I think TRAs, who invented the term “TERF,” have doublethought themselves into believing that radical feminists started calling ourselves TERFs on our own. We consistently point out that a) we fight for the liberation of trans-identified women; b) we are deeply concerned about the health and rights of dysphoric (or simply GNC) children who are being indoctrinated into the trans movement; and c) radical feminism is NOT ABOUT TRANS PEOPLE. The reason that radical feminists even talk about trans people at all is because the trans rights lobby has positioned itself in direct opposition to women’s liberation. Radical feminism came about as a distinct ideology and theoretical framework half a century ago, and the original radfems did not have any need to discuss trans people because they were not, on any meaningful scale, trying to prevent women from identifying sex-based oppression, criticizing pornography and sexual exploitation, or defining lesbianism as female same-sex attraction. We have to talk about trans issues now, even though it detracts from many more interesting discussions that we’d rather be having, because if we don’t address the increasing problems of misogyny and homophobia that are being directly exacerbated by the trans rights movement then we will be unable to fight for any of our goals. How can we fight against porn when criticizing porn gets you called a TERF if we don’t also talk about the people calling porn critics TERFs? How can we argue that replacing “sex” with “gender” is homophobic and sexist if we don’t acknowledge the groups that are actively trying to replace “sex” with “gender”?
