Tag: TERF

Tag: TERF

Fascism and transphobia are ALWAYS linked

January 11, 2021 ·

Anti-feminism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and racism are THE entry points to fascism. Remember, the FIRST Nazi book-burning was the burning of books from a trans clinic. Given that, would it surprise you to know that Hitler was quoted to motivate Trump's insurrectionist crowd? "Hitler was right..." - Rep. Mary Miller (R - Ill.) While not all anti-trans activists are fascists and Nazis, anti-trans hate is a popular recruitment tool for fascists and Nazis. Whether it's religious nationalists or so-called… Read more.

Your How-To Guide to Gender Critical Activism

March 3, 2020 ·

Do you fear trans people and want to rationalize the simmering hate you feel? We here at the TransAdvocate have spent almost 2 decades debating and debunking anti-trans nonsense and we've learned a thing or two about the irrational knots bigots tie themselves into when they try to pass off their fear and hate as fact and reason. Therefore, we've put together this handy-dandy list of the BS arguments that you, a budding bigot, are likely to find really, really… Read more.

JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, announces that she is a TERF

December 20, 2019 ·

JK Rowling has long hinted that she sympathized with sex essentialist so-called "radical feminist" idea that nobody's phenotype is transitioned when trans people medically transition, and thus, trans women are males and trans men are females. However, Rowling has now openly announced her public support of TERF ideology: The backstory for this seemingly innocuous tweet is that a TERF activist, Maya Forstater sued to be given the special right of consequence-free speech. Such suits are a relatively new frontier of… Read more.

TERF suing Twitter for special right to harass trans women

February 14, 2019 ·

Meghan Murphy, a Canadian TERF, is suing Twitter for the special right to harass trans women on Twitter. Murphy is represented by Republican operative and past editor of the Heritage Foundation's Policy Review magazine, Harmeet K Dhillon. Joining Murphy's suit is Noah Peters, attorney for a White supremacist who previously sued Twitter for not hosting his racist tweets. The TERF lawsuit seeks to have Twitter, “cease and desist from enforcing its unannounced and viewpoint discriminatory ‘misgendering’ rule” and stop “enforcing its 'Hateful Conduct Policy' arbitrarily and in… Read more.

TERF Academic Rewrites History

September 4, 2018 ·

TERF activist censors Radical Feminist voices to sneak hate into the classroom. Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF) activist, Sheila Jeffreys has written a new academic book that claims to inform readers of the various ways TERF culture, "has all been disappeared from history." Chief among those Jeffreys' claims to have the power to disappear TERFs from history is an "influential men’s cross-dressing rights movement which enforces men’s access to lesbians wherever we seek to meet or network." To support this fact claim,… Read more.

Arsonist TERF thinks trans women are immoral & should be beaten

January 15, 2018 ·

As readers might be aware, the UK media is engulfed in a new and ongoing round of media-created trans panic of the same type that lead to the death of Lucy Medows in 2013. Already, media hysteria coupled with the concern trolling homunculus that is all things "gender critical," has pushed a trans teen caught in the UK media's crosshairs to desperation. Riding the wake of this media madness is Linda Bellos, a sex essentialist "radical feminist" who took to an… Read more.

[Audio Essay] On The Make-It-A-Slur Campaigns: Are Misogynist, Homophobe & TERF Slurs?

November 8, 2017 ·

This week's podcast is an audio essay: On The Make It A Slur Campaigns: Are Misogynist, Homophobe & TERF Slurs? By: Cristan Williams Narrated by: Nikki Delgado Duration: 25 minutes Essay Summary: Anti-equality activists, seemingly from the left and right, have worked together to make certain feminist and queer language taboo. In this audio essay, the TransAdvocate takes a deep dive into the ways in which anti-equality activists work together to coordinate efforts to control the… Read more.

Are Misogynist, Homophobe, & TERF slurs?

November 4, 2017 ·

Into the nexus of the 'gay alt-right feminist' movement I received notice that an opinion leader in the sex essentialist activist community had linked to one of my articles titled, You Might be a TERF if... The article lists explicit instances of ideological hate and real-life violence (up to and including attempted murder) carried out in the name of a form of sex essentialist 'feminism' that developed in the US during the mid-to-late 1970s. The Feminist Current, a site substantially dedicated… Read more.

TERF legal team attempts to CENSOR the TransAdvocate

April 25, 2017 ·

The Trans Exclusionary (self-identified) “radical feminist” lawyer Cathy Brennan sent, via her attorney, a cease-and-desist letter, asserting that the following statement from a TransAdvocate story titled, Fake “Radical Feminist” group actually paid political front for anti-LGBT James Dobson organization is false and must be removed from the story: This is not the first time TERFs have worked with anti-feminist/LGBT groups in targeting transgender kids. In 2014, TERF attorney, Cathy Brennan and her “radical feminist” organization worked with the anti-abortion/LGBT group the Pacific Justice Institute… Read more.

Fake “Radical Feminist” group actually paid political front for anti-LGBT James Dobson organization

April 10, 2017 ·

The Women's Liberation Front (WoLF) is a supposedly radical feminist activist group which, as noted by Pink News, shows “little evidence of campaigning on any women’s issues unrelated to transgender people”. They claim to “lobby for pro-choice legislation” and for “women's autonomy”, but somehow evidence of (or calls to) action for such purposes are completely absent from their website (archived here so you don't have to give them pageviews) outside that vague mission statement blurb. What you do see, however,… Read more.

Is Sadism Popular With TERFs? A Chat With An Ex-Gendercrit

July 29, 2016 ·

BY Rani Baker @destroyed4com4t Let’s get this out of the way: deep down, I believe everyone is earnestly trying to do things that are right and protect things that they value. I mean, I kinda have to believe this on some level to keep functioning. I don’t subscribe to the idea of good and evil or social struggles that have a clear cut hero and villain. Life is complicated and fluid, and… Read more.

(Re)Introducing inclusive Radical Feminism

January 2, 2016 ·

The TransAdvocate is pleased to announce the launch of a new program aimed at making a decades-old intersectional trans, intersex and genderqueer inclusive radical feminism more accessible. The TransAdvocate, in partnership with the Transgender Archive, launched The Conversations Project on New Year’s Day 2016. The Project seeks to inspire discourse through its community group, a journal, interviews and the publication of a book-length collection of collaborative essays from radical feminist… Read more.

Fact check: study shows transition makes trans people suicidal

November 2, 2015 ·

A 2011 Swedish study proves that trans people are more suicidal due to transition, are likely rapists and that trans women exhibit male socialization. Or does it? Perhaps you've heard that a Swedish study found that trans people who access medical care are more likely to commit suicide. Writing for the Wall Street Journal, former Johns Hopkins chief psychiatrist and anti-LGBT activist Dr. Paul McHugh cited a Swedish study to make the following fact assertion: A 2011 study… Read more.

So, someone called you a TERF. Now what?

July 26, 2015 ·

There are many things possible in the universe. If you are called a TERF it could be that the person who said it is actually a self-loathing misogynist who hates feminism and puppies. It could be that the label was unfairly or inappropriately applied. It could also be that someone used the term to point out your casual trans antagonism or unconscionable jackass bigotry. Who the hell knows? Regardless, you have been told over and over again that once… Read more.

See Tumblr TERFs justify threatening to murder a trans kid

July 23, 2015 ·

Tumblr TERF, radfem-momma apparently thinks it's okay to threaten trans kids with murder as long as you lie about the reason.   BACKSTORY: This post has to do with Tumblr TERFs trying to make the abuse a trans kid experienced by adult MichFest TERFs seem somehow okay. The abuse was witnessed by multiple individuals, specifically members of the Lesbian Avengers and a MichFest performer and member of Sister… Read more.

Rowan Atkinson makes more sense than BBC’s “Woman’s Hour”

April 19, 2015 ·

Why TERF ideology is child abuse and how the media supports it. By  Natacha This article discusses the clash of ideology and lived experience as exemplified by a recent BBC radio program in the UK. This article uses the term Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF) to distinguish between the trans-supportive Radical Feminism of Andrea Dworkin, Catharine MacKinnon, The Olivia Collective or the West Coast Lesbian Conference and sex essentialist anti-trans feminism of Janice Raymond, Sheila Jeffreys and/or the… Read more.

Repeating the cycle at MichFest: The clash of two feminisms

April 12, 2015 ·

The yearly struggle the trans community experiences with MichFest has been taking place for so long, some of us have trouble remembering why MichFest's "womyn-born womyn" policy was such a painful issue for the feminist and trans communities in the first place. The very notion of "woman-born woman" is now so ubiquitous that many of us have forgotten that its roots span all the way back to when MichFest's organizer took part in attacking a feminism that was trans… Read more.

Sex Essentialism: TERF patriarchy and smelly vaginas

January 28, 2015 ·

TERFs battle over who has the correct vaginal odor in order to determine female validity. I've noted many times that while Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs) like to speak on behalf of Radical Feminism, the type of so-called "gender critical feminism" they offer is at war with the roots of Radical Feminism. For example, pioneering Radical Feminist opinion leader Andrea Dworkin was supportive of trans women, ensuring that her 1980s-era pro-woman… Read more.

Gender Critical Feminism, the roots of Radical Feminism and Trans oppression

December 8, 2014 ·

Gender Critical Feminism (GCF) is a euphemism for Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminism (TERF). There is no ideological difference between the TERF and "Gender Critical Feminist" (GCF) movement; they are one in the same. GCF teaches that because sex is a natural binary, intersex people are actually just deformed men and women and trans people are always the sex they were assigned at birth. As Janice Raymond’s acolyte Sheila Jeffreys wrote, “sex” is fixed and referring to trans women with female pronouns is… Read more.

When Rape Isn’t Rape, and Trans Veterans Aren’t Terrorists

November 13, 2014 ·

Trans-exclusionary radical feminist thought leader, Janice Raymond, once famously said: "All transsexuals rape women's bodies by reducing the real female form to an artifact, appropriating this body for themselves." All transsexuals rape women's bodies? Last I checked rape was non-consensual,  forced sexual intercourse.  Raymond's use of it as something less than that should be considered an insult to the victims of rape everywhere. Now Gallus Mag is claiming:   on Veteran's Day the person on the left: is a terrorist.… Read more.

Fact Checking Janice Raymond: The NCHCT Report

September 18, 2014 ·

It has long been asserted that the iconic TERF opinion leader, Janice Raymond, played a part in bringing an end to the public and private coverage of transgender medical care, resulting in measurable death and suffering within the trans community. Unsurprisingly, Raymond rejects any assertion that she has blood on her hands. Over on TheTERFs.com, Raymond objects to the following assertion: “It was only after the NCHCT published Raymond’s bigotry in 1980 that… Read more.

An intersex perspective on the trans, intersex and TERF communities

September 15, 2014 ·

Are Trans Communities Losing Intersex Allies in the TERF Wars? By Cary Gabriel Costello, PhD Recently I spent several days in a public internet group for "gender critical" people, after a few intersex friends voiced some positive things about this line of thinking. As an intersex individual who gender transitioned from the sex he was assigned at birth, I was puzzled and concerned by this development. I'd read in trans writing that "gender critical" feminists were actively transphobic--yet here were… Read more.

#TERFweek Redux

August 19, 2014 ·

In the post announcing #TERFweek, we specified goals for the week. These goals were: Raise awareness about this movement of hate and the groups it forms. Educate people about its tactics. Collectively speak out against its bigotry. Encourage the Feminist, Radical Feminist and Lesbian communities to speak up about the aggressive colonization their communities have faced at the hands of this movement. #TERFweek has accomplished this and so much more. Actual Radical Feminists stepped forward to share their painful… Read more.

How TERF violence inspired Camp Trans

August 17, 2014 ·

In the middle of a cool August night in 1991, Nancy Burkholder was thrown out of the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival (MWMF) because she’s a trans woman.  Burkholder was Janis Walworth’s friend and she was outraged that MWMF’s would engage in anti-trans discrimination. Walworth, a cisgender radical lesbian feminist,  immediately began to educate MWMF attendees about trans people. After coping with threats of violence and dealing with having her consciousness-raising… Read more.

A TERF’s fist gave rise to trans-inclusive women’s music festivals

August 17, 2014 ·

What follows is a continuation of my interview with Radical Feminist lesbian icon, Robin Tyler. In the previous piece, Tyler talked about being beaten by TERFs for trying to protect a trans woman from their assault. In this portion of the interview, Tyler describes how a TERF's fist at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival (MWMF) led her to conclude that it was time for her to start her own women's music festival.… Read more.

That time TERFs beat RadFems for protecting a trans woman from their assault

August 17, 2014 ·

Robin Tyler is an iconic Radical Feminist lesbian who talked with me about the ways she confronted TERF violence and oppression against trans women. We discussed Tyler’s involvement with the 1973 West Coast Lesbian Feminist Conference. For some context on why this particular conference was so important, Susan Stryker sums it up well: Elliott also served on the organizing committee of the West Coast Lesbian Feminist Conference, planned for April of 1973 in Los Angeles, and she had… Read more.

TERF hate and Sandy Stone

August 16, 2014 ·

Sandy Stone was a problem that Janice Raymond, author of The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male, decided to take care of. Raymond felt that Stone -- an out trans woman who was part of the radical feminist lesbian separatist music collective, Olivia Records -- didn’t belong. Raymond engineered a smear campaign that nearly destroyed the Collective and put Stone’s life in jeopardy, culminating in armed TERFs asserting their intention to murder Stone. Olivia Records was a successful… Read more.

Critical of “Gender Critical:” Part V of the ‘Sexing the Body is Gender’ Series

August 15, 2014 ·

Many of the TERFs I’ve had the displeasure of meeting move through life belligerently sexing physical phenomena and behavior (especially rape) while simultaneously (and ironically) proclaiming themselves to be critical of gender.  For TERFs, there is no difference between mentally contextualizing a body as a sex attribute and the body itself. TERFs have such a long history of, with all the asperity of a hellfire creationist, asserting that sexing everyone is better/different/more natural than gendering everyone that I hold no hope they will see past their own… Read more.

Making trans-hate sound reasonable

August 15, 2014 ·

By Natacha Kennedy Michelle Goldberg’s awful article in The New Yorker will be considered by many to be just another example of the sort of biased rubbish trans people have come to get used to from the media. This kind of article is the sort of thing that (dis)graces plenty of TERF (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists) sites and marginal online publications that try to be ‘edgy’or ‘iconoclastic in the knowledge that having a go at trans people is the last… Read more.

Debunking TERF Essentialism: Part III of the ‘Sexing the Body is Gender’ Series

August 13, 2014 ·

Part III of the 'Sexing the Body is Gender' Series: Debunking TERF Essentialism In Part II, what gender is and is not was discussed and the ways in which we contextualize our bodies were reviewed. In this section, essentialism arguments regularly asserted as being self-evidently true are reviewed and deconstructed. When appealing to a substance – say, genetics, chromosomes, etc. – as being a sexed essence which defines how we collectively regard the… Read more.

Mom confronts TERF bigotry aimed at her family

August 13, 2014 ·

By Debi Jackson Although I have been part of the LGBT community for the last three years since my daughter transitioned from male to female, I still seem to learn something new every day. Take, for example, my recent discovery of a group that some call TERFs, or Trans-Excluding Radical Feminists. Within the last few weeks, I’ve become a target of hate from some who watched a video of me giving a speech about my daughter’s transition. Most of that… Read more.

#TERFweek: Debunking TERF Tropes

August 12, 2014 ·

TERFs tend to behave much like a fundamentalist echo chamber so that once a new malicious anti-trans trope is created, it is quickly disseminated and replicated until the trans community and/or allied communities must waste their time addressing the fallacies. Therefore, the TransAdvocate has put together this list of debunked anti-trans TERF tropes for your reference. The Cotton Ceiling: TERFs assert that Planned Parenthood conspired to helped teach trans people how to force lesbians to have sex with them and this amounts to corrective… Read more.

What a 90s Cartoon Can Teach Us about TERFs

August 12, 2014 ·

By  Lisa Kalayji Do you remember the 1990s MTV cartoon Daria? If you're old enough and young enough, you probably do. For those who missed it or are enjoying the memory slippages which apparently start at a lot earlier age than our parents told us they would, Daria was a cartoon series about a highly intelligent, cynical, and socially outcast teenaged girl, and she has something to teach us about the logic which gives rise to trans-exclusive radical feminism. In… Read more.

Contextualizing the Body: Part II of the ‘Sexing the Body is Gender’ Series

August 12, 2014 ·

Part II of the 'Sexing the Body is Gender' Series: Contextualizing the Body If one is talking about something that has chemistry and mass, one is not talking about the thoughts in one’s head. In this series, I will make this simple distinction knowing that there is robust and nuanced discussion around whether there is a biological predisposition that causes trans people to experience our bodies in the way we do. For the purpose of this post, I will make a distinction between that which we take to be… Read more.

#TERFweek: Remember Filisa Vistima

August 12, 2014 ·

Before you read further, I need to state a strong Trigger Warning: The following post recounts the circumstances surrounding the suicide of a trans women. Filisa Vistima was a 22-year-old transsexual woman from Seattle who had not been able to access the type of trans medical care she needed. She volunteered at the Lesbian Resource Center (LRC) and on March 6, 1993, Filisa took her own life after handling feedback from TERFs demanding that people like her be banned from the Center.… Read more.

#TERFweek: Let’s not repeat our history

August 11, 2014 ·

The following article was published in 1974. Note the way the overall public held anti-trans views in contempt. Note the dismissive way the author of this article reported on TERF bigotry. I think this article serves as an important cautionary tale because I can't help but note that today, like in this 1974 article, some feminists and trans folk seem to think TERF anti-trans dogma is irrelevant. Please never forget the damage they've caused. They are as hubris as they are cruel; TERFs have repeatedly shown that they… Read more.

Intro to the ‘Sexing the Body is Gender’ Series

August 11, 2014 ·

About a decade ago, the feminist community came up with the term Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF) as a way to halt the default colonization of Radical Feminism and feminism itself by TERFs (and this move by feminists is, of course, claimed to be incredibly insulting). Now, under a wave of new awareness of the hate group hiding among them, feminism is becoming more vocal about its recrimination of TERFs. Old TERFs and TERF allies like Sue Hyde and Gloria Steinem have openly recanted their TERF rhetoric and… Read more.

#TERFweek starts now!

August 11, 2014 ·

What it is #TERFweek is a week of education, raising awareness and openly talking about the abuse our communities have endured at the hands of the Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist movement. From Monday, August 11 to the 17, we invite everyone to share their experience with the TERF movement using the #TERFweek tag. We hope that all our diverse communities will take this opportunity to speak with one voice, united in standing in opposition to the hate and very real harm this group has caused. Why… Read more.

National justice orgs say: End trans exclusion policy at Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival

August 8, 2014 ·

The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) has joined the Gay & Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the Nation Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and several other social justice organizations in petitioning that the trans-exclusionary policy of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival (MWMF) end. In recent years, the MWMF trans exclusionary policy has been rebranded as merely a trans-exclusionary "intention." In the face of MWMF's continued anti-trans policy intention, the nation's leading equality organizations have joined Equality Michigan in petitioning the… Read more.

Et tu, Caroline Criado-Perez?

August 6, 2014 ·

At first, I wasn’t going to write a response piece to Caroline Criado-Perez (CCP) article concerning the term “cis”, because many of her ideas were similar to those in Sarah Ditum’s post I recently responded to. Then I realized those similarities should be pointed out. There are patterns emerging where otherwise respected feminists are injecting thinly veiled transmisogynist bigotry within self-congratulatory “bravery” narratives, as well as, patronizing pro-trans-sounding platitudes.  So, when trans activists respond to their seemingly conciliatory knives-in-the-back… Read more.

TERFs are the new Westboro Baptist Church

July 28, 2014 ·

The Wesboro Baptist Church. It's been a nuisance to the LGBT community since 1991 when it took its first steps to publicly advocate against gay people. We've all heard of them. They were a cause for many a family members loss if appetite at the dinner table when their "God Hates Fags" slogans were posted in family rooms across this nation, and the world. Yes, they were certainly a nuisance. But, that nuisance had a benefit in the grand… Read more.

Hair does not make the woman, Sarah Ditum

July 5, 2014 ·

The appearance of Lavern Cox, a prominent trans woman activist and actor, on the cover of Time magazine was a great moment in trans advocacy.  Although Chelsea Manning was the first trans woman to be pictured on the cover of Time, the context of Lavern Cox photo was a bold statement.  Beside her name were the words, "The transgender tipping point: America's next civil rights frontier." Sarah Ditum, a feminist journalist from the UK, reacted to the photo in… Read more.

The Playbook: Equality comes to Houston, the fringe freaks out, threatens to kill Mayor [UPDATED]

June 5, 2014 ·

On Wednesday, May 28, 2014, the Houston City Council approved a sweeping non-discrimination ordinance barring discrimination against 15 protected classes, including an explicit protection against discrimination due to one's religion. The city's right-wing community immediately claimed to be oppressed, threatened to recall everyone who voted for the ordinance and pledged to put their own religious protections up for a popular vote in the November election. More worrisome, the Mayor of Houston… Read more.

Gender Performance: The TransAdvocate interviews Judith Butler

May 1, 2014 ·

Judith Butler is a preeminent gender theorist and has played an extraordinarily influential role in shaping modern feminism. They've written extensively on gender, and her concept of gender performativity is a central theme of both modern feminism and gender theory. Butler's essays and books include Performative Acts and Gender Constitution (1988), Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990), Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex" (1993) and Undoing Gender (2004). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo7o2LYATDc However, the concept of gender performativity… Read more.

NOW state rep talks with the TransAdvocate about TERFs, trans-inclusion and civil rights

April 18, 2014 ·

I heard of Poppy years before I met her. I knew her to be a major force behind Southern feminism. Poppy has a long history of working for reproductive rights both as an attorney and as a volunteer clinic escort. It was as a volunteer clinic defender that I got to personally know her. The National Organization for Women (NOW) is the largest multi-issue women’s rights organization in the United States dedicated to taking action to bring women into full… Read more.

The relationship between Cathy Brennan and the SPLC

April 2, 2014 ·

In late November of last year, Secular Woman began a petition asking the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to list Cathy Brennan's Gender Identity Watch as a hate group. In January, during the SPLC's internal discussions concerning their yearly hate group list, Cathy Brennan made public her donations to the SPLC on her facebook page. And the SPLC accepted her donation. When asked about the donations, the Gender Identity Watch twitter account claimed that Cathy Brennan routinely donated money… Read more.

TERF: what it means and where it came from

March 15, 2014 ·

Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERF) are quick to make fact assertions about the term, TERF. According to TERFs, the term is a slur and use of the term makes one a misogynist.   Others assert that the term is insulting, hyperbolic, misleading, and ultimately defamatory. Allen actually calls for more people to recognize radical feminists as a hate group and then pointedly adopts the term Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF) to refer to them throughout the article. Make no mistake, this is a slur.… Read more.

TERFs offer only hyperbole

March 13, 2014 ·

TERFs are well-known for referring to their rhetoric as being "gender critical." You might think that this means that they are critical of gender in all its forms. However, TERF criticism of gender seems to only ever extend to others (usually trans people). There is a great line in SLC Punk that gets at the heart of a critique I recently made: Brandy: Aren't you, like, rebelling against society? Stevo: Put that simply, kinda, yeah. Brandy: Wouldn't it be… Read more.

#JD4PJI: The downfall of the Pacific Justice Institute and the sweet victory of trans youth

March 7, 2014 ·

The one thing that you have to realize is that everything the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) did to a trans kid in Colorado was about PJI's desire to stop a law in California that codified equality standards for trans children. Law makers in California proposed legislation that would help ensure that California's trans children would be able to have a school experience free from institutionalized oppression. PJI hated this idea and decided that were going to fight it every… Read more.

The shame of Sheila Jeffreys’ hate

March 6, 2014 ·

University of Melbourne Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF), Sheila Jeffreys is being called out for her racist comments by the indigenous Australian community. Jeffreys asserted on a radio show that being trans is like blackface. A genderqueer member of the Indigenous people of Australia told the Star Observer: There is a fear that racist, misogynistic, queerphobic and transphobic people will take her message as truth and enact these prejudices against trans-identified Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. By reducing transgender identities to that… Read more.

Trans medical care = mutilation?

February 19, 2014 ·

A reader writes: I was wondering if it would be possible to open a discussion seeking articulation explaining why and how surgical alteration is different from genital mutilation. I feel insufficiently equipped to defend the difference. Here's the deal: body autonomy. I - not some random person - get to decide what body modifications constitute "mutilation." I don't want a pierced septum and if someone held me down and forcibly priced it, I would view it as "mutilation" regardless if… Read more.

Full SFGN Interview: ‘I am not a bigot’ Says Gender Identity Watch’s Cathy Brennan

February 12, 2014 ·

Recently the South Florida Gay News interviewed me for an article on the TERFs, Cathy Brennan and her group, Gender Identity Watch: The Web is where this feud appears to have escalated with Brennan trading barbs between journalists and advocates from the transgender community who claim Brennan and her blog are insensitive. “I believe the petition served to clearly demonstrate that many thousands of feminists view the GIW team to be a hate group,” said Cristan Williams, editor of Transadvocate.com. “I… Read more.

Cathy Brennan attempts to censor LGBT magazine

December 26, 2013 ·

OutSmart magazine asked me to write a piece on the TERF phenomena. My 2500+ word article featured just two sentences that mentioned Cathy Brennan's behavior. Cathy Brennan - a Maryland attorney, activist, leader and a public face of TERFism - is demanding that my article be edited so that it remains silent about her behavior in the modern TERF movement. Lie for me or else! Brennan asserted that she's hired lawyers to successfully go after other media… Read more.

Southern Poverty Law Center: Monitor Gender Identity Watch as a Hate Group

November 22, 2013 ·

As a feminist organization, Secular Woman promotes gender equality. We stand against and combat sexism, hate, intolerance, and misogyny. Transgender women are women. Cisgender women are women. We do not, in any way, view the existence of transgender women, genderqueer individuals or transgender men as a threat to the safety of women, female identity, or the goals of feminism. As intersectional feminists we acknowledge the privilege that cisgender people experience. We aim to dismantle the axis of oppression that this… Read more.

Popular TERF front group is fake

November 15, 2013 ·

Would you be surprised to learn that a wildly popular front group TERF attorney, Cathy Brennan runs is fake? The group, Organizing for Women's Liberation (OWL) claims to have received well over 100,000 FaceBook likes and is the more palatable face of Cathy Brennan's hate group. OWL mixes anti-trans messaging in with news reports chronicling rape and brutality against women, thereby linking "trans" to real violence against women. The reality is that OWL is a fake group whose "like" numbers… Read more.

Cathy Brennan’s TERF group promotes PJI fundraiser

November 7, 2013 ·

The group TERF attorney, Cathy Brennan represents is promoting PJI's fundraising efforts: Brennan had previously acted as PJI's mouthpiece, delivering PJI statements to the TransAdvocate. Additionally, Brennan outed the name of the trans kid during the height of the bullying she was enduring, an act even PJI refused to do. This fundraising video features individuals PJI asserts are subject to police investigation for possible online criminal activities targeting a trans youth. This video targets the same trans youth who who was… Read more.

Victoria Brownworth: this is who you pay to write about queer issues?!?

November 2, 2013 ·

Before you read further, check out this Storify wherein Victoria Brownworth claims that I am a pedophile who pays to have sex with children: Earlier this year, I wrote a piece about cisprivilege and how it showed up in a print article wherein Victoria Brownworth was curious about what the genitalia of a trans kid looked like - someone she says she believed to be a minor - and… Read more.

PodCast: Reviewing media bias and an interview on Swirl Radio

October 30, 2013 ·

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/117840029" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /] In this podcast, I review the way in which the mainstream media has responded to the TWO right-wing hoaxes which spread the trans bathroom meme in mainstream media. Also, there's a short interview I did for Swirl Radio - a Clear Channel radio show - and an excerpt from the radio interview that followed my on: an interview with Cathy Brennan, the TERF opinion leader.   Tip this TransAdvocate! Writers… Read more.

YOUR HELP REQUESTED: HRC condemns fake trans harassment charges, ex-gay group dodges my fact checking, family & friends open up

October 18, 2013 ·

Today, HRC has joined GLAAD in condemning the false reports of trans harassment by an ex-gay/creationist group, the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI). The PJI is the organization at the center of an international effort to malign one transgender kid. Last week, the PJI issued the right-wing community talking points for use in their fight for their right to discriminate against trans children. In their letter, the PJI claimed that they were concerned that the school was helping a trans kid harass cisgender girls. Right wing media outlets jumped at the story without… Read more.

Anti-gay activist group admits trans school “harassment” is fake

October 16, 2013 ·

Okay. Maybe the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) doesn't think that they're admitted their charge of "harassment" is fake, but I'll let you be the judge. The PJI is a right-wing activist organization and huge supporter of the ex-gay movement as well as the debunked practice of conversion therapy. Recently, the PJI stirred up the right-wing word by claiming that a kid in Colorado was helped by the public school system to harass cisgender girls in the restrooms. Right wing media outlets… Read more.

TERF supports anti-gay activist group

October 16, 2013 ·

Cathy Brennan, an opinion leader in of the Trans Exclusionary RadFem movement has chosen to side with the ex-gay organization, the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI):   Fails to mention this story was recanted   Worse, Brennan volunteered to serve as the mouthpiece of the right-wing anti-gay activist organization: Trans people are "inherently intimidating and harassing" and no, we've not actually supported anything we've said with any evidence, but trust us. We wouldn't… Read more.

TERFs & Trans Healthcare

October 12, 2013 ·

While there are many who feel that morality must be built into law, I believe that the elimination of transsexualism is not best achieved by legislation prohibiting transsexual treatment and surgery but rather by legislation that limits it and by other legislation that lessens the support given to sex-role stereotyping, which generated the problem to begin with. Any legislation should be aimed at the social conditions that initiate and promote the surgery as well as the growth of the medical-institutional… Read more.

[UPDATED] Cotton Ceiling: Uncovering the trans conspiracy to rape lesbians

September 27, 2013 ·

The mere mention of the "cotton ceiling" should send rapey shivers up your spine. If you've not heard of it here's the lowdown from feminists: Transgender cotton ceiling rapists hold male-only (Planned Parenthood-sponsored) seminars, write books, host lecture tours, and endlessly spam lesbian websites and blogs with rape and murder threats over lack of male “inclusion” in lesbian social gatherings, lesbian organizing, lesbian events, lesbian music festivals, and – most importantly- lesbian bedrooms. http://tinyurl.com/ms5289e Planned Parenthood Toronto is helping to sponsor… Read more.

You might be a TERF if…

September 24, 2013 ·

I've noticed that there seems to be some confusion about what a Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF) is so, here's a quick guide to help you figure out if you're someone who pushes TERF ideology, which is to say, someone who's a TERF. Chances are that you're a TERF if you believe that you're a feminist when you... 1.) Claim that trans women are cis men, that trans men are cis women and purposefully misgender trans people. 2.) Out trans… Read more.

“Award Winning” Journalist Victoria Brownworth Caught Lying YET AGAIN!

September 7, 2013 ·

Victoria Brownworth, self proclaimed "award winning" TERF journalist (though she calls herself RadFem), hates me. Like, a lot. I wrote the following factual account of how she used her privilege to coerce a trans minor (actions Brownworth herself describes as both creepy and wrong) to expose his genitals to her: Gawking at TransKid’s Genitalia is “Freedom of Speech” says Philly PD Instead of owning her privilege and/or lapse of professionalism, she went on the offensive: She… Read more.

Sheila Jeffreys and the myth of where trans care comes from

August 30, 2013 ·

Sheila Jeffreys has for years claimed that trans surgery is the product of some malevolent conspiracy: could be likened to political psychiatry in the Soviet Union. I suggest that transsexualism should best be seen in this light, as directly political, medical abuse of human rights. The mutilation of healthy bodies and the subjection of such bodies to dangerous and life-threatening continuing treatment violates such people's rights to live with dignity in the body into which they were born,… Read more.

Asking Yet Again Why the SPLC Will Not ‘Go There’ Regarding Exterminationist TERFs

August 29, 2013 ·

SPLC will when it comes to a “gay-bashing, revenge-seeking black nationalist” who works at the Department of Homeland Security. An employee at the Department of Homeland Security runs a racist website in his spare time and advocates the mass killing of white Americans, gays, and black leaders he believes are traitors, according to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Ayo Kimathi, a small business specialist at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a branch of the DHS, is a “gay-bashing, revenge-seeking black nationalist” who runs… Read more.

California Trans Bill Freak Out

August 27, 2013 ·

Supposedly, as the RadRight narrative goes, the California bill protecting trans kids in school is anarchy and madness. Unsurprisingly, TERFs and H-BSers jumped on that narrative: You know what? BS. Here in TEXAS - yes, conservative TEXAS - we've had these California-style policies in effect for YEARS. And you know what's happened? Nothing... Except trans kids got to go to school without having to face institutionalized bigotry. Yup, from kindergarten to high school, here in Texas towns like Houston, trans kids… Read more.

How Many of of the Trans-Hating Bigots Passing Themselves Off as Radical Feminists are Actually Women?

August 22, 2013 ·

I ask this question based on several reasons. I am seeing the exact same wording from the “Radical Feminists” that I am seeing from the Christo-Fascist Organizations that have words like Family and Concerned in their title. I’ve seen this before back during the right wing  Schlafly et.al. campaign against ERA, which passed itself off as a grassroots organizing effort, when it was actually a well financed campaign. ALEC and the Tea Party. The hijacking of “Susan B. Anthony” a… Read more.

Unpacking Transphobia in Feminism

August 9, 2013 ·

NOTE:  Radical Women wanted to share this article on the TransAdvocate so that people understand that not all radical feminist women are TERFs. Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism (TERF) is a relatively small - but extremely dedicated - hate group which passes itself off as feminism to create, support and promulgates negative opinions about trans people. Formed in 1967, Radical Women is a socialist feminist grassroots activist organization that provides a radical voice within the feminist movement, a feminist voice within… Read more.

Hypocrisy, Hate and Harm #no2h8splc

August 6, 2013 ·

The above is a picture of militant lesbians and gays protesting against a movie that promoted false gay stereotypes. March 18, 1970 Ladies' Home Journal Sit-In Above is what happened when a bunch of RadFems righteously took over the offices of the Ladie's Home Journal because it was a vector for promoting false stereotypes about women. Protesting negative stereotypes of cisgender women in the media has a long and proud tradition among feminists. Queer Nation's New York… Read more.

The TERF Empire Declares War Against Trans People

July 25, 2013 ·

Trans pioneer Dallas Denny published an article on TA about expressing her misgivings about the upcoming publication of a book promoting  Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF) hate. She just received a chilling response from a group of  TERF academics declaring war on trans people. The anonymous author declares war on me and for that matter on all transpeople. He or she and his or her six compatriots claims that they will raise an army of graduate students who will oppress me… Read more.

The Letter

July 20, 2013 ·

When I learned Routledge Press was planning to publish a book about "transgenderism" by Australian academician Sheila Jeffreys, I was astonished. Why was I astonished? Because Jeffreys considers transsexual surgery a human rights violation, has called medical intervention with transgendered children eugenics and McCarthyism, and refuses to use appropriate pronouns when referring to us, cynically claiming she is seeking “clarity.”  I identity FTMs and MTFs by the pronouns that demonstrate their sex class of origin for the sake of clarity. –FTM Transsexualism… Read more.

Memo to Proven Liar Victoria Brownworth

July 19, 2013 ·

A former Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader won her defamation lawsuit against a gossip website and its operator, with a jury awarding her $338,000 in damages Thursday. Jurors in federal court in Covington found that posts about Sarah Jones on the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based website thedirty.com in 2009 were substantially false. The jury of eight women and two men also found website operator Nik Richie acted with malice or reckless disregard in posting the submissions he said were anonymous. One post alleged Jones had sex with every Bengals… Read more.

Birth of a Transsexual Separatist and then Born Again

July 5, 2013 ·

I have been asked by numerous people in the transgender community what caused my change of heart as far as TS Separatism goes. I think folks really do want to understand what makes a separatist and how I was able to leave it behind. I think it is important to tell the story from beginning to end including how I became one. I don't blame anyone for being incredibly offended by what I did because I am offended with my… Read more.

Victoria Brownworth, PGN, and Trans Kids

June 25, 2013 ·

Victoria Brownworth has been in the news lately because she is a Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF) who has a history of interpreting the trans experience for disempowered trans people. What follows are excerpts from her 2008 Philadelphia Gay News article, Trans youth: Risking life and limb published online July 4, 2008. "Devon tells me he should have been a boy... He's handsome and, in the loose shirt, no one would ever guess he was born female... I ask him how old he is. He… Read more.

TERF Appropriation of the Trans Day of Remembrance

June 11, 2013 ·

Our friend Lee is back with another awesome critical commentary comic: On May 13, the TransAdvocate wrote about the appropriation of the Trans Day of Remembrance by Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs). Cathy Brennan, contributor to the Radfem2013 conference, has sunk to yet a new low.  She is now trying to exploit the death of our sisters (Transgender Day of Remembrance – TDOR)  to further her justification of transphobia. She wants us all to believe that it isn’t transphobia that kills us, it… Read more.

Responding To: Is It Wrong to Perform at Michfest?

June 3, 2013 ·

At its core, Thompson’s argument — and Vogel’s — is essentially based on gender identity and socialization. It contends that being assigned female at birth is a life experience that differs from that of being assigned male. “The internal struggles and social pressures are different,” says Thompson. “We live in a patriarchy. That is still true. And that has real, cultural effects." Syd Mutcher, another Michfest participant, agrees, saying that trans women are informed by their boyhoods and by male… Read more.

So SPLC, When Are You Going To Declare The TERF’s A Hate Group?

June 2, 2013 ·

And how many more Black and Latina trans women have to die before you do so? How many more transpeople have to suffer from anti-trans discrimination before you step up to the plate and do what you should have done years ago? How much more hate speech do they have to publish online at RadFem Hub and Gender Trender before you call them on it? You have four decades worth of evidence that point out the TERF's are a hate… Read more.

A Challenge to GallusMag, Editor of GenderTrender

May 31, 2013 ·

Apparently I've made the big time. I discovered that GallusMag, self-identified RadFem (TERF), TERF opinion leader and co-founder of RadFemHub, has attempted to troll me on her infamous TERF blog, GenderTrender. According to GallusMag, I have huge sweaty balls, I'm a man, I hate lesbians and gays, I hate feminists most of all, I have a sexualized image of myself as a woman, that I'm known for my advocacy for men's rights, that my greatest desire is to be a… Read more.

Will the real Brennan please stand up?

May 28, 2013 ·

Will the real Brennan please stand up? Many trans folk are aware of Brennan for her attempts to overturn trans equality protections, her targeting, outing and trans-shaming  of non-cis folk and for claiming that cis privilege doesn't exist because not all butch lesbians can access all the privilege that comes from not being trans. About a month ago, Brennan began contacting me. She sent me her personal phone number and email saying that should I ever have questions, I should… Read more.

My Exchange with the Southern Poverty Law Center

May 14, 2013 ·

FB messages between me and the SPLC   The trans community has asked itself recently why the supposed watchdog of extremist hate-groups - The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) - has historically given Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs) a pass. I wondered too and I decided to ask them about it. Here's my the FaceBook email exchange: ME: April 23, 1:48 PM   Why do you endorse hate group leaders on your site? http://www.transadvocate.com/radfem2013-lies-london-irish-centre-truth-a-preview-of-sheila-jeffreys-new-terf-book.htm The very person your site uses to hold up… Read more.

The TERF Appropriation of the Trans Day of Remembrance

May 13, 2013 ·

A TERF hate-tracking site recently raised a warning that Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF) leaders are attempting to appropriate the Trans Day of Remembrance: Cathy Brennan, contributor to the Radfem2013 conference, has sunk to yet a new low.  She is now trying to exploit the death of our sisters (Transgender Day of Remembrance – TDOR)  to further her justification of transphobia. She wants us all to believe that it isn’t transphobia that kills us, it is male violence. While it is true that the majority of… Read more.

Revisiting ‘the fallacy of cis privilege, again.’

April 27, 2013 ·

I've noticed that TERFs tend to lie. Like, a lot. As in, metric tons of BS. TERFs far and wide are currently gnashing their collective teeth over the reality that their hate-fest conference (#RadFem2013) was booted from its venue for the second year in a row. Instead of being an emotional adult about their situation, they instead (of course) chose to construct a narrative wherein their bad behavior had nothing to do with their eviction; instead, they're victims of a conspiracy. In other words,… Read more.

Trans Exterminationalists In Their Own Words

April 11, 2013 ·

One of the things that mystifies me is why The Southern Poverty Law Center hasn't declared Trans Exterminationalist Radical Feminism as a hate group.   Could it be because the rumor may be true that a TERF works for SPLC and squashes the subject every time it comes up in SPLC circles? SO if you think I being harsh when I call this group of rad fems Whyte Womyn Gone Wyld, trans oppressors or wonder why I have zero tolerance for their hate… Read more.

Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival

April 9, 2013 ·

Most of the Womyn that come to fest really don't care whether you're straight or not as long as your not trans. - D.M., Festival Supporter, July 4, 2012 More Context: MWMF TERFs organizers supported the targeting of a Radical Feminist, Lesbian-separatist music collective for being trans-inclusive and led to armed TERFs threatening the life of a trans woman. Lisa Vogel's fist inspired trans-inclusive Women's Music Festivals MWMF violence led to the creation of Camp Trans while Leather Dykes and the Lesbian Avengers offered bodyguard… Read more.