A Year in Review: “2021 was the year the fight to regain sex-based rights took form,” writes Jo Bartosch

By 2020 the “no debate” line of trans activists was already stretched; in 2021 it finally snapped. The public began to question the placement of rapists in women’s prisons, to ask why men are on lesbian dating apps and what exactly JK Rowling said that was wrong? Stonewall, the self-appointed arbiters of inclusion, have been exposed as a dodgy protection racket pushing a logically and legally unsound narrative. For the first time chief executive Nancy Kelley found herself asked, and unable to answer, simple questions such as “is it bigoted for lesbians to sexually exclude men?”

Thanks to the determination of campaigners, the mechanisms of state are slowly rolling into action to remedy the mess caused by pretending that biological sex doesn’t matter. From legal recognition of ‘gender critical beliefs’, won as a result of Maya Forstater’s case, to the weeding-out of Stonewall from public institutions, huge progress has been made over the past twelve months.

One of the most heartening side-effects of this rebalancing of rights, is the resurgence of exclusively lesbian, gay and bisexual communities. Many of us have spent the past few years watching in horror as the bizarre demands of sex-denying activists have marched from dark corners of the online realm to colonise institutions and minds. Most insulting of all is that to the outside world this has been done in our name. Hiding behind the LGB, the ‘T’ and ‘Q’ have presided over everything from the creepy but now ubiquitous drag queen story time to the medicalisation of gender non-conforming youth.

Making it clear that we, the LGB, do not consent, that we are not represented by the likes of Stonewall, GLAAD and the LGBT Foundation, has been a core part of the fightback. It has helped same-sex attracted people to re-establish identities – to once more feel pride in what we are and who we love.

For many years, it was up to the pioneering women of the Lesbian Rights Alliance to hold the line alone. By 2018, when Get the L Out protested Pride in London with banners reading ‘Transactivism erases lesbians’, most of the watching crowds were ignorant that there was any debate to be had. But now, the daily news cycle is punctuated with stories about the excesses of the transgender lobby and the bulling of lesbians like Professors Stock and Phoenix. Indeed, this year for the first time the BBC covered the sexual harassment of lesbians by men who identify as transgender; such a story would’ve been unthinkable just a few years ago.

Days before the dinosaur protests, the LGB Alliance brought together hundreds of delegates for the first conference in years to explicitly champion the right to be same-sex attracted. The significance of this must not be understated.

In October this year, simultaneous LGB-led protests against Stonewall kicked off in London, Edinburgh and Belfast. The demonstrations bore none of the grim-faced doom-mongering of transactivists, they were characterised by vibrance, good humour and dinosaur suits.

Days before the dinosaur protests, the LGB Alliance brought together hundreds of delegates for the first conference in years to explicitly champion the right to be same-sex attracted. The significance of this must not be understated. Through 2017-9, feminists had to organise in secret to discuss the reform of the Gender Recognition Act. When trans activists discovered the location of meetings, a mob of abusive, braying bullies would surround the venue to block the doors and try to disrupt any speeches. And yet this year, the well-advertised LGB Alliance conference took place in central Westminster, with a mere scattering of pitiful looking protesters. The right to free assembly, expression and speech have prevailed.

Founded in 2019, the LGB Alliance is suddenly looking like a venerable elder. New UK LGB-focused groups to spring up this year include the Gay Men’s Network (GMN) and Lesbian Fightback.

Dennis Kavanagh, both the legal commentator for Lesbian and Gay News and the brains behind GMN explains “gay men need to be on the pitch, we need to be pulling our weight, we need to be looking after the next generation and we need to be offering the unique perspective gay men bring to this attack on homosexuality.

“Lesbians have been on their own too long, gay men are organising and we mean to make a real difference on this issue and to speak to the forgotten issues facing gay males like chemsex, HIV care and building a community of men that look after each other”.

Paula Boulton, founder of Lesbian Fightback explains the group is growing daily. Founded just a few weeks ago following concerns over the ideologically-driven conversion therapy ban consultation, Boulton says she “should’ve known” “throwing eleven lesbians into a cauldron and giving it a stir – with clear intention – would have created powerful magic.”

What is happening in the UK is being mirrored across the world. Versions of the LGB Alliance have popped-up in almost every continent as ordinary people are beginning to wake up to the brutal truth that trans activism has colonised our communities, and bodies. Free from the demands of the T, same-sex attracted people are finally able once more to decide how we want to work together and socialise.

Whether referred to as “terfs”, “gender critical people” or simply free-thinkers, 2021 was the year the fight to regain sex-based rights took form. 2022 promises more; the upcoming publication of the Cass Review into the Tavistock, the challenge to the LGB Alliance’s charitable status and Allison’s Bailey’s case against Stonewall. Now that the stifling era of “no debate” has come to an end, we once more have the freedom to look to the future. 

Jo Bartosch writes for The Critic, Spiked, The Telegraph, The New Statesman, The Article, The Times, Unherd, The Spectator, The Mail on Sunday and is reporter for Lesbian and Gay News.