“80–95% of trans women keep their genitals”

If you have at all been trans or actively supported trans equality on social media you will almost certainly have run into this belief from transphobes. Usually framed more like “80–95% of men who identify as transgender keep their genitals” also the phrase “intact males” is thrown around a whole bunch too. Alongside claims that, by virtue of being trans women alone, we are likely to expose ourselves to young girls and scar them for life.

For so long I tried to find the source of this. I know transphobes have a tenuous relationship with the truth and have developed somewhat of a 6th sense for their bullshit. I’ve opposed this claim even without knowing the origin a whole bunch, just on the basis it was obviously bullshit and I’d like to be clear about how I’d feel even if it was true. Even if 80–95% of trans women really were proud non-ops, it wouldn’t in any way support the harassment, abuse and mistreatment which the anti-trans groups advocate for. They would still be women, and still be deserving of autonomy and equality.

With that out of the way though, lets look at exactly how these lying liars lied this time. Unsurprisingly, it comes from a group set up by transphobes who are pulling the whole “we’ve made a Twitter account and have a logo we are definitely a real organisation, promise!” shtick. There’s a lot of these around, the one we…