Read on Twitter
There’s unchecked transphobia throughout this but there’s also a boring, offensive & oft-repeated claim that trans inclusive feminists are incapable of debate on this issue, that we’re scared to speak out or don’t care about issues like reproductive rights & safe spaces. 1/8 https://twitter.com/bevanshields/status/1335670820841136129
Thing is, being inclusive of trans ppl doesn’t silence debate, it opens it up. Thinking and talking about and to trans people has expanded my idea of gender, shifted my attitude to parenthood & reproduction, helped me make the spaces I work & socialise in much safer. 2/8
Thinking about trans rights has led to such interesting conversations with my cis friends about what we think it means to be a man or a woman or NB, what’s learned, innate, performed. I’ve discovered more diversity of experience between cis people than I would’ve otherwise. 3/8
We discuss language for our spaces, debate whether gender segregation can even lead to true safety, whether ‘safe spaces’ are possible under colonialism or capitalism, find new, less simplistic ways to define safety & work harder to protect those who need to be protected. 4/8
Thinking about trans kids & their access to healthcare has led to vibrant conversations about parenting, about what it means to raise kids of all genders with agency, respecting their humanity. We reconsider the times we weren’t afforded agency ourselves because of our age. 5/8
Discussing reproductive rights in terms of bodies & organs instead of gender - while still allowing for discussions about how women (cis & trans) are oppressed in this arena - benefits gay families, single parents, infertile people, it holds doctors accountable in new ways. 6/8
And, less important than the political & intellectual gains perhaps, but still very wonderful, being trans inclusive has led to me making wonderful new friends, people I wouldn’t have met & come to love had I been actively working against their rights & humanity. 7/8
Trans inclusive feminists are not being silenced. We talk. We debate. We disagree. We have our views challenged. We change our minds. Stop pretending that transphobia is a niche and threatened position. It isn’t. 8/8
