On leaving the trans cult

When I came out as a lesbian, it was during the time of inclusion, when more and more letters were being added to the LGBTQ alphabet soup because every sexual minority needed representation. It seemed obvious that we should include everyone—since we face ostracism ourselves we know how awful it is to be excluded. We wanted social justice, we wanted love and respect for all minorities. No matter what new letter was added to the “queer” acronym, we included them without question. I met people of all sorts during my time in university—gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, transsexuals, asexuals, gender fluid people, etc. I believed in us working together and gaining acceptance from straight people. During this time I also started learning about feminism. At first, the various feminist bloggers I was reading didn’t seem so different from each other. But over the last few years, we have become divided by a wide gulf. The issues separating us are the sex industry and transgender politics. I’ve never bought into the idea that prostitution is a job that needs to be unionized—I was able to see right away that it is violence. But I bought into transgenderism for quite a while. I believed, as we are taught to believe, that transgender people are just another sexual minority like gays and lesbians who need to fight against discrimination. I was all for helping any minority group to overcome oppression. I was taught that transgender people were born in the wrong body and had to change their body to match their internal image of themselves. I am an open-minded person and I had no problem believing this. But a lot of my feminist sisters were not open to it. I started getting into online fights with other feminists. I wanted them to see that they were being hateful towards a persecuted minority, and that this wasn’t compatible with feminism. I was against “TERFs.” I thought I was doing the right thing.

It was impossible not to do research into transgenderism because it kept coming up over and over and a lot of questions were difficult to answer. I was asked, “What is a woman?” by feminists who challenged me in discussions. I found that I could not answer the question. I read books on transgenderism and finally decided that “woman” is a social category, but this was never easy to explain. I got into bitter fights in comment threads. I called other women transphobic. It felt really, really terrible. We women should have been working together and instead we were ripping each other to pieces. I thought the things radical feminists were saying were exaggerated. It didn’t seem possible that trans women were trying to get into women’s spaces to hurt us because I thought they were just another persecuted sexual minority like gays and lesbians. I thought they were women who just happened to be born with the wrong parts.  Any attack on any letter from the acronym GLBTQ felt like it was also an attack on me, because I was in that acronym, too. I thought that all the people represented in the queer umbrella were the same—innocent people facing discrimination.

Trans activists are constantly on the lookout for anything they should condemn as transphobic. At first it was obvious stuff. Trans people should have the right to employment and housing and health care and should not be subject to violence. Of course! But the things that were condemned as transphobic started to get less obvious. Calling people by the wrong pronouns became phobic, too. Then, failing to put trans people in the center of every conversation became phobic. Then, talking about biology and anatomy became phobic, too. I used to be against “TERFs” until one day I read on Twitter that to imply that females menstruate is transphobic, and I realized—according to this, I am a TERF. I know that females menstruate and that to menstruate is female, and that’s all it takes to be a TERF. The whole thing started to unravel from there. If everyone who knows that females menstruate is a TERF, then everyone is a TERF. Everyone in the entire world. That makes no sense, since most people are not radical feminists.

Knowing that anyone can be called a TERF for even the littlest thing, and that they don’t even have to be a radical feminist in order to be slandered as such, made me take the acronym a lot less seriously. I started getting more curious about what the so-called TERFs were saying. Trans activists claim that radical feminists feel hatred toward trans people, but every time I’ve read a blog post by a radical feminist it has been well-reasoned, clearly explained, backed up with facts, nuanced and compassionate. I have never actually found the phobia that radical feminist writing was supposed to contain. What a lot of radical feminists are actually saying is that they do not agree with transgender politics because transgender politics are often harmful toward women, but they wish no harm upon anyone who is transgender. They are merely looking out for females, which is something that feminists have always done.

When I was arguing against so-called “TERFs” online, they would send me newspaper articles about trans women who had committed crimes against women. I dismissed these at first, thinking they were either exaggerated stories or they were just a few isolated cases. But over time, the isolated cases started to pile up. It started to become a pattern. After a while I couldn’t deny that trans women can be violent toward women, same as men are. Then, reading the words of trans women themselves, on Twitter and other social media, made something very clear: trans women behave exactly like men. Some of them make no attempt to behave the way women do or to understand women at all, and are openly hostile toward us.

The fact that some “trans women” are violent, misogynist men who make no attempt to try to blend in with other women really destroys the “brain sex” theory and the “born in the wrong body” theory. These men are clearly not women. It doesn’t make any sense that such men try to convince everyone that they’re women. The only explanation possible for violent, misogynist men claiming to be women is so they can get into women’s spaces to prey on us and so they can get cookies and attention. It’s obvious their real goal is to infiltrate when you look at their activism. They make no attempt to create spaces for trans women or to advocate for shelters, employment and housing for trans women. All they do is try to get into women-only spaces. And they are indeed getting lots of attention from the media, the medical profession, and from gender activists.

I’ve seen people get into trans ideology and lose their minds completely. I’ve come across people who truly believe that biological sex doesn’t exist and that they cannot access health care unless the doctor validates their gender identity. Imagine that, being in a rich country with available health care, and refusing it just because the doctor wants to treat your physical body based on your actual biology, instead of treating you based on your inner feelings? How ridiculous and nonsensical is it to claim you do not have health care available when you actually do, and when there are other people in poor countries who actually don’t? I’ve come across men who serve in the military, have fantastic STEM careers, father several children, and then claim to have been female all the time. What?! And I’ve seen lesbians who do lesbian activism, participate in the lesbian community, have lesbian weddings, and then all of a sudden say they were men the whole time. A lot of this stuff is pure nonsense, but if you question it you will be called a TERF and told you’re oppressing people. It’s sort of like creationism: inventing false facts that don’t stand up to scrutiny, claiming that science is hateful toward your beliefs, claiming to be persecuted when you can’t force your beliefs on other people, and attempts to silence and destroy non-believers. Transgenderism is a religious cult.

The effect transgenderism has had on feminism is that of a Trojan horse. It slipped quietly in over the years and then exploded in the 2010s, and now feminists are all split up and fighting each other. We spend half our time arguing about whether trans women are women and whether a given bit of feminism is “transphobic” and that means we are no longer fighting for women’s liberation. Feminism is supposed to liberate female humans from oppression. We should be spending zero time worrying about the gender feelings of abusive men. And the fact that transgender activists are usually pro-prostitution should tell you something. These people are fighting for MEN’s rights. Now that I’ve seen everything I’ve seen, I’ve come back to real feminism, the kind that is for women. I’m no longer confused about what a woman is. A woman is an adult female human, same as it’s always been. I’ve learned something very important: my sisters should always come first. I’m very sorry for the hostility I used to express toward women who know that trans women are men. I wish I could take that back. I’ve been using a tag on certain blog posts called “peak trans.” Peak trans is the point at which trans activists finally get so ridiculous that even previous supporters can no longer support them. This is what happened to me and I know it will happen to more of us.

102 thoughts on “On leaving the trans cult

  1. I hit “peak trans” when I read about how Michfest was being thrown under the bus by our own LGBT community. A 40 year old fest that has done no evil to anyone was was being called sexist and bigoted.

    At one point I was thinking that I was possibly FtM because I had always been asked if I were a boy or girl all my life and don’t fit what society shows us a woman is. Even when I was close to convincing myself that I was male trapped in a womans body I never would have expected to be welcomed in womens spaces if I transitioned and I wouldn’t want to be included in male born men spaces either if I transitioned, because I wouldn’t be. I do not know what experiences male born men have.

    When I read that transwomen were protesting Michfest and also read about the vandalism at Michfest in 2010 I realized something was very different about transwomen and I also felt the intentions of the trans movement weren’t what I thought they were. Transwomen have no idea what it really is to be born women and treated as women your whole life, they do not and cannot know. I was appalled at the rape, and death threats I seen feminists getting when they pointed out this simple and obvious fact and other facts based on biology.

    The smoke and mirrors and gender word voodoo fell away and I could see what this whole transgender movement really was, a sick twisted delusional lie being used to invade womens spaces, trash womens rights and cash in on confused young people willing to pay for surgeries and a life on hormones trying to fit into the gender molds society wants us in.

    I’m glad I finally snapped out of it and that I am not the only one. Thank you for your post Purple Sage. I am right there with ya.

    Liked by 21 people

  2. Incredible article! Sometimes the journey to real feminism is straightforward but for most of us, that road is marked by detours, wrong turns, wrong ways, long stays at the side of the road trying to figure it all out, etc. Women are always struggling to find a way through this rigged game of the patriarchy we were born into. This game tells us that everything is our fault and that if we can’t fix everybody’s issues right away, then we are wrong. The pressures on women to be compliant are intense and we see that some women decide it is easier to attack other women than to face the anger of the men in their lives and society. But many of us manage to get what good we can out of life through feminism and I always hope that others make that journey successfully.

    Liked by 12 people

    • “Women are always struggling to find a way through this rigged game of the patriarchy we were born into.”

      You do realize just how many of the complaints aimed (pretty justifiably) against Trans in this article have been aimed (pretty justifiably) against homosexuals and (pretty justifiably) against feminists.

      The fundamental problem seems to be that political self-obsession tends to lead intellectual absurdity and ever more irrationally aggressive tactics to “defend” the intellectual absurdities.

      But, somehow, anti-feminist statements by trans (and vice versa), anti-homosexual statements by feminists (and vice versa), etc. ad infinitum, are all the fault of the “patriarchy” – who really have learned to give a minimal sh*t about various pressure groups endless complaints.


      • I’m really not following you, sca721. I’m not aware that the gay and lesbian community has ever become a cult-like group the way the trans has, and I’m not aware that any feminists are making anti-homosexual statements. (Although I would agree that faux-feminists make anti-gay statements.)

        Liked by 1 person

      • Your 3rd paragraph was great.


        Liked by 1 person

  3. Reblogged this on Gender Is War and commented:

    Liked by 13 people

  4. Let your sisters know that we, the feminists who still prioritize females and girls, who have created a culture of love and honoring women, are at Michfest this August waiting for you. Come home.

    Liked by 12 people

  5. I believe you’re wrong about “TERF.” With rare exceptions, the only people accused of being “TERFs” are lesbian or assumed to be lesbian. Lesbians, who by definition only have sex with women, can confer on transgender males the ultimate and most coveted validation by having sex with them. The fact that lesbians by definition don’t do this and cannot be convinced to do so makes us the ultimate and most reviled target, hence our special name.

    Liked by 6 people

    • “TERF” is used as a scare tactic. A bunch of lesbian officially carry the stigma, but any woman is in danger of becoming one if she touches certain things or reads certain content.
      I have seen this so many time, and anyone stigmatized looses credibility in the eyes of “good people” (the accusation is the serious, it has to be true)

      Liked by 12 people

    • I have witnessed a female porn star get called a TERF for not giving a blow job to a trans woman, I’ve seen trans women getting called TERF several times (apparently they are exclusionarying themselves) just for agreeing with feminism, and I’ve seen heterosexual feminists get called TERF when they talk about feminism. It can happen to anyone. And like I said, when the criteria for getting called a TERF is simply knowing that females menstruate, that means this slur can be applied to anyone.

      Liked by 19 people

  6. Thanks for your post. Clear and nicely written. And your evolving consciousness around your experiences, and the crazy weird expectations. I’m a womon and I am bleeding. ONLY Females bleed between their legs for several days without serious injury. This is an ancient Female Mystery. Modern day out of it has come the Red Tent Movement. We will not be silenced or shamed!!!

    Liked by 8 people

    • But is the Red Tent movement for women only? This is the first I’d heard about it – so thank you! – but it says on their website that it’s for women of all “sexual identifies,” so I’m gathering this means trans (M2T) included. Is that correct, please?

      Liked by 1 person

  7. Between work and school, I have met three trans people, all in their twenties. A pansexual ftm, a bi mtf, and a straight mtf (engaged to a man who also considered himself straight). The last one I saw almost every day at work, and we even became friends. She was mostly quiet and shy, and she would apologize for even the tiniest things, like being less than a minute late. She didn’t tell anyone at first and everything seemed okay. Then a coworker figured her out, and gossiped to all of us, even my mom, asking if we noticed that Toni (the mtf) was a “shim”. None of us really treated her any differently, except that one coworker, Kathy. She started openly referring to Toni as “he” and “him” all the time, until Toni stopped talking, and started spending breaks alone in her car. When I asked her what was wrong one day after I saw her crying, she came out to me, and said she was feeling hurt and insulted almost every day. She wouldn’t say who it was, but I think we all knew already. I was the only one who actually reached out to offer some support. I invited her to softball practice, and we started hanging out and sharing stories.

    How she was bullied through most of her school years, and how men would wait to beat her up in bar parking lots early into the change, about losing her virginity to a man who called her “it” and the most disgusting thing he’d ever done in front of his friends, about her fiance who stood up for her on the night that they met, took her on dates, brought her home to his family and proposed… About getting fired from her last job a few months after they moved in together, because a client made a big fuss that she had no business working for a Christian community center, about how she was so happy to have this job because they wouldn’t have to delay their ceremony and how she was still treated better than she was at her last job. She had such high hopes for nine dollars an hour, like her life was turning around.

    Until Kathy became comfortable enough to out Toni directly to our very Catholic HR manager. Toni got called into the office after work one day, and was never the same again. She always worried about getting fired again, talked and texted less, started having trouble being on time, and wore long sleeves despite the hot summer weather. It was concerning, so I pressed her about it, and pressed and pressed. She gave in, and rolled up her left sleeve. Part of her arm was wrapped in cotton bandages and caked in dried blood, stitches visibly poking through here and there. At least she saw a doctor. More of her arm was lined in smaller fresh red scars. She just stopped coming to work after that, and the the only thing she’d ever reply was “I’m okay” in a text message.

    That’s my real world reference for a trans woman trying to “infiltrate” our spaces. She already had her license changed to female and had access to female spaces. The only female space she used was a bathroom stall, and I hope she never needs any more than that ever again. Because twelve of us could stand by and let one bully cause so much harm to someone who would turn on herself without so much as naming that bully. If she ever does need shelter, she might rather die in the frozen snow than subject herself to another round of acceptance, outing and betrayal by “sisters” like this.

    Liked by 3 people

    • Hello LIz,

      I’m sorry your colleague went through so much pain. No one deserves violence and bullying. You’ve named several things that went wrong in this person’s life, but your focus seems to be on one woman at work who did not want to call this trans woman “she.” Women are allowed to call male humans by male pronouns. The accurate use of language is not a source of violence. Your transgender colleague was abused by men throughout his life, according to your story. It was men who bullied him and beat him up and if I am reading this correctly, a man sexually assaulted him. Why, then, are you focused on the use of male pronouns by one woman as the source of this person’s pain? The source of his pain is violent masculinity. The same masculinity that he could not perform and so he transitioned to avoid performing it. The same masculinity that the bullies were performing when they beat him up for being a gender-non-conforming male. Radical feminism seeks to abolish the social construct of masculinity so that men do not have to perform violence and domination in order to be seen as men, so that women will no longer be raped and battered, so that gender-non-conforming men like your colleague can express their softness without being labelled “woman” for it, so that we can all be free from male violence.

      Patriarchy and masculinity hurt all of us. It especially hurts women but it hurts men too. Please join radical feminists in fighting patriarchy and male violence—it will benefit your colleague, too.

      Liked by 16 people

      • Hi again,

        I frame it much differently; my focus is on one woman at work who was deliberately hurtful and insulting, someone who outed a friend, trying to get her fired. The rest of us somehow managed to respect her legal/medical status, and we didn’t deliberately try to put her through such a traumatic experience as. termination; loss of income and instability. To me, you’re arguing that we’re allowed to “call a spade a spade” with complete disregard for racial overtones and for those we hurt. I agree that we’re allowed to do that, but I disagree in that we shouldn’t.

        Claiming to know the source of her pain and why she transitioned comes off so pretentious. You never even talked to her. The immediate source of her pain was harassment in the workplace, not just pronoun use, but gossip, hostility, name-calling, outing and trying to get her fired. And her reason for transition, according to her, was physical. She didn’t transition and suddenly find herself a delicate little flower. She was amazingly strong and resilient, only breaking down after years of anti-trans bigotry.

        When fighting Patriarchy and male violence, I punch up at those in power… I don’t punch down at those in pain. I’m sorry, but if this is anything to me, then it’s “peak radical feminism”. To say your kind of treatment “will help” my friend doesn’t mean much after seeing that it did harm her.

        As an aside, I remember somewhere here that you mocked the idea of doctors acknowledging trans women as female. Before she seemingly gave up on everything, I actually got to ask a lot of questions about her medical stuff. Her doctors and insurance acknowledged her as Female, because it was “usually” more relevant. Like her weight; 130lbs is within normal range for a 5’9 Female, or dangerously malnourished for a 5’9 male. She was obviously a healthy eater so considering her as male wouldn’t make sense. There was something similar with medications, that referencing male charts could result in overdose errors, because she didn’t have the extra muscle mass boosting her metabolism. And she got breast exams because she had breasts. I don’t see what’s funny about any of that, really. So why be so mean-spirited?

        Liked by 6 people

        • I’m not being mean spirited here, I’m being realistic. You are implying that my position is harmful to your colleague, but it isn’t. My position is that we should not have restrictive sex roles that people must perform, and instead we should all be able to express ourselves the way we want. If men wish to wear dresses and makeup, that’s fine with me. I believe in civil rights for everyone, including those who are transgender. I believe your coworker has the right to housing, employment, health care and safety. His doctor should not treat him like he is female. Why would he need a test for cervical cancer, for example, since he doesn’t have a cervix? If his body has changed because of the hormones he has taken then obviously his doctor needs to be aware of that. It sounds a bit like you are equating radical feminists with the bully in your workplace. I’m not a bully Liz. I have met trans people in real life and I treat them like any other person. I’m just not joining their religion, is all.

          Liked by 11 people

      • You proudly mock people’s healthcare. How is that not mean-spirited? Not really. “Positions” aren’t harmful. Treatment (based on those “positions”) is what can be harmful. You contradict yourself a lot. Both her and I would have happily agreed with you that restrictive sex roles are terrible. The disagreement is that you think she transitioned for reasons so petty as dresses or makeup. She never even wore dresses, and rarely wore makeup.

        You know better than the doctor, I guess. She should apparently be considered a severely malnourished guy, prescribed overdoses in reference to male charts, and shouldn’t have her breasts examined… because there’s one thing she probably wouldn’t need. For some reason, I thought diagnoses and treatment was based on condition present. Silly me, they should obviously base it on conditions absent?

        I don’t see common courtesy as a religion. But this “radical feminism”; defining others by your own beliefs, presuming to know why they are the way they are, treating them with little or no regard for their well-being, denying the med/psych consensus, denying their legal status and demonizing them as “infiltrators” — sure seems like a religion.

        As a straight ally, I feel like I may as well be pointing out that gay people aren’t “struggling with same sex attraction”, it isn’t because they are possessed by demons, they don’t need an exorcism, they’re not mentally ill, they really are allowed to get married, and no they are not infiltrating our military or our schools to spread any kind of “gay agenda”. Honestly, this is how it feels…

        Liked by 3 people

        • I recently read this very true quote: “A man’s accusing finger will find a woman, like a compass needle pointing north”, or something. (Was from this book about a thousand suns or what)

          This debate here is a good example. Lots of men did worse, but yet, the focus is on the woman who merely used male pronouns.

          Liked by 7 people

        • I guess the misgendering of your eeeevil female workmate was the same as those males raping and beating him, com’on, be realistic. If your trans workmate began to hurt himself, it was because he was broken by the abuse in the past and your other workmate has surely nothing to do with his real mental struggles. He is not the only person in this world with problematic or bully workmates. I’m pretty tired of transcultists blaming feminists for every shit that happens to any trans acquaintance.

          Liked by 1 person

    • That is not a trans* experience, it is any person’s experience. There are hets who get that, there a gays who get it, fat people get it, skinny people get. The world is a cruel place, but nothing above makes any case “for” the trans* religion. All it makes a case for is what we are all fighting against in many fields and contexts, fighting against all bullying.
      Anyone who forces me to mis-sex them is themselves being a bully.

      Liked by 8 people

      • I didn’t realize that recognizing someone’s id qualified as a religion… I guess that’s my mistake. No one can “force” you to “mis-sex” people, though. Be as mean and nasty as you like; just don’t be surprised when decent people frown at you for it.

        Liked by 2 people

        • Liz, there is NOTHING mean or nasty about calling a man in a dress a man. He may “identify” as a woman, but that does not change the FACT that he is a full, biological, 100%, XY male. The truth isn’t nasty just because it doesn’t conform to what you think reality should be. You should try making peace with reality and accepting what is. The truth is the truth. Simple. The problem (delusions) is 100% yours.

          Liked by 5 people

  8. Thanks for your thoughtful posting!

    Your simple point that the two issues that have divided feminists in recent years are the sex industry and transgender ideology is helpful. Both are controlled by men and profit and cater to the sexual desires of men. It makes sense that wresting women’s sexuality away from male control of the money and the narrative would be the most entrenched, most hard-fought battle against male domination.

    Liberal feminism has made progress with the three other root bases of women’s oppression (our labor, including our domestic servitude; our caretaking, including emotional nurturance; our reproductive capacities), but appropriation of our sexuality seems to be the most intractable basic oppression. Liberals have thrown in the towel on that one, which leaves radical feminism as the only group and philosophy that is continuing to engage male domination in this arena.

    Transgenderism in the US has allied with the sex industry to keep women’s sexual exploitation entrenched, by adopting the legal stance that “gender is immutable”. The two issues you point out are related, not separate.

    Transgender ideology is conflicting, deluded, confused and based on ulterior motives. It’s true; in general radfems could let a lot of compassion for these folks to surface if so much harm was not being done to the women’s liberation movement and individual women by them.

    Anne Lawrence’s 2013 book about autogynephilism which discusses 470 cases of autogynephilism she collected answers a lot of the confusion about trans social issues: http://ectechnano.com/men-trapped-in-men-s-bodies.html (thanks to GenderTrender for that cite) I suggest that the book makes a very strong argument that autogynephilic transgenderism is a paraphilia with similarities to certain other paraphilias.

    Transgender political ideology is informed by its decision to frame transgenderism as a civil rights rather than a mental health issue. The lobby was driven to seeking the protection of the civil rights laws because in the US they were specifically deprived of protection under the ADA (American Disabilities Act as amended 2008): see the history and argument that transgenderism should be framed as an ADA-covered disability here: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2084351. If the ADA covered transgenderism, I suspect that most of the trans-radfem conflict would not exist. I support inclusion of and proper classification of transgenderism as a mental-healh disability, to the extent other paraphilias are covered, under the ADA in the US, but I doubt the ADA will be amended soon in that regard.

    In order to present as a class that could be covered under US civil rights laws, transgender lobby lawyers had to get over the legal hurdle of “immutability” (inborn and not subject to change). There is no medical/scientific proof that it is inborn for the majority-autogynephile MTFs, as is obvious from their histories of masculine interests and behaviors, fatherhood, and late-stage transitions, so the legal arguments have had to get very creative. http://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1253&context=jcl See at page 901: “…such individuals do not belong to the “transgender”
    group by virtue of their behavior, but rather identify as
    associated with Gender Identity Disorder.” (my caps)

    To summarize, the trans lobby’s lawyers are trying to piggyback on the successful gay rights immutability argument for civil rights law protections (which IMHO correctly argued that homosexuality is inborn), by inventing an analogous legal fiction that “gender is immutable” just as sex and sexual orientation are immutable. They have made headway, but since this argument flies in the face of common sense and feminist gender theory, they have mounted a PR campaign to change the public’s perception on this point. Radfems, of course, are in the way. because we object to the corollary that if gender is immutable for this tiny population of trans folk, 51% of humanity will be domestic servants and the subordinate class forever, since gender is legally established to be immutable. The argument is untenable once this is seen, which is why the trans lobby gets upset when radfems see it and discuss it.

    Liked by 12 people

    • An excellent reply to a great article. Now you’ve pointed it out it’s absolutely apparent that transgenderism and the sex industry are the same issue – the same old issue – control of women’s sexuality. Thanks both of you.

      Liked by 4 people

      • Thanks, Gwengwyn, my comment above is very hasty though and would need a lot of expansion to be really helpful. I’m using “civil rights” too broadly and it’s pretty disjointed overall, but I do think the links are helpful.

        The main point is that the U.S. trans lobby is deliberately fighting in the wrong legal arena: instead of continuing to struggle for coverage under the ADA as amended, which is far more suitable to their goals, more legally and factually tenable, and less harmful to women, they are trying to utilize a grossly unsuitable set of U. S. civil rights laws: Title VII, Title IX, and state anti-discrimination employment. The legal theories and the facts don’t match up with those latter laws and are causing severe conflicts with groups that have struggled long and hard for suitable coverage under those latter laws. The “gender is immutable” legal fiction is just one example.

        Kevin M. Barry’s article which I link to above raises a whole lot of new areas for radfem discussion on this topic. We need to fully understand the underlying reasons for trans legal and political strategy, not just analyze and condemn its morality and its negative impact on our own struggle.

        Liked by 4 people

  9. Pingback: Saindo do culto trans | RadFem

  10. You said: “Trans people should have the right to employment and housing and health care and should not be subject to violence. Of course!”

    Yes, I agree. But that’s where it stops. It is unreasonable for them to expect the rest of the world to submit to their gaslighting, nor to re-write reality for their feelings or to consent to live in their Orwellian world. They have the right to live in their fantasy worlds, but they don’t have the right to try to make the rest of us live there, too.

    Liked by 9 people

  11. Someone on Facebook spoke to me about the way I responded to Liz. It seems that my comments can be interpreted as saying that workplace harassment is not violence, and she had an issue with that. So here is a note to try to clarify some things.
    Violence is “the use of physical force to harm someone” so technically, harassment isn’t violence, it’s harassment. But just because verbally harassing someone isn’t “physical force” doesn’t mean it’s not harmful. In the workplace we have to get along with lots of different types of people and we should try to get along as best we can. So a deliberate bullying campaign against a person is definitely wrong. In Liz’s case, I wasn’t there to see what happened, so I can only speculate. I am wary to automatically side with the trans person against the “bully” because I know that a lot of trans women out there consider themselves to have been bullied simply because the people around them realize they are male. I don’t think that realizing a male is male constitutes bullying. However, if Liz’s trans colleauge was doing his work well and not bothering anyone, and the bully tried to get him fired for no reason other than that he was trans, then I definitely do not agree with that, that is just malicious. If I had a trans coworker, I would treat him or her the same way I treat anyone else. I would only “try to get a person fired” if they were a really, really terrible person. In fact, I have worked with terrible people before and never tried to get them fired. It just doesn’t sound like something I would ever try to do to someone. Liz’s comments have been a derail though. This post is about the trans cult, it isn’t an open thread to discuss our friend’s particular work situations and health care needs, and there is no reason why I should be expected to answer to the behaviour of someone I’ve never met.

    Liked by 3 people

    • Purplesagefem,
      Your comment made sense and in no way implied you agree with bullying/harassment. That is just the kind of gaslighting fuckery a lot of us are fed up with. We need to stay out of their emotional trickbag.

      Some of us simply do not believe in gender. There are a thousand reasons not to, not the least of which is physical biological proof. But Genderists have feelings. The only reason feelings win over material reality is because most trans are male transgenders and trans theology supports gender which supports and sustains male power and dominance.

      Keep writing and thinking critically until we are all free from sex role bondage.

      Liked by 5 people

  12. On a related note, Gender Identity Watch just published a post about a male-to-female who was harassed at work and is suing. Cathy Brennan says she hops he wins the lawsuit: “We hope Ramirez wins, as firing a person for transgender status is bad public policy.” Brennan is pretty well-known for opposing the trans cult, and she still thinks that transgender people should NOT be fired or harassed at work. http://genderidentitywatch.com/2015/05/14/ramirez-v-barnes-noble-%e2%80%8ftranslawcenter-krishayashi-bnbuzz-usa/

    Liked by 3 people

    • I agree. No one deserves harassment. No one is saying that anyone thinks trannies deserve harassment, except trans-cult apologists who don’t have good arguments, so they try to cast aspersions on the character of trans-skeptics. That is a derail.

      Liked by 3 people

  13. Hello,
    I read your post and I am grateful to see that you are a thinking person. Seems like you have been thinking and thinking and thinking and willing to continue this mission on seeking the balance, harmony, and social justice that you want in the world. Thank you.
    I think also, a lot. I am also open to influence.
    I think that people who work towards creating unions and safety and recognition for sex workers are not “pro-prostitution” but rather “anti-death”. Fact: people engage in prostitution. Some people are forced there and some people are pressured and some are slaved and some make choices. Nonetheless, organizing for wages, healthcare, and recognition does not promote violence but may help shed light to the human trafficked, slaved, addicted, runaway, throwaway, and missing people. This may help us locate create a safe passage for the children trapped in these spheres also. I am for unions and organizing on every level, sex work is not an exception.
    I think I am sick of the war against Trans, gender-fluidity, inclusion, whatever. It’s not us and them, it’s all US.


    • Fact: people engage in murder for hire. Some people are pressured into it and others make choices. Some feel forced into being hitmen because they are threatened with death themselves, if they don’t follow through. Some hitmen have lived horrific lives themselves. They may have been brought up in “the life”, grown up poor, addicted, runaways, throwaways, abuse victims of every sort— physical, sexual, verbal and emotional. Should they be unionized? Legitimized? Both sex work and murder for hire inherently harm humans.

      The truth of the matter is that there are other ways of bringing people out of exploitation in the commercial sex trade. Safe passage does not necessitate societal legitimization and legalization of slavery and abuse. Sex workers can currently get health care, like everyone else in America, now that Obamacare is law. Other countries don’t have this issue at all.

      It is indeed all of us, not us and them. So let us practice that by refusing to legalize slavery and misery for some.

      Liked by 3 people

  14. Liz, like most people worldwide, seems to lack a basic understanding of mammalian biology. No matter what her friend weighs, he is a biological male and needs to undergo medical exams that recognize this FACT. Males who are trans and undergo complete gender-reassignment surgery (there is no such thing as changing one’s sex) still have their prostates, for example, and will need regular prostate exams.

    Every time someone decides to indulge themselves in a liberal view of transgenderism they need to be asked exactly what they know about 1) taking cross-sex hormones and the risks involved, 2) the surgeries performed on female/male bodies to make them appear male/female, 3) the mental health implications of rejecting one’s biological self. And I believe the apparatchiks who make up height/weight charts have deleted differences for sex; I never could understand why a 5’6″ woman was supposed to weigh less than a man of the same height.

    Liked by 4 people

    • A 5’6″ woman is supposed to weigh less than a man of the same height because males have heavier bones per height. Their skeletons weigh more, on average, and that is a biological fact. “Apparatchiks” (your word) have not eliminated sex on height / weight charts. Nonetheless, doctors figure a person’s weight (not just their sex) into prescribing dosages of medications that are weight sensitive. So, a 5’9″ male who weighs 130 lb would not be overdosed either way. BTW, when I danced ballet (until age 27) I was 5’9″ and 108-112 lb, so the tranny Liz found oh so skinny, is still a hulking mass of XY chromosomes compared to me. What, should we give him a medal for being thin? Can I have one too? LOL. Her arguments are red herrings and easy to rebut. She obviously knows nothing about how medications are prescribed and dosed.

      Liked by 4 people

      • Sorry, I have seen no differences for sex on any height/weight or height/BMI charts recently. Why would a man’s bones weigh more? Because so many women have osteoporosis? I truly think the notion that men should weigh more when the same height as women is deeply sexist, and have often wondered if men being bigger than women is due to millennia of men getting more to eat (and better quality food) than women.

        Liked by 1 person

        • Dogtowner, I am a professional scientist and an athlete now in my 40s. I have dissected human cadavers. It is fact that males have heavier skeletons and greater muscle mass, on average, than women. This is not controversial or debatable. It is based on hundreds of years of data. Bones and muscle are denser than fat, and women carry more fat due to our childbearing potential. Your theory about males getting more food does not hold up, because in experiments with males and females eating identical diets, males (on average) still had heavier bones and more muscle mass than females, and females still had more fat. It also doesn’t make sense because we are each (regardless of our sex) the product of 1 female and 1 male, so 1 disadvantaged and 1 advantaged person, according to your theory, and yet… males are larger and stronger on average. Go look up statistics for elite male and female athletes in a variety of sports. The problem isn’t that men and women are different, it is that male differences are valued more in our society. There is no inherent reason to value being big, strong and aggressive more than valuing bringing life into the world and nurturing it. This is our core biological purpose. Of course, modern people in developed nations live in highly organized societies, and they can choose not to have kids. Modern inventions and conveniences have made brute strength less important than it was historically, but genes evolve slowly. Because genes evolve slowly and our industrial revolution began only a few hundred years ago, differences persist.

          As to BMI, you are correct that it applies to both men and women. BMI is a statistical tool to generalize whether or not one’s weight is appropriate for their height. It is a very crude tool. 125-158 lb is the range for normal BMI (18.5-24) for my height, 5’9″. That is a big range! To pinpoint an individual’s ideal, as opposed to an ideal for a population, we can measure body composition directly with hydrostatic weighing and electrical impedance. My scale can show me my % body fat, % water weight, % lean mass, and other variables. If you Google “height weight charts” you will see a few systems in place that still give breakdowns separately for men and women.

          A back of the envelope method is to calculate 100 lb for the first 5 feet and 5 lb for each additional inch for females and 6 lb per additional inch for males. Add or subtract 10% for large or small bones. So, a 5’9 inch female weighs 100 + 9×5 = 145 lb for medium frame, 145 + 14.5 = 159.5 lb for large frame and 145 – 14.5 = 130.5 lb for small frame. Of course, every person is an individual and we all have different genes and lifestyles. As previously stated, I weighed just 108-112 lb (at 5’9″) when I was a dancer (until age 27), so that is quite a bit less than the guideline. Now I am within the guidelines and I have a small frame.

          The most important thing is health and living a healthy lifestyle. If a person sincerely does that, they will weigh what they are intended to weigh for their height, as an individual.

          Liked by 1 person

      • So … when a bone is dug up, scientists can tell whether it belonged to a male or female simply by its weight, they do not need a pelvis to determine sex, right?

        I suggested that MILLENNIA of men getting more and better food than females might have something to do with the fact that human males are larger than human females. It is an idea.

        Please see The Obesity Myth, retitled The Diet Myth, for a history of height and weight charts for males and females.

        You are correct in that if people eat good food IF THEY CAN AFFORD IT — I commend Health At Every Size for their commitment to comprehending social disadvantage — and take care of themselves and do not have to experience the terrible stress enacted on many people, their weight will be what is right for their bodies. However, that is not our society. Our society is an eating-disordered culture, particularly for women.

        Liked by 2 people

        • A pelvis would be far more helpful in determining if a skeleton is male or female than size alone. Men’s bones weigh more on average, but an average is just that. Of course, there are petite males and amazon females, so something may not be true for a particular individual, but still remain true statistically. We can directly measure the weight of human bones in people we know to be male or female. Bones are not usually dug up for the purpose of classifying people by sex.

          Yes, I get the fact that you are talking about millennia of males being privileged by getting more food. However, who are males descended from? All males are descended from 1 male and 1 female. Who are females descended from? All females are descended from 1 male and 1 female. So, all people have genes from male and female ancestors. Given this fact, males can not be heavier simply because their dads got more food than their moms (if this is indeed the case), because it is also true that their sisters are descended from dads who got more food than their moms. So, both brother and sister have IDENTICAL ancestors. Yet, brothers tend to be stronger and taller than sisters— who have identical ancestors— even if brothers and sisters have identical food access.

          Many people in this world have poor access to quality foods. However, in developed countries, we tend to have decent programs for granting the poor access to good foods (WIC, subsidized school meals, and SNAP formerly known as “food stamps” in the USA, as well as food pantries.) Yes, there are so-called “food deserts”, areas without grocery stores nearby. That is certainly inconvenient, and quality produce is less abundant. However, most malnutrition in developed countries is due to making poor food choices. Many people simply prefer to eat fast foods, and junk foods, sodas, etc. The government can not stand over us and make us choose the salad and quinoa and sparkling water over the burger and fries and Coke. Most obesity in developed countries is also due to the normalization of overeating, making poor food choices, and not getting enough exercise. Obesity and malnutrition can coexist. People eat not just for nutrition, but also for comfort, entertainment, celebration, and stress relief, and a million other reasons having nothing to do with being hungry. Foods like candy are used as rewards for kids in our culture. We celebrate birthdays with cake, not carrots. People go on diets, but there is literally temptation on every corner. It is hard to stick to a diet long term and maintain weight loss, yet not impossible. To make matters worse, evolution has programmed our bodies to eat when food is abundant (which is always for most Westerners) and store it as fat. This was a useful feature in times of famine, but not so adaptive now. Most people are overweight in the USA. It takes a huge amount of discipline to eat right and prioritize exercise, especially when one works, goes to school, takes care of a family and home, or has other time consuming priorities.

          No one can disagree that our society is eating disordered, particularly for women.

          Liked by 1 person

  15. Even in the Intersex community, I have notice how Trans/genderqueer politics is feeding into the Intersex community and making the Intersex community very hostile and very toxic. Many times, the Trans/genderqueer have tied to hijack, co-opt, appropriate and even try to inject themselves into intersex issues. In many cases, I have seen Trans/genderqueer try to force the cisgender crap onto intersex people. Even to the point, where some Trans/genderqueer have tried to claim they were intersex without being medically tested and diagnosed by a doctor. It’s liken to claim they are HIV without being tested. That’s why many Intersex people like the Radfems and feminist are pissed at what Trans/genderqueer politics have done to the Intersex community and have tried to destroy it. Many Intersex people I know of are afraid to speak up for fear of the Trans/genderqueer activist hounding them and running them out. They know they are not happy with Trans/genderqueer politics ruining the Intersex community but are quietly saying it in private.

    Liked by 4 people

  16. Umm… in regards to the argument above (Liz’s co-workers weight in regards to drug dosage, etc.), are people forgetting that drugs are not tested specifically for female patients, and the dosages for females are just gestimates extrapolated from male-based research results? Which has led to controversy lately about the effectiveness of drugs when used by females, as well as potential safety issues of drugs dosages just being guessed at, instead of tested for properly.

    No one knows what the effects of drugs are on the female body, because the medical professionals routinely ignore women’s concerns and pass them off as ‘all in her head’, which means that female-specific side effects are not tested for in the laboratory, /and/ are ignored when they present themselves in real-life women. Trans women who are prescribed ‘female body-weight’ doses are a ton safer than actual females who are prescribed those dosages, because the ‘effect on male bodies’ is the safety standard which the drug’s must pass before going on the market.

    Liked by 3 people

    • Felie, you make many good points. Yes, drugs are tested primarily on male subjects. For that reason, the MtT is much safer than an actual women taking the same medication, as you point out. We now know that there are some drugs women react differently too, such as zolpidem (Ambien.) This drug is prescribed differently based on sex, with women getting half of the male dose, typically. There are other drugs where significant anecdotal evidence also suggests that it is optimal to give different doses to males and females. How different men and women really are with regard to pharmacology is not well known at this point. It seems likely that we are largely the same with regard to metabolizing some drugs, and yet significantly different for metabolizing others. But, more study must be done.

      Liked by 1 person

  17. Great post. Lots of things wrong with trans activism are described here, in your personal experience. Important to note, the straight mtf person in Liz’s story is the literal example of a homosexual man who has been bullied and therefore thought he had to be a woman to be gay and feminine. Good ol’ corrective therapy, uh? Because, from all we know, this is the story behind it. Confusing gender with sex, mixing them, then causing an induced gender dysphoria because of, obviously, gender expectations and sexual orientation, along with bullying. All of that collides into making him do that. It is clear, right? Also remarkable how Liz focuses on the woman using male pronouns instead of the bullies, who are actually the perpetrators of the violence and guilty of making his life miserable. Acknowledging biology, and sexed pronouns, is not transphobic, but they are so clinged into the fact that “misgendering is violence” that they fail to see actual violence. Well, all I’m saying, I guess you know it, so i just wanted to say thanks for the amazing post!

    Liked by 3 people

      • Well, you’re right. Still, the fact that remains is that there are infinite cases like the one I have mentioned (and with lesbians too, obviously), and it makes me very angry and sad, so I just wanted to remark that. Just a mere commenter, thank you for the article!

        Liked by 1 person

  18. Thank you for this post! I relate all too well. Oddly enough, as you may read on my own blog, I was in a one-on-one cultic relationship, and my cult leader… was a trans man. I feel validated by your calling transgenderism a “cult.” There are so many nuanced ways in which identity is degraded and defined by people who wield power, whether in patriarchy, or in cults. Thank you for acknowledging the connection.

    Liked by 3 people

  19. I am a man, and not a feminist. But I have to say I agree with the article fully and all of the comments. I think that transgenderism is a cult and a religion just like any other religion. It is based on delusions and emotions and irrational claims about the nature of reality and the body. It clearly trivialize what it means to be a woman and also a man. And I have also seen that they attempt to hijack the intersex community – which is a legitimate biological medical condition and not a delusion.

    I think ultimately we agree there is a difference between men and women which should be respected and acknowledged. TransgenDer is a delusion and a mental illness and that’s what actually scares me as a person with mental health issues and a history of such issues in my family. It is encouraging and proliferation of mental illness and delusion on a mass scale.

    Liked by 6 people

  20. Ok listen here. You’re completely wrong. Trans people realize their identity at different ages. “Transgenderism” and all the other stupid bullshit you’re saying is NOT A RELIGIOUS CULT. We are the experts on our body. Yeah there may be a few bad eggs and such but aren’t there cis people who are fucking terrible as well? It’s not only about us. Some people are wrong on certain things like the “Using the wrong pronouns is violent” thing but who cares? Like I said there are plenty of people overall who are very wrong on many things.


    • Hello Dmitri. I have been reading about transgenderism for years and I am quite confident that I’ve portrayed the situation correctly. I would suggest that if you have a disagreement you should make a reasonable argument. BTW starting a comment with “OK listen here” is a terrible start. Do better next time!

      Liked by 5 people

  21. -sigh- this makes me so sad. I lost my true love/best friend to this cult a little less than a year ago. I believe gender identity disorder and gender dysphoria are VERY real. (yes. they were two separate diagnosis before 2012, before the Trans cult ABOLISHED GID) No, I don’t believe in brain gender or any of that bullshit, but I do believe that it’s very real, too many cultures have had documentation and stories of bi-gender people for me to think that Transgender ism only popped up in the 19th century. As a side note, I do think that everyone who has dysphoria is actually bigender and should not medically transition to the “opposite” gender. It’s just my theory, but I’m not going explain it now.

    ANYWAY, what I don’t believe is the nonsense these gender trenders spew. I’ve come across soo, so , so many gender therapists that say things like “only Transgender people even question their gender or gender identity. it’s not something regular, cis people do” !!!!!! PEOPLE SHOULD BE SO SCARED. THIS IS A CULT. THAT IS NOT WHAT GENDER THERAPISTS SHOULD BE SAYING TO PATIENTS!

    But anyway, about my friend…. they are a mtf and doing everything as quick as possible. They just randomly had this realization last year, after countless wardrobe and hobby changes, I brings that up because they have NO sense of self and are always changing, which made them the perfect target for this Trans cult brainwashing. They tell me that they went through so many changes before “coming out” BECAUSE they were so uncomfortable in their gender. But that just seems like a lie that theyre even trying to convince themseleves of. They also have such weird expectations of what being female is like. The sexist shit they say fucking baffles me. Like… he thinks he can take hormones and dress up and that will make the girls “accept him” but doesn’t understand that he has to stop being a sexist piece of shit. And he’s so rude, a few women have INNOCENTLY and without judgement given advice on clubbing, make up, dating, etc and he shuts them ALL down, for what reason? idk??? HE just hates women telling him what to do, I guess haha

    lol had to rant. I hate this world. I hate that I cant avoid these gendertrenders.

    Liked by 1 person

  22. Pingback: En quittant le culte trans – RadFem Résistance

  23. When I first recognised the trans issue was going to become so divisive, and downright dangerous, I remember quite clearly laying my head on my arms and thinking, ‘do we (as lesbian feminists) really have to keep on fighting this battle every generation?’ (or so it seems)
    I kept my head down and hoped clarity would return, but alas, it wasn’t to be … so, probably about this time last year I lifted my head up and set about seeing what was what.
    Just these few of your old posts that I’ve read so far have given me such clarity. 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

  24. I blame the patriarchy that ultimately spawned this brand of passive-aggressive “radical” feminism. Hit the books and see where your Kurgan inspired, Euro-centric MO comes from. Woman or man, trans or cis – or whatever little mot du jour that’s used to describe gender variance – I stand for the liberation of all people. If a man is beaten and raped he may weep on my shoulder just like a raped sister. If a man decides he is a woman out of respect for this person I will cast aside what I know to be true (the person being biologically male) and with polite fiction refer to them as their preferred pronoun. Do what you all want, of course, but personally I will not make attempts to hide behind reality to cut down another person. Someone may be fat or stupid and I refuse to refer to them as “fatty” or “idiot” just because there is truth to it. Many of you seem to have been raised by barbarians… and indeed looking at the history, you really were.


  25. Pingback: Threatening Violence, Trans Activists Expel Un-PC Research At Medical Conference – Liberty REDUX

  26. Thank you so much for having the guts to say this! Why do men get to say what a woman is? Why do men get to go into women’s spaces without their permission? Why do women have to stop talking about their bodily experiences as women because it makes men upset? This is just the patriarchy all over again . . .

    You aren’t a TERF; you are an AEROW (Against the Erasure and Replacement of Women)! And I’d say this post was a bullseye!


  27. Pingback: Illinois Family Action » Threatening Violence, Trans Activists Expel Un-PC Research At Medical Conference

  28. OMG thank you so much for this! As an old feminist, I was never exactly a trans ally and never got involved in online squabbles on the subject, though I did feel enormous compassion for some of the transgendered people who went public with their stories on TV and elsewhere. I wasn’t fully aware of what the issues were until very recently when I started tuning into discussions on social media. I reached peak trans very quickly, thanks to the likes of Danielle Muscato and others and your article beautifully articulates what I have come to realise. Cheers, sister.


    • I think it was already translated into Portuguese, but I can no longer click on the link. I hate to see the same article translated twice, due to the waste of work, but yes you have my permission to translate if the other one is gone.

      Liked by 1 person

  29. I am a born female with female genitals. I am infertile and won’t menstruate. So I guess that I am not a real woman after all?

    Honestly, this is how history works. A marginalized group finally gets some power and then starts to discriminate against other marginalized group.

    So am I woman or not?


    • Hi Freedom. I’m not sure why you want my opinion on it, but if you were born female, then yes you are female. I’ve never come across anyone arguing that infertile women aren’t female. That would be a silly argument to make and you won’t hear that from me.
      Men aren’t a marginalized group—women are. That’s why feminism exists.
      Have a nice day!


  30. PurpleSage, thank you for this article. I came across it while desperately trying to gain some understanding of our child (15 y/o female but recently came out as trans male). She came out to us as lesbian several years ago. We are very open parents and have never ever judged her one way or the other regarding her sexual orientation. However we are struggling her trans identity make sense to us, particularly because she has bipolar disorder and possibly borderline personality. In addition, no fewer than four of her friends have also come out as trans recently. Given that she is a teenager AND has significant psychological issues, we are at a loss. It is so very confusing for us and we just want to support her for who she is and for her to be happy with herself.


  31. Beautifully written! I, too didn’t see the cult of trans implications for women – I was being supportive of another marginalized group of people. Now seeing where trans policy is taking us, and the hostile male psychology behind it, I indeed hit peak trans. Eyes open now, I am forever vigilant. Same Shit Different Day


  32. Just bc a couple of trans people had a bad take doesn’t mean that you should have decided we all hate you. I really appreciate the time and effort that you originally put in to trying to understand where we are coming from. Trans people have such varied view points and I find myself isolated from the entire most of the community bc of the differences between us. Being trans is just a deeply isolating experience.

    Being trans is hard. Every time I go on the internet I am reminded that a huge portion of the population thinks I need to be fixed or killed or that I should just fuck off and never make my problems visible. When cis people that I am friends with say shit that makes me scared that they are among that group of people I usually just try to talk to them about it. But sometimes it’s too scary, I understand why many trans people respond so intensely.

    I think the girl brain boy body or vice versa shit is stupid. I have no idea why I’m trans. But please understand that when cis people talk about it its predicated on the assumption that if we cant give them a good enough reason then we should die or have to go back to our gender assigned at birth. Last year I tried to be a girl again and it was one of the worst years of my life. I felt so unlike myself and I found it impossible to speak to people. I dont know why I’m trans but I know that I am not a woman. That is all that I have. We are not a united group.

    Have you ever been close to a trans woman? My girlfriend is very nice.


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