Rosa
Rosa
Sep 7, 2018 · 3 min read

I don’t buy the fast one you’re trying to pull one bit. Recognizing the legitimacy of transgender people’s genders is one of the most important aspects of transgender rights. The fact that you’re trying to go about expressing this point in a seemingly respectful way honestly comes off is atrociously disrespectful to our intelligence, as if we’re supposed to believe that the people who deny the validity of our genders actually support us.

Are transgender females biologically different to natal females? Of course, we should also understand that these biological difference will wane with the advancement of medical technology- like one day, not in the immediate future but eventually, trans women will even be able to have uteruses and give birth. And additionally, even today, we should acknowledge that pre-pubescent transitioners are much more similar to natal females in bone structure etc, which is important when we’re discussion trans inclusion in female sports etc.

Likewise, cis women (And honestly, if you were more comfortable with “natal women”, but I knew you had messaged me in good faith and without a dogmatic anti-trans agenda, I would say “natal woman” instead, not that cis should even be considered an insult as it just means “not trans”) can have different life experiences to trans women, but also similar life experiences all the same.

But these differences in life experiences shouldn’t be used in anti-trans semantical arguments that come at the expense of transgender people’s dignity. Let me make this clear, it does come at the expense of our dignity. Let’s say you’re a trans woman, you’ve transitioned fully, you completely pass, you live as a woman throughout your life, everyone you meet understands you as a woman because you look and sound like one. You’re living “stealth”, which means you don’t tell very many people that you were born male to begin with, which is actually quite a common thing to do. (Gee, I wonder why that is!) But then it’s revealed to the people who know you that you’re transgender! Under your ideological views, that means she’s all of a sudden “not a real woman” in their eyes, anymore. I don’t buy your use of “transwoman” as one word, transwoman is always categorized as a type of man, you even admit this yourself. So let’s be frank, all of a sudden this person is framed as “a man who pretends to be a woman”, which is the basic jist of what she would be according to you. There’s no dignity in that. That’s actually demeaning to her, she’s all of a sudden been cast into a subhuman position by the people around her, where her gender- that is a massive part of her life, who she is as a person, is all of a sudden delegitimized. Back in the day, when trans rights hadn’t developed as much as they were today, and the vast majority of transgender women (or “transsexuals” as they were called back then) had to live stealth for their own survival, trans women would very often commit suicide once they were outed to the community around them. Trans women are women and need to be recognized as such, likewise trans men are men. Men and women with different experiences to everyone else, that’s what makes them transgender. Using your semantics, which basically say “You’re not a woman *because* you’re transgender”, and using “this person is transgender” to suggest “the gender they identify as and live as isn’t real, isn’t legitimate”, is absolutely transphobic. Once again there is absolutely no dignity in the transphobic semantics you’re trying to thrust upon us.

Furthermore, in regards to the allegation that I’m trying to “speak your part”, many of the friends I’ve made, both over the internet and in real life, are cis women. I don’t actually speak on your part, quite literally everything I say concerning cis women comes straight from what they’ve told me. I didn’t reach this outlook in a vacuum, after all. I just have more respect for the cis women- women who are *feminists*, mind you, who aren’t transphobic in their views, and are happy to welcome me and other trans women into the sisterhood instead of acting as nefarious gatekeepers.

    Rosa

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    Rosa