Trans feminist writer Julia Serano

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Since the early aughts, I have been writing about the intersection of feminism and transgender activism. Because of this, I frequently receive requests to be interviewed about “recent conflicts” between transgender activists and feminists. While I have addressed this subject in the past (e.g., in my three books and elsewhere), my current position is to refuse to participate in any interview that frames these matters as some kind of legitimate debate within feminism. And I have written the following “open letter” to explain why:

While there have been significant conflicts between these movements in the past (specifically, during the 1970s and ’80s, when numerous prominent second-wave feminists espoused highly negative views about trans people), today these movements largely recognize our overlapping interests and support one another’s goals.

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Admittedly, there are some feminists — particularly those who were a part of the second-wave — who adhere to those outdated perspectives, and still view trans people and activism with suspicion. There is also a small minority of feminists who call themselves “gender critical” or “radical feminists” (and who others sometimes call “trans-exclusionary radical feminists/TERFs”) who are vehemently anti-trans.

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While such radical feminists do exist, they represent a very small minority of self-identified feminists.

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While gender-critical/TERF remains a fringe ideology within feminism, over the last few years, social conservatives and other groups who are opposed to transgender rights and gender-affirming healthcare have increasingly taken to amplifying TERF voices and appropriating certain TERF talking points — particularly the argument that transgender people somehow constitute a threat to women. Their reason for doing this is quite simple: It is far more socially palatable to frame their anti-trans policies and positions as being “pro-woman” rather than “anti-transgender.”

As a result of this growing backlash, it has become nearly impossible to be a vocal/visible trans person on social media these days without being subjected to Gamer-Gate-style pile-ons from people who sport “XX” or a red X in their handles, and who make wild accusations about trans people being a threat to girls and women — even though study after study has shown that there is absolutely no evidence of this. And if you actually examine these social media accounts (as I have, since I’ve had to block many of them due to the online harassment I have faced), you will find that they rarely espouse any other canonical radical feminist beliefs (such as being opposed to femininity, sex-positive feminism, patriarchy, etc.), nor do they typically express mainstream feminist concerns (such as women’s reproductive rights, sexual harassment, equal pay, etc.). Frankly, many of them *only* post anti-trans rhetoric, which suggests that they are either bots/sockpuppets or singularly obsessed bigots. In other words, the lion’s share of this backlash is not coming from actual feminists, but rather from people who are merely appropriating feminism in order to justify their irrational hatred of transgender people.