Remember ‘Lisa’ from the cult TV series The L Word? Played to comedic effect, Lisa claimed to be a “lesbian-identified man.” It seems the show’s creators were visionary, today every lesbian dating app and meet-up group will include men who claim to be lesbians, sometimes referred to as ‘transbians.’ The writers of The L Word could not have predicted that over a decade on, lesbians would be pressured to accept male transbians as sexual partners.
If there is one thing that unites lesbians aside from loving women and liking IKEA, it is their dislike of cock. Being fragile and emotional creatures, men aren’t always robust enough to cope with rejection; consequently, generations of female same sex couples have had to find witty retorts to creepy men offering to ‘turn them.’ Today, such objectionable fellas can claim to be ‘transbians’ and enjoy an all-access pass to women’s on and offline spaces.
In 2019 grassroots activist group Get The L Out conducted research into this woke new take on age old male entitlement. Findings showed that 56 per cent of the lesbians surveyed reported that they had been “pressured or coerced into accepting a transwoman as a sexual partner.” Experiences ranged from being duped into going on dates with males who identified as ‘transbians’ to rape. It should be noted that only a small minority of men who identify as lesbians have had any surgery or taken any steps towards ‘transition’ beyond changing clothes and pronouns.
When I asked for women to get in touch with examples of transbians on women-only dating apps, I was expecting a handful of responses; little did I know that within just a few hours I would be inundated by messages from women desperate to share their stories of being harassed, shamed and expelled from lesbian communities.