Exasperated by the excesses of the LGBTQIA+ movement and the dominance of trans issues, gays, lesbians and bisexuals have decided to organise and defend their rights.
This piece was originally published in French on 22 September 2025.
Around the world, groups of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people have had enough. This time, however, their exasperation isn’t with homophobic individuals or regimes intent on denying them the right to express their love for someone of the same sex. Instead, it’s with organisations that claim to defend them, such as ILGA-Europe and IGLYO. There was a time when the ‘L’ and the ‘G’ were the reason for their existence; these days, not so much.
For ten years or more, too many LGBTQIA+ organisations have focused on the ‘TQIA+’. As a transsexual, I’d add that these groups have done little for those of us who want to transition and reintegrate into society with as little fuss as possible. But this isn’t about me; it’s about my gay and lesbian friends who have been told too many times that “there is no LGB without the T.” Well, now there is. On Saturday, LGB International declared ‘independence’.
LGB International’s stated mission is as simple as it is focused: “to promote and defend the rights and interests of lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals” and to advocate “based on the reality of biological sex.” Who could possibly stand in their way? There is still much work to be done in other parts of the world. Same-sex acts between adults are still illegal in dozens of countries and punishable by death in some.
However, in Western Europe and North America, the opposition to LGB International is likely to come from a different group of authoritarians. They might have blue hair, call themselves “Queer,” and identify as victims, but behind their liberal and progressive veneer, their demands are absolute.
Six years ago, LGB Alliance—now the British affiliate of LGB International—was founded at a meeting in London by two lesbians, Kate Harris and Bev Jackson. Both had long histories in the struggle for gay and lesbian rights. Harris had been a volunteer fundraiser for Stonewall while working as an executive at American Express, and Jackson had been a founding member of the UK Gay Liberation Front in 1970.
By 2019, Stonewall seemed to be far more interested in trans rights, such as the demand for self-identification of legal gender. Harris, Jackson, and others appealed to the organisation to remember its roots, but they were rebuffed and launched LGB Alliance in its place. It all started at a meeting on 22nd October 2019, where around 80 activists and supporters gathered at Conway Hall in Central London.
Total confidentiality had been maintained, even between friends who embraced each other upon arrival, not knowing who else was on the guest list. This was a wise precaution. The fallout from the meeting was unforgiving. Social commentators and policy advisers were outraged. Even the name was condemned. While trans people happily emphasise the ‘T’, LGB people were denounced for focusing on their own three letters.
Social media followers might have envisaged a coven of “anti-trans” witches plotting the erasure of trans people. Nothing could have been further from the truth. There were at least three trans people at the meeting—I was one of them—while another spoke from the platform. Much of the opprobrium was directed at Allison Bailey, a criminal defence barrister who had been sitting just in front of me. Her apparent crime? To tweet:
“This is an historic moment for the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual movement. LGB Alliance launched in London tonight, and we mean business. Spread the word, gender extremism is about to meet its match.”
Allison Bailey / Twitter
Twitter users are familiar with hyperbole from anonymous accounts with a handful of followers, but it wasn’t long before other, more prominent figures stepped in. Guardian columnist Owen Jones quoted Ms Bailey’s tweet and announced to hundreds of thousands of followers:
“This is frightening and nasty. There is no LGB without the T. Trans people are an integral part of our community and movement. And the attempt to divide LGBTQ+ people—aided and abetted by right-wing media outlets—will not succeed.”
Owen Jones / Twitter
LGB, and T people do have a common cause—homophobia and transphobia so often overlap—but our key campaigning goals are not the same. Besides, there are many notable groups focusing on transgender issues, TGEU for example. If TGEU can campaign for a world where trans people are valued (without mentioning LGB), then surely LGB organisations can defend their own rights without reference to the ‘T’?
LGB International is a new name, but the people behind it are not. As well as LGB Alliance in the UK, other affiliate organisations were already established. Frederick Schminke, the new chair of LGB International, had himself started L’Alliance LGB in France in 2024 to defend sex-based rights.
No doubt there will be further upset and dismay from transgender and queer people who think the world should revolve around them. It doesn’t, and they need to understand that some of the campaigns spearheaded by LGBTQIA+ organisations, brandishing ever longer sequences of letters, have worked against the interests of gay and lesbian people. Lesbians, for example, have been expected to welcome trans women into their groups, despite the fact that many trans women look like men, sound like men, and act like men.
Besides, if the ‘diversity’ in ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusion’ is worthy of the word, it must include diversity of opinion and diversity of organisation. LGB International has a place among campaigning groups. Let’s welcome them.
By Debbie Hayton
Debbie Hayton is a teacher and journalist.
Her book, Transsexual Apostate – My Journey Back to Reality is published by Forum
* This article was first published in French by Le Point on 22 September 2025: LGB International : le schisme dans la galaxie arc-en-ciel qui vient de loin.
Debbie Hayton 
2 replies on “LGB International: The schism in the rainbow”
Debbie, as a gay person, let me say “thank you” for this endorsement of LGB rights. As a trans person, it might be more natural for you to be part of the “rights grab” that is going on among trans activists, but you have too much integrity for that. After a decade of listening to trans activists demand rights that, to me, seem extraordinary, I still don’t know how they can misjudge their power and influence so much. They want to tell people how to talk. They are trying to redefine the word “gender” for the entire human race. They insist they have a right to influence children. They insist they have a right to invade women’s spaces. They expect the world to regard them as experts on everything related to gender. Perhaps worst of all, they feel emboldened to shame anyone who disagrees with any of their positions. But if their demands are all extraordinary, then resistance is the natural result of that.
Here in the U.S., for the second time in less than ten years, there is some man in Los Angeles parading around naked at a women’s health club. He looks like a man and has male genitals, but he coifs his hair like a woman and wears earrings and makeup — but in all other respects is entirely male, including having a muscular male body. Not only that, he has a history of abusing women. He claims that he identifies as a woman, but it’s pretty clear that he is a fraud who is trying to get access to women who are in a vulnerable state. Now, California has very liberal laws governing transgender issues, but I don’t think they were ever intended to give male predators license to victimize women. That’s just one example of the effects that extraordinary trans “rights” are having on society.
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“They might have blue hair, call themselves “Queer,” and identify as victims, but behind their liberal and progressive veneer, their demands are absolute.” Well said. Draconian demands.
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