Get The L Out, who are widely described as anti-trans, have once again attempted to lead the parade during Pride while holding signs supporting trans exclusion. They were asked to leave and have obviously not taken it well.

In 2018 anti-trans group ‘Get The L Out’ invaded London Pride and put themselves at the front of the march holding signs in support of their beliefs. Their beliefs being that trans inclusion is an attack on lesbian rights. They claimed they aren’t transphobic but go on to describe trans women as “males who identify as lesbians”.

London Pride at the time were criticised by the trans community for having done nothing about this. Their response was to apologise profusely but claim they couldn’t do anything about it because it wasn’t a criminal offence, meaning this anti-trans group were simply allowed to lead the parade with their anti-trans signs on full display.

In 2022 at Cardiff Pride the story is much the same. With the key difference being that this time they were not simply allowed to lead the parade. They were instead moved to the side by police due to not having a permit to march in the parade. My criticisms of corporate pride and police at pride notwithstanding; this is about right for how things work.

 

Any old group of assholes shouldn’t just be allowed to jump in front of the march and advertise their beliefs when they are antithetical to the point of a pride march. Not to mention being antithetical to the name of their own group; ‘Get The L Out’, which was supposed to mean them taking their ball and leaving the LGBTQIA+ community. Not poking their heads in every few months to pathetically go “is anyone going to come with us? please? someone?”

The community made it clear Angela, #LWithTheT. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!

‘Get The L Out’ have also cropped up elsewhere on my transphobia-watch. You may remember them from BBC’s article about how some lesbians feel pressured to date trans women in which they provided a survey used to support the argument put forward in the article. After a series of (still ongoing) complaints the BBC’s ECU conceded that a survey of a few dozen people on Twitter, half of which don’t agree with the premise of the article, is probably not statistically valid and more should have been done to point that out.

The article remains up now with corrections. Complaints are still being sent to Ofcom to have it removed and the BBC formally apologise for promoting blatant anti-trans propaganda. Trans Activism UK have been leading the community on that procedure, follow their Twitter for updates.

Indeed, the BBC seem to have a soft-spot for ‘Get The L Out’ and other groups such as LGB Alliance who they keep giving completely unearned credibility to. In the article by the BBC regarding Cardiff Pride 2022; the original piece as viewed via Wayback Machine has since been edited immensely in order to give more prominence to the group and their rhetoric.

Amongst this editing includes a link out to the group’s website, a practice which I am assured by a former BBC staff member is not standard. This can also be evidenced by looking at both the London Pride 2018 piece and the controversial piece ‘Get The L Out’ provided a Twitter poll for; neither of which include a link out to their website.

The BBC is supposed to be impartial and not take sides, however it’s pretty clear whose side they are on. In October 2022 it will mark one year of having to complain to the BBC about their article framing transgender women as rapey at the say so of groups like ‘Get The L Out’. An article which remains largely unchanged from its original and horrific state. Yet somehow coverage of ‘Get The L Out’ gets changed immediately to give them more prominence.

Thankfully despite attempts to soften the audience’s view of ‘Get The L Out’ who invaded Pride to do exclusionary crap, the group still haven’t come off looking so great in my opinion. Spouting off ridiculous things like “it seems like same-sex attraction is now becoming a hate crime” they come across as crackpot conspiracy theorists the kind who say stuff like “you can’t say anything any more, its political correctness gone mad” when what they really mean is people don’t like that they’re assholes.