Queer Majority

“Queer Majority” is an anti-LGBT site. It publishes long essays purportedly of interest to queer people, and attacks trans rights. In its first “issue” in 2018 it had an essay rejecting “gender ideology” and claiming nonbinary is a sexist concept reinforcing gender stereotypes. In reality, nonbinary is a way of liberating from them.

From its about page its attack begins to be clear. It says there is majority support for LGBT rights, but LGBT “extremists”, a “vocal minority of radical activists”, support “authoritarian” policies. It wants “liberal values” not “needlessly divisive identity politics”. While it says it is for LGBT rights, it does not mention trans, only gender nonconformity.

Its straight editor writes that Queer is Cool, despite having grown up as a Bush-supporting conservative from a conservative religious background. He says “haters” compared him to William F. Buckley. He opposes identitarianism, which he says makes writers not objective, and calls the word “demisexual” unintentionally amusing.

That essay linked to one called “Victimhood is one helluva drug” attacking trans man Chase Strangio. The writer, Ben Appel, says children presenting at gender clinics would grow up to be LGB not T if given proper emotional support- as if psychologists at those clinics don’t consider the possibility, and give PBs out like sweeties. Strangio, attracted to men, felt seen as a man when he was called a “faggot”. Appel calls that insensitive. “Strangio doesn’t know the gay male struggle.” Similarly, I welcomed the words “slut” and “whore”, because they affirmed my womanhood even as they insulted me.

Appel argues identity politics traps us in victimhood. He is in AA, and says he is a survivor, not a victim. He attacks a straw man, where racialised Blackness is good and whiteness evil, LGBT good and cis-het evil. The people who want to exclude me from women’s services want to reduce my rights because of who I am, so trans rights advocacy is a part of my identity. If I am nervous going to the toilet, that affects my life. I too am surviving, and the anti-trans campaigners are not necessarily evil, but often themselves victims.

The article on putting pronouns in email signatures admits it can make trans people feel supported, but says declaring yourself female can expose you to sexism. It does not give the trans argument against pronouns- if you have not transitioned, having to state your pronouns forces you either to out or deny yourself. Instead it quotes Naomi Cunningham saying that anti-trans campaigners do not want to be seen to affirm a political position, that trans is a real thing.

Does Queer Majority have any trans writers? Jamie van Dijk identifies as nonbinary, and studied Queer theory, but calls it less rigorous than journalism, and says social justice movements cannot support a free press. Free Speech is a right-wing concern. Well, the freedom to hate despised minorities is a right-wing concern, but it is only that hatred, incomprehension or hostility that the Left objects to. Van Dijk calls social justice “authoritarian”. They do not understand- they say when they talk to activists or friends about this, the other stops responding.

In an interview, Buck Angel claims to be a controversial figure in the trans community. Michael Bailey argues that you can’t be a researcher seeking to understand trans people if you promote trans rights, and supports the discredited concept of autogynephilia.

Rio Vernadonir, recovering Seventh Day Adventist, calls social justice a “deluded cult”, and is incidentally dismissive of declaring pronouns.

Queer Majority is just yet another site like Quillette or UnHerd, seeking an appearance of interest to left-wingers but pushing right-wing views. Despite its use of “LGBT” I could find nothing positive about trans people or trans rights, and a great deal hostile, and much is hostile to LGB activism as well. Despite the length of the essays, I did not find them well-argued; they assert that trans is against free speech and promotes victim-culture, rather than give evidence.