How Many Misrepresentations Can One Open Letter Contain?
The LGB Alliance offers us a Parade of Absurdities
Hold on to your rainbow flags, folks! Hamish McGregor's open letter about Pride events and "gender ideology" is a masterclass in misinformation, wheeling out every tired float from the Parade of Historical Prejudices. Let's review this spectacle as it rolls past, handing out prizes for Misrepresentation, Fear-mongering, and Good Old-fashioned Bigotry.
Historical Revisionism High Jump (with Clown Shoes)
🏆 Prize for Most Outrageous Historical Rewrite
Claim: Pride started as a "homosexual liberation" movement with no connection to gender identity.
Reality Check: The first Pride events commemorated the Stonewall Uprising in 1969, a protest led in part by trans women of colour like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. Pride has always been about gender diversity. A 2015 Stonewall UK report highlights that trans people were present from the start, with activists like Johnson and Rivera playing pivotal roles. The notion of recent "forced-teaming" belongs in the same dumpster as those "authentic" moon landing hoax videos.
Verdict: 0/10 for accuracy. 10/10 for trying to rewrite a movement’s history while it's still marching.
Paedophilia Panic Parade Float (with Fear-mongering Confetti)
🎯 Prize for Scariest Float with No Basis in Reality
Claim: Pride events "target children" and align with paedophilia advocates.
Reality Check: Look who's recycling floats from Anita Bryant’s 1977 "Save Our Children" campaign! This float's been mothballed since they used it against gay rights, but they've given it a fresh coat of paint and hoped we wouldn't notice. Pride events have long established age-appropriate content guidelines, with no credible evidence linking these events to "grooming", a claim debunked by NPR in 2022. Meanwhile, anti-trans groups are busy sharing a parade route with the same religious-right organisations that fought against gay marriage. Events like Inflection Point saw gender-critical activists marching arm-in-arm with Family First and Destiny Church: now there's some "forced-teaming" for you.
Verdict: 1/10 for originality. 10/10 for trying to distract from their own concerning choice of parade partners.
Linguistic Manipulation Limbo (with a Dictionary of Deceit)
🎪 Prize for Best Word Salad in a Supporting Role
Claim: Words like "gender," "inclusion," and "diversity" have replaced the "real" focus on homosexuality.
Reality Check: Pride has always been about challenging who gets to belong. Now we're watching spectacular linguistic acrobatics as the letter tries to frame words like "belonging" and "inclusion" as sinister propaganda. It's like calling a wheelchair ramp "accessibility propaganda": the only float manipulating anything here is the one carrying folks who think making Pride more welcoming somehow makes it less legitimate. The ILGA World Report (2023) emphasises how linguistic inclusivity strengthens, rather than dilutes, community cohesion.
Verdict: 3/10 for creativity. 8/10 for trying to rain on a parade built on compassion.
Lesbian Misrepresentation Masquerade (With a Broken Compass)
🎭 Prize for Projection in a Leading Role
Claim: Lesbians are being excluded from Pride for rejecting "gender ideology."
Reality Check: Multiple studies, including research by Pew Research Center (2017) and PRRI (2021), show lesbians are among the strongest supporters of trans rights. In fact, a 2023 YouGov UK survey found that 84% of cisgender lesbians have a positive view of trans people, with 68% being very positive, the highest of all demographics surveyed.
In other words, anti-trans lesbians are a vocal minority. So what got LAVA excluded from the Wellington Pride event in 2021? Not being lesbians, but wanting to showcase trans-exclusionary content at their stall. As the NZ Herald reported in June 2024 regarding the upcoming lawsuit, the Pride board rejected the group's application due to its anti-trans stance, after concerns were raised by the community about the group's history of targeting trans people.
Verdict: 4/10 for projection. 8/10 for the world's least convincing masquerade.
Global Homophobia Street Performance (with a Misdirection Cape)
🌎 Prize for Best International Smoke Show
Claim: Trans inclusion in Pride will hurt international homosexual rights.
Reality Check: Here's a shocking reveal: Authoritarian regimes and far-right groups already oppose all LGBTQ+ rights! Dividing our parade into smaller processions only makes each one easier to shut down, which is exactly what these regimes are hoping for. ILGA-Europe's Annual Review 2024 documented how anti-trans narratives are being used across Europe to undermine broader LGBTQ+ protections, with particular mentions of Hungary, Poland, and Russia as part of a wider trend.
Verdict: 3/10 for fantasy world-building. 7/10 for missing the point of parade solidarity.
The Real Backlash (From the Clown Car of Bigotry)
🎉 Grand Prize for Misinformation Mayhem
The backlash this letter warns about isn't coming from trans inclusion: it's coming from their entire parade of recycled anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. Pride isn't the problem. The problem is this anti-trans lobby trying to rain on a celebration of solidarity.
Final Verdict: A spectacular parade of misinformation with some impressively refurbished antique displays. Pride was always about solidarity. The only forced-teaming happening here is between the organisers of this Parade of Absurdity and the religious conservative groups that still protest against their own rights.
Stay proud, stay united, and let this sad little anti-trans parade pass by into irrelevance where it belongs. And you can support the Wellington Pride board here.