Claim that Women’s, Trans Rights are in Opposition is Absurd

The claim that women’s rights and trans rights are in opposition is absurd. We have the same goals, including but not limited to: access to appropriate medical care and bodily autonomy, combating sexism, and protecting vulnerable populations from sexual harassment and abuse. (And for the record, statistically, transgender people are more vulnerable than non-trans women.) Most feminists and supporters of trans rights agree on this, transphobes do NOT speak for women as a whole.

Letting trans people use facilities appropriate to our identities does not hurt women. Banning us from them does. Even if you don’t care about harm to trans people, these bans inevitably lead to harassment of any women, trans or not, who look “too masculine” and dystopian measures like genital inspections to keep out trans people. It’s particularly galling to claim that this in any way helps lesbian or bisexual women, who have been frequent targets of the same rhetoric.

Also, while it’s not the most important point, labeling trans people “males” or “females” based on our assigned genders shows a lack of understanding at best, and blatant disrespect at worst. Unless you’re their doctor or sexual partner, a trans person’s biological sex is none of your business. What matters for practical purposes is our gender identities and how we live our lives, and using appropriate terminology is a matter of basic respect. If you refuse to do that, you don’t deserve the respect of others.

Once again, I want my fellow trans people to know that you are not alone, and to voice my gratitude to everyone else who wrote letters in support of trans rights. The amount of hatred in the world can be overwhelming at times, but through hard work and compassion, we can defeat bigotry.

–CL Cady, Castro Valley