Letter Sent to Seattle Pride Highlighting Reasons for Declining Support for "LGBTQIA+" Causes
It's Radical Trans Activism, Sexually Inappropriate Behavior Around Minors, Intolerance, & Ideological Indoctrination of Youth
*The Homoarchy (a site for lesbian, gay, & bisexual human rights watch) is posting this letter by concerned LGB people with connections to Seattle and Washington State, several of whom are heavily involved in activism around the issues the letter raises. While local to Seattle Washington, it translates to Pride parades, Pride organizations, & “LGBTQ+” activism in any state in the US & cities in other Western countries.
Dear Seattle Pride staff,
In the year 2024, in every major American city, pedestrians and commuters alike encounter more progress flags in their daily lives than they have ever before- yet support for gay marriage and “LGBTQ+” activism in recent years is declining (see here, here, here, here, here, here). And there is no overall mental health improvement in youth with these identities despite more validation and access to gender clinics (here, here). This paradoxical reality wherein increased “LGBTQ+” visibility and affirmation directly correlate with decreased social acceptance and poor mental health should concern all of us. We are writing you as homosexual and bisexual citizens with connections to Washington State to ask you to please consider the harm what is now called “LGBTQIA+” activism is doing. This decline in support is not just from our traditional religious and right-wing evangelical opponents but from secular people, liberal women, and homosexual Americans who used to be the most ardent supporters of the Pride mission. We would like to explain to you why.
We share your concerns about laws promoted by conservatives, which could be used to suppress free speech and expression. While it is easy to denounce all those who oppose “LGBTQ+” activism as hateful, conservative bigots- this could not be further from the truth. The agendas funded by all our legacy organizations and via Seattle Pride’s grants program are concerning to conservatives and liberals alike. We see “LGBTQ+” activism as the primary culprit in the decreasing acceptance of our communities.
Seattle Pride is no longer merely a fun protest parade asserting adult rights, but an activist organization representing ideologically extreme and unevidenced positions regarding some of today’s most contentious issues. These issues affect women, children, and same-sex attracted people. Given the cultural influence of the US, what we do greatly impacts people in less tolerant countries. Below, we outline some of the most significant concerns we, and many members of the public, have with the causes Seattle Pride and most other “LGBTQ+” organizations promote. We hope that you will read the articles provided below proving our claims and understand why support for our communities and support for gay marriage are declining for the sake of the future of our youth and our rights movement. We will be sending this letter to individuals associated with your organization and to your donors.
1) Trans activism's central goals are reinforcing trans-identities in very young children, medicalizing them at early ages with health-damaging and irreversible effects, and eradicating all sex-based definitions in law which eliminate the legal definition of a homosexual or female person and destroy sex-segregated places like girls’ sports, locker rooms, prisons, and rape crises centers (most biological males who transition are sexually attracted to women). Trans activism enforces this political agenda by misinforming the public about consequential health information and rights impacts on others and threatening people with career destruction, slander, and violence. Many people, especially parents with kids in public schools, are very aware of this.
2) There is hypersexualized behavior in front of children or directly involving children at both Pride parades and supposedly “family-friendly” drag and Pride events. This includes Seattle Pride. No one can pretend this blatantly inappropriate behavior isn’t happening. This is well-documented in pictures and videos, and ignoring it reflects poorly on people claiming to be our “LGBTQ+” leaders. Some incidents have involved men with felony criminal records, including registered sex offenders.
3) Same-sex attraction, gender dysphoria, and political orthodoxy are separate phenomena, yet supposedly inclusive “LGBTQ+” activist groups and media promote and enforce narrow, ideological positions around their specific views of sex and gender, specifically transgenderism, as a social justice issue. They promote radical and unscientific ideas about gender and human biology, promote Pollyanna-liberationist visions around tearing down social boundaries, and ostracize those not in agreement as bigots, explaining why parents and others don’t want these ideas promoted as truth in schools and youth programs such as GSAs. These ideas are generally heavily influenced by particular realms in academia that are the least grounded in academic rigor, rationality, and evidence, such as critical theory, queer theory, and gender studies. Most people want diversity, inclusion, and justice but don’t all agree on how to achieve this.
There is a recurring theme within Seattle Pride communications, which claims that the “LGBTQ+” community is besieged by waves of “anti-LGBTQIA+” bills and “anti-LGBTQIA+” rhetoric, contending that the community exists in a state of emergency.
Now, at this moment, we can and must re-commit ourselves to standing up against immense anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric and sentiment. The onslaught of recent anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation, the hate directed towards queer people, and the fear which many of us have for our futures loom large. (Patti Hearn, Executive Director)
Queer trans youth are being targeted throughout our entire country and 800 anti-LGBTQ and anti-trans bills are being pushed, including right here in Seattle,” Albritton says. “It’s not a far-off threat, and it’s not over. We didn’t cross a threshold and make it with marriage equality. There are still things we are fighting for. We have to hold our heads high and continue to demand our right to exist, to love and to live freely, and to have autonomy in our lives and our bodies. (Nick Albritton, a Seattle Pride program manager)
There will always be people who hate same-sex-attracted people, who are offended by us, who want our marriages repealed, or who would truly hurt gender atypical people. Some would like to put us in prisons and, yes, even kill us given the chance. We are acutely aware of this fact.
However, your comments lack regard for the complexities of these issues and deny people who have well-informed and principled concerns about the causes Seattle Pride’s “LGBTQIA+” activism supports, who are often from your minority groups.
We illuminate:
Point 1: Extremist Trans Activism
“LGBTQ+” organizations’ central agenda is supporting the social and medical transition of gender dysphoric children and teens. Seattle Pride funds this via the Gender Justice League and Ten Trees, to name two, although all legacy gay organizations support these policies. For example, Gender Justice League has stated it wants to force Catholic hospitals to provide “gender-affirming care”. It has been involved in other policies involving child/teen medicalization and parental rights even liberals find dangerous and extreme. This means health-damaging off-label use of puberty blockers and double mastectomies with no solid evidentiary justification (see below). Medical transition can happen in our state without parental consent beginning at age 13, a time in life when identity crises are common. Gender clinics in the US are starting the medicalization process as young as age 8 (puberty blockers), breast amputation at age 12, and vaginoplasty at age 16.
Many people have become greatly concerned with the goals of “LGBTQ+” activism to deliberately stunt the physical and psychological development of minors via gender clinics, lobbying educational institutions to promote these ideas, and creating camps for children that reinforce the idea that ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ brains can exist independently from male or female bodies (or in varying combinations) and that men and women should be defined by adherence to regressive stereotypes even conservative heterosexuals have left behind. We want kids with gender issues to be helped and loved. We were those kids.
However, this messaging is increasing the number of young people unhappy with their bodies and committing more young people to psychological dependence on outside validation and expensive pharmaceutical drugs and surgeries that have negative health impacts. To our knowledge, Seattle Pride has not conducted systematic reviews of the evidence regarding outcomes of pediatric transitioners despite “affirming” social and medical transition- nor have you contended with the systematic reviews of the evidence which have shown the highly health-damaging and irreversible effects of these treatments and little proof (see below) of improved mental health.
Why there are significant risks to social and medical transition:
a) Most kids used to outgrow clinical (DSM diagnosis) gender dysphoria and were likely gay, lesbian, or bisexual adults, not trans-identified. “LGBTQ+” organizations are intentionally hiding this fact from the public and the LGB people they purport to serve.
From a personal account of a lesbian youth, a cohort that has been almost entirely abandoned by “LGBTQIA+” organizations and worse, by their lesbian elders:
Some experienced gender clinicians who have not allowed themselves to be intimidated by activists do not recommend socially transitioning kids because it will solidify their gender dysphoria. Desistance rates have indeed dropped drastically since the start of “affirmation” culture from a majority to almost zero in some gender clinic settings.
b) Alarming associated factors- Some homophobic parents, abusive parents, and parents with personality disorders and proxy-Munchausen traits appear very motivated to transition their children, alarming some gender clinicians. Some young gay and lesbian regretters say anti-gay sentiments in their peers and parents pushed them towards transitioning. Foster/adopted kids and youth with sex offender parents are more likely to identify as trans.
We urge you to read the first article below, at least if nothing else, to see what gender clinics are like. Due to ethics concerns, the UK has shut down the state-funded Tavistock clinic. Things are more reckless in the United States.
c) The medical transition pathway for which your organization advocates stunts sexual maturation, destroys sexual function, causes osteopenia, sterilizes, and may have adverse cognitive effects on mood and IQ.
The Gay and Lesbian Rights Movement of the past promoted self-acceptance, healthy defiance of gender stereotypes, and positive health practices in the wake of the AIDS epidemic. In contrast, today’s “LGBTQ+” movement promotes trading health for pharmaceutically and surgically constructed identities. As these medically transitioned young people grow, they will experience more severe health issues made worse by the fact they transitioned at such young ages- not just from blockers, hormones, and surgeries- but also binding and tucking, which growing children are now encouraged to do. It appears a large majority of the exploding female population transitioning have serious postmenopausal symptoms in their twenties.
Experts analyzed 68 transgender men who were taking the cross-sex hormone to change their identity from female to male and found that 95 per cent had developed pelvic floor dysfunction...
Around 87 per cent of the participants had urinary symptoms such as incontinence, frequent toilet visits and bed-wetting, while 74 per cent had bowel issues including constipation or being unable to hold stools or wind in. Some 53 per cent suffered from sexual dysfunction.
The screen cap below is graphic but we feel it is necessary as “LGBTQ+” organizations and media are glorifying this with their slogans of “trans joy” regarding minors. Here is an account of a young woman who was medicalized as a teenager and now regrets it and was unable to feed the baby she now has due to a double mastectomy.
For male youth, aside from the stunted genitalia, loss of sexual function, sterility, and high complication rates for vaginoplasty surgeries (though not as high as phalloplasty), estrogen is likely to do health damage to boys who want to be girls transitioning at such young ages. For one, estrogen in males is linked to cognitive impairment, depression, and earlier dementia.
Stories of severely medically damaged young gay men:
d) While many medicalized people like their body modifications and are happy they transitioned, the claim this is preventing suicides and massively improving mental health is an empty one when looking at less subjective measures. The highest quality studies to date indicate little or no mental health benefits for youth and proof of physical health damage. For adults, it appears palliative at best.
This study indicates that “gender-affirming” vaginoplasty increases suicide risk.
e) The rapid increase in trans identification looks almost exactly like other body dysmorphia and mental distress social contagions that affect female teens and young adults particularly. When one admits this, it is obvious why parents are disturbed “LGBTQ+” DEI, and SEL trainings result in groups of kids coming out as trans/nonbinary.
f) You may be asking, “I thought we were helping trans people. Why is everyone repeating how healthy, lifesaving, and evidence-based this is?”
After higher quality systematic reviews, several “LGBTQ+”-friendly countries (Sweden/UK/Finland/France/Germany) are restricting or reviewing pediatric medical transition. The “LGBTQ+” lobby, Southern Poverty Law Center, ACLU, most liberal press, leftist gay commentators, and medical bodies themselves are lying about the safety and efficacy of pediatric transition for politically and ideologically motivated reasons and are smearing principled journalists and health professionals who do not fall in line with their agenda. They repeat the talking points of the trans activists known to be some of the most unethical smearers and liars and allow them to write their public statements and policies. Small committees of activist health professionals have taken over health institutions using circular citations of poor-quality studies to manufacture a fake consensus. If you can’t believe this, we urge you to learn about past medical and mental health fraud cases in history; there are many.
We are only scratching the surface of the extremity and recklessness of “gender-affirming care” here. Many people from across the political spectrum believe this is one of the worst medical scandals of all time.
It may not be hyperbolic to state the Democrats’ adoption of gender activism is hurting them and aiding Trumpism, as examples of their support for radical trans activism are widely circulated on social media and examined in conservative news outlets.
Here is an account of the quackery in “trans medicine” from a leftist lesbian married to a “trans man.” It’s incredibly dishonest to create the impression only the right cares about this and that there are no leftists who strongly feel that pediatric transition should be banned.
For two Washington state examples, see below. Jason Rantz is gay, and Tamara Pietzke is kind, compassionate, and genuinely concerned for these young people.
Gay men and lesbians need to understand irreversible medical body modification, practiced with cult-like enforcement on very mentally ill kids, is the face of the progress flag in many people’s minds.
f) The “LGBTQ+” lobby is scaring parents, even pro-gay marriage liberal ones, or ones who will never shun their child if they grow up to identify as trans. Politicians are passing laws to take children out of the parent’s homes if they do not affirm these unevidenced-based and health-harming practices on their minor children, and it’s the key component to declining support for the progress flag they see as extremist and child-obsessed.
Gender is not the new gay, black, or orange- consequences of denying biological truth:
a) The “LGBTQ+” lobby’s insistence on denying biological reality in favor of servicing self-declared identity is negatively impacting women and girls. Girls and women are losing significant numbers of sports opportunities, and females are suffering serious injuries from larger/stronger trans-identified boys. The “LGBTQ+” lobby is an anti-girl/women’s rights movement. Females are now losing sports teams as males are being permitted to join the girl’s teams, often taking medals away from girls. Boys have physical advantages over girls pre-puberty, and medical transition does not erase the advantages males have over females regardless of how they identify.
This incident is far from the only reported severe injury inflicted by a male on a female team.
On Sept. 1, 2022, I was severely injured in a high school volleyball game by a transgender athlete on the opposing team,” McNabb said. “I suffered from a concussion and a neck injury that to this day I am still recovering from. Other injuries I still suffer from today include impaired vision, partial paralysis on my right side, constant headaches, as well as anxiety and depression.
Seattle Pride’s messaging regarding girl’s sports:
Here is a quote from your 2024 Pride grand marshal, Megan Rapinoe, who advocates for all girls’ sports to be mixed sex.
I'm sorry, your kid's high school volleyball team just isn't that important. It's not more important than any one kid's life…
This sends the message girls’ role in life is not to prioritize their needs, be competitive, and seek college funding but to be an emotional support system to others, especially boys and men whose suicides will now be their fault if they don’t give up their medals and their scholarships and risk serious injuries. Please see below how this type of commentary violates suicide prevention ethics, and we already demonstrated you should be skeptical that “affirmation” is a cure for suicide.
Several trans-identified males have competed on men’s teams and are okay with it. The headlines of “transgender sports bans” are false victimization propaganda, as if boys can’t learn to be kind and tolerant of boys with gender issues (see page 81).
While Rapinoe is the poster child for the destruction of girls/women’s sports opportunities, we would not advocate censoring Rapinoe or not including her in a parade, the way you “cancel-cultured” Amazon for not banning books raising many of the concerns we share here, most importantly, how pediatric transition is likely to do young people significant harm. We pride ourselves on not being part of the catastrophizing, censorious behavior “LGBTQ+” activism has become known for, aiding in this backlash. Adults should role model debate, good argumentation, and resilience in the face of contentious disagreements in a multicultural society.
Don’t expect parents to flag wave for the “LGBTQIA+” reality-denying agenda that will now place their teens in beds on school field trips with the opposite sex that may result in pregnancy without the parents’ knowledge. On a related issue, here are just a few of the examples of women in prison forced to endure sexual assaults by trans-identified male sex offenders (most are heterosexual men who transition, not “homosexual transsexuals” familiar to drag ball scenes). Your organization is funding these policies that result in women being sexually assaulted and raped through GJL (most “LGBTQ+” orgs. are doing this). There are claims this is happening in WA state. There is no reason why the push can’t be for segregating at-risk gay and trans-identified prisoners in safe areas in male prisons.
b) Trans activists are consistent in their graphic threats of violence and rape, with multiple examples of them assaulting women and LGB people at protests. The public sees this. We acknowledge there are likely far-right extremists calling in threats to gender clinics, etc., but it is hard to verify). However, the many liberals, moderates, LGB people, and women who disagree with this activism are not routinely engaging in sexually graphic and violent threats and tyrannical pushes for censorship. People are increasingly not moved by the victim narrative promoted by “social justice” organizations regarding trans activism, which has become abusive, slandering, and authoritarian, especially to dissenting LGB people.
In another example of how “LGBTQ+” activism is a corrupt shell of the former gay/lesbian rights movement, there is no evidence of a “trans murder epidemic” relative to country-level crime. Pushing this narrative is emotional manipulation by “LGBTQ+” organizations that lines their coffers and makes people unnecessarily scared and more mentally ill. When this is done to minors, it’s child abuse.
Point 2: Sexualized Behavior Around Children
It is possible for gay men who love drag to read to kids in age-appropriate theatrical costumes or be role models to kids. Some of us supported this idea until images came out of blatantly inappropriate, sexually themed behavior. We want to make it clear that we are not attacking all gay spaces or gay men (we have many gay male allies who share our views), but they are men. All communities, from sports teams in liberal areas to conservative religious communities, need to take child safeguarding seriously. Sexual abuse happens in schools, churches, camps, and in Boy Scouts. Predators hide as friendly people to infiltrate spaces to access children. It is important to note homosexual rights activism has a known history of attempts by pedophilia movements to infiltrate them.
Malcolm Clark is a gay man and science documentarian.
And while an uncomfortable topic, it is important to admit a significant number of gay men claim they had sex with adult gay men when coming out as teenagers. This is male-pattern behavior generally; heterosexual men behave the same way in environments that permit this (patriarchal cultures, rock/rap stars, abusive cults, etc.). A recent X thread by a conservative gay man currently has over 8 million views, with many of the liberal gay men in the comments agreeing with him:
Every man I had sex with when I was 14 knew I was 14 beforehand. LGBTQ culture has no socially imposed boundaries on it. They don't police themselves. They are too consumed with protecting their political causes and shaming rightwing bigots. (Chad Felix)
If you want to know what it's truly like to be a teen and a young man in gay culture, read this entire thread. (gay man)
Ok as someone that was one of these kids this man IS NOT LYING. Read down the thread a bit. Thankfully I am not HIV positive but all the stuff about older men and prostitution…yeah. Except I was weird and actually wanted to be a whore…so that part was living my dream” (Thai Rivera LGBTQ comedian)
And don’t blame “TQ+” alone for this. There was a problem in “gay culture” - or actually, in *man culture* (lesbians generally do not have this issue, let’s be real, this is a man problem) well before the rise of “TQ+”. And a problem in male culture long before gay rights… (gay man)
Can the people who run “LGBTQIA+” entities admit this is a good reason not to hold events with 12-year-old boys in heavy makeup and spiked heels, having adults throw money at them on catwalks in clubs, and then scream “homophobia” when people object? Effeminate boys can dress up at home in mom’s clothes and makeup. Throwing money is a practice done at raunchy drag events in bars and at women on stripper poles. As a supposed “community,” we need to stop being defensive about this and claiming this is a right-wing moral panic if we don’t like being called “groomers.” Many people opposing this are feminists and those in your minority group. Here are just a few of the many examples of sexualization of children around “LGBTQ+” spaces or pedophile infiltration regarding youth events. And the examples involve individuals who were involved in Drag Queen Story Hour or performing for children.
Houston Public Library admits registered child sex offender read to kids in Drag Queen Storytime (1 of 2 sex offenders there)
Some may not like the conservative outlets like the National Review or Daily Wire, but they are correct; pedophiles do like access to images of children they consider sexy online. And “sissified” boys are one of the more popular niches, fact.
Could it get worse? It can.
Many people (conservative and liberal) find the rhetoric of the founder of Drag Queen Story Hour himself to be boundary-violating, narcissistic, and creepy.
We are including a page with documentation of just some of the incidences.
-A drag queen called Jizzington performing for kids
-A drag queen saying suck my d*** in relation to kids
-Kids “on the pole”
-Kids petting gay men in pup-play sexual fetish gear.
Seattle Pride Examples
* We know and appreciate you have a “no lewd behavior” policy in your rules, but we all know lewd behaviors are likely to happen at Pride.
We understand that some people are ok with nudity, and some aren’t. Most nudists are likely just nature boy/girl frolickers or want to destigmatize the human body. However, being a nudist has nothing to do with LGB rights, and this deservedly gets scrutiny when in the context of a parade that emphasizes sexual liberation while also claiming to be family-friendly.
We provide a pertinent example of why this is a problem in the link provided above, showing furries at this year's Pride and their Twitter feed. Their costumes look like children's cartoon characters, but one has pornified, massive breasts. These men appear to be both furry fetishists and autogynephiles- a heterosexual male paraphilia where they are emotionally and sexually aroused at the thought of themselves as women. They are not lesbians trapped in “assigned male at birth” bodies. We provide this example not to police adults but to illuminate our point regarding children. The costumes are obviously alluring to kids, but images posted by the men who wear them on X/Twitter demonstrate sexual motivations- a fascination with having huge breasts (anatomic autogynephilia) and female bodily functions (physiologic autogynephilia) like lactating.
Does Seattle Pride staff really believe it is appropriate for children to be subjected to situations that appear enticing, fun, and innocent to them that, in reality, are acts of dressing up that give grown men erections? And to have it on public streets with images provided to millions of viewers worldwide via social media presenting “a community” that blurs the lines between child and adult play?
We could also delve into just how sexually graphic (sex between teens and adults and consuming your own body fluids) the “LGBTQ+” content in public schools often is. Censorship is always a concern, but note as one commentator did, the Indian population is not running around hysterical, screaming “bigotry” that the Kama Sutra is not in middle school libraries, something to think about as you express your outrage over “anti-LGBTQIA+” legislation. There is a debate to be had here, and hurling bigotry accusations at parents (some who are gay/lesbian) and politicians who often just want some moderate limits on sexual content only helps to destroy public trust.
Pride has always had expressions of sexuality, from topless dyke marches to bears in chaps. They aren’t worse than things that happen with heterosexuals at Mardi Gras or drunken college student gatherings. The issue is promoting it to people as family-friendly. Now that the public is more aware of what happens at Pride and is being criticized for the expressions of sexuality, it’s time to separate sexual behavior for 18+only, or don’t bill Pride as appropriate for minors. This is a very easy problem to solve by promoting a daytime event (Pride in the Park, perhaps) with rules for behavior and a nighttime event for adults. Drag is historically gay culture with adult content, and many gay men (including drag queens) do not think it should be promoted to the general public, and specifically to kids.
Some of this behavior is making the anti-gay Christians look like they were right. You may object. You may think they are prudes. You may want to point to youth pastor sex abuse scandals. But expect more declining support among the broader public if “LGBTQ+” entities choose to continue to die on this hill. There are those who are doing everything they can to see same-sex marriage repealed.
So please ask yourselves if this behavior involving children will help us if the right to marry gets returned to the states the way abortion rights have. Ask if it is helping gay and lesbian people in conservative countries where they don’t enjoy the rights we have. Ask yourselves if you really think this is good for kids.
Point 3: Authoritarian Activism & Indoctrination of Youth
Children have the right to grow into autonomous beings through exposure to the world's diversity, richness, and complexity. We should respect their right to cognitive freedom and to explore ideas without undue influence, fear, or external limitations.
We are alarmed that "LGBTQ+" activism, taking its cues from critical and postmodern-theory-influenced academics in humanities and gender studies departments, has become a movement to enforce a social/political orthodoxy regarding social justice and sex and gender. Critical theories are highly controversial and should not be promoted to school children as consensus or fact. Postmodernism-influenced worldviews that believe subjective identities supersede objective facts and glorify extreme body modification are not scientific or evidence-based. Queer theory has a history of support for developmentally inappropriate introductions to sexuality for minors. These approaches encourage youth to fixate on dividing themselves into identity categories instead of developing a sense of higher purpose to our shared humanity.
We, and growing numbers of parents, find both political ideology and gender/queer theory indoctrination by “LGBTQ+” organizations, teachers, and administrators, via the genderbread person/gender unicorn/gender giraffe and other materials to be objectionable and scientifically inaccurate. This has given rise to the term “school to gender clinic pipeline.” It puts autistic, proto-gay/bi, and traumatized youth particularly at risk.
There are examples of educators, assured of their moral superiority, who clearly and publicly articulate their goals to indoctrinate children into their personal views of radical gender theory and “social justice”. The volume and frequency of videos of this nature uploaded online contribute to the popularity of huge accounts like Libs of TikTok. A few decades ago, the prevailing norm of educational institutions was to shield students from the political stances of their teachers as part of a developmentally-informed guideline. There are so many different schools of thought that suggest a myriad of approaches to justice and social improvement, things most people want.
"LGBTQ+" activism also promotes the social punishment of those who dissent (examples provided below). The victims of this authoritarian and illiberal cancel culture are often pro-gay liberal women, "trans medicalists" who dislike trans activism, and gay and lesbian people. These dynamics inflame the already existing societal problems of tribalism, sectarianism, and dehumanization of the 'Other'- all of which impair the social cohesion of our country. Seattle Pride is participating in this climate by framing cultural conflicts with consequential “LGBTQIA+” activism as personal attacks and hatred against individuals for their mere orientations and identities.
We ask Seattle Pride to consider not using "inclusive" to describe this organization. While Seattle Pride has become inclusive of many identity categories, such as trans-identified heterosexuals, kinksters, and asexuals, there is no representation of diversity of opinion. The views of LGB people who see trans activism as antithetical to our interests, who raise alarms about bad boundaries and outright pedophiles infiltrating spaces involving children, or who see unprecedented levels of sex and gender distress among youth following exposure to confusing and inaccurate gender theory— are intentionally censored. We have no faith that the community of trans-identified adults horrified by the concept of socially and medically transitioning minors would ever have a voice in your organization. Yet, “trans kids" draped in an array of body-rejecting identity flags feature prominently in your parade more and more every year. Please be aware that you do not speak for all of us and that you do not have the right to represent yourselves as though you do.
Here are examples of GSA/”LGBTQIA+” scenes that are focused on promoting “queer” activist worldviews and intolerant fundamentalism around them. This is much of what parents are objecting to in school and much of what has triggered the laws you dislike, not a teacher being open about the fact they have a same-sex partner.
Many of us (rainbow people) are dismayed at the way this social movement is conducting itself and its undue influence on the youth in our minority groups.
Seattle Pride can continue to release the kinds of statements you do regarding a community besieged by “anti-LGBTQIA+” speech and laws. You can keep funding policies that are resulting in medically damaged young people, prison assaults, harming girls’ by turning their teams co-ed, and dismantling the rights of parents who are not truly abusive. The lies by omission and misinformation campaigns of well-funded “LGBTQ+” groups and Seattle Pride are pushed by people who make six-figure incomes and profit from creating a sense of emergency despite unprecedented freedoms and safety. This does our populations a great disservice by not informing our members of the facts so we can make our own informed opinions. It is harming all of us with declining support and making our young people radicalized, unable to deal with conflict, and paranoid. More of us are waking up. We are forming alternative communities, media, and organizations because these issues are tearing our communities apart. It’s sad, it’s ironic, but it is necessary.
We hope this has caused you to have concerns about the negative impacts of this activism on women, children, LGB people, trans-identified people, and our society generally. Our secondary purpose is to document that the people running "LGBTQIA+" organizations know people are being hurt. They know it's pre-LGB kids and LGB teens who are being hurt the most. They know persistently dysphoric kids will, at best, experience "affirmation” but very severe and costly health consequences. They know their policies are resulting in sexual assaults against the most vulnerable women who come from poverty and abusive backgrounds. They know that trans activism is self-centered and violent. They know some of this sexualized behavior around children is far from innocent. They know it's not just Ron DeSantis and MAGAs who object. And they know the hills they die on destroy support for the causes they say they care about. But instead of bravely confronting complex issues, informing the public of all the facts, role-modeling resilience, and enforcing very reasonable boundaries, they doubled down on divisive propaganda and wrote checks to push more of this.
Earnestly, LGB people from across the political spectrum,
Audra Reed
Carrie Hathorn
Heidi Briones
Justine Deterling
Maia Poet
Tara Kleca
This has been sent to:
Seattle Pride Staff (07/31/24)-
Patti Hearn, Noah Wagoner, Nick Albritton, Ross Gonzalez, Ramone Myers
This letter was long and many other points could have been stated. It may be good to link a few articles here as to why regret rates are not as low as claimed and are likely to increase.
https://segm.org/transition-regret-and-detransition:
"More recent studies that have included the current case mix of predominantly adolescent-onset gender dysphoria suggest that up to 30% of those who undergo medical transition may discontinue it within only a few years (Roberts et al., 2022). It is likely that a number of them will experience significant regret over lost opportunities and permanent physical changes."
https://manhattan.institute/article/trust-the-experts-is-not-enough:
"The final of the two famous Dutch studies, published in 2014, relied on only 1.5 years of follow-up after subjects had completed their transition. This is hardly enough time to reveal whether the procedures ultimately benefit the patients. Two studies found that the average time to regret is around 10 years.[11] But, remember, almost all the data in these studies comes from those who transitioned as adults and were gathered before the “affirming” model and its hostility to safeguards became widespread. Increasingly, we hear from detransitioners who describe a period of euphoria immediately after completing some or all of the transition. As even Peggy Cohen-Kettenis, one of the Dutch researchers who co-authored the 2011 study, would later observe, “a truly proper follow-up needs to span a minimum period of 20 years.”[12]"
People should be skeptical of Laura Edwards-Leeper's claim that her earlier cohorts all had the mental health issues resolved. Better hospital data from healthcare systems don't show improved mental heath among medicalized dysphoric adults-see Swedish data). But she is correct that there are often even bigger issues with the new cohorts:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/opinion/transgender-children-gender-dysphoria.html:
"Laura Edwards-Leeper, the founding psychologist of the first pediatric gender clinic in the United States, said that when she started her practice in 2007, most of her patients had longstanding and deep-seated gender dysphoria. Transitioning clearly made sense for almost all of them, and any mental health issues they had were generally resolved through gender transition.
'But that is just not the case anymore,' she told me recently. While she doesn’t regret transitioning the earlier cohort of patients and opposes government bans on transgender medical care, she said, 'As far as I can tell, there are no professional organizations who are stepping in to regulate what’s going on.'"
Trans has to be separated from LGB. And LGB activists have to force this. In my city we didn’t have a Pride Parade this year. We had a Trans Parade. It was gross too.