Neo-Nazis and homophobes are among the supporters of the ‘anti-trans’ group LGB Alliance
The LGB Alliance.
Neo-Nazis and homophobes are among those supporting the UK ‘anti-trans’ pressure group the LGB Alliance.
As the LGB Alliance lobbies to be given charitable status in the UK, an image from social-networking site Spinster – which is an offshoot of the alt-right message board, Gab, and has been described as “a social-media platform for TERFs” – suggests that the anti-trans organisation counts neo-Nazis among its supporters.
More than 17,000 people have signed a petition trying to stop the group gaining charity status on the grounds that it is a “transphobic hate group”.
But the group has the support of homophobes, whereas neo-Nazis have also spoken in support of the LGB Alliance, as the image from Spinster shows.
There is nothing to suggest the LGB Alliance has sought or welcomed such supporters, but when asked by PinkNews to denounce neo-Nazis, the LGB Alliance refused.
The image was posted during a discussion about “purity politics” and Posie Parker – a “gender critical” campaigner who herself was interviewed at length by Jean-François Gariépy, a French-Canadian white nationalist, whose other interview guests have included the neo-Nazis Richard Spencer and Mark Collett, as well as former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
Talking about violence against women and lack of recourse to police support, one person said: “We need a female militia tbh, not even waste time on rapist enabling rapey cops.”
In response, another user – who had also been posting neo-Nazi propaganda, and who claimed to be a US-based LGB Alliance supporter – posted a picture of a figure in a death head mask, holding an assault rifle and wearing a t-shirt bearing the distinctive LGB Alliance slogan.
“Oh don’t worry, the female militia are in the shadows,” the person said, adding a winky-face emoticon to their message.
An image shared by an LGB Alliance supporter on “feminist” social-networking site Spinster.
A death head, or Totenkopf, symbol was worn on the uniform of concentration-camp guards during the Nazi era, and is now commonly used as a neo-Nazi symbol, according to The Anti-Defamation League.
LGB Alliance, homophobia and biphobia.
Despite being a group supposedly set up to campaign for lesbian, gay and bisexual people, the LGB Alliance has been labelled homophobic and biphobic itself, as have its supporters and associates.
One such group is Women Make Glasgow, which came under fire in December 2019 for comments it made on government funding of the HIV prevention drug, PrEP.
“And the PrEP Pledge? The SNP guarenteeing [sic] free anti HIV medication to people too lazy, irresponsible and self entitled to buy and use condoms!” Women Make Glasgow tweeted on December 12 2019.
Fred Sargeant, a gay activist and an LGB Alliance supporter himself, immediately called this out as homophobic, tweeting: “There’s homophobic and then there’s gay bashing. This is an unusual combination of both.”
There's homophobic and then there's gay bashing. This is an unusual combination of both.
— Fred Sargeant (@FredSargeant) January 23, 2020
In spite of this, LGB Alliance invited Women Make Glasgow to speak at an event it held on January 18 in Glasgow, Scotland.
Women Make Glasgow used that opportunity to claim that “LGBT+ clubs in schools are negatively impacting on girls”, according to a member of the audience who tweeted the comment.
An LGB Alliance supporter tweeted this picture of a panel on which Women Make Glasgow made the anti-gay comment. (Twitter/MerchaniVal)
LGBT+ clubs in schools – which were banned under homophobic Section 28 legislation – have become a troubling issue for the LGB Alliance, who seem to be opposed to them despite them providing a safe space for lesbian, gay and bisexual youth to safely meet.
One of the groups co-founders, Malcolm Clark, said in January 2020 that there shouldn’t be LGBT+ clubs in schools because of “predatory gay teachers“.
Clark’s comments, which were quickly denounced to be anti-LGBT+, were made in an online discussion about an LGB Alliance supporter being kicked out of an LGBT+ nightclub in Glasgow for refusing to reverse her t-shirt bearing the group’s slogan – the same t-shirt design and slogan as worn by the figure posted by a neo-Nazi on Spinster.
Colin Macfarlane, the director of LGBT+ rights group Stonewall Scotland, said Clark’s comments were “the worst sort of homophobic rhetoric”.
The LGB Alliance has also been accused of ignoring bisexual people and of having high-profile biphobic supporters who it hasn’t distanced itself from.
A Change.org petition created and back by a group of long-time advocates for the bisexual community, asking the LGB Alliance to remove the “B” from its branding, said: “High profile supporters… have made public statements of biphobia with one well known supporter, Julie Bindel, being famous for her disproportionate hatred of bisexual people, and another, Sarah Ditum, expressing distaste for bisexual people.”
The petition also links to a tweet from Ditum saying she finds “bisexual aggravating as a label” because it categorises people in a “meaningless” way and is “erasing of women”.
Ditum, who identifies as bisexual despite finding the label “aggravating”, also told PinkNews that her comment “in no way suggests distaste for bi people and particularly not for bi women”. She added that “it is, obviously, a reflection on the label itself and on the appropriateness of gender neutral labels in the highly gendered world of sex”.
“LGB Alliance have chosen not to distance themselves from these sentiments,” the group added.
“[The group] are cynically leveraging the bi community to further their agenda. We do not believe that LGB Alliance intend to genuinely include bisexual people in their mission.”
The group has also been called homophobic for its stance on drag queens, who it says are “highly sexualised and only appropriate for adults”.
In a tweet that was immediately labelled “painfully homophobic” by gay author Dr Senthorun Raj, the anti-trans pressure group said: “The increasing used of drag queens in family/young children public events, and in some schools, is concerning.
“Drag is an important part of gay culture, but it is highly sexualised and only appropriate for adults. How can this help normalise being LGB to children?”
The idea that drag queens are a threat to children is as painfully homophobic as it is unoriginal. The LGB Alliance should spend less time moralising about gay culture and more time, you know, seeing a therapist about their internalised homophobia. That, or find a bin to stay in. pic.twitter.com/mP2mqXsO7B— Senthorun Raj (@senthorun) December 9, 2019
In a February 5 update to its “valued supporters” on its JustGiving page, the LGB Alliance says: “We have set up as a limited company and prepared our application for charity status.”
“Once we are a charity, we will be able to apply for grant funding,” the group added.
For an organisation to become a charity, the Charity Commission requires that it have a set of purposes that are “for the public benefit”.
LGB Alliance has been contacted for comment.
