01/05/2022
Yasmin Benoit, a celebrated and award winning Asexuality activist, who has worked with Stonewall for this year’s Asexuality Day back in April, has blogged about her experiences. She writes that in recent years, the anti-Stonewall lobby, which has always been present amongst homophobic people, has become more nuanced, with a small number of lesbians, gay men, bisexual and radical feminist people complaining about the organisations’ preparedness to engage in transgender support and asexuality. Benoit writes that she received sexist, racist and acephobic comments from feminists, and she writes “As a cisgender woman, I have been targeted by those who claim to be standing up for cis women more times than I can count.”. She notes that in the conspiracy theories pedalled by radical feminist groups on Facebook, asexuality and transgender issues are linked together in a strange grand narrative, in which Stonewall is alleged to be using puberty blockers to create a new generation of asexual people so that it can gain funding. The reasoning is flawed as Benoit notes, because “asexuality doesn’t mean not being able to function sexually – but again, under this thinking, factual accuracy isn’t important”. Benoit also says “Divide and conquer is a destruction technique for a reason, and this anti-Stonewall sentiment doesn’t just come from within the LGBTQ+ community. It is weaponised by anti-woke naysayers of all sexualities and genders and used to slow the progress we have spent many years trying to build for everyone who falls under the umbrella. That isn’t the kind of equality we’re fighting for. We are stronger together. Progress is not a competition.”.