TERF$: The female-obsessed cult that took me to the pub and also fed me dinner

Meghan Murphy during her UK pub indoctrination (Photo: Heathcliff O’Malley)

Last week, I was just a regular woman who thought penises were male. Little did I know I had been groomed into a cult that has not yet attempted to marry me off but I’m trying to not take it personally.

Until now, I have been too afraid to share my story.

Yesterday, award-winning investigative reporting news centre for important international and legitimate news, Pink News, published a brave tell all about a lesbian who escaped the “gender critical” cult. I was blown away. I had a lot of questions, and even more answers: first and foremost, why had I never been invited to join an international network of powerful lesbians? Was it because I wasn’t a lesbian? Rude, either way.

I realized that, all along, while I was travelling to various cities to explain to people that “men are not women” and “you cannot change your sex through declaration,” I had actually been brainwashed. I wasn’t fighting for women’s rights, I was being groomed into a cult. A cult of women who liked to have rights and go to the pub.

I began to notice that the more I spoke out, the more other women spoke out. This was a blatant speak out cult, that emotionally manipulated women into speaking out (and going to pubs). I never spoke out about this, because I was already speaking out about something else, and the cult does not allow for double-speaker-outers.

At the pub and the talks and also the dinners and sometimes at coffee shops, I was love-bombed. Many of these women became my friends. They told me my voice was important. They invited me to meetings and more panels and speaking events. More pubs, even. The plan was to ensure we protected women and girls, but also had a nice time. It was terrifying. No women ever offered to find me a wife, but in their defence I am atrociously heterosexual.

I have known for my entire life that females exist, but didn’t realize until yesterday that this “knowledge” made me vulnerable to the movement that captured me, and brought me to the pub to buy me a glass of Prosecco, and hopefully something deep fried. This movement is called The TERF$. And little did I know they weren’t just obsessed with material reality and going to the pub.

I missed the signs. For example, some of them followed me on social media and would send me emails or DMs. This should have been a red flag. Think about it: has a non-cult member ever sent you an email? Has anyone ever tried to chat with you who isn’t part of a global lesbian trafficking ring?

It suddenly all made sense. These women didn’t like me or rights. They just wanted to abuse me by following me on social media and having dinner with me.

Now that I have finally freed myself of The TERF$, I feel like I’ve come home. That could just be because I am literally at home, all the time, because we are in a global pandemic. Or it could be that no one can follow me on Twitter, because I was permanently banned for thinking that men are male. Either way, I will be texting Julie Bindel post haste to tell her that, no I will not be marrying her (but why hasn’t she asked?!), because Adrian Harrop has proposed and, well, he’s a doctor.

Meghan Murphy

Founder & Editor

Meghan Murphy is a freelance writer and journalist from Vancouver, BC. She has been podcasting and writing about feminism since 2010 and has published work in numerous national and international publications, including The Spectator, UnHerd, Quillette, the CBC, New Statesman, Vice, Al Jazeera, The Globe and Mail, and more. Meghan completed a Masters degree in the department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at Simon Fraser University in 2012 and is now exiled in Mexico with her very photogenic dog.