#Andrew Doyle

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Andrew Doyle

Published: Oct 14, 2024

It was hardly a plague of locusts, but it was disruptive nonetheless. During the annual LGB Alliance conference at the Queen Elizabeth II centre in Westminster on Friday afternoon, teenage activists unleashed thousands of crickets into the auditorium. The inconvenience was only temporary. The crowd simply relocated to another room and the event went on as before.

As those responsible were apprehended, many people were struck by just how young and posh they were. By this point, it should surprise precisely no-one that anti-gay activism in its current form is a predominately bourgeois pursuit. The symbolism of the crickets was, of course, deliberate. It was an attempt to dehumanise those in attendance, to suggest that they were akin to parasites, vermin, spreaders of disease, a common trope of those who seek to demonise minorities.

The perpetrators were children, and so it would be unwise to speculate too much on their motives. It is likely they were being manipulated by the group that has claimed responsibility, calling itself “Trans Kids Deserve Better”. As Bev Jackson, co-founder of LGB Alliance said on my show last night:

“Trans kids do deserve better. They deserve better than to be told lies that that they might have been born in the wrong body. They deserve better than to be told that these hormones and surgeries that they are clambering for will somehow solve all their problems. Many are on the autism spectrum. Many are struggling with their sexual orientation. We know that. They deserve better than to be told that we hate them. And they deserve better than to be labelled trans when they’re going through all the turbulence of adolescence, when your feelings about yourself are in constant flux.”

Irrespective of the intentions of the teenagers involved, this was anti-gay activism. To attack a group of lesbian, gay and bisexual people who have assembled to discuss the ongoing threats to their civil rights could hardly be defined in any other way. Likewise, to refer to groups such as LGB Alliance as “anti-trans”, “transphobic” or “hateful” - as activist media outlets such as the Metro and the Guardian have been known to do - is also an anti-gay strategy. In order to address a problem, one needs to label it accurately.

Gender identity ideologues are, by definition, anti-gay. They are campaigning to force their pseudo-religious belief-system onto the rest of society, one that claims that same-sex attraction is a myth, and that a mysterious spiritual sense of “gender” is the defining feature of homosexuality. Even if they have convinced themselves that they are “pro-trans” and “compassionate” and “progressive”, the implementation of their demands would result directly in the demolition of gay rights. And so “anti-gay activism” is not only an accurate description, it also cuts to the heart of what is at stake.

The trans activist movement in its current form is dominated by this belief in a material and stable “gender identity”, what one trans campaigner explained to me as an “essence of male or female”. This is a departure from the theories of Judith Butler, who posits that “gender identity” is an illusion created performatively and repetitively in accordance with societal expectations. For all their deification of Butler, the trans rights movement is insistent that she is wrong on this key point, and that an individual is “born trans” when there is a misalignment of body and “sexed soul” (to borrow Helen Joyce’s phrase).  

This belief is wholly incompatible with the struggle for gay rights, which has always been predicated on the notion that there exist a minority of people who are innately attracted to their own sex. Activist groups such as Stonewall now argue that “homosexuality” is based on gender rather than sex, meaning that it is possible for a man to be a lesbian. He may have been born male (or “assigned male at birth” to borrow the voguish parlance), but his “gender identity” is female and this should be the salient factor when it comes to sexual orientation.

It is no easy feat to explain the contortions of logic on display here. Lesbian dating apps are now replete with men who claim to be women, many fully bearded and bepenised. Likewise, sex clubs for gay men now routinely admit women who have had their breasts removed and believe themselves to be male. The gay male hookup app Grindr even prohibits its users from filtering out women. As the company’s website puts it:

“When designing gender settings on Grindr, it was important to us to not further perpetuate discrimination and harm for the trans and nonbinary community. For this reason, we allow filtering based on gender - you can specify that you want to see men or women - but this will include all men or all women, because trans men are men and trans women are women.”

In other words, a company that has made a fortune from gay men’s sexuality is now shaming its customers for being gay.

The situation is so confusing that we now have mainstream celebrities such as Billy Bragg effectively campaigning against gay rights without realising it. He is not homophobic (as far as I’m aware) and yet he is assiduously promoting a movement whose end goal is the eradication of homosexuality. Bragg’s 1991 song Sexuality included the lyric: “Just because you’re gay, I won’t turn you away”. Perhaps a more appropriate version would be: “Just because you’re gay, I’ll have you surgically corrected in order to better conform to heterosexual paradigms”, although it wouldn’t scan or rhyme.

This is why to grow up gay in 2024 is considerably more risky than during the time of Section 28 in the 1980s. We have gay conversion therapy being promoted by the NHS in the form of “gender-affirming care”, and children who are gender non-conforming (and therefore statistically far more likely to be homosexual in later life) are being medicalised and shamed for their orientation. Moreover, the very organisations that were originally established to fight for gay rights are now actively working against the interests of gay people.

To release bags of insects into a gathering of homosexuals is the kind of tactic we might once have seen from neo-Nazis and extreme religious fundamentalists. Just because those responsible now claim to be “on the right side of history” does not justify their behaviour or make them any less regressive. These are the new reactionaries, espousing a particularly toxic form of anti-gay ideology because it has the approval of the corporate, media, political and managerial class. Homophobia never went away, it just took on a fresh disguise.

==

[ Source. ]

Gay men are not allowed to filter out women from their dating pool.

[orphanblaque]

we need to stop treating social justice like a religion and start treating it like an action we pursue. you don't have to believe what i believe. but you do have to not cause harm to people who do believe it. today, in a society where we are encouraged by social media to say everything we think, we have to consider what we mean by "harm" though. thoughts are not dangerous, actions are dangerous, as anyone who read 1984 can attest. so we have to consider harm beyond direct physical harm, and consider the larger movement caused by those words that create the harm. in the past, if your crazy cousin said at a family dinner that transpeople weren't real, everyone would roll their eyes and move on because your crazy cousin doesn't have much influence beyond their social circle and they are just gonna talk shit and do jack so it's very easy to manage to not see that cousin again and therefore not hear the talk. but when your crazy cousin starts posting all these things online, they reach a wider audience than just the friends who are all talk, and more importantly, they reach those who don't realize it's supposed to just be talk. and then they start doing shit.

jk rowling saying shit online about trans people is not the same as your crazy cousin rambling about stuff to your family at dinner. she has influence and reach, and people take her words seriously to the point that they go beyond thoughts into actions. and that's when it becomes dangerous. that's not to say talk can't be harmful, but it's not as permanent a harm if one person in your life says it and in order to escape that talk you can move to a more accepting place. if your talk makes everywhere unacceptable to someone because now that talk is everywhere, it's harm.

if you don't believe there is a difference between sex and gender, that's fine, but you have to respect that i believe it and allow me and others to act on our beliefs, so long as they don't hurt you in turn. and if talk about trans and non binary people being real upsets you and you want to walk away from it, feel free to do so, but remember that the stress you are seeking relief from when you want to not hear about trans shit is only a tiny fraction of the stress trans and non binary people are going through considering how your talk spreads and informs people about how to act towards those who are trans and non binary.

now, in considering all of this, social justice cannot be a religion, because it is not about what we believe, it's about how we act. because policing people on what they believe is always and has always been wrong, regardless of how morally right we may feel out beliefs to be. and since social justice is not a religion but an action, touting how much you believe in these things is not a form of activism. it's a form of touting. we're done spreading awareness now. everyone is aware that things are wrong. either doing something to make it right or shut up. and if the only thing you can do to "make it right" is to cause harm to others, then you are not seeking justice, you are seeking vengeance because you are not actually hurt. you are uncomfortable with the feelings that you have and don't know how to deal with them. if that's the case, i refer you back to shut up.

[zmkccommonplace]

Authoritarianism works by stealth.

Andrew Doyle

[krispijnbeek]

Klimaatwetenschap uitgelegd door Jonathan Pie

Klimaatwetenschap is ingewikkeld en de modellen waarmee klimaatwetenschappers werken ook. Ook het taalgebruik van wetenschappers helpt niet altijd mee om het begrijpelijk en behapbaar te maken. Nieuw bericht toevoegen In onderstaande video legt Jonathan Pie (een typetje van de Ierse komiek Andrew Doyle) in normale mensentaal uit wat Joanna Haigh, emeritus Professor atmospheric physics aan het…

[kingsnorthportfolio]

[thearbourist]

New Zealand & Australia - The Violence Against Women in the name Transactivism

People need to rethink their positions on those claiming to be on the ‘right side of history’. The “Be Kind” transgender activists have proven repeatedly they are nothing of the sort.

[lovitachi]

grief is proof we once loved

ruki (the gazette) / all about love - bell hooks / jamie anderson / andrew garfield

inspired by this post • originally posted on twitter/x

[thepunkmuppet]

yes tara willow and kennedy are amazing barrier-breaking representation and I adore them with my whole entire heart forever and ever, but also here’s just a friendly reminder that:

spike and angel have canonically had sex, as have darla and drusilla

lorne just straight up shamelessly asks angel out that one time (and is. you know. lorne)

I was gonna split it up into like ten different points but honestly just faith and buffy’s entire relationship you know exactly what I mean

also self explanatory, lindsey’s complete and utter obsession with angel that literally ends with his name being his last words. he is not normal about that old man like “it’s not me you wanna screw it’s him” “I wanna know the details, everything he did to you” UM HELLO WHAT

fred canonically has a crush on willow

buffy has a sexual and romantic relationship with a woman in the comics

lorne mentions picking up demon girls in pylea, meanwhile his mother has a whole ass beard and more testosterone than a bodybuilder (also he’s. you know. LORNE)

xander thinks having sex with spike is understandable because he is strong and mysterious and sort of compact but well muscled

illyria exists outside the gender binary

the visions are canonically passed by what is essentially true love’s kiss, and will only transfer if the person romantically loves the other person. in a universe where cordelia didn’t join angel investigations, doyle gave the visions to angel. I am so incredibly normal about this fact

“recently I’ve been wondering what it would be like to share the slaughter of innocents with another man. that doesn’t make me some kind of deviant, does it?”

vampire willow is very intensely bisexual, and angel confirms that vampires hold the same attractions as their human selves

faith “doesn’t take the guys she has a connection with very seriously”

lilah is canonically attracted to cordelia

CANON GAY ANDREW AND HIS DEEP AND HILARIOUS OBSESSION WITH WARREN XANDER AND SPIKE I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️

angel has no problem spanking men <3

so yeah basically hey don’t cry all your favs are raging bisexuals :)

[exastria]

on grief.

glennon doyle / andrew garfield / shannon barry / jamie anderson / ocean vuong / dalai lama xiv

[siriuslyobsessedwithfiction]

Sherlock Holmes randomly retiring because the author got sick of him.

[archersart]

They share a brain cell, you cant convince me otherwise.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Titania McGrath

Published: May 11, 2024

I was recently invited to Meghan Markle’s mansion in California for a brainstorming session on how to challenge privilege. We chatted over a light luncheon of vegan shakshuka, braised turmeric tofu and some truffle-infused seaweed that Meghan had helicoptered in that morning from Guyana.

The Sussexes do like to keep their carbon footprint to a minimum, so they only ever use one helicopter at a time.

I for one have been shocked that Meghan and Harry’s lifestyle and wellness projects have not been better received. Meghan’s Archetypes podcast with Spotify didn’t prove as successful as she’d hoped, partly because nobody seemed to be interested in what she had to say.

My feeling is that the public needs to get to know the real Meghan. People should realise what a positive influence she has been on Harry. For one thing, his toxic masculinity has all but disappeared ever since she removed his testicles for an installation art piece.

Now, the couple are planning to re-establish their brand in the UK. It turns out that Harry’s decision to write a book slagging off the Royal Family hasn’t endeared him to the British people. The masses are so fickle.

It hasn’t been easy for them. The British media is so inexplicably hostile to Meghan, just because she said they were all evil and racist. In the end, the couple were forced to flee to California to live a quiet and reclusive life. As Meghan said to those 17 million viewers on that interview with Oprah Winfrey, she just wants her privacy.

Even now, the press won’t stop writing articles about Harry. They twist everything he says to try and make him look bad. Some journalists even implied that there was something “weird” about the part of his book where he mentioned that he daubed his penis with his late mother’s favourite lip cream.

After the success of their Netflix documentary, though, Harry and Meghan are keen to branch out into making movies. I hear that they’re considering a feminist reimagining of The Godfather, or possibly an all-black remake of Schindler’s List.

[hotcelebritymenilike]

Just a bunch of hot out queer celebrities I had waiting to be posted: Andrew Keenan Bolger, Billy Eichner, Chris Salvatore, Dam Amboyer, Jake Borelli, Matteo Lane, Mike Doyle, Murray Barlett, Robert Grant, Jake Shears, Steven Grand, and Vincent Rodriguez III

[nahokura]

OUR NEW ASSISTANT'S PRINCIPAL LOOKS SO MUCH LIKE MORIARTY DNBFBFNSNSNB HE EVEN SOUNDS LIKE HIM EVEN IF WE'RE FRENCH

[desertpups]

hotpressmagazine: Hozier has taken on the world and won. Now, with the release of his third album Unreal Unearth imminent, he played his biggest ever solo show in the stately environs of Malahide Castle, on the north coast of Dublin. It was, as it turned out, a powerful climax to a magnificent series of gigs.

Read the full review through the link in bio📲

(link in the source)

✍Will Russell

📷Peter O'Hanlon

[days-of-storm]

Fake Lego Baker Street that is actually a Sherlock BBC rip off? Don't mind if I do XD