Tennis champion Martina Navratilova has spoken of her pride to be part of a new lesbian rights group which she described as a “force for good”.
The sporting great is patron of The Lesbian Project, a newly-launched not-for-profit organisation which is said to be dedicated to the understandingand enhancement of lesbian lives in the UK.
The group has been co-founded by Kathleen Stock, a former university lecturer who resigned after being targeted by activists over her views on gender identity, and feminist campaigner and writer Julie Bindel.
There is a need for an organisation dedicated to representing the rights and interests of lesbians in the UK, the project states on its website, arguing that lesbians “tend to be subsumed into larger sexual minority groups”.
In a statement to mark the launch, Navratilova said: “At a time when lesbian rights in many countries are being eroded I am proud to be a patron ofThe Lesbian Project, an organisation dedicated to the wellbeing of UK basedlesbians – a force for good.”
Ms Stock said she feels lesbians are often “pushed in with other categories” when it comes to research, meaning “we just don’t know a lot about lesbian life” as she referred to differences between lesbians and bisexual women, trans women and gay men.
She said she accepted the project is likely to come in for criticism from some quarters but insisted they are not a “single-issue focus group” on gender identity.
I think there are many more issues to talk about for lesbians than just the issue of gender identity— Kathleen Stock
She told BBC Woman’s Hour: “I think there are many more issues to talk about for lesbians than just the issue of gender identity.
“It’s true that I think that lesbians are by definition same-sex attracted females, I just think that’s the category that we’re talking about and there’s plenty of them so let’s talk about them.
“But there are other issues too, like I just said about lack of academic research or unfocused academic research, or lack of funding that aren’t really directly about the sort of culture wars around gender identity at all, although I’m sure that we will get our fair share of criticism from that direction but we don’t mean to, we’re not coming out as a sort of single-issue focus group on that.”
She said lesbians are a group with “special interests and special needs that we would like to represent and stand up for”, and argued there is a separate need for lesbian social spaces.
Asked if a trans woman who identified as lesbian wanted to enter one of their venues or social spaces, she said: “I would, personally speaking, I would want to say to that person ‘god bless you but this is not for you and that’s ok, there’s plenty of spaces for you, we’re lesbians, we’re having a night of our own, please just let us have it’.”
Ms Stock said she also accepted there is a “tension between generations”, and said they do not claim to represent all lesbians.
She told the programme: “We fully accept of course that lots of lesbians, young lesbians in particular, will probably come out today and say ‘they don’t stand for me’ and that’s fine.
“We don’t even claim to stand for all lesbians, we couldn’t possibly, they’re a diverse group like every other, but we’re interested in same-sex attracted females, exclusively same-sex attracted females.”
The project’s advisory board includes SNP politician Joanna Cherry, who said she is “delighted” to be part of it and “particularly pleased” to have Navratilova as a patron.
