What TERFism Looks Like:
Now one of the things I find puzzling about it is that, when I look at the House of Lords debate on this legislation, those I agree with most are the radical right. Particularly the person I find that I agree with most, in here, and I’m not sure he will be pleased to find this, is Norman Tebbitt… Tebbitt also says that the savage mutilation of transgenderism, we would say if it was taking place in other cultures apart from the culture of Britain, was a harmful cultural practice, and how come we’re not recognising that in the British Isles.
– Sheila Jeffreys, Ph.D., TERF author, lecturer & academic, speaking at the Andrea Dworkin Commemorative Conference given at Oxford University’s Centre for the Study of Justice
Today the Frankenstein phenomenon is omnipresent not only in religious myth, but in its offspring, phallocratic technology. The insane desire for power, the madness of boundary violation, is the mark of necrophiliacs who sense the lack of soul/spirit/life-loving principle with themselves and therefore try to invade and kill off all spirit, substituting conglomerates of corpses. This necrophilic invasion/elimination takes a variety of forms. Transsexualism is an example.
– Mary Daly, PhD, TERF author, lecturer & academic from her book, Gyn/ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism pp 70 – 71
TIP: In the same way anti-gay groups claim to be “Christian” (WBC), TERFs attempt to spread anti-trans animus by passing it off as a brand of feminism, usually “Radical Feminism” or so-called “Gender Critical Feminism.”
What Feminism Looks Like:
So now I want to be unequivocal in my words: I believe that transgender people, including those who have transitioned, are living out real, authentic lives. Those lives should be celebrated, not questioned. Their health care decisions should be theirs and theirs alone to make. And what I wrote decades ago does not reflect what we know today as we move away from only the binary boxes of “masculine” or “feminine” and begin to live along the full human continuum of identity and expression.
– Gloria Steinem, feminist icon & activist
Work with transsexuals, and studies of formation of gender identity in children provide basic information which challenges the notion that there are two discrete biological sexes. That information threatens to transform the traditional biology of sex difference into the radical biology of sex similarity… Every transsexual is entitled to a sex-change operation, and it should be provided by the community as one of its functions.
– Andrea Dworkin, radical feminist pioneer & activist
Male dominant society has defined women as a discrete biological group forever. If this was going to produce liberation, we’d be free.… To me, women is a political group. I never had much occasion to say that, or work with it, until the last few years when there has been a lot of discussion about whether transwomen are women… I always thought I don’t care how someone becomes a woman or a man; it does not matter to me. It is just part of their specificity, their uniqueness, like everyone else’s. Anybody who identifies as a woman, wants to be a woman, is going around being a woman, as far as I’m concerned, is a woman.
– Catharine MacKinnon, radical feminist pioneer & activist
The notion that truly revolutionary radical feminism is trans-inclusive is a no brainer. I honestly do not understand how or why a strain of radical feminism has emerged that favors a biology-based/sex-essentialist theory of ‘sex caste’ over the theory of ‘sex class’ as set forth in the work of Witting, Andrea, and MacKinnon. Can radical feminism be ‘reclaimed’ so that its trans-inclusivity—which is inherent—is made apparent? I hope so.
– John Stoltenberg, radical feminist & activist
Transphobia in the feminist community isn’t new and continues to be promoted by radical feminists such as Sheila Jeffreys, Germaine Greer, and Julie Bindel who pathologize transgenderism for a variety of reasons. They characterize being transgender in various ways: as an extremely kinky sexual practice or a mental illness such as body dysmorphic disorder. Sometimes the criticism is paternalistic in claiming that transgender people are merely exploited victims of the medical industry’s drive to make money with various surgical and hormonal procedures. The 1994 book Transexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male by Janice Raymond describes being transsexual as a medical invention manufactured to create profit. Another criticism is that transgender people reinforce gender roles or expression. For example, Germaine Greer once referred to transwomen as “ghastly parodies of women” with “too much eye-shadow.” Sometimes the attacks on transgender people reach conspiracy levels by those who see the phenomenon as an effort by men to turn themselves into women in order to infiltrate “women”-only spaces. Radical feminists Lierre Keith and Derrick Jensen blend transphobia with “anti-civilization” environmentalism in Deep Green Resistance (DGR). Julie Labrouste, a contact of Radical Women, was repudiated by DGR, which had been urging her to join until she mentioned she was trans-female.
– Radical Women, 2nd wave feminist organization, formed in 196 7
TIP: Like anti-gay groups, TERFs often assert that they don’t “hate” trans people.
 | TERF Position on Trans HealthcareIn the 1980s, TERFs substantively supported the effort to bring an end to trans health care access. One TERF operative wrote a government report which led the revocation of public and private insurance converge of trans medical care. According to the State of California, such policies lead to the death of trans people. |
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TERF Position on Trans EqualityFor decades, TERFs have sought to legislate trans people out of existence. Moreover, they work to oppose trans equality measures, infiltrate trans-inclusive feminist spaces, work with anti-gay groups to target trans kids and collaborate with anti-trans extremists who advocate bombing US targets. |
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TERF Position on Trans Restroom AccessMuch like their far right-wing counterparts, TERFs do not support trans people using the restroom. In fact, the TERF community was the first to use this as a political issue way back in 1973. |
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TERF Position on Body AutonomyMuch like their extremist counterparts, TERFs generally do not recognize the transitioned status of trans people and instead assert that trans people are the sex they were assigned at birth. |
IRL Violence Motivated by TERF Ideology
Sandy Stone, victim of attempted murder by TERF group:
Sandy Stone recounts the time when Olivia Records (a lesbian separatist, radical feminist women’s music collective) came under attack for being trans-inclusive: “We were getting hate mail about me.… The death threats were directed at me, but there were violent consequences proposed for the Collective if they didn’t get rid of me.”
Olivia and Stone were informed that a TERF group named The Gorgons asserted that they would murder Stone if Olivia’s show came to Seattle. Stone said that the Olivia show was “probably the only women’s music tour that was ever done with serious muscle security.”
Making good on their threats, armed Gorgons came to the show but was disarmed by Olivia security. Stone said, “In fact, Gorgons did come and they did have guns taken away from them. I was terrified. During a break between a musical number someone shouted out ‘GORGONS!’ and I made it from my seat at the console to under the table the console was on at something like superluminal speed. I stayed under there until it was clear that I wasn’t about to be shot.
Cis radical feminist Robin Tyler beaten by TERFs, recounting attempted bashing of Beth Elliott:
“We defended Beth Eliot. Robin Morgan came up with this horrible speech and when Beth went on stage to play her guitar and sing, [TERFs] started threatening her. Patty [Harrison] and I jumped on stage and we got hit, because they came onto the stage to physically beat her.”
Lesbian Avengers mobbed by TERFs, threatened with knife in front of MichFest audience:
“A huge crowd of yelling people formed around us and I started crying at that point. It got so loud that Nomy Lamm, who was performing there as part of Sister Spit, came over and stood up for us… The crowd and me were walked over to a tent area. The way that it worked was that there was a queue of people who were going to get to say whatever they wanted to say. I remember, specifically, one woman looking right at me and telling me that I needed to leave the Land as soon as possible because she had a knife and didn’t know if she would be able to control herself if I was around her.”
Stonewall Riot veteran Sylvia Rivera, victim of beating organized by a TERF opinion leader:
“‘Jean O’Leary, a founder of Radicalesbians, decided that drag queens were insulting to women… I had been told I was going to speak at the rally… She told Vito Russo to kick my ass on stage… but I still got up and spoke my piece.’ Although Rivera was famously quoted as saying in response, ‘Hell hath no fury like a drag queen scorned,’ this incident precipitated yet another suicide attempt on her part. Jean O’Leary later reversed her position, and she and Sylvia ultimately remained respectful peers, but the events of that day in 1973 ultimately took something out of Sylvia Rivera. In the succeeding years, Sylvia Rivera’s participation in ‘the movement’ waned. Although she attended every Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade (with the exception of two) until her death, Sylvia’s formal participation in organizations like the GLF and the GAA came to a halt.” – Susan Glisson (Ed), The Human Tradition in the Civil Rights Movement, p 325
Cis & trans activists threatened at MichFest, inspiring the Camp Trans movement:
“Some people in the festival began harassing us and then around noon on Wednesday or Thursday, the festival security stopped by and told us that the trans women in our group would have to leave, ‘for their own safety.’
Tensions were definitely rising, we were told. We had scheduled to do some workshops and some folks were definitely hostile. We were told that, for our own safety, the trans women would need to leave the festival as soon as possible. It was a situation.
We decided that I would stay inside the festival to continue educating people and the other folks would set up camp across the street from the festival in protest.”
State of California documents trans deaths attributable to barriers in accessing trans health care:
“In this study, the strongest predictor associated with the risk of suicide was gender-based discrimination that included ‘problems getting health or medical services due to their gender identity or presentation…’ Notably, this gender-based discrimination was a more reliable predictor of suicide than depression, history of alcohol/drug abuse treatment, physical victimization, or sexual assault. These studies provide overwhelming evidence that removing discriminatory barriers to treatment results in significantly lower suicide rates.”
Effective
The TERF movement is particularly effective in their campaign against trans people and trans equality as they consistently couch their actions as political/feminist/lesbian/radical/womanist critiques of gender and are therefore welcomed in spaces that would normally reject the same rhetoric from right wing people and organizations. From consistently targeting trans healthcare to supporting reparative therapy for trans children, the TERF movement – while historically seen as both ridiculous and irrelevant – has managed to inflict more suffering upon the trans community than any other anti-trans equality movement in the history of the United States.
Misrepresentations of Radical Feminism
There’s a reason TERF opinion leaders like Sheila Jeffreys carefully edits out Andrea Dworkin’s thoughts about trans people when she, not infrequently, cites Dworkin in her many condemnations of trans people. We submit to you that she and other TERFs engage in this intellectual turpitude because to do otherwise would call into question their assertion that what they offer is a “Radical Feminist perspective” of the trans experience. TERFs enjoy a media climate that is all too happy to promote the falsehood that “Radical Feminism” has an issue with trans people. In the name of pioneering (trans-inclusive) Radical Feminists like Dworkin and MacKinnon, TERFs propagate their anti-trans animus in national news outlets, academic presses, peer-reviewed journals in addition to all forms of online media. Even so, TERFs can be found in numerous news outlets (ironically) complaining about not having a platform to spread their claims about both radical feminism and trans people.
Promoting Right-Wing Sex Essentialism
The sex essentialism found within TERF ideology is somewhat similar to the sex essentialism found in right-wing ideology. It is therefore not uncommon to find anti-gay propaganda mills and Tea Party politicians quoting TERFs and TERFs quoting anti-gay Tea Party propagandists. Just as anti-gay groups have token gay people, the TERF crew has token trans people. The TERF movement, much like other sex essentialist ideologies, encourages trans people to detransition.
We at TheTERFs.com can’t quietly watch the colonization of “radical feminism” by what amounts to an ideological anti-trans group without – at the very least – attempting to document TERF ideology, animus, and misinformation. Moreover, we are tired of this movement of animus fraudulently wrapping itself in the good work of RadFems like Wittig, Dworkin, MacKinnon, Stoltenberg, and de Beauvoir to gain access to feminist, medical, legal and communal spaces.
But, I heard that “TERF is a slur!”
The “TERF is a slur” meme is a way for TERFs to simultaneously attack and dismiss critiques of their ideology and behavior. Recently, a cisgender feminist used the term TERF and was immediately attacked – not for the observations she actually made – but for daring to distinguish between radical feminists and TERFs. TERF opinion leader Elizabeth Hungerford’s 2013 CounterPunch article is often cited when making the “TERF is a slur” claim without acknowledging the fact that Hungerford herself actually identifies as a “TERF.” Hungerford wrote, “It’s just that I DO want to exclude some trans people from some situations, depending on the context… So yeah, I am a TERF. And I’m not ashamed. At all.”
While it is often asserted that TERF is a term coined by trans people as a slur, the term actually comes from the non-trans feminist community. In 2008 an online feminist community popularized “TERF” as a way of making a distinction between two types of feminism: trans-exclusionary “radical feminism” and radical feminism itself. TheTERFs.com uses this term in a manner consistent with its widely known context, as asserted by the progenitor of the term, cisgender feminist Viv Smythe: “It was not meant to be insulting. It was meant to be a deliberately technically neutral description of an activist grouping. We wanted a way to distinguish TERFs from other RadFems with whom we engaged who were trans*-positive/neutral, because we had several years of history of engaging productively/substantively with non-TERF RadFems.”
This is excellent!!!!!!!
I love the honesty, sincerity, and facts that come out of you (probably did a lot of research) and I loved it when you mentioned that most radical feminists are trans*inclusive which actually made me smile because I would rather be trans*, intersex, and gender-diverse inclusive than to utilise something harmful and disgusting as the gender/sex binary that is rotting society…
Then again admin, kudos to you!!!! 🙂
I cannot believe what I just read. This is fear mongering and outright lies. Gender Critical Feminists quite simply believe that a person born biologically male cannot ever be female. Spoiler Alert! He literally cannot EVER be female. Just like how I can’t ever be male, even if I had a little penis fashioned out of my vulva or whatever it is that they do, I would still biologically be female.
A male can wear dresses and wigs and makeup and whatever else he fetishises the woman experience to be, but that DOES NOT make him a woman. That makes him a male that likes dresses and makeup. The notion that men pretending to be women actually are women is not only offensive, but it’s ludicrous. It’s like society is participating in a mass delusion and everyone is too afraid of being labeled “transphobic” to point out the absurdity of the state of gender politics.
You can all say whatever you want, but that doesn’t make it true. And deep down, you know I’m right.
The first two sentences of your post represent everything that is wrong with so-called GCF. A person has a phenotype, which is an aspect of sex. Phenotypes are comprised of biological matter. When trans people medically transition, what is transitioned is their sexed phenotype. Pretending that someone with a female phenotype is has a male phenotype is about TERF ideology, not science. Yes, yes, yes; I know you are, even now, thinking about asserting an ad naturam fallacy with a little essentialist reductivism because you think these fallacies are what passes for reason and science.
The first two sentences of your post represent everything that is wrong with so-called GCF. A person has a phenotype, which is an aspect of sex. Phenotypes are comprised of biological matter. When trans people medically transition, what is transitioned is their sexed phenotype, which is, regardless of what you have to say about it, biological. Pretending that someone with a female phenotype is has a male phenotype is about TERF ideology, not science. Pretending that phenotypes aren’t biological if they’re attached to trans bodies is about TERF ideology, not science.
Yes, yes, yes; I know you are, even now, thinking about asserting an ad naturam fallacy with a little essentialist reductivism because you think these fallacies are what passes for biology. You’re just wrong.
Just a tip for you all: you can use shingami eyes (a chrome extension that is completely free) to see and mark if content is trans friendly or anti-trans.
Hey, I see what you’er trying to go for, but this whole article reads a lot like a No True Scotsman.
“TIP: In the same way anti-gay groups claim to be “Christian” (WBC), TERFs attempt to spread anti-trans animus by passing it off as a brand of feminism, usually “Radical Feminism” or so-called “Gender Critical Feminism.””
Stating that they “claim to be ‘Christian'”, implying they aren’t, is a textbook example of a No True Scotsman. By the same token, if a person genuinely identifies themself as a feminist, then they *are* a feminist, whether you like them or not. You don’t get to define your group as not including people you don’t like.
My beef with trans people is that their skin is always kind of shiny from the hormones.
Trigger warning to those who read this.
I don’t know if you’re still around, Admin, but, maybe you can help me with something.
I’m in a ‘conversation’ with TERFs on Twitter. They are trying to say that Trans rights activists regularly wish death and rape upon TERFs, and I have seen some evidence of this. However, I want to know if you have any evidence of TERFs wishing, advocating for, or threatening rape to a Trans person? I’ve seen the death threats, they are quite real. I have not seen rape threats though, and wonder if that is something that happens. It would help the argument to provide evidence of these comments, if they exist.
Thank you for the help.
While there are certainly examples of both sides using gamergate-like. Having said that, what we’ve not seen are trans advocates attempt to murder a TERF the way that TERFs attempted to murder Sandy Stone.
I’ve been reading (correction, attempting to read) a piece by Sheila Jeffreys titled “Transgender Activism: A Lesbian Feminist Perspective.” Jeffreys wastes no time getting to her point (or points, as she’s all over the map with her bizarre attempts at reasoning), but her essential thesis is that transgender constitutes a human rights violation. Interesting, I thought, that she would view the way an adult human being decides to alter his or her body, and that indeed, she would consider that behavior any of her business to begin with. Silly me. Several rant-filled paragraphs later I discovered that what Jeffreys actually means is that a man having gender reconstruction to his own person is in actuality causing a violation of JEFFREY’S human rights. One more invasion of the enemy by stealth, as it were. She includes in her laundry list of “trannies” (her word) the following: gay men, bi-sexual women, straight people of both genders and a number of sadly misguided lesbians (who are perhaps tired of their girlfriends putting bowls over their heads and giving them their famous haircuts). I consider it a violation of MY human rights to have to look at those haircuts in public for another five minutes. It’s like staring at the sun at high noon with no protection over your eyes. The only sub-group free from the taint of potential trannyism is that unfailingly monolithic work-booted troop fighting the good fight, that is, lesbian feminists. So you see why I can’t take Jeffreys seriously. Somebody needs to give her a gift pass to charm school.
Oh, we are now all for freedom of speech now are we?
Don’t forget ladies! Freedom of speech is a tool of the white supremacist patriarchy.
I just love it when people get a taste of their own medicine.
Hi
I’m admin in one of the largest and most active feminist discussion-groups in Norway. The last week has seen a surge in the national papers about trans-issues and the term TERF has been widely discussed. The first time I read the term in a national paper here was march -17 by a “terf”.
Allthough we have some trans-eqlusionary femimists in the group (c7700 members) the terfs seem to be limited in numbers when reading comments and looking at likes on the posts just as can be read from they seem to be a small minority of the feminists in our group.
But as the discussion is spreading like forest-fires in the press at the moment. I’d love to be able to link to the article about where the term TERF comes from. Would be happy to get links to proof-check the screencaptures before spreading the article full out.
Came home from also having a 3 hour coffee-chat with one of the most leading terfs in Norway, so my brain is half-boiled, but still in workmode.
Would love it if you could send me some info to mail or have a chat. Find me as Ingrid Frivold on insta or facebook, or send a mail to below.
Love Ingrid
Point to a time in history when women were oppressed for their gender expression or identity, rather than their biology.
As someone who studies history I can tell you, there isn’t one. There’s nothing wrong with protecting trans rights. There is something wrong with equating trans experience with the experience of being, living, and growing up female in human society on Earth.
They are free to speak but i’m not listening
We need help reporting this violent woman with a criminal record, Tina McWay who has been stalking and harrassing transwomen and gay men. She has several youtube channels and even a Patreon account where she posts violent threats and graphic personal photos and videos of transwomen.
https://www.patreon.com/badasswitchez/posts
I think a major problem with this discussion is the fact that most of it is so heady. I think all the sides of the argument need to be much more clear. We can throw around statistics and find obscure references to most any behavior. Most of us know that when you begin a research project, the data can be convoluted by existing prejudices. We need to get down to basics. So called TERFS are sick of watching men hurt women. It’s pretty simple. We believe the vast majority of people do not have ambiguous DNA or ambiguous body parts. We don’t want men in our spaces at times. We want our culture. You find your culture and stop appropriating ours. Why are you not making an effort to educate straight men if you don’t want them to beat you up? Why is your activism centered around assimilating into women’s culture and stealing female energy? Why not start loving being trans?
Woo alert!
Why do TERFs spend all their time and energy into trying to pretend that phenotype isn’t an aspect of sex or that phenotype isn’t what is transitioned when trans people medically transition? Why do TERFs spend so much time pretending that woman = cis women instead of recognizing the material reality that trans and intersex women are also women? Why do TERFs hate all pre-New Age radical feminist analysis?
Hello, I know I´m late to a party but I try it anyway. I am RadFem and gender critical. I was accused for being TERF – but I see no contradiction in criticism of construct of gender and inclusion of transgender people. In fact, I never met feminist who want to prevent transgender people from healthcare, education etc. Problem is of course definition of womanhood – some trans activists insist in the idea of “female brain” that defines gender identity, there are articles that say “…I went through transition because of desire for gossiping, wearing mascara and lipstick…” etc. Those things are not helpful – even I think they do not represent opinions of transgender community in general. I know trans women who are gender critical (transition gives them better feeling about themselves, female-shaped body suits them) – I believe we know in fact very little about human psyche. It´s not about biology of a brain, it´s, let´s say, about soul. Individual personal traits plus stereotypes linked to them plus learned behavior equal gender (carefully constructed by patriarchy) – THIS is harmful for everybody. Yes, women are oppressed because of their bodies, not gender (gender construct was made as a tool for this oppression) – trans women face to different type of oppression. We are different types of women – different bodies, different treatment. There is also problem with women-only spaces – I understand that some rape shelters do not want their employees having penises. There is strong need for dialogue – but through bans and silencing we will solve nothing. I think both “sides” have the feeling someone violates their spaces. Trans women have no space in patriarchy, women-born-women have to fight bravely for every little piece of this space. We are not enemies to each other (I mean radical gender critical feminism and transgender activism). No, womanhood are not dresses, lipsticks, gossips and lady-brains. I think you know that – but media like to give space to extreme things. In fact, I think trans women have every right to live sexist stereotypes as much as women did for ages. But yes, it´s provoking for many feminists (including myself). Maybe some trans women have the feeling they were treated as “half-men” and know they are treated as “half-women” – and it hurts. On the other side, women-born-women were treated as “non-men” or “less-men” for ages – and now they are not allowed even to define themselves anymore. Debate is the must.
I’m a trans woman, I hope that me making a comment here doesn’t cause Sophie Johnson to have an aneurysm. Sophie, we’re really not as dangerous as you claim and any honest account of violent incidents involving trans people show that we are much more often the victims rather than the perpetrators of violence. You cite some scant anecdotal evidence and try to conclude that trans people are categorically immoral, at least that seems to be you point as far as I can see one.
As far as women’s spaces go, I promise you that most of us are just doing what nature requires when we’re in the ladies room (also, we’re trying not to get beat up for using the Men’s room). Now that I read these comments, I am sort of afraid I might meet Sophie while I’m relieving myself. I hope she can remain civil. If she attacks me, should I ask my state legislature to banish her to the gender neutral commode?
When I came out as trans, I expected resistance from born-agains and right-wing fanatics. But it was an education to realize that some of the worst transphobic bigots claim to be feminists. I was aware of Mary Daly / Janice Raymond and the conflicts in the 70s about trans inclusion, but I really didn’t realize there were people who still take these aspects of their thought seriously. I am surprised that this type of archaic gender theory still finds an audience and I wonder how some of these people feel about being allies of Jeff Sessions, the North Carolina legislature and the Ku Klux Klan in their crusade against all they deem abnormal. Are you people proud of yourselves? What’s next? One you get through blaming the victim here, are you going to move on to Holocaust denial? Don’t let me stop you; there’s a lot of suffering people who need you and your bullshit to make their lives even worse. Onward and upwards, TERF smurfs! The gutter’s the limit!
Folks,
Here’s my proposal to cut through the political bulldust that has infested this whole debate. Bear in mind, I’m no authority on anything; I’m just one guy with an opinion.
Let’s try this: The following words refer to sex: female (XX), male (XY), and intersex (XXY, XO, etc).
The following words refer to gender: man, woman, queer, genderfluid, bigender, agender…did I miss any?
For example: A transwoman has an XY chromosome chain, yet a womanly identity. This makes her a male woman. Transmen? Female men. Cis men and cis women? Male men and female women, respectively. There are lotsa ways we can mix ‘n’ match – intersex woman, male agender, female bigender, and a lotta buncha others.
Now, about that cotton ceiling: The impression that I get from the lesbian community is that they insist that their sexual partners all be female women. Nothing wrong with that at all; it’s called setting a sexual boundary. Ever wonder why you never see feminists accusing gay men of being male chauvinists based on their refusal to have sex with women? That’s why. Calling people any sort of bigot based on their refusal / inability to perform sexually with you is rape culture.
Thank you so much for this website.
I have no interest in dealing with TERFs, as they are the nastiest pieces of crap I’ve ever had the misfortune to encounter.
Sadly, they infest typical LGBT publications such as PinkNews, and it’s ironic that while they are happy to create stink about transwomen invading “their” spaces, they are quite happy to invade the Trans section of PinkNews.
They are hateful hypocrites.
Just had one refer to us as “unhinged” even though she’s a 40-something mum of 4, with a husband (who no doubt sleeps with one eye open) so I fail to see how she fits any facet of L, G or B and definitely not T. She has posted over 600 posts of pure unadulterated transphobic vitriolic bile, about a part of society that are so insignificant to her daily life that she probably doesn’t notice us in the loo next to her. Six hundred posts, and WE’RE the unhinged ones? sheesh
In the UK thankfully we have overwhelming support from the masses compared to the dwindling few TERFs.
However, we also have a legal system that’s quite happy to announce that Hate Crimes are top priority, but when it comes down to it the things us transfolk have to put up with are actually only Hate INCIDENTS that you log online so it can be recorded as a statistic, unlike actual Hate Crime which the police can act on.
It’s high time Hate Incidents were upgraded to Hate Crimes.
It’s high time that online Hate Speech that TERFs like to hit us with should be stamped down on.
What I want to say most of all, as a transitioning transwoman, is to all other trans folk out there Don’t Give Up. Keep your head high and be proud of what you as an individual have achieved, and don’t let these TERF bast*rds grind you down.
-The radical feminism you people say is different then ‘terf’ is not possible as being radfem is connected with being a gender critical as being genderist and radfem are mutually exclusive. The radfem you talk about is just your libfem or intersecfem who’s more activist than the usual ones as radical with radfem implies ‘roots’ related to the second wave rather than being a hardcore liberal feminist.
-How one can be called a feminist but ignores differences in the sex and instead try abolish gender altogether, make tons of others like ‘demisexual’, sapiosexual’, greysexual’ and so on?
-But even by being a mere GC and criticizing gender is ‘hateful’ these days, yes just having a different opinion yet being polite is hate speech it seems. C’mon, you lgbtqa+ have also boycotted female only spaces, it’s not one side thing.
-Is that hard to conceive that some people have preferences regarding sexes and females bodied may feel uncomfortable about male bodied people? Or screw that?
-Although sex can be described by language, it’s not a social construct. I mean, anatomy like reproductive organs and hormones. Can we change it at will, with no consequences? If transwomen are women, what are they transiting from if they’re already females? Also, is the cup of coffee i’m drinking right now a social construct? Can i change it for a tea with the force of my mind? I mean, notion of coffee or tea can be defined by language either, the way we spell it or the information of such drinks.
-Lastly, you didn’t show any murder but cases of violence of dubious fonts while mtf already killed women already in number of cases. Google is your friend.
Now exclude it with the reasoning of hate speech since hating just applies to those who disagrees with you.
I’m at a mid-way point in my M2F transistion, but had a rude awakening about TERFS here in the UK. It seems to me the best way to shut them up (legally that is) would be to ask them howcome they are obsessing about trans? does this mean that in the UK they have finally gained equal pay for equal work for women? or equal opportunities? or stopped the increasing amount of women fired for getting pregnant?
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, be it on gender dysphoria, feminism, or religion. But the key is to not be in people who disagree’s face. Have your opinion, practice your religion, but don’t try to make everyone live as you want. Live and let live and respect your fellow human being. I admire some religions when they are practiced nicely, and wise points of view from feminists and lesbians, but not this vile hate and pseudo-science, dogma and threatening and exposing behaviour. That is a sign that despite some even holding an education that they have no real argument, just intelectual claptrap.
What I see, looking at Pride disruptions, and one “suspicious” device exploded by the police, as well as a recent demo (regarding trans use of UK toilets) outside Congress House because a conference on gender identity was staged is a phenomena from the USA hitting the UK shores. In the UK it seems to be a an unholy alliance of TERFS, radical academic lesbians, and christian fundamentalists. The two former have got to be pretty stupid to not realise that once the latter get their way and outlaw gender transisition etc that they will set on them next. Sort of USSR being an ally in WW2 and the cold war after.
I think it would be unwise for them to continue it in the UK, as basically its terrorism at the extreme end of what they might do or might have done, no matter how strong their lobby, or influence in Parliament.
Research online seems to show organisations are already making the links between UK schools that teach fundamentalist values, interns and in one case an MP in parliament (but there seem to be more), and then several christian groups and right wing organisations. I say right wing, but really they are pseudo right wing…the popular and more well known ones.Other commentators seem to connect both sides to ant-semitism.
To me that puts them in a precarious position.
Reading Paris Lees online comments about TERF wars, I cannot agree, nor would I advocate a wall of love- hasn’t worked, won’t work. Some seem to think she thinks she represents all trans? She doesn’t me for sure.
To think, my transistion has unleashed my inner self even more, and it likes peace and calm, it likes and craves peace and calm, and happy pursuits. Why is it I feel that despite laws etc, the world seems more of a threatening place for who I am than the one I grew up in. Full of people who want to inflict their idea of what the world should be on all.
All I know is that I believe that there was a demo outside the clinic I attend. Lets hope they don’t do it on a day I go there. I know I could call the police, but they would do nothing despite at least 6 laws being possibly broken. I know if someone stands in my way thats “threatening behaviour”, “obstruction” , “harrasment” and “giving cause for concern”, let alone recording my image, which is a violation of my human rights and intellectual property violation if used without consent.
In my opinion like should be met with like, do demos outside where these groups meet, and with the same vigour. Having a sense of humour, I think a court case would be hilarious. One group with protected characteristics under the equality act being taken to court for doing a demo against other protected groups in retaliation. If they ruled against the counter demo it would show the influence of the christian far right fundamentalists, and academic types and expose the whole issue of the police ignoring the law when they do their demos.
Wouldn’t it nice to win the lottery and buy an island away from these people, be the happy bunny I like to be, listening to music, painting, etc. I bet they would buy a boat just to bug me!!!
Just a thought.
@Sophie Jameson – http://theterfs.com/#comment-53325
“Most children with gender dysphoria will not remain gender dysphoric after puberty”
The whole point of transitioning is the reduction or elimination of gender dysphoria. Eliminating gender dysphoria is actually the best possible outcome of transitioning.
That whole kids grow out of gender dysphoria this is a myth. Here’s the background: http://transadvocate.com/the-new-york-magazine-lies-to-parents-about-trans-children_n_18875.htm
You’re preaching to the choir. I think you misread my comment. I never said kids grow out of gender dysphoria. I was countering Sophie Jameson’s assertion that they do. I said transitioning is meant to reduce or eliminate gender dysphoria. They’re still trans even without dysphoria.
I’m a trans woman myself. My gender dysphoria has greatly reduced since I started my transition. I think I’ll have to learn to live with a certain amount of dysphoria. Transitioning before puberty would have been best. I’ve heard most who do have their dysphoria completely eliminated.
The decline and isolation of the TERF and why womyn who identify as trans are also WBW (Womyn Born Womyn).
Womyn who exclude other womyn are not feminist, they are patriarchal. Let me explain. A femyl who is misgendered at birth is still a femyl. What genitals she may have are irrelevant, for being femyl is not defined by a vagina.
The hatred expressed by TERF philosophy is repulsive to most womyn, and rightly so, who refused to be categorized by sexual anatomy, reduced to being a walking vagina.
The modern feminist understands that some males are born with a vagina. They were misgendered at birth as femyl. They are males.
When we see humans in terms of sexual anatomy we deny the person. True feminism understands that all femyls, whether trans or cis, are a sisterhood.
TERF is a verb that is hatred, and womyn innately love and are inclusive. That is why we can say that every womyn is beautiful.
I am a feminist and defining a gender by “vagina” is patriarchal. Womyn self identify, and real feminism mean equity. Equity for all womyn. Trans womyn are WBW, and that is the really sad thing that some womyn don’t understand … they don’t understand that they are more than a walking vagina. Being femyl is holistic. It isn’t defined by body parts.
My name is Chrisentiae and I am a womyn born womyn, I am also trans … and I am lesbian.
First of all, thank you for compiling these resources and being outspoken about this insidious cancer on feminism. How you found all of these documents, much less had the stomach to look at some of them, is a mystery. You deserve a tribute. Speaking of which: how do you cope with all the hateful and prejudiced comments on your site?
Secondly, if I understand TERF rhetoric correctly, it says that everyone born with a penis should be treated as a potential rapist and that trans women are especially dangerous in that regard because they try to circumvent rules made to bar people with penises from the presence of people with vulvas. How any radical feminist could fail to see that this pernicious example of the origin fallacy is functionally synonymous with “anatomy is destiny,” I have no idea. Once I had a brief conversation about trans exclusion with a cis female friend, who suggested, “I think TERFs believe that trans women are like sex robots, and the patriarchy just loves them and wants to shove all cisgender women in a drawer.” Now, I’ve not read THE TRANSSEXUAL EMPIRE (though I have seen it in the wild), but what I’ve heard about it leaves me with the distinct impression that that was Janice Raymond’s exact hypothesis. Is the book worth reading, just to gain insight into the trans-exclusionary mentality?
Thirdly, Andrea Dworkin is my favorite feminist author, and witnessing the abuse of her writings to support trans-exclusionary ideology is depressing. Having read WOMAN HATING, I am a loss to explain how her support for trans people could be any *more* overt. (Strangely, Julia Serano, who is otherwise a lucid and rigorous author on the subject of transfemininity, quoted that book out of context in a way that made it seem like another instance of cisgender feminists conflating trans people with people who internalize sex stereotypes.) Why *do* TERFs try to paint Dworkin as one of their own, other than intellectual dishonesty? Even Valerie Solanas didn’t advocate for the murder of trans women, despite her use of exploitative terms in describing them. (The introduction to the 2013 AK Press edition of THE SCUM MANIFESTO speculates that Solanas may have been transmasculine, which is certainly possible, though we’ll never know.)
What writings on transgender theory and/or TERFs do you recommend?
*I am *at* a loss to explain, rather.
Try radfem.transadvocate.com 😉
Thank you so much for this website, it is like water in the desert. I didn’t even know Dworkin and MacKinnon supported us. There are still so many lies out there, and the biggest one is that radical feminism means hating trans people. It should have always meant the opposite.
I am struggling with this. This whole conversation. I am a lesbian feminist, and I have several close trans friends, both transmen and transwomen. I have always been trans-inclusive. My general feeling is that there is a legitimate critique of the understanding and meaning of gender somewhere in trans-inclusive radical feminism that is being drowned out by the completely hostile, unreasonable and transphobic assertions of TERFs. Somewhere in between your representation of what you call “true,” trans-inclusive radical feminism and TERF ideology, lie questions that need to asked and answered. The problem is, (and I’ll speak for myself, although I think others may feel the same), it frequently feel impossible to ask these questions, out of fear that I will be accused of being a TERF. Out of fear that my limited, specific concerns will be lumped in with the extreme positions that you ascribe to TERFs – such as, that I don’t want transpeople to have equal rights and safety in society, and I wholeheartedly do. With that said, here are my thoughts..
You quoted earlier in this thread a piece from Wittig:
N]ot only is there no natural group “women” (we lesbians are living proof of it), but as individuals as well we question “woman,” which for us, as for Simone de Beauvoir, is only a myth. She said: “One is not born, but becomes a woman. No biological, psychological, or economic fate determines the figure that the human female presents in society: it is civilization as a whole that produces this creature, intermediate between male and eunuch, which is described as feminine.”
However, most of the feminists and lesbian-feminists in America and elsewhere still believe that the basis of women’s oppression is biological as well as historical. Some of them even claim to find their sources in Simone de Beauvoir.
Colette Guillaumin has shown that before the socioeconomic reality of black slavery, the concept of race did not exist, at least not in its modern meaning, since it was applied to the lineage of families. However, now, race, exactly like sex, is taken as an “immediate given,” a “sensible given,” “physical features,” belonging to a natural order. But what we believe to be a physical and direct perception is only a sophisticated and mythic construction, an “imaginary formation,” which reinterprets physical features (in themselves as neutral as any others but marked by the social system) through the network of relationships in which they are perceived.
– – – – – –
I agree that “woman” is created, and I agree that transwomen are women, by this definition. Like race, while there are biological characteristics traditionally ascribed to it, those characteristics are arbitrarily chosen, and only have the meanings that we give to them. In the case of “woman,” many of those meanings are invariably in relationship to “man,” and include and cannot be separated from notions of submission, inferiority, weakness, and subjugation. This is the need for radical feminism, I think. To continue to draw attention to how the construct of “women” exists in order to create a lower class of people, to be dominated by the class above them (“men”).
However… there is another lived reality, in addition to “woman” that I will call “female.” It is the material experience of living with female genitalia. It is the reality encapsulated in the moment when desperate Chinese parents discard their newborn daughter in a dumpster because her genitalia are not acceptable. This newborn is not a “woman” yet, by de Beauvoir’s definition. But she is still female. And her female-ness, inextricably tied to her genitalia, is so socially significant, that it literally determines the value of her life.
Femaleness also is comprised by the experience of growing up internalizing all the meanings that female genitalia is assigned in our society. Growing up feeling inherently vulnerable at the core of my being, because I am taught that the purpose of my vagina is that it is a vessel to be filled, as though it has no agency of its own, and therefore, no vehicle for empowerment. This sense, of vulnerability and powerlessness (literally, having an empty space, where “males” have instead an “actor”) cannot be unpackaged from femaleness, and cannot be unpackaged from genitalia.
My local feminist bookstore decided to host an event called Viva La Vulva. The purpose of the event was to be a gallery opening for a photography series that captured women’s relationships to the vulva, an oft-ignored, but deeply intimate feature of female anatomy. Many women have complicated relationships with our vulvas, myself included, because of the vulva’s function. It is a delicate gateway, and some of us have experienced violation of those gateways.
To summarize a complicated series of events, a local group of transwomen accused the bookstore of TERFism for not specifically inviting transwomen to participate as subjects of the photographs. The bookstore responded by asking this group if they had vulvas. The transwomen responded by saying that, yes, they experienced and referred to their genitalia as “vulva” or “vagina,” even if they were non-op. The bookstore responded by offering to include them in the event, even as photography subjects. No transwomen chose to participate.
Secretly, however, among the staff and supporters of the bookstore, there arose an inside joke: “My vulva is not a construct.” We whispered it to each other, afraid to speak it aloud, for fear, again, of being accused of being TERFs.
If you already anticipate what I’m going to say, I hope my phrasing does it justice. Why is it transphobic to exclude transwomen from this event? The lived experience of having a vulva, of growing up as a little girl with a vulva, with all the threat and actual harm that is tied to this physical, material piece of anatomy, is an experience that some “women” share, which transwomen (who still are “women”) do not share. Even when transwomen are post-op, I would argue that the conditioning of living one’s childhood and entire life with a vulva is an experience that cannot be approximated by adding this biological feature later in life. However, I am open to the idea that post-op transwomen would “belong” in the photographs for this event, as they represent a different perspective on the experience of having a vulva.
In the same way that we understand that women of color – even knowing that race is a “myth” or a construct – have a shared, lived experience in common that makes it understandable and appropriate for them to organize in women-of-color-only spaces on occasion, why is it not appropriate for female women to do the same? A vulva is not an idea, just as brown skin is not an idea. These are literal, physical features that have ideas ATTACHED to them, but they are not replaceable with ideas themselves.
Transwomen belong in the women’s movement. They belong in feminism, and they deserve equal rights and access to healthcare, and more. But I struggle with the idea that they always belong in women-only spaces, when those spaces have been previously designed to provide a safe space for female-bodied people, on the basis of the social meanings (including meanings of vulnerability and violence) that our BODIES literally have.
I’ve been reading all I can, on this site and on TransAdvocate, since I posted this comment, and I’d like to clarify something. It seems a common TERF assertion is “sex not gender.” I am concerned my comments will be perceived as being in the same spirit as this assertion. They are not. I think that in most cases, for the purposes of most feminist organizing, we are obviously organizing around gender and its social meanings, and therefore transwomen 100% belong in those meetings and events. Transwomen are women, they share women’s status, and the meanings of being gendered as women. I’m just struggling with the specific incident I outlined above. In those rare cases when physical female anatomy is relevant, how can we be sensitive to the lived experience of having specific anatomy, while not being offensive to the trans community?
@Maria C, this is a difficult space to navigate, for sure.
I agree that there are times and places where trans women are not the women that need to be represented. But how one forms that space is important.
The first recognition, which I feel you get, is that trans women are women. Trans is just an adjective describing a subset of women with a specific set of shared experiences and attributes.
Once that is recognized, then other subsets of women can be defined. Women who have experienced the physical possession of a vulva throughout her life. That is a valid subset, and not a definition of the whole.
Then lastly, you can advertise the space for the subset you wish to honor, or celebrate, or help, without invalidating other women. And only if that exclusion is really necessary. Will it cause actual harm to share the space with people not of that subset.
Not all spaces can or should be subset only spaces, things like needed services for serving human needs. Things like shelters, and health care, and employment security, affect all women and requiring a hugely minor subset to “get their own’ is so impractable as to effectively eliminate them. That exclusion is telling them to just give up and die. Trans women who are being battered need access to battered woman shelters. To think they will be predatory once there is horrible. Sure, make sure we aren’t roomed with a woman who can’t separate us from our penis for her comfort and safety, but don’t bar the door.
As to the trans women who demanded access, I can only remind you about what it is like being part of a marginalized group. When day after day there are aggressions, micro and macro, and it soon feels as if everything is an attack. If something in your advertisement felt invalidating, some of us felt they needed to go on the attack; to gain inclusion to a woman’s space.
Lastly I will gently chide you for the whispers. Most, maybe, of us recognize our vulvas are not ‘natural’ to our constant sorrow. We wish our form always matched our selves. It is one of the constant drains on our happiness.
And those of us who are non-op, want to help others understand our reasons for classifying our genitals as women’s parts. What that means to us. And this space could have been helpful in doing that.
Is it possible that the hostility evidenced by the snide whispers showed the trans women in your area they were unwelcome, and they chose not to put themselves in a place obviously going to pile more micro aggressions on to their already hard life?
Bodies and reproduction are material realities. One’s thoughts about them is gender.
i don’t want to listen to John Stoltenberg, he’s a man, his opinion is irrelevant. I don’t like this site. It hasn’t changed any of my views.
Ad hominem FTW!
Tried to read some of the comments. Almost threw up. Thanks for doing this work. It’s really important and I appreciate the way that you have so intelligently and powerfully represented the trans* community in your responses to hatred.
Re
i don’t want to listen to John Stoltenberg, he’s a man, his opinion is irrelevant.
just because he is male ?
= az is a sexist bigot
He was a gay man who married Andrea Dworkin, Andrea Dworkin was also okay with transpeople funnily enough, Az.
You pretty much ignored the rest of anything said and it just seems as if you aren’t changing your views because you like them and healthhy scepticism be damned.
Thank you for this information wich reveals to me the chronology of TERFing. Now I understand that I met them decades ago.
During the mid 1970’s I was a child in the living in lesbian seperatist community in the UK. It was an environment in wich I experienced frequent and severe critiscm; being told how to be a girl. The little boys were characterised as mini-men, mini-rapists, just little pricks. Emotional and physical abuse of both girls and boys was not uncommon. Throughout my life I have been sexually assaulted by females far more often than by males. I don’t hate the wymn for this, even though I have been injured, but I will assert now that the hate and the hurting must stop. We all deserve so much better.
This is how TERFs see people: (image in link contain drawn genitals with legs and is a question to people who see others by their assigned sex at birth)
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-pbhIUBCOg00/VoUmV7wQ0sI/AAAAAAAAGmU/TZnT_zAUmVk/s000-Ic42/this%252520is%252520how%252520terf%252520see%252520people.jpg
I’m out. I’m done. I apologize. I failed.
It’s impossible to maintain an ontological autonomy as a Trans person and countenance gender abolitionist thinking that, by declaration of intent, sees our extermination as manifest destiny of objective.
I resign.
http://www.chrisentiae.com/how_to_treat_a_transgender_womyn.html
How to treat a womyn …
… males leave lesbian womyn alone …
Guys … how to treat a womyn who identifies as transgender
1. R E S P E C T … like the song. STOP watching porn dude, because womyn are NOT like that at all!
2. If you introduce yourself politely and she replies with words to the effect, “I am a lesbian”, LEAVE! Go buy a dictionary if you have to, because unless you are femyl she is NOT interested. Chrisentiae Saint-Piaf is a LESBIAN … womyn ONLY !!!
3. My body is NONE of your fucking business! If she opens a conversation about herself, then and only then the topic may be respectfully discussed within HER limitations that she sets.
4. NO. Learn what it means and do NOT harm womyn!
5. Taking advantage of womyn due to their financial need makes you among the worst kind of human being. Just remember that next time you think you can buy womyn!
6. If you are a medical professional claiming to help womyn, then do NOT tell womyn what to do and demand us to be sexually interrogated … you sick bastards – http://www.chrisentiae.com/transgender_medical_rights.html#goto5
7. Gurl, yes being a TERF makes you patriarchal, you are the worst of what you claim to hate so stop it now! ALL womyn are beautiful and you do not decide who a womyn is – stop hating womyn! – http://theterfs.com/
8. Dude do you really need to stare at my body like you are masturbating over me in your mind? You think we gurls don’t know this, and your creep factor just hit 10 out of 10, congratulations!
9. I wear what I want and that is NOT a sexual invitation to you dude. I don’t know you. Stop being a psycho.
10. If you aren’t a real man, then become one, because womyn who are hetro ONLY want real men. Real men NEVER harm womyn and protect ALL womyn. So do a PC check, Privilege Check because that is actually a very good thing, see South Park “Stunning And Brave”, because they did get a lot right before getting so totally stoned off their faces.
Case 2. TERF Seven Sisters Festival mea culpa
Australian Seven Sisters Festival, here in Melbourne my home, excluded womyn based on TERF philosophy. That promotes a narrowly defined definition of who a womyn is, a definition of their own making, which is in contradiction of the universal rights of all womyn and unlawful in Australia.
The ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) News Department broke the story online, which resulted in widespread social media protests of revulsion at the TERF policies harming womyn who are typically already highly marginalised and vulnerable.
TERF philosophy is womyn bullying other womyn, because they think they can and get away with it – Germaine Greer is a leader among this WHW (womyn hating womyn) movement.
The initial reaction of Seven Sisters Festival was deleting hundreds of posts confirming the inalienable rights of all womyn, and many defending the rights of womyn were banned and silenced.
This led to even more protests and Seven Sisters Festival then threatened legal action, and vilified those defending the rights of all womyn to be treated with dignity and affirmation.
Posts were no longer being deleted at this stage, and the filth and vileness of TERF hatred was unleashed in full force. The hatred these womyn expressed for other womyn is nothing less that pathological.
Other media outlets were joining the revolution for that is what it was. A lot of womyn and some men, this is really a fight womyn owned, were beacons of light that we should all aspire to.
Legal action was mentioned and I initiated legal processes against Seven Sister Festival and posted the same at their forum.
A few hours later, Seven Sisters Festival offered a mea culpa. It isn’t known what happened, but it is a safe bet to say the patients no longer ran the asylum, as they say. It would seem the TERFS running Seven Sisters Festival were turfed. – Yeah I know, but it is a nice play on words. Turf the TERF I say! (Turf is Australian slang for “turfed out”, to be thrown out).
My response to Seven Sisters and their mea culpa is below:
“Seven Sisters Festival welcomes all women, including: … women of transgender”
Thank you.
I will cease the legal action in play against Seven Sisters.
I welcome Katie’s appointment. This is a positive development. I’ll be in touch.
“extend an apology to the transgender”
Love always forgive quickly … speaking for myself, I forgive you.
It was a very hurtful experience but positive growth has resulted.
I think MichFest have something to learn from your example … and it isn’t too late for them. I NEVER give up hope for that which is good.
I do not know Kylee and her partner, however I am appreciative of the steps you have and are taking. I hope they choose to participate as that would be something positive.
I don’t hold grudges, so for me, we are all good Seven Sisters.
I want to commend those at Seven Sisters who have addressed these matters with wisdom and compassion. We all make mistakes and it is how we move from there that is important.
Time to move on I think.
*hugs*
Chrisentiae xo
QUOTE BELOW:
Seven Sisters Festival has never had an official policy regarding the participation of transgender and intersex women. However, it has been the philosophy and intent of the festival, since its first year, to welcome all women. Transgender and intersex women have attended past festivals.
Official policy is not represented in the published reply to Kylee which is cited by the media. Recent events have highlighted the significance of this omission and the necessity to address it. Therefore, the Seven Sisters team wish to issue its official policy regarding the participation of transgender and intersex women in the festival as follows:
Seven Sisters Festival welcomes all women, including: women of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (CALD), women of transgender, intersex and diverse sexualities, women of diverse abilities, and women of diverse religious backgrounds and belief. Our position is one of full participation in what is a large, public event. We recognise the diversity of our community and will be working within a framework of affirmative action and self-determination.
We have employed a cultural, sexuality and gender advisor and we are consulting with various advocacy groups to ensure the festival is inclusive, welcoming, and safe for all.
Your assistance is also welcome in this important journey.
Suggestions can be forwarded to our ‘Cultural, sexuality and gender advisor’: katie@sevensistersfestival.com Our team, have contacted Kylee and her partner, seeking to apologise and we also wish to extend an apology to the transgender, intersex and seven sisters community for any duress and confusion we may have caused.
You can now find this statement officially on our website http://www.sevensistersfestival.com
…
At the time of writing, I am still banned by Seven Sisters Festival, from their online public forum. I have made contact with the hope of this ban being lifted, given we are no longer foes, but allies.
Case 2. TERF Seven Sisters Festival mea culpa
Australia Seven Sisters Festival excluded womyn based on TERF philosophy. That has a narrowly defined defintion of who is a womyn, of their own making, which is in contradiction of the universal rights of all womyn and unlawful in Australia.
The ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) News Department broke the story online, which resulted in widespread social media protests of revulsion at the TERF policies harming womyn who are typically already highly marginalised and vulnerable.
TERF philospophy is womyn bullying other womyn, because they think they can and get away with it – Germaine Greer is a leader of this WHW (womyn hating womyn) movement .
The initial reaction of Seven Sisters Festival was deleting hundreds of posts confirming the inalienable rights of all womyn, and many defending the rights of womyn were banned and silenced.
This led to even more protests and Seven Sisters Festival then threatened legal action, and vilified those defending the rights of all womyn to be treated with dignity and affirmation.
Posts were no longer being deleted at this stage, and the filth and vileness of TERF hatred was unleashed in full force. The hatred these womyn expressed for other womyn is nothing less that pathological.
Other media outlets were joining the revolution for that is what it was. A lot of womyn and some men, this is really a fight womyn owned, were beacons of light that we should all aspire to.
Legal action was mentioned and I initiated legal processes against Seven Sister Festival and posted the same at their forum.
A few hours later, Seven Sisters Festival offered a mea culpa. It isn’t known what happened, but it is a safe bet to say the patients no longer ran the asylum, as they say. It would seem the TERFS running Seven Sisters Festival were turfed. – Yeah I know, but it is a nice play on words. Turf the TERF I say! (Turf is Australia slang for “turfed out”, to be thrown out).
My response to Seven Sisters and their mea culpa is below:
“Seven Sisters Festival welcomes all women, including: … women of transgender”
Thank you.
I will cease the legal action in play against Seven Sisters.
I welcome Katie’s appointment. This is a positive development. I’ll be in touch.
“extend an apology to the transgender”
Love always forgive quickly … speaking for myself, I forgive you.
It was a very hurtful experience but positive growth has resulted.
I think MichFest have something to learn from your example … and it isn’t too late for them. I NEVER give up hope for that which is good.
I do not know Kylee and her partner, however I am appreciative of the steps you have and are taking. I hope they choose to participate as that would be something positive.
I don’t hold grudges, so for me, we are all good Seven Sisters.
I want to commend those at Seven Sisters who have addressed these matters with wisdom and compassion. We all make mistakes and it is how we move from there that is important.
Time to move on I think.
*hugs*
Chrisentiae xo
QUOTE BELOW:
Seven Sisters Festival has never had an official policy regarding the participation of transgender and intersex women. However, it has been the philosophy and intent of the festival, since its first year, to welcome all women. Transgender and intersex women have attended past festivals.
Official policy is not represented in the published reply to Kylee which is cited by the media. Recent events have highlighted the significance of this omission and the necessity to address it. Therefore, the Seven Sisters team wish to issue its official policy regarding the participation of transgender and intersex women in the festival as follows:
Seven Sisters Festival welcomes all women, including: women of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (CALD), women of transgender, intersex and diverse sexualities, women of diverse abilities, and women of diverse religious backgrounds and belief. Our position is one of full participation in what is a large, public event. We recognise the diversity of our community and will be working within a framework of affirmative action and self-determination.
We have employed a cultural, sexuality and gender advisor and we are consulting with various advocacy groups to ensure the festival is inclusive, welcoming, and safe for all.
Your assistance is also welcome in this important journey.
Suggestions can be forwarded to our ‘Cultural, sexuality and gender advisor’: katie@sevensistersfestival.com Our team, have contacted Kylee and her partner, seeking to apologise and we also wish to extend an apology to the transgender, intersex and seven sisters community for any duress and confusion we may have caused.
You can now find this statement officially on our website http://www.sevensistersfestival.com
…
At the time of writing, I am still banned by Seven Sisters Festival, from their online public forum. I have made contact with the hope of this ban being lifted, given we are no longer foes, but allies.
Hey there!
Great website, fantastic to see so much work done.
My policy for transfemale and transmale inclusion has 5 main premises.
1.It is not ok to scrutinise anybodies genitals in public for access to public space (an obvious but necessary point)
2.There is no definition of women, the ‘reclamation’ of female identity was not designed to reclaim attributes of femininity but rather to diversify feminities and womanhoods including transmasculinities, with the understanding that stereotypes, homoginising stereotypes were a major vehicle for gender oppression.
3.There is nothing about penises which is inherently oppressive. Gender oppression is cultural and socio-historical, willy’s are not the enemy.
4.If you therefore do not define women attributionally, you cannot prove that anybody is not a woman. Because we dont want a limiting definition of women- it’s fine … some women have dicks.( Logically you cannot actually prove a ting is not- popper)
5 If trans women come along how much of a threat will they be ? really it the hetero right patriarchy wanted to create an incursion in womens space they could far more easily recruit right wing women, you’ll get all of three or four transwomen turn up, lot’s of straight and bi women and a lot of us who have a lot to gain from meeting men and women who transgress these boundaries.