Today's call out against hypocrisy: "The new generation of gay Conservative sellouts"

I wanted to highlight this Xtra article this week by trans writer and activist Faye Johnstone, "The new generation of gay Conservative sellouts." 

Here's an excerpt below: 

"Never underestimate the willingness of rich, cis, conservative gay people and so-called allies to sell out the rest of us.

"In the 1970s, some gay community leaders turned their backs on the “less respectable” (read: trans, gender-weird, drag-performing, poor, racialized and/or flaming) members of their community in a cynical ploy to gain acceptance and power for themselves—at the expense of their more marginalized peers. There’s no better example than when, in 1973, the New York Pride Committee tried to bar trailblazing trans women of colour Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera from participating in the Pride parade because they were giving the organization “a bad name.” This decision by the local Pride committee exemplified a broader trend where some gay activists sought to push out more marginalized community members to win respectability and influence. 

"Flash forward 50 years and history is repeating itself in Canadian politics. As anti-LGBTQ2S+ hate rises across Canada, with even CSIS sounding the alarm, and trans lives being used as a political punching bag by far-right groups, Melissa Lantsman and Eric Duncan, the two (and only two) openly gay Conservative MPs, and other Conservative MPs who’ve called themselves our allies, are turning their backs on LGBTQ2S+ rights.

"Following federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre siding with transphobes in his opposition to gender-affirming care for minors, his remarks at rallies about so-called “gender ideology” and, most recently, his comments in support of banning trans women from women’s washrooms, not only have Duncan and Lantsman refused to speak out, Lantsman went so far as to defend Poilievre’s comments. Asked about his stance by the Hill Times last week, Lantsman said, “I think the leader has made his common sense Conservative position very clear, and our caucus stands by it, alongside most Canadians.”