Well, not caring if you are mad Chimamanda Adichie. You had the option of letting trans women speak for themselves, but instead you waded into a topic you know nothing about and are getting called out on the Net and by us for it.
Let's say this one more time so there is no mistaking it. Trans women are women.
Now repeat that for the people in the back who didn't or the transphobic bigots who didn't want to hear it.
People have spouted their loud and wrong opinions about trans women (and trans men) since the 70's with little pushback from us. The most gleeful anti- trans cheerleaders have been the TERF's (trans exclusionary radical feminists), of which many of them were lesbians.
Because of the way that transitions were done at that time, we were encouraged to hide and assimilate in plain sight. That had the unintended effect of silencing our voices to push back against this onslaught of anti-trans rhetoric coming from Janice Raymond, Mary Daly, Germaine Greer and other predominately white second wave feminists.
Meanwhile, it was trans folks like Christine Jorgensen and other people fighting local battles through the 70's, 80's and 90's who were holding up the trans banner while fighting for their humanity and human rights.
But because we were hiding in plain sight, and y'all had a louder megaphone unless we were outed like Renee Richards, Tula and a too long list of trans women at that time were, our voices were effectively silenced.
Because of the way that transitions were done at that time, we were encouraged to hide and assimilate in plain sight. That had the unintended effect of silencing our voices to push back against this onslaught of anti-trans rhetoric coming from Janice Raymond, Mary Daly, Germaine Greer and other predominately white second wave feminists.
Meanwhile, it was trans folks like Christine Jorgensen and other people fighting local battles through the 70's, 80's and 90's who were holding up the trans banner while fighting for their humanity and human rights.
But because we were hiding in plain sight, and y'all had a louder megaphone unless we were outed like Renee Richards, Tula and a too long list of trans women at that time were, our voices were effectively silenced.
Now we trans people are unapologetically out and proud of who we are, and we are going to speak our minds, tell our stories and defend our human rights and our humanity as we do so. We're also going to call your cis behinds out when you disrespect or attempt to legislatively oppress us.
Don't like it that trans people are standing up to defend our humanity and human rights? Too bad. You can roll your eyes, suck your teeth and snake your necks all you wish about what I just wrote,
But the facts are, and I'm going to say this one more time, that trans women are women.
We are beyond sick and tired of 40 years of predominately white cis women, TERF's and others having a mostly unobstructed run of facts free sliming of the trans community for your fun, profit and personal electoral gain.
We in Trans World really don't care if you or anyone else don't like it when the trans community calls bullshyt on cis people's unsolicited opinions about our lives, because those unsolicited opinions result in the deaths of non-white trans women .
And that's unacceptable to me, our trans men and other trans women.
But the facts are, and I'm going to say this one more time, that trans women are women.
We are beyond sick and tired of 40 years of predominately white cis women, TERF's and others having a mostly unobstructed run of facts free sliming of the trans community for your fun, profit and personal electoral gain.
We in Trans World really don't care if you or anyone else don't like it when the trans community calls bullshyt on cis people's unsolicited opinions about our lives, because those unsolicited opinions result in the deaths of non-white trans women .
And that's unacceptable to me, our trans men and other trans women.
If you want to learn about trans women and our lives, how about doing the simple thing of actually talking to a trans person, reading our books, inviting us to speak (and paying us fairly to do so) on college campuses and having us do the media interviews to talk about our lives.
That is the only way to accurately learn what it is like to walk in our pumps and live our trans feminine lives.
Just as there is no universal experience for being a woman on this planet, neither is there a universal experience for being a trans woman.
But the salient point I want you cis women to take away from this is that the existence of trans women is not up for debate, period.
We exist, and we're tired of you cis women and your allies trying to deny the obvious fact that we do.
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