TERF’s Demanding Respect, Offering Only Hate

T E R F =

TRANS EXCLUSIVE RADICAL FEMINISTS

This is a hard subject to tackle; if I were to believe the statements of the TERF community there is a grave threat to women everywhere. ‘Men dressed as women”. Recent posts shared by this community have been written by organizations known by The Southern Poverty Law center as hate groups. Frankly I find it alarming when anyone in my community re posts hate speech.

Most intriguing, however, is the realization that the narrative these groups put forth is laced with the very contorted, bigoted and half-truth strategy that has been used to oppose social justice again and again in the last century.

Primarily they paint Transgendered Women as “Men” thereby denying their very existence as women. Their language insults the very identity these women embrace, establishes disrespect as the foundation of their positions and sets the stage for their preposterous accusation that they are abusers seeking to rape women.

As proof they offer a few examples of men who have cross-dressed to victimize women. Yes in our country of 300 million there are some isolated examples of predatory men engaging in this behavior. In Fact, however, there are no instances of self identified Transgendered Women abusing any women in bathrooms or locker rooms. Their argument is pure fear and “othering” of innocent members of our community.

They further like to state that the issue of restroom access in not even settled within the Transgender community. Over the past week this writer has researched every Transgendered rights group that can be fond on the Internet. In Fact, there are no examples of Transgender advocacy groups that do not support the right of transgendered individuals to use facilities that match their gender identity.

This argument is identical to the climate change deniers who find isolated and fringe researchers to discredit established science. It is disingenuous and an outrageous attempt to subvert the gains in civil rights that this community have fought so hard for.

While letting the “man dressed as a women” denial of the inherent dignity of Transgendered Women slip out of their mouths, this group, in the next breath attacks the label TERF and accuse activists of disrespecting their right to be known simply as “Radical Feminists”. Their blind spots are unbelievable.

Knowing many Radical Feminists, this writer asked more than a dozen if they support the exclusion of Transgendered Women. To a person they said NO! The painting of this as an issue of feminism is also disingenuous; it is an attempt to engage the forces of a well-respected movement in engaging in bigotry.

All this being said, are there legitimate issues that need to be discussed around this major change in civil society? Of course there are, major change creates friction and resistance. The issue here is a community that refuses to come forward and present their concerns in a respectful and honest manor. If the day comes when they do so I will be happy to identify them by any term they wish. Until that day the term “Trans Exclusive Radical Feminists” fits them nicely, it reflects the very small minority of feminists that support their beliefs and their incredibly offensive language.

As an ally, this is where I stand, I invite each of my readers to deeply look into this issue themselves and make up their own minds.

Before the accusations of mansplaning and inappropriate engagement of social justice languages begins, let me say that this is what I believe to be true upon much deep self reflection and research. The attempt to use the valuable language of social justice to subvert the rights of an oppressed group demonstrates even further the depths to which this group will go to insure that the Transgendered community is “othered”

Frankly, I find the engagement of Social Justice language in supporting hate and discrimination the most offensive thing of all. It disrespects every social justice advocate that has ever existed.