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AUTOGYNEPHILIA
According to sexologist Ray Blanchard, this term refers to “a male’s propensity to be sexually aroused by the thought of himself as a female” (1989, p. 616). Although Blanchard coined this term during the 1980s, as others, like John Money, put varying names to paraphilias, sexologists have been aware of this phenomenon for quite some time. Awareness dates back to German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld’s 1918 book Sexualpathologie (vol. 2), with some earlier hints at it in the work of sexologist Havelock Ellis. Heterosexual males who identify as “transgender lesbians” would be considered autogynephilic: They desire to become the object of their desire. Some autogynephilic males, such as Anne Lawrence (2012), have accepted the concept of autogynephilia, because it has seemed to help them make sense of their own male sexuality. However, unlike Lawrence, many transgender rights activists, most notably Julia Serano (2020), author of the 2007 book Whipping Girl, have rejected the concept as “trans sexualization” rooted in “transmisogyny” and “transphobia.” Sources: Julia Serano, “Autogynephilia: A Scientific Review, Feminist Analysis, and Alternative ‘Embodiment Fantasies’ Model,” The Sociological Review Monographs, vol. 68, no. 4, 2020, pp. 763-778. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0038026120934690?journalCode=sora Alice Dreger, Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science, Penguin, 2015. https://www.alicedreger.com/gmf Anne Lawrence, Men Trapped in Men’s Bodies: Narratives of Autogynephilic Transsexualism, Springer, 2012. https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9781461451815 Ray Blanchard, “Deconstructing the Feminine Essence Narrative,” Archives in Sexual Behavior, vol. 37, no. 3, 2008, pp. 434-438. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-008-9328-y J. Michael Bailey, The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism, Joseph Henry Press, 2003. https://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/JMichael-Bailey/TMWWBQ.pdf Ray Blanchard, “The Concept of Autogynephilia and the Typology of Male Gender Dysphoria,” The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, vol. 177, no. 10, 1989. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1990-07710-001 BOXER CEILING The Boxer Ceiling is a conceptual ceiling used to describe the pressure put on gay males to date/sleep with trans identified females. It is an assault on gay men's sexuality, dignity and autonomy by those who demand that gay men shift the basis of their sexual orientation away from biological sex toward "gender identity." It is closely related to QUEER HOMOPHOBIA. See our New Trans Homophobia section for more information. CISGENDER The New Gay Liberation Front rejects all concepts of "cis". According to gender-identity ideology, cis is a term that describes those whose “gender identity” aligns with the stereotypes typically associated with members of their observed sex class. It further states that if you are not “transgender” then you are “cisgender” (“cis” for short). NGLF rejects this term because:
We reject this as an absurd reversal of material reality and denial of homophobia as well as misogyny. We do not accept that lesbians are members of an oppressor class over heterosexual men who identify as women. COMING OUT This term refers to a person taking steps to tell the people in their life that they are lesbian, gay, or bisexual. The NGLF objects to trans appropriation of this term to describe a person who shares their “gender identity” with others. COTTON CEILING First coined by the transgender pornography star Drew DeVeaux in 2012, “the cotton ceiling” is a concept produced for the sake of “transgender lesbians” defining the “systemic” oppression they experience by “cisgender lesbians.” In a 2014 essay “The Struggle to Find Trans Love in San Francisco,” published in The Daily Beast, transgender rights activist Julia Serano best demonstrates this rhetoric. Describing homosexual members of the female sex not desiring heterosexual members of the male sex as “systemic,” as if discrimination and oppression, Serano concludes: “I go out on plenty of dates, and I’m having lots of super-fucking-awesome sex, just not with cis women at the moment. My purpose in writing this piece is to highlight how cis dykes’ unwillingness to consider trans women as legitimate partners translates directly into a lack of community for queer-identified trans women. After all, queer women’s communities serve several purposes. They are places where we can build alliances to fight for our rights. They are places where we can find friendship and chosen family. But one of the most critical functions that queer women’s communities serve is in providing a safe space outside of the heterocentric mainstream where women can express interest, attraction, and affection toward other women. In other words, queer women’s spaces fulfill our need for sexual validation. Unless, of course, you are a trans woman. And personally, with each passing year, it becomes harder and harder for me to continue to take part in a community in which I am not seen as a legitimate object of desire.” (emphasis added) Like in the 2007 book Whipping Girl, Serano rationalizes compulsory heterosexuality and otherwise predatory male sexual behavior toward lesbians, reimagining heterosexual male desire for and entitlement toward lesbians as “queer.” The idea of heterosexual males as “transgender lesbians” makes possible these otherwise false claims of discrimination and oppression. Alluding to the glass ceiling, then, “the cotton ceiling” denotes, in clearly sexual terms, the difficulty heterosexual members of the male sex have at getting laid with actual lesbians. Lesbians have taken the term for use in describing the coercion and pressure exerted on them as homosexual members of the female sex to date and/or engage in sexual intercourse with heterosexual members of the male sex. As a concept, “the cotton ceiling” indicates an assault on lesbians’ sexuality, both their dignity and their autonomy, as but one function of GENDER IDENTITY IDEOLOGY. Identifying as “transgender lesbians,” heterosexual members of the male sex have demanded that lesbians convert their sexual orientation from biological sex to “gender identity.” cf. AUTOGYNEPHILIA and BOXER CEILING. Sources: Angela C. Wild, “Lesbians at Ground Zero: How Transgenderism Is Conquering the Lesbian Body,” Get the L Out UK, March 2019. http://www.gettheloutuk.com/blog/lesbians-at-ground-zero.html Miranda Yardley, “Girl Dick, the Cotton Ceiling, and the Cultural War on Lesbians, Girls and Women,” AfterEllen, December 5, 2018. https://afterellen.com/girl-dick-the-cotton-ceiling-and-the-cultural-war-on-lesbians-girls-and-women Julia Long, “Transgenderism and the Power of Naming,” Ruth Barrett (Ed.), Female Erasure: What You Need to Know About Gender Politics’ War on Women, the Female Sex, and Human Rights, Tidal Time Publishing, 2016, pp. 213-224. https://www.womenarehuman.com/transgenderism-and-the-power-of-naming Julia Serano, “The Struggle to Find Trans Love in San Francisco,” The Daily Beast, January 14, 2014. https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-struggle-to-find-trans-love-in-san-francisco Adrienne Rich, “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,” Signs, vol. 5, no. 4, 1980, pp. 631-660. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/493756 See our New Trans Homophobia section for more information. CROSSDRESSER A crossdresser is someone who wears the clothing typically associated with members of the opposite sex. Gay and lesbian people have cross-dressed for entertainment, artistic purposes, and personal expression for centuries. The heterosexual male crossdressers now referred to as “trans women” historically had no connection to the gay community (for example, they were not present at Stonewall). Caitlyn Jenner is an example of a well-known heterosexual crossdresser. Many homosexual crossdressers, however, have historically been a part of the gay community. Marsha P. Johnson is an example of a well-known homosexual crossdresser. In the 1990s, these two groups, heterosexual crossdressers and homosexual crossdressers, were conflated into a single group known as “transgender women.” Today’s “LGBTQ+ Community" is a product of this alliance. DESISTANCE Desistance refers to a person who ceases to identify as transgender or whose feelings of GENDER DYSPHORIA subside. Major “LGBTQ+” organizations in the United States, United Kingdom and elsewhere do not have this term in their glossaries. See our Detransition and Gay Truths, Straight Lies sections for more information. DETRANSITION This term refers to a person taking steps to reverse course after TRANSITION to “another gender.” Detransition can be a difficult process for those who have taken medical, surgical, hormonal and other steps to TRANSITION. Major “LGBTQ+” organizations in the United States, United Kingdom and elsewhere do not have this term in their glossaries. See our Detransition and Gay Truths, Straight Lies sections for more information. DEVELOPMENT OF SEX DISORDERS (DSDs) Sometimes called "Intersex," this is when a male or female person's reproductive anatomy have atypical developmental paths. Transactivists have exploited people with DSDs to claim that "sex is a spectrum". See our Gay Truths, Straight Lies section for more information. GAY A homosexual adult human male. A LESBIAN might also use this word. GENDER “Gender” refers to the behaviors, attitudes, roles and interests expected of individuals based on their sex. For example, stereotypically, society expects little girls to play with dolls and little boys to play with trucks. Both are instances of gender stereotypes and roles. Gay and lesbian people have subverted “gender roles” for centuries by merely existing as homosexual, and we will continue to do so. We believe that all people should be free to wear clothing deemed “masculine” and/or feminine,” and that the choice to do so has no bearing on a person’s sex. GENDER DYSPHORIA Gender Dysphoria is defined by the DSM-5 as “the distress that may accompany the incongruence between one’s experienced or expressed gender and one’s assigned gender.” (451). Gender identity ideology has captured the medical field and pushes the notion that medicalization is the appropriate path for individuals experiencing gender dysphoria. The NGLF believes that the best resolution of gender dysphoria is for the person to accept themselves as a gender non-conforming individual in the sexed body in which they were born. See our Gender Dysphoria section for more information. GENDER IDENTITY IDEOLOGY A worldview that posits that the internal, subjective believe about one’s “gender identity” must override biological sex at all possible times and in all possible contexts. The core premise of GII is that a man who “identifies as a woman” is a literal woman, and that a woman who “identifies as a man” is a literal man. GII has devastating consequences for two historically oppressed groups, women and homosexuals, because it insists that members of the oppressor classes, men and heterosexuals, can identify into our material reality at any time and for any reason or no reason. Single-sex spaces are by definition in violation of GII, because GII demands that spaces be organized along the lines of “gender identity” instead of biological sex. “GENITAL PREFERENCES” “Genital preference discourse” originated within the transgender community and has been used as a weapon to erase and erode the sexual boundaries and autonomy of homosexual people. Earliest social media references date back to around 2011. At its origin, this discourse has involved those in the transgender community who have felt distraught either because they have genitals they do not want, or because they have genitals others do not want. While the transgender community endlessly debates whether “genital preferences” are or are not “transphobic,” the NGLF rejects this term completely. Lesbians and gay men do not have “genital preferences”; preference is a choice - being gay is not a choice. We have a sexual orientation. Homosexuals are attracted to the entire same-sex body and person; genitals are but one part of that human body. We do not hack the human body into “genital” and “non-genital” zones. Nor do we recognize surgically-constructed neo-phalluses and neo-vaginas as genitals anyone has an obligation to be attracted to. GYNANDROMORPHOPHILIA (GAMP) GAMP is an erotic interest in gynandromorphs (GAMs), who are natal males with both breasts and a penis. While some gay men might be attracted to GAMs, most ordinary gay men would be not be because gay men are not attracted to men who do everything in their power to look female. This is important to stress because transactivists so often say: “If sexual orientation is based on ‘biological sex’, does that mean gay men are attracted to transwomen?” The answer is no. Being a gay man does not mean you are attracted to all males. HOMOSEXUAL A person who is exclusively sexually oriented toward members of the same sex. Most homosexual people refer to themselves as gay (mainly for the male sex) and/or lesbian (exclusively for the female sex). HOMOSEXUALITY A sexual orientation toward members of the same sex. Homosexual people are not sexually oriented toward any members of the opposite sex, regardless of how they identify. HOMOPHOBIA Revulsion, animosity, or hatred of people who are homosexual or believed to be homosexual. LESBIAN An adult human female is sexually and romantically attracted to other adult human females. LGBTQ+ LGB refer to sexual orientations (lesbian, gay, bisexual); T refers to “transgender”; Q refers to “Queer,” and the + is an open-door invitation to anybody who wishes to identify into those five letters. Some LG people have the additional experience of being transsexual and/or identifying as transgender. The relationship between the LGB, which are sexual orientations, and the TQ+, which are not, has been described as “forced teaming.” We reject forced teaming with anybody. MAN Adult human male. “MISGENDERING” This occurs when a person disregards a person’s “gender identity” and instead correctly identifies their sex. PUBERTY BLOCKERS This term refers to medicalization used to suppress pubertal development in gender-nonconforming children and young people who meet the diagnostic criteria for gender dysphoria. Puberty blockers also can be called, in more precise medical terms, gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues (GnRHas). Critics, most notably sexologist Debra Soh (2018 and 2020), have discussed the problems with social and medical transitioning regarding children and young people and the potential impact on them as otherwise gay youth. Aside from Soh, other critics (Pilgrim and Entwistle 2020, D’Angelo et al. 2021, Evans 2021, and Malone, et al. 2021) have acknowledged and addressed corresponding ethical problems. Sources: William Malone, et al., “Puberty Blockers for Gender Dysphoria: The Science Is Far from Settled,” The Lancet, September 1, 2021. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(21)00235-2/fulltext Susan Evans and Marcus Evans, Gender Dysphoria: A Therapeutic Model for Working with Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults, Phoenix Publishing House, 2021. https://firingthemind.com/product/9781912691784 Roberto D’Angelo, et al., “One Size Does Not Fit All: In Support of Psychotherapy for Gender Dysphoria,” Archives of Sexual Behavior, vol. 50, no. 1, 2021, pp. 7-16. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-020-01844-2 Debra Soh, The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths About Sex and Identity in Our Society, Threshold Editions, 2020. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-End-of-Gender/Debra-Soh/9781982132514 David Pilgrim and Kirsty Entwistle, “GnRHa (‘Puberty Blockers’) and Cross Sex Hormones for Children and Adolescents: Informed Consent, Personhood, and Freedom of Expression,” The New Bioethics, vol. 26, no. 3, 2020, pp. 224-237. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/20502877.2020.1796257 See our Gay Truths, Straight Lies section for more information. QUEER An anti-gay slur. The NGLF rejects the term “queer,” in part because it continues to be used as a slur against gay and lesbian people, but also because the category of “queer” has no coherent definition and therefore can be used by anybody, including homophobic heterosexuals. “Queerness” is defined by what it’s not: it’s supposed to refer to anybody who is not “completely heterosexual” and/or “cis”, or it can refer to a person who is not “normative” in some way. We maintain that the definition of “queerness” is too expansive to represent the concrete needs and experiences of gay and lesbian people. QUEER HOMOPHOBIA Queer homophobia refers to the idea that homophobia can be socially acceptable, particularly on the political left, as long as the person doing so claims to be speaking on behalf of “trans rights” or from a “queer” and/or “trans” perspective. A main characteristic of the mainly heterosexual transgender rights movement, queer homophobia relates to queer misogyny. As queer misogyny facilitates the erasure and erosion of the rights of women on the basis of sex, queer homophobia does so to the rights of lesbians and gay men as homosexual people. It is bigoted against human beings having any boundaries. This new bigotry can build upon previous traditions against lesbians and gay men, subjecting us to a new fundamentalism beneath a new cultural invasion of both our bodies and ourselves. It can be expressed in the idea, whether explicit or implicit, that “trans liberation” demands that we “deconstruct” sex itself, therefore homosexuality, out of existence. Also: the new trans homophobia, trans homophobia, transgenderist homophobia. See our New Trans Homophobia section for more information. SEX For the human species, unlike some other animal species, sex is dimorphic; it is neither a “spectrum,” as a result of differences in sexual development (DSDs), nor a function of one’s “gender identity.” Rather, sex indeed simply refers to a person’s body being organized around the production of either small gametes known as “sperm” or large gametes known as “ova.” GENDER IDENTITY IDEOLOGY commonly takes SEX and conflates it with both GENDER and GENDER IDENTITY, confusing what can be a culturally defined gender binary with human sexual dimorphism. See our Gay Truths, Straight Lies section for more information. SEXUAL ORIENTATION This refers to an individual's enduring sexual and/or romantic attraction to members of the same and/or the opposite sex. There are three main sexual orientations: homosexual (gay/lesbian), bisexual, and heterosexual (straight). Sexual orientation should never be referred to as “sexual preference,” a term that suggests being gay, lesbian, or bisexual is voluntary and therefore “curable.” “THEY/THEM” PRONOUNS Transgender rights activists who say “There is nothing new about the singular ‘they’; it has been in use for centuries” are telling a half-truth. It is true that, in the English language, for many years, the singular ”they” has been used in reference to a person whose sex one does not know. For example, one might say “Someone left their umbrella,” not knowing the sex of the owner of the umbrella, which has been the most common use of the singular “they.” What is new, however, has been the use of the singular “they” for a person whose sex one actually does know, particularly its usage under policies that effectively produce compelled speech. It is also new to believe that the use of “they/them” pronouns actually makes one neither male nor female, in terms of one’s sex, because of a ”nonbinary” “gender identity.” The argument for “they/them” pronouns tends to coincide with the point of view that biological sex on public documentation should be replaced with “gender identity”―that is, allowing “sex self-identification.“ Thus, this use of pronouns in sex denialism also poses any number of problems, especially both in law and in medicine. TRANS FEMALE A member of the female sex who identifies as male. The NGLF does not use the term “transgender man” to refer to members of the female sex. Also: trans-identified female. TRANSGENDER RIGHTS MOVEMENT The transgender rights movement developed in the 1960s, when a community of heterosexual men, most of whom married women and fathered children, began networking on the basis of their shared interest in crossdressing. Leaders of this movement, such as Charles “Virginia” Prince, sought to differentiate themselves from transsexual people, like Christine Jorgensen, who were almost always homosexual. Today, the transgender rights movement conflates heterosexual and homosexual people, especially males, being otherwise two demographics with distinct needs, into a single group. TRANS HOMOPHOBIA The unique form that homophobia takes when it comes from the trans movement and/or from people claiming to speak on behalf of “trans rights.” Trans homophobia shares many features with traditional homophobia. Traditional homophobia stems from the belief that homosexuality is “sin” or mental illness. Trans homophobia sometimes frames homosexuality as an “illness,” but it more often frames it as “discrimination,” “bigotry,” and “transphobia.” The negative impact of trans homophobia on gay and lesbian people is just as strong as the impact of traditional homophobia. They are in fact the same thing. They both say that our exclusive same-sex desire is wrong. See our New Trans Homophobia section for more information. TRANSITION The steps a trans person may take to live in the gender with which they identify. Each person’s transition will involve different things. For some this involves medical intervention, such as hormone therapy and surgeries, but not all trans people want or are able to have this. Transitioning also might involve things such as telling friends and family, dressing differently and changing official documents. TRANS MALE A member of the male sex who identifies as female. The NGLF does not use the term “transgender woman” to refer to members of the male sex. Also: trans-identified male. TRANSPHOBIA Most people believe “transphobia” means an irrational fear or hatred of a person because they are transsexual and/or identify as transgender. By this definition, the NGLF is not “transphobic.” However, most definitions of “transphobia” include prioritizing biological sex over “gender identity”, especially in sexual orientation. By this definition, all homosexuals are “transphobic”, and accusations of “transphobia” are leveraged as a tool to shame gay and lesbian people for our exclusive same-sex desire. WOMAN Adult human female. |
