Members of the LGBTQ community are criticizing a Burlington City Council candidate as anti-transgender.
Peggy Luhrs, a longtime feminist/lesbian activist in Vermont, is running for the Central District City Council seat as an independent. She’s working to unseat Progressive incumbent Perri Freeman, who is also being challenged by independent Tiki Archambeau.
According to posts on her Facebook page and other online writings, Luhrs believes that feminism is “under attack” and being co-opted by those who are transgender. She represents an ideology pushed by trans-exclusionary radical feminists, or TERFs. The group endorses the notion, criticized by the LGBTQ community, that transgender women are men who harm the goals of the feminist movement.
These posts and comments have raised concern among Luhrs’ political opponents and other LGBTQ activists and leaders in Burlington that her words could have a damaging effect on the LGBTQ community.
Luhrs did not respond to multiple requests for comment from VTDigger.
This isn’t the first time that Luhrs has garnered pushback in Burlington over her ideology. In January 2020, Luhrs attempted to host a discussion about “the unforeseen consequences of the transgender agenda” at the Fletcher Free Library. But overwhelming criticism that the discussion was a form of hate speech and threats of protest ultimately led to the events’ cancellation.
Luhrs has recently posted content to her Facebook page comparing transitioning-related operations to Frankenstein, stating, “Looking at today’s insanity of males pushing for uterine implants, clearly, Mary Shelley was our most prescient feminist.”
She’s also equated queer theory, the study of gender identity, to conspiracy theory QAnon — a right-wing internet hoax that has a growing number of Americans believing that political elites run child-sex rings and hail Satan. She wrote, “I love the letter Q. Unfortunately currently it stands for fantasy over facts and distorts reality. Q-Anon or Queer Theory.”
Luhrs has criticized the Fletcher Free Library for hosting books on transgender identity and transgender transitioning. In one post criticizing the library, she said, “Trans ideology is both misogynist and homophobic.”
Luhrs has also come out against the Equality Act, federal legislation that is moving through Congress — and was approved by the House last week — which would make it illegal to discriminate against people for their sexual orientation or gender identity.
“Do you believe that male sexed people should have the right to undress and shower in communal changing room with teenage girls (#TheStanilandQuestion),” she wrote in one post, alluding to a widely criticized narrative. “This will be the result if the ‘Equality Act’ passes. Equality is in scare quotes because this act will be the end of equality for women who want boundaries, privacy, safety or their own spaces in shelters etc.”
In one of her most recent posts, Luhrs mocks those who are non-binary over an image promoting her candidacy for city council. She states, “Singular woman. Not non-binary whatever that is because as soon as you say non binary you create a binary.”
Freeman, Luhrs’ main opponent in the city council race, uses they/them pronouns and is gender queer. Freeman said they don’t know if Luhrs’ post was targeting them. They said any resident has the right to run for office but they also said that Luhrs’ messaging is damaging to the queer community.
“It’s also a sort of bizarre experience to be in a debate with someone who doesn’t really believe that you exist,” Freeman said. “I worry about trans folks. I worry about their mental and physical health.”
Following the cancellation of the January 2020 “transgender agenda” event, Freeman proposed a city council resolution affirming transgender community members and condeming hate speech directed toward the transgender community. It passed unanimously.
“I do, of course, continue to just affirm that trans people and queer people across the gender spectrum exist,” Freeman said, “and they’re valid and that it’s important for us as a community to continue to affirm that and celebrate that.”
Archambeau has also condemned Luhrs’ messaging. In an emailed statement provided to VTDigger, Archambeau said he does not agree with Luhrs’ comments “whatsoever.”
“The comments Peggy made are harmful and not in line with my values, nor the values of the Central District or Burlington in general,” Archambeau said. “Gender identity is hard enough without comments like these. They simply have no place in our community. Whether elected or not, I expect the voters of the Central District to honor a path forward that dignifies each individual as a human being. Trans rights are human rights.”
Colchester resident Don Branum, who is agender, said they’ve been hearing from their transgender friends in Burlington that they’re frightened by the ideology Luhrs is pushing. (Branum’s friends did not want to speak to VTDigger, out of fear for their safety, Branum said.)
“My trans friends who live in Burlington are scared. We barely survived four years of Trump,” Branum wrote in an email. “And now we might have to deal with a hateful city councilor who’s going to use any platform she gets to try and roll back trans rights in one of the country’s most accepting communities?”
When Luhrs made the news in January 2020 for trying to hold the “transgender agenda” speaking event, she told Seven Days that she was not transphobic. “I don’t hate trans people,” Luhrs said. “This is about protecting women’s rights and lesbian rights.”
She said she viewed the pushback to the event as a form of authoritarianism. She said she had no problem with gender nonconforming people but that she does have a problem “with a certain group that is trying to make all the rules their way.”
Amanda Rohdenburg, associate director of LGBTQ advocacy organization Outright Vermont, said it’s hard to buy the argument that one isn’t transphobic when they’re posting images to their Facebook feed stating that “only perverts lie to kids about sex” and that transitioning is “eugenics.” She is referring to one of Luhrs’ Facebook posts where these statements were plastered over a trans rights flag.
She added that there can be harmful implications when transgender people, specfically young people, hear anti-transgender rhetoric in their local politics. Rohdenburg referenced a 2017 study which found that as states began legalizing gay marriage, LGB youth suicide rates decreased. These rates did not decrease in states where gay marriage was not legalized.
“And it’s not because 15-year-olds were like, ‘Yes, now I can finally get married!’” she said. “The ability to picture a future where you can live your best self, where you can be your authentic self, has enormous implications for suicide prevention.”
“So, when elected officials, when policies, when community-level discourse is centered around telling trans youth that they are being destroyed, and they are not a part of the social justice movement, that your very existence is a hoax,” Rohdenburg said, “that goes a long way to making them feel devalued by their community. It has enormous implications for the work that Outright is trying to do.”
Justin Marsh, director of communications and development for LGBTQ health and safety organization Pride Center Vermont, said they couldn’t comment on current elections because of the center’s 501(c)3 nonprofit status.
Marsh added that any LGBTQ people who are experiencing harm can call the center’s warm line at 802-863-0003 or reach out via chat at pridecentervt.org.
