Lesbians are under attack from predatory men

The BBC this week published a thought-provoking article about lesbians being sexually victimised by trans predators. The experiences of dozens of women were taken into account. Their stories made me sick.

In light of #Metoo one could be forgiven for thinking that this BBC article would have inspired its own watershed moment, one in which lesbians could reassert their same-sex boundaries and say that, in a tolerant liberal society, they have a right not to be tormented by the opposite sex. But no. The article is being howled down because it is apparently prejudiced and transphobic. Over 16,000 people have now signed an open letter calling for the BBC to apologise for the piece.

The article went to some length not to sound incendiary. The careful headline was a quote: ‘We’re being pressured into sex by some trans women,’ it read. The author did not herself use the word rape, even though some of the women she quoted did describe this.