Lesbians Haven’t ‘Gone’ Anywhere
By: Catherine Caruso
Tags: Culture, Society, Transgender, Equality, LGBTQ

Former New York Magazine writer and current Substack blogger Andrew Sullivan published an article in The Spectator on Monday titled, “Where have all the lesbians gone?” In the article, he alleges that lesbians are supposedly disappearing off the face of the earth because transgender and nonbinary people exist.

Taking on a rather patronizing and patriarchal tone, Sullivan claims that he “misses” lesbians because he wants us to take care of him and balance out his apparently very man-centered world. He then goes on to recount all the different types of lesbians he supposedly misses so much, rattling off descriptions of femmes and “tomboys” that could easily describe the extended cast of The L Word.

It is not long, however, before he turns his attention to his true target: trans people. As it turns out, Sullivan doesn’t really “miss” lesbians, who haven’t gone anywhere by the way. He just hates trans people.

“I miss lesbians these days because so many are now becoming men. Many of the sudden hordes of youngsters seeking a testosteroned transition to maleness today would once have been teen lesbians — happy to expand the realm of femaleness to the most tomboyish of tomboys,” he writes.

This warped mindset is undoubtedly a result of Sullivan’s descent into the dark world of gender critical feminists. It’s almost as if the likes of J.K. Rowling and Abigail Shrier have written this article for him. And like Rowling and Shrier, Sullivan is not only way off base, he’s completely in the wrong.

So, let’s set the record straight. Lesbians are not “becoming men.” People, who may have previously presented and identified themselves to others as lesbian or gay, are coming to terms with their own identities and realizing that they’re actually trans or nonbinary.

Trans men were never lesbians to begin with, and nonbinary people can still be gay. Sullivan also conveniently forgets that lesbian trans women exist, but I suppose acknowledging this fact would hinder both his narrative and his grift.

Not to mention, the population of cisgender lesbians in the US is not shrinking or outnumbered, as Sullivan not-so-subtly implies. Out of the roughly 11.3 million LGBTQ+ people living in the US, around 0.6% are trans. So no, cis lesbians are not somehow disappearing. Sullivan is simply using this falsehood to try to justify his own transphobia, which honestly feels like a growing trend among those of his ilk.

It’s not enough, however, for him to falsely claim that lesbians are the objects of some sinister vanishing act. No, he wants the world to know that lesbians are no longer welcome in queer spaces.

“That subversive, uniquely dykey, all-female space is narrowing. The social justice revolution has space for countless consonants, dozens of pronouns, but not so much leeway for women who love women and not men,” Sullivan continues. “It’s too binary for a deconstructed non-binary world. In the 1980s, there were around 200 lesbian bars in the US. Now there are 15.”

First of all, everyone uses pronouns. Everyone. I’m not sure why so many people have such a hard time with this. Using the correct pronouns for someone is not only required, but it’s also a sign of respect. I’m sure if someone misgendered Sullivan, he would have a problem with it.

Secondly, inclusivity harms no one. Lesbians are still very much welcome in queer spaces. The fact that trans and nonbinary people are not excluded from queer bars and clubs is not only a good thing, but it also has nothing to do with the fact that lesbian bars are now few and far between. Bars like Cubbyhole in New York City are proof of that. As someone who claims to know so much about lesbians, Sullivan should at least know that.

Given his blatant transphobia, his outdated views of what lesbians should look and act like, and his frequent use of the word “dyke”— which honestly sounds more like a slur coming from him — it is no wonder that Sullivan is suddenly asking himself where all the lesbians have gone. We simply want nothing to do with him.