Hey I’m a lesbian trans woman and I feel like nobody understands this:
TERFs benefit from your hatred of lesbians.
Trans people and their allies are consistently redirecting their hatred of TERF ideology and their hatred of TERFs onto lesbians and they are playing right into TERF hands when they do it. TERFs intentionally associate themselves with and even impersonate lesbians because it enhances their political position. It strengthens their arguments to the public sphere about trans women being depraved men invading women’s spaces. I’m sure many of us have heard about how the genital preference debate is used to paint trans women as male rapists trying to attack lesbian sexuality; TERFs have intentionally pitted trans women against lesbians in an invented conflict. I can’t count how many times I’ve been called a TERF as a trans woman just for associating myself with lesbians and their culture. It’s getting to the point where lesbians feel unsafe just talking about their sexuality in public settings lest a completely unfair accusation of hating trans women is leveled against them. This is exactly what TERFs want: To silence the lesbians that are supportive of trans women so that they aren’t talking about their trans-inclusive brand of lesbianism. TERFs want to be the ONLY “lesbian” voices anyone hears, and when so many people are directing their hatred of TERFs unfairly onto lesbians, it achieves exactly that. It’s insane how effective this tactic has been. Our community needs to do better: You have to stop hating lesbians. There is no inherent link between lesbians and TERFs.
