Not All Feminists Are TERF

I hate it when people paint with a broad brush, not all feminists are against trans-people, in the Advocate there was an op-ed by Gloria Steinem in the article about a year ago in which she says,

So now I want to be unequivocal in my words: I believe that transgender people, including those who have transitioned, are living out real, authentic lives. Those lives should be celebrated, not questioned. Their health care decisions should be theirs and theirs alone to make. And what I wrote decades ago does not reflect what we know today as we move away from only the binary boxes of “masculine” or “feminine” and begin to live along the full human continuum of identity and expression.

Obviously, there is much similarity among the challenges of transgender people and all women — from health care to harassment to discrimination in the workplace. And there is always the basic patriarchal bias against any sexual expression that can’t end in conception, which is why kids on campus are sometimes mystified by the fact that the same groups oppose both, say, contraception and lesbians. I also think we have a lot to learn from original cultures that often didn’t even have “he” and “she” in their languages, taught girls how to control their own fertility, and routinely accepted and had special roles for the “twin-spirited.” These facts may remind us that patriarchy, racism, and nationalism have been dominant for less than 5% of human history. Maybe they are an experiment that failed.

I work with many lesbians and feminist and I have never had a problem with any of them, don’t let a radical vocal few taint the whole movement. There are many caring and supportive feminist who realize that their battle is our battle, that we all just want to live our lives and achieve our greatest potential.