The woke Left continues to eat its own.
As cataloged by Reason’s Robby Soave, the latest victim of left-wing identitarian madness is the author Lauren Hough. Hough is a lesbian progressive. Her memoir, Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing, was a finalist for an award from the left-wing Lambda Literary Foundation, ostensibly a gay and transgender literature organization.
But, as Soave explained, Lambda pulled Hough’s contention, citing recent “Twitter disputes.” The supposed controversy in question?
Hough spoke out publicly in defense of another author, Sandra Newman. Newman, who identifies as “nonbinary,” wrote a fiction novel about “men,” in this case everyone who has a Y chromosome, disappearing from the Earth. While angering literally no one in real life, this angered some fringe Twitter activists who said this definition of men was “transphobic” and constituted “transmisogyny.” This outrage arrived even though the book’s author apparently took pains to make sure the actual plot didn’t “ignore” or “erase” transgender people.
Lambda is supposed to uplift the voices of gay and lesbian people, but it has caved to fringe activists who have absolutely no basis for their claims. “I am a queer woman, and I was silenced most of my life,” Hough said in response. “I found my voice, but if my nomination is being withdrawn for using it, what the f*** is the point of Lambda Literary?”
If you’re wondering, this kind of insanity is now par for the course in the wild woke literary world. However, this is more than just an example of how out of control cancel culture has gotten.
It is emblematic of a disturbing trend within the “LGBTQ community.” While gays and lesbians constitute the vast majority of this community, they are now being superseded in the woke hierarchy by transgender members, or, more accurately, random people claiming to speak on behalf of transgender people and/or unrepresentative leftist transgender Twitter activists.
I have great compassion for people who have struggled with gender dysphoria and firmly believe adults should be free to live their lives however they wish. But gays, including me, and lesbians must firmly and unequivocally divorce ourselves from the unhinged, illiberal excesses of today’s transgender movement. That movement doesn’t necessarily represent all or even most transgender people.
An insane ideology is in play, and it is assaulting classic American principles such as free speech, pluralism, academic freedom, due process, and tolerance.
A backlash is coming. Gays and lesbians can and should distance ourselves from these radical transgender activists — lest the massive gains we’ve made over the decades be lost.
Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is a co-founder of Based-Politics.com, a co-host of the BasedPolitics podcast, and a Washington Examiner contributor.
