Speaking Truth to Power in the Era of Trans Rights Activism

Dazed magazine projected the message “REPEAT AFTER US: TRANS WOMEN ARE WOMEN” on London’s Ministry of Justice Building in response to protests by lesbians at London Pride in 2018. The protesters carried signs with messages including “Trans Activists Erases Lesbians” and “A Male Can Never Be A Lesbian.”

It’s been six months since I reached “peak trans,” a term used by the gender-critical feminist community to describe the moment a woman loses faith in trans ideology. It’s been about six months since I found myself unable to give trans activism the no-limits backing it demanded from me if I were to remain a member-in-good-standing of LGBTQ and progressive communities. It’s been six months since, almost overnight, I went from an ally to a bigot, from an advocate to a Nazi. I was a vocal feminist, an out-and-proud lesbian, but, because I couldn’t agree that biological sex was nothing more than a feeling, the rest of it didn’t matter. I was out.

I’m still a little stunned and confused, because, a few years ago, believing that biological sex was real and immutable wasn’t a controversial position. I supported transgender people’s rights to behave and dress as they chose without fear of violence or harassment. (I still do.) I believed that they should be protected from housing or employment discrimination. (I still do.) I supported the use of post-transition names and preferred pronouns. And I assumed that nobody was claiming that transitioning gender literally made a male person female, or a female person male. I was wrong. I was so, so wrong.

Over the course of just a few years, the prevailing position of trans ideology…