberation Front] together with the Heritage Foundation and Alliance Defending Freedom,” O’Neil added.
WoLF, a “feminist” group in the US, filed a brief supporting the ADF’s Supreme Court case. The group has previously received money from the ADF and is considered to be a political front for the anti-LGBT+ law firm.
I’m a conservative evangelical Christian, but lesbian feminists like Miriam Ben-Shalom have become some of my heroes in the past year and a half. We disagree… https://t.co/c8nQJ3DCD2
— Tyler O’Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) November 12, 2019
“Some of the very feminists I once mistrusted have become my heroes, showing the courage to speak the truth in the face of harassment and violence…. Last year, I read about a movement called ‘Get the L Out’ — a group of feminists in the LGBT movement in Britain who rightly objected to the mainstreaming of transgender identity. They wanted to get the ‘T’ out of the LGBT acronym, but eventually settled on getting the ‘L’ out, instead,” O’Neil said.
‘Get the L Out’ is the small group of anti-trans lesbians who broke into the front of the Pride in London parade in 2018, lying down in front of the march to protest “lesbian erasure” by trans activists.
As per the Southern Poverty Law Centre, it is a documented strategy of the anti-LGBT+ Christian right to separate the T from LGBT: “Transgender rights [are] depicted as anti-feminist, hostile to minorities and even disrespectful to LGB individuals.
“This seems to be part of a larger strategy, meant to weaken transgender rights advocates by attempting to separate them from their allies, feminists and LGBT rights advocates.”
