Transfeminism

{{Short description|Branch of feminism}} {{about-distinguish|the social movement|Transfeminine}} {{Globalize|article|USA|2name=the United States|date=February 2018}} thumb|upright=1.2|A symbol used to represent transfeminism {{Feminism sidebar |Variants (general)}} {{Transgender sidebar}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2017}}

'''Transfeminism''', or '''trans feminism''', is a branch of feminism focused on transgender women and informed by transgender studies.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/transbodiestrans0000unse/page/620 |title=Trans bodies, trans selves : a resource for the transgender community |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199325351 |editor1-last=Erickson-Schroth |editor1-first=Laura |location=[S.l.] |page=[https://archive.org/details/transbodiestrans0000unse/page/620 620]}}</ref> Transfeminism focuses on the effects of transmisogyny and patriarchy on trans women. It is related to the broader field of queer theory. The term was popularized by Emi Koyama with the ISNA in ''The Transfeminist Manifesto.''<ref>https://eminism.org/readings/pdf-rdg/tfmanifesto.pdf</ref>

Transfeminism describes the concepts of gender nonconformity, notions of masculinity and femininity and the maintaining of the gender binary on gender diverse individuals. Transfeminists view gender conformity as a control mechanism which is maintained via violence against transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals as a basis for patriarchy and transmisogyny.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/08861099231165788|title=Resistance as a Foundational Commons: Intersectionality, Transfeminism, and the Future of Critical Feminisms|first1=Suzanne C.|last1=Draper|first2=Reshawna|last2=Chapple|date=April 25, 2023|journal=Affilia|volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=585–596|via=CrossRef|doi=10.1177/08861099231165788|s2cid=258340922 |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2zKtDwAAQBAJ&dq=Transfeminism+and+patriarchy&pg=PT287|title=The Lost Sheep in Philosophy of Religion: New Perspectives on Disability, Gender, Race, and Animals|first1=Blake|last1=Hereth|first2=Kevin|last2=Timpe|date=September 4, 2019|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-429-66355-0 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

Transfeminist tactics emerged from groups such as The Transexual Menace in the 1990s,<ref name="Enke-2018">{{cite journal| last1 = Enke| first1 = Finn| date = February 1, 2018 | title = Collective Memory and the Transfeminist 1970s: Toward a Less Plausible History | url = https://read.dukeupress.edu/tsq/article-abstract/5/1/9/133890| journal = Transgender Studies Quarterly| volume = 5| issue = 1| pages = 9–29| doi = 10.1215/23289252-4291502| access-date = | url-access = subscription}}</ref> in response to the exclusion of transgender people in pride marches. The group organized in direct action, focusing on violence against transgender people, such as the murder and rape of Brandon Teena, a trans man. The Transsexual Menace organized protests and sit ins against the medical and mental medicalization of gender diversity.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C4w9DAAAQBAJ&dq=The+Transexual+Menace+Hermaphrodites+with+attitude&pg=PA389|title=Women in Culture: An Intersectional Anthology for Gender and Women's Studies|first1=Bonnie Kime|last1=Scott|first2=Susan E.|last2=Cayleff|first3=Anne|last3=Donadey|first4=Irene|last4=Lara|date=May 24, 2016|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-119-12071-1 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

Transgender people were excluded from first-wave feminism, as were lesbians and all other people considered "queer." Second-wave feminism saw a greater level of queer acceptance amongst some feminists, however "transsexuality" was heavily excluded, and described as an "illness,"<ref>{{cite journal| last1 = Raha | first1 = Nat | date = 2017| title = Transfeminine Brokenness, Radical Transfeminism | url = https://read.dukeupress.edu/south-atlantic-quarterly/article-abstract/116/3/632/129746 | journal = South Atlantic Quarterly | volume = 116 | issue = 3 | pages = 632–646 | doi = 10.1215/00382876-3961754 | access-date = | doi-access = free }}</ref> even amongst feminists who supported gay liberation. Third and fourth-wave feminism have generally been accepting of transgender people, and see trans liberation as an overall part of women's liberation.<ref name="Enke-2018"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://academinist.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/MP0304_06Genderfork.pdf|title=Inadvertent Praxis: What Can "Genderfork" Tell Us about Trans Feminism?|author=Ruth Pearce|date=2012|issn=1939-330X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://guilfordjournals.com/doi/10.1521/siso.69.1.56.56799|title=The Decentering of Second Wave Feminism and the Rise of the Third Wave|first1=Susan Archer|last1=Mann|first2=Douglas J.|last2=Huffman|date=January 22, 2005|journal=Science & Society|volume=69|issue=1|pages=56–91|via=CrossRef|doi=10.1521/siso.69.1.56.56799|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

In 2006, the first book on transfeminism, ''Trans/Forming Feminisms: Transfeminist Voices Speak Out'' edited by Krista Scott-Dixon, was published by Sumach Press. Transfeminism has also been defined more generally as "an approach to feminism that is informed by trans politics."<ref name="scott-dixon">{{cite book |editor1-last=Scott-Dixon |editor1-first=Krista |title=Trans/forming feminisms : trans/feminist voices speak out |date=2006 |publisher=Sumach Press |location=Toronto |isbn=9781894549615|url=http://www.sumachpress.com/transfem.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326080040/http://www.sumachpress.com/transfem.htm |archive-date=March 26, 2009}}</ref>

==History== Early voices in the movement include Kate Bornstein, author of 1994 ''Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us'',<ref name="bornstein"> Bornstein, Kate (1994). "Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us." {{ISBN|0-679-75701-5}}</ref> and Sandy Stone, author of the 1987 essay "The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto", which included a direct response to Janice Raymond's writings on transsexuality.<ref name="stone"> Stone, Sandy (1991). [http://www.actlab.utexas.edu/~sandy/empire-strikes-back The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928164847/http://www.actlab.utexas.edu/~sandy/empire-strikes-back |date=September 28, 2011 }}. In ''Body Guards: The Cultural Politics of Gender Ambiguity''.</ref> At the beginning of the 21st century, Emi Koyama published the ''Transfeminist Manifesto'' and later a website.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bettcher |first=Talia Mae |date=November 2017 |title=Trans Feminism: Recent Philosophical Developments |url=https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/phc3.12438 |journal=Philosophy Compass |language=en |volume=12 |issue=11 |article-number=e12438 |doi=10.1111/phc3.12438 |issn=1747-9991 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124013353/https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/phc3.12438 |archive-date=January 24, 2023 |url-access=subscription |access-date=April 1, 2025 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> Krista Scott-Dixon<ref name="scott-dixon"/> and Julia Serano<ref name =serano>{{Cite book| last=Serano |first=Julia |year=2007 |title=Whipping Girl, A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity|publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=978-1580051545}}</ref><ref name = excluded>{{Cite book| last = Serano| first = Julia| year = 2013| title = Excluded: Making Queer and Feminist Movements More Inclusive| publisher = Basic Books|isbn=978-1580055048}}</ref> have published transfeminist works, and in 2016, Susan Stryker and Talia Mae Bettcher produced a special issue of Transgender Studies Quarterly dedicated to transfeminism.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Stryker|first1=Susan|last2=Bettcher|first2=Talia M.|date=May 2016|title=Introduction|url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/tsq/article/3/1-2/5/91824/IntroductionTrans-Feminisms|journal=TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly|volume=3|issue=1–2|pages=5–14|doi=10.1215/23289252-3334127|issn=2328-9252|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Patrick Califia used the term transfeminism in print in 1997, and this remains the first known use in print outside of a periodical.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Sex Changes: The Politics of Transgenderism|last=Califia|first=Patrick|publisher=Cleis Pr; First Printing Highlighting edition|date=July 1997|isbn=978-1573440721}}</ref> It is possible or even likely that the term was independently coined repeatedly before the year 2000 (or even before Courvant's first claimed use in 1992). The term gained traction only after 1999. Jessica Xavier, an acquaintance of Courvant, may have independently coined the term when she used it to introduce her articles, "Passing As Stigma Management" and "Passing as Privilege" in late 1999.<ref name="Xavier 1999 PASM">{{citation|last=Xavier|first=Jessica|title=Passing as Stigma Management|url=http://www.annelawrence.com/twr/stigma.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705184716/http://www.annelawrence.com/twr/stigma.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2008-07-05}}</ref><ref name="Xavier 1999 PAP">{{citation|last=Xavier|first=Jessica|title=Passing as Privilege|url=http://www.annelawrence.com/twr/passing.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705184939/http://www.annelawrence.com/twr/passing.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2008-07-05}}</ref>

In the past few decades, the idea that all women share a common experience has come under scrutiny by women of color, lesbians, and working class women, among others. Transfeminists insist that their unique experiences be recognized as part of the feminist sphere.<ref name="Gluckman 2002"> {{cite web|url=https://clpp.hampshire.edu/sites/clpp.hampshire.edu/files/uploads/u9/ReproFreedom_Fall02second.pdf|title=Trans-itioning feminism: the politics of transgender in the reproductive rights movement|last1=Gluckman|first1=R.|last2=Trudeau|first2=M.|year=2002|agency=Hampshire College|location=Amherst, MA|pages=6–8|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171218183743/https://clpp.hampshire.edu/sites/clpp.hampshire.edu/files/uploads/u9/ReproFreedom_Fall02second.pdf|archive-date= December 18, 2017}}</ref> More recently, transgender people have been questioning what gender means, and challenging it as a concept.

Transfeminism incorporates all the major themes of third-wave feminism, including diversity, body image, self-definition, and women's agency. It also includes critical analysis of second-wave feminism from the perspective of the third wave.<ref name="Hill 2001">{{citation|last=Hill|first=R. J.|title=Menacing Feminism, Educating Sisters|year=2001|url=http://www.edst.educ.ubc.ca/aerc/2000/hillr1-final.PDF |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080308230747/http://www.edst.educ.ubc.ca/aerc/2000/hillr1-final.PDF |archive-date =March 8, 2008}}</ref> It critiques mainstream notions of masculinity, argues that women deserve equal rights, and shares the unifying principle with other feminisms that gender is a patriarchal social construct used to oppress women.

The "trans" in transgender has been used to imply transgressiveness.<ref> See the subtitle of the trans community periodical "Chrysalis," which is "The Journal of Transgressive Gender Identities," transfeminism should not be seen as an anti-feminist movement</ref> Nicholas Birns categorizes transfeminism as "a feminism that defines the term 'trans-' in a maximally heterogeneous way."<ref>Birns, Nicholas, [https://books.google.com/books?id=YY0BpjV4vDYC&q=transfeminism+&pg=PA161 "The Earth's Revenge: Nature, Transfeminism and Diaspora in Larissa Lai's ''Salt Fish Girl''"], in Lee, A. Robert (ed.), ''China Fictions, English Language: Literary Essays in Diaspora, Memory, Story'', Rodopi, 2008, p. 161.</ref>

The road to legitimacy for transfeminism as a concept has been different and more challenging than for other feminisms. Marginalized women from gender-diverse backgrounds have had to prove that their needs are uniquely different and not included in mainstream feminism.<ref name="Johnson Reagon 1981">{{citation|last=Johnson Reagon|first=B.|title=Coalition Politics: Turning the Century|year=1981|url=http://shewhostumbles.wordpress.com/2008/01/12/bernice-johnson-reagon-coalition-politics-turning-the-century/}}</ref> Contrarily, trans women must show their womanhood is equally as valid as other women, and that feminism can speak for them without ceasing to be feminism. Radical feminist Janice Raymond clearly represents this obstacle through her resistance to considering trans women as women that should be included in feminism. Her career began with ''The Transsexual Empire,'' a book-length analysis of transsexual women, which has themes she often returns to.<ref name="Raymond 1994">{{citation|last=Raymond|first=J.|year=1994|title=The Transsexual Empire|publisher=Teachers College Press|edition=2nd}}; The second edition includes a new forward that describes her transgender-related work after the publication of her thesis project as the first edition in the late 70s.</ref>

In 2006, the first book on transfeminism, ''Trans/Forming Feminisms: Transfeminist Voices Speak Out'' edited by Krista Scott-Dixon, was published by Sumach Press.<ref name="scott-dixon" />

At the 2007 Transgender Leadership Summit, Alexis Marie Rivera, spoke about her personal experiences with transfeminism as a young Latina trans woman. She discussed her journey from early transition, where she believed she had to take on the role of housewife, to where she was in the present moment. She asserted that, for her, transfeminism is about taking on feminine gender roles because she wants to, not because she has to.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQX33Pvlxsc|title=Transgender Leadership Summit, Sunday, March 25, 2007|date=August 9, 2011 |via=www.youtube.com}}</ref>{{third-party inline|date=May 2023}}

==Compared to other feminisms==

===Common foundations=== Simone de Beauvoir explained the concept of how biology does not equal destiny.<ref name="Second Sex"> {{Cite journal |last=Butler |first=Judith |date=1986 |title=Sex and Gender in Simone de Beauvoir's Second Sex |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2930225 |journal=Yale French Studies |issue=72 |pages=35–49 |doi=10.2307/2930225 |issn=0044-0078|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Feminists have traditionally explored the boundaries of what it means to be a woman.<ref>{{cite book|last=Brewer|first=Mary|date=September 2002|title=Exclusions in Feminist Thought: Challenging the Boundaries of Womanhood|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tfMpAAAAYAAJ&q=Womanhood|location=Sussex, England|publisher=Sussex Academic Press|page=71|isbn=978-1-902210-63-6|access-date=January 19, 2015}}</ref> Transfeminists argue that trans people and cisgender feminists confront society's conventional views of sex and gender in similar ways. Transgender liberation theory offers a new vantage point from which feminism can view gender as a social construct, under a new definition of gender.<ref name="Gluckman 2002"/>

Transfeminist critics of mainstream feminism say that as an institutionalized movement, feminism has lost sight of the basic idea that biology is not destiny. In fact, they argue that many feminists seem perfectly comfortable equating sex and gender, while insisting on a given destiny for trans people based on nothing more than biology.<ref name="Courvant 2002"> Courvant, Diana "Thinking of Privilege" In{{harvnb|Anzaldua|Keating|2002|pp=458–463}}</ref><ref> {{cite web |url=http://www.pfc.org.uk/node/942 |title=Transgender debate: against exclusion |last1=Murphy |first1=Emma |last2=Lantz |first2=Sarah |date=October 28, 1998 |website=Press for Change |access-date=July 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511002854/http://www.pfc.org.uk/node/942 |archive-date=May 11, 2008}}</ref> Transfeminism aims to resist and challenge this rigid perspective on gender because traditional approaches to women's studies depend upon these concepts.<ref>Salamon, Gayle (2008). "Women's Studies on the Edge", p. 117. Duke University Press, Durham. {{ISBN|978-0-8223-4274-8}} {{JSTOR|j.ctv11sn3bm}}.</ref>

Transgender people are frequently targets of violence.<ref> {{cite web |url=http://www.gender.org/remember/index.html |title=Homepage |website=Gender.com |access-date=July 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509162522/http://www.gender.org/remember/index.html |archive-date=May 9, 2008}}</ref><ref> {{cite web|url=http://www.tgcrossroads.org/news/archive.asp?aid%3D410 |title=Transgender Death Statistics 1970 to 8/15/02 |url-status=dead |access-date=March 2, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081011050235/http://www.tgcrossroads.org/news/archive.asp?aid=410 |archive-date=October 11, 2008}}</ref> While cis women also routinely face violence, transfeminists recognize anti-trans violence as a form of gender policing.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gagné|first1=Patricia|last2=Tewksbury|first2=Richard|date=February 1998|jstor=3097144|title=Conformity Pressures and Gender Resistance among Transgendered Individuals|journal=Social Problems|volume=45|issue=1|pages=81–101|location=Los Angeles, California|publisher=University of California Press|doi=10.1525/sp.1998.45.1.03x0158b}}</ref>

===Differences=== Transfeminism stands in stark contrast to mainstream second-wave feminism. Participants of this movement often criticize the ideas of a universal sisterhood, instead aligning more with intersectionality and the mainstream third wave's appreciation for the diversity of womanhood.<ref name="Ms.">{{cite web|url=http://msmagazine.com/blog/2012/04/18/trans-feminism-theres-no-conundrum-about-it/|title=Trans Feminism: There's No Conundrum About It|work=Ms.|last=Serano|first=Julia |authorlink=Julia Serano |date=April 18, 2012|access-date=January 20, 2015}}</ref>

Femininity in transgender women is noticed and punished much more harshly than the same behaviors in cisgender women.{{Citation needed|date=April 2026}} This double standard reveals that, to many critics, the behavior itself is not as problematic as the mere existence of trans people is.<ref name="Courvant 2002"/><ref>{{Cite news|last=Valerio |first=Max Wolf |year=2002 |title=Now That You're a White Man}} In {{harvnb|Anzaldua|Keating|2002|pp=239–254}}</ref> This is one example transmisogyny, a term coined by Julia Serano in her book ''Whipping Girl.''

====Access to feminist spaces==== Though rarely acknowledged, trans people have unintentionally been part of feminist movements in unconventional ways throughout history.<ref>Deke Law, "Evolution" in This is What Lesbian Looks Like, Kris Kleindienst, Firebrand Books, 1999. {{ISBN|978-1563411168}}</ref> There have been a number of documented occasions when the trans people portrayed as bad actors were in fact the victims of overreactions by others.<ref>See Courvant at {{cite web |url=http://www.survivorproject.org/whyserve.html |title=Why Serve Trans or Intersex Survivors |last=Courvant |first=Diana |access-date=July 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511164215/http://www.survivorproject.org/whyserve.html |archive-date=May 11, 2008}}</ref><ref name="mich-handbook">See Koyama at http://www.confluere.com/store/pdf-zn/mich-handbook.pdf {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081002092021/http://www.confluere.com/store/pdf-zn/mich-handbook.pdf |date=October 2, 2008}}</ref>

====Lesbian feminism and transfeminism====

In ''Living a Feminist Life'' (2017), Sara Ahmed imagines lesbian feminism as a fundamental and necessary alliance with trans feminism. Ahmed argues an anti-trans stance is an anti-feminist stance and one that works against the feminist project of creating worlds to support those for whom gender fatalism (i.e. boys will be boys, girls will be girls) is deleterious.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ahmed|first1=Sara|title=Living a Feminist Life|date=2017|edition=1st|publisher=Duke University Press Books|location=North Carolina, U.S.|isbn=978-0822363194}}</ref>

====Radical feminism and transfeminism====

Some radical feminists have expressed anti-trans viewpoints. For example, in ''Gender Hurts'' (2014), Sheila Jeffreys argued that trans feminism amounted to men exercising their authority in defining what women are.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Jeffreys|first1=Sheila|title=Gender Hurts: A Feminist Analysis of the Politics of Transgenderism|date=2014|edition=1st|publisher=Routledge|location=Abingdon-on-Thames, UK|isbn=978-0415539401}}</ref>

Some radical feminists are supportive of trans rights. The radical feminist writer and activist Andrea Dworkin, in her book ''Woman Hating'', argued against the persecution and hatred of transgender people and demanded that sex reassignment surgery be provided freely to transgender people by the community. Dworkin argued that "every transsexual has the right to survival on his/her own terms. That means every transsexual is entitled to a sex-change operation, and it should be provided by the community as one of its functions."<ref>{{cite book|title= Woman Hating|last= Dworkin|first= Andrea|year= 1974|publisher= E. P. Dutton|location= New York City|isbn= 0-525-47423-4|page= [https://archive.org/details/womanhating00dwor/page/186 186]|url= https://archive.org/details/womanhating00dwor/page/186}}</ref>

===== Allegations of transphobia in radical feminism ===== {{Further|Trans-exclusionary radical feminism}}

Radical feminist Janice Raymond's 1979 book, ''The Transsexual Empire'', was and still is controversial due to its unequivocal condemnation of transgender surgeries. {{citation needed|date=July 2022}} Raymond says, "All transsexuals rape women's bodies by reducing the real female form to an artifact, appropriating this body for themselves .... Transsexuals merely cut off the most obvious means of invading women, so that they seem non-invasive."<ref name="Raymond 1994 2">{{citation|last=Raymond|first=J.|year=1994|title=The Transsexual Empire|publisher=Teachers College Press|edition=2nd|page=104}}</ref>

In the early 1990s Michigan Womyn's Music Festival ejected a transgender woman, Nancy Burkholder,<ref name="vangelder">Van Gelder, Lindsy; and Pamela Robin Brandt. "The Girls Next Door: Into the Heart of Lesbian America", p. 73. Simon and Schuster, {{ISBN|978-0-684-83957-8}}</ref> After that, the festival maintained that it is intended for "womyn-born-womyn" only.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://michfest.com/festival_community_statements.htm|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140906022843/http://michfest.com/festival_community_statements.htm|archive-date = September 6, 2014|title = Michigan Womyn's Music Festival:Performances}}</ref> The activist group Camp Trans formed to protest the transphobic "womyn-born-womyn" policy and to advocate for greater acceptance of trans people within the feminist community. A number of prominent trans activists and transfeminists were involved in Camp Trans including Riki Wilchins, Jessica Xavier, and Leslie Feinberg.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.advocate.com/commentary/riki-wilchins/2013/08/14/op-ed-where-dont-ask-dont-tell-alive-and-well|title=Op-ed: Where 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' is Alive and Well|work=The Advocate|last=Wilchins|first=Riki|date=August 14, 2013|access-date=January 20, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://dallasdenny.com/Writing/2013/10/13/congratulations-camp-trans-1993/|title=Congratulations, Camp Trans (1993)|work=Dallasdenny.com |last=Denny|first=Dallas|date=October 13, 2013|access-date=January 20, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://mbpratt.org/mylove.html|title=Leslie Feinberg|work=Mbpratt.com|last=Pratt|first=Minnie Bruce|access-date=January 20, 2015|archive-date=February 21, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150221055220/http://mbpratt.org/mylove.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> The festival considered allowing post-operative trans women to attend; however, this was criticized as classist, as many trans women cannot afford genital surgery.<ref>{{cite book| last1 = Sreedhar| first1 = Susanne| last2=Hand | first2=Michael| editor-last = Scott-Dixon| editor-first = Krista| title = Trans/Forming Feminisms: Trans/Feminist Voices Speak Out| year = 2006| publisher = Sumach Press| location = Toronto| isbn = 1-894-54961-9| oclc = 70839321| pages = 164–65| chapter = The Ethics of Exclusion: Gender and Politics at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival}}</ref> Since this incident, the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival has updated their community statements page. This page now includes a list of links to letters and statements such as their August 2014 response to Equality Michigan's Call For Boycott and a list of demands in response to the Equality Michigan call to boycott.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://michfest.com/community-statements/|title=Community Statements {{!}} Michfest|website=michfest.com|access-date=2018-10-09}}</ref> The initial response to the boycott states that the MWMF believes that "support for womyn-born-female space is not at odds with standing with and for the transgender community".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://michfest.com/statement-from-michigan-womyns-music-festival-8_1_4/|title=Michfest Response to Equality Michigan's Call For Boycott – August 1, 2014 {{!}} Michfest|website=michfest.com|access-date=2018-10-09}}</ref>

Kimberly Nixon is a trans woman who volunteered for training as a rape crisis counselor at Vancouver Rape Relief in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1995. When Nixon's transgender status was determined, she was expelled. The staff decided that Nixon's status made it impossible for her to understand the experiences of their clients, and also required their clients to be genetically female. Nixon disagreed, disclosing her own history of partner abuse and sued for discrimination. Nixon's attorneys argued that there was no basis for the dismissal, citing Diana Courvant's experiences as the first publicly transgender woman to work in a women-only domestic violence shelter. In 2007, the Canadian Supreme Court refused to hear Nixon's appeal, ending the case.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.egale.ca/index.asp?lang=E&menu=34&item=1147 |title=Background on Nixon v Vancouver Rape Relief |date=April 4, 2005 |website=Egale Canada |access-date=July 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207160530/http://www.egale.ca/index.asp?lang=E&menu=34&item=1147 |archive-date=February 7, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rapereliefshelter.bc.ca/issues/nixon/jan082001_lakeman.pdf |title=Excerpt from Proceedings |date=January 8, 2001 |access-date=July 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081002100647/http://www.rapereliefshelter.bc.ca/issues/nixon/jan082001_lakeman.pdf |archive-date=October 2, 2008}}</ref><ref name="perelle"> Perelle, Robin (February 14, 2007). Rape Relief wins: Supreme Court refuses to hear trans woman's appeal.'' Xtra''</ref>

Transgender women such as Sandy Stone challenged the mainstream second-wave feminist concept of "biological woman". Stone worked as a sound engineer for Olivia Records from around 1974 to 1978.<ref name="sayer">{{cite web|last=Sayer|first=Susan|title=From Lesbian Nation to Queer Nation |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6655/is_n2_v21/ai_n28666686/|publisher=Hecate|date=October 1, 1995 |access-date=April 7, 2012}}</ref> In June and July 1977, twenty two feminists protested Stone's participation, Olivia Records defended her employment by saying that Stone was a "woman we can related to with comfort and trust" and that she was "perhaps even the Goddess-sent engineering wizard we had so long sought."<ref>{{cite book |last=Stryker |first=Susan |author-link=Susan Stryker |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HBRR1isU-VAC&q=%22Olivia+Records%22+letter+%22Sandy+Stone%22&pg=PA142 |title=The Transgender Studies Reader |publisher=Routledge |year=2006 |isbn=0-415-94708-1 |location=United Kingdom |page=142 |access-date=October 3, 2012}}</ref> The debate continued in Raymond's book,<ref name="Raymond 1994"/> which devoted a chapter to criticism of "the transsexually constructed lesbian-feminist." Stone ultimately chose to resign because of the controversy<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |date=19 December 2018|title=Sandy Stone on Living Among Lesbian Separatists as a Trans Woman in the 70s|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/sandy-stone-biography-transgender-history/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181220124528/https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/zmd5k5/sandy-stone-biography-transgender-history|archive-date=20 December 2018|access-date=20 December 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Gilbert|first=Andrew|date=2023-03-14|title=Olivia Records Musicians Keep a Lesbian Feminist Legacy Alive {{!}} KQED|url=https://www.kqed.org/arts/13926121/barbara-higbie-teresa-trull-olivia-records|access-date=2025-07-08|website=www.kqed.org|language=en}}</ref> in addition to death threats from a lesbian separatist group who showed up armed to a Seattle concert.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Male|first=Andrew|date=2020-07-19|title='Our sound engineer got a death threat': how lesbian label Olivia shook up music|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jul/19/lesbian-record-label-olivia-linda-tillery-californian-feminists-death-threat-music|access-date=2025-07-08|work=The Guardian|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Baggs|first=Michael|date=2023-04-24|title=How a feminist, lesbian collective defended trans rights in 1970s LA|url=https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/04/24/sandy-stone-olivia-records-trans-rights-los-angeles/|access-date=2025-07-08|website=PinkNews {{!}} Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news {{!}} LGBTQ+ news|language=en-US}}</ref>

Groups like Lesbian Organization of Toronto (L.O.O.T) instituted "womyn-born womyn only" policies. A formal request to join the organization was made by a male-to-female transgender lesbian in 1978. In response, they passed a vote to exclude trans women. During informal discussion, members of L.O.O.T expressed their outrage that in their view, a "sex-change he-creature...dared to identify himself as a woman and a lesbian." In their public response, L.O.O.T. wrote:

<blockquote>A woman's voice was almost never heard as a woman's voice—it was always filtered through men's voices. So here a guy comes along saying, "I'm going to be a girl now and speak for girls." And we thought, "No you're not." A person cannot just joined the oppressed by fiat.<ref name="ross1995">Ross, Becki (1995). ''The House that Jill Built: A Lesbian Nation in Formation.'' University of Toronto Press, {{ISBN|978-0-8020-7479-9}}</ref></blockquote>

===== Radical transfeminism ===== Some transgender women have been participants in lesbian feminism and radical feminism. Talia Bhatt's 2025 ''Trans/Rad/Fem'' engages with second-wave literature and lesbian feminist arguments to articulate how gender is a system of labor extraction. She also critiques the individualist tendencies of liberal feminism which fail to challenge structural violence.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zhu |first=Yanyan |title=Talia Bhatt. Trans/Rad/Fem: Essays on Transfeminism. 2025 |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/00497878.2025.2565492 |journal=Women's Studies |date=2025 |volume=0 |pages=1–4 |doi=10.1080/00497878.2025.2565492 |issn=0049-7878|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Issues faced by transfeminism==

===Inclusion in mainstream feminism=== According to Graham Mayeda, women who identify as right-wing feel that issues of equality and female importance becomes less significant when the biology of trans women is mentioned.<ref name="Mayeda-2005">{{cite journal | last1 = Mayeda | first1 = G | year = 2005 | title = Re-imagining Feminist Theory: Transgender Identity, Feminism, and the Law | journal = Canadian Journal of Women & the Law | volume = 17 | issue = 2| pages = 423–472|ssrn=1427319 }}</ref> He noted that these feminists feel that the biological nature of trans women confuse women-only boundaries and could contradict or disrupt feminist goals of establishing a voice in a patriarchal world.<ref name="Mayeda-2005" />

Groups such as the Lesbian Avengers accept trans women, while other organizations reject them. The Violence Against Women Act now "explicitly protects transgender, lesbian, gay, and bisexual survivors", such that domestic violence centers, rape crisis centers, support groups, and other VAWA-funded services cannot turn away any person due to their sex, gender identity or expression, or sexual orientation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://forge-forward.org/wp-content/docs/know-your-rights-VAWA-fact-sheet.pdf|title=Know Your Rights! Trans Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence|date=2005|website=Forge Forward|access-date=2018-10-08|archive-date=March 29, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329222121/http://forge-forward.org/wp-content/docs/know-your-rights-VAWA-fact-sheet.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Classification of gender dysphoria=== Gender dysphoria describes the condition of people who experience significant dysphoria with the sex assignment that they were given at birth,<ref>{{Cite web |title=What is Gender Dysphoria? |url=https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/gender-dysphoria/what-is-gender-dysphoria |access-date=2026-04-23 |website=www.psychiatry.org |language=en}}</ref> or the gender roles associated with that sex{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}. The term "gender identity disorder" (GID) is also frequently used, especially in the formal diagnosis used amongst psychologists and physicians.<ref name="etiology">{{cite journal|last1=Heylens|first1=G|last2=De Cuypere |first2=G |last3=Zucker|first3=K|author3-link=Kenneth Zucker|last4=Schelfaut|first4=C|last5=Elaut|first5=E|last6=Vanden Bossche|first6=H|last7=De Baere|first7=E |last8=T'Sjoen|first8=G|title= Gender Identity Disorder in Twins: A Review of the Case Report Literature|journal=The Journal of Sexual Medicine|year=2012 |volume=8|pages=751–757|doi=10.1111/j.1743-6109.2011.02567.x|issue=3 |pmid=22146048}}</ref> Gender Identity Disorder was officially classified as a medical disorder by the ICD-10 CM in 2016 <ref>{{cite web|title=Gender identity disorder in adolescence and adulthood|publisher=ICD10Data.com|url=http://www.icd10data.com/ICD10CM/Codes/F01-F99/F60-F69/F64-/F64.1|access-date=July 3, 2011}}</ref> and the DSM-4-TR in 2000.{{Citation needed|date=April 2026}} As the language around these terms has evolved, the DSM-5 now uses a less pathologizing term ''gender dysphoria'', while the ICD-11 uses the term ''gender incongruence''. Many transgender individuals, transfeminists, and medical researchers advocate against the use of the term GID because they say it misrepresents gender variance, reinforces the binary model of gender,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Newman|first=L|title=Sex, Gender and Culture: Issues in the Definition, Assessment and Treatment of Gender Identity Disorder|journal=Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry|date=July 1, 2002|volume=7|pages=352–359|doi=10.1177/1359104502007003004|issue=3|s2cid=145666729}}</ref> and can result in stigmatization of transgender individuals.<ref name="recommendations">citation needed</ref> Many transfeminists and traditional feminists also propose that this diagnosis be discarded because of its potentially abusive use by people with power,<ref>{{harvp|Crabtree|2002}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=March 2023|reason=This appears to be a student news letter}} and may argue that gender variation is the right of all persons.<ref name="Hill 2001"/> When arguing for the previous diagnostic category, pro-GID transfeminists typically concede past misuse of the diagnosis while arguing for greater professional accountability.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dentedbluemercedes.wordpress.com/2008/04/05/destigmatization-versus-coverage-and-access-the-medical-model-of-transsexuality/|title=Destigmatization Versus Coverage and Access: The Medical Model of Transsexuality|date=April 5, 2008|website=wordpress.com}}</ref>

In many situations or legal jurisdictions, transgender people have insurance coverage for surgery only as a consequence of the diagnosis. Removal would therefore increase patient costs. In other situations, anti-discrimination laws which protect legally disabled people apply to transgender people only so long as a manifest diagnosis exists. In other cases, transgender people are protected by sex discrimination rules or as a separate category.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.transgenderlaw.org/cases/statecases.htm|title=Transgender Law and Policy Institute: State Cases|date=August 26, 2002|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080916174427/http://www.transgenderlaw.org/cases/statecases.htm|archive-date=September 16, 2008|df=mdy-all}}</ref> This economic issue can split advocates along class lines.<ref name="mich-handbook"/>

At the 2006 Trans Identity Conference at the University of Vermont, Courvant presented an analysis of this controversy. She noted that "eliminationists" must decide whether their efforts to destigmatize trans people conflict with efforts to destigmatize mental illness, and whether removing the GID category would actually help with the former, while disrupting the current, albeit limited, insurance regime. Conversely, "preservationists" must address the problem of faulty diagnoses and improper treatment.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Scholinski |first1=Daphne |title=The Last Time I Wore A Dress |date=October 1998 |publisher=Riverhead Books |isbn=9781573226967}}</ref> She proposed retaining the category and focusing efforts on legitimating mental illness and improving acceptance of trans people, leaving aside the diagnosis question.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

=== Gender and social constructionism ===

Citing their common experience, many transfeminists{{Like whom?|date=December 2023}} directly challenge the idea that femininity is an entirely social construction. Instead, they view gender as a multifaceted set of diverse intrinsic and social qualities. For example, there are both trans and cis people who express themselves in ways that differ from society's expectations of feminine and masculine.<ref name="Ms." />

Talia Mae Bettcher states in her 2014 essay ''Trapped in the Wrong Theory'' that "while the actual appeal to native gender must be rejected from a transfeminist perspective, the socially constituted denial of realness must be taken with dead seriousness."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bettcher |first1=Talia Mae |title=Trapped in the Wrong Theory: Rethinking Trans Oppression and Resistance |journal=Signs |date=2014 |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=383–406 |doi=10.1086/673088 |jstor=10.1086/673088 |s2cid=146756702 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/673088 |issn=0097-9740}}</ref>

Some decolonial trans feminists identify the gender binary as an aspect of Western epistemology and tool of colonial power. Integrating knowledge and experiences from muxe, hijra, faʻafafine, two-spirit, and other indigenous third gender systems into trans feminist thought counters both individualist and universalizing conceptualization of gender.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Salas-SantaCruz |first=Omi |date=2025-01-11 |title=Decolonial Trans* Feminism |url=https://kohljournal.press/decolonial-trans-feminism |access-date=2025-04-01 |website=kohljournal.press |language=en}}</ref> However, other transfeminist writers critique this view as a form of orientalism, pointing out that these non-western third gender systems have their own patriarchal and oppressive characteristics that western observers tend to ignore.<ref>{{cite web |last=Bhatt |first=Talia |date=2024-09-01 |title=The Third Sex |url=https://taliabhattwrites.substack.com/p/the-third-sex |access-date=2025-10-21 |website=taliabhattwrites.substack.com |language=en}}</ref>

=== Intersectional transphobia and misogyny === In Julia Serano's 2007 essay ''Trans-misogyny primer,'' she explains how trans women face the compounded effects of both transphobia and misogyny. <ref>{{Cite web |last=Serano|first=Julia|date=2007|title=Trans-misogyny primer|url=https://www.juliaserano.com/av/TransmisogynyPrimer-Serano.pdf|access-date=July 3, 2021}}</ref> Further research shows a stark disparity in how gender non-conformity is policed and perceived between the sexes. Femininity in people assigned male at birth is punished more harshly than masculinity in those assigned female at birth.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sanborn-Overby |first=Ursula A. |last2=Powlishta |first2=Kimberly K. |date=October 2020 |title=Differential Reactions to Male and Female Gender-Role Violations: Testing the Sexual Orientation Hypothesis |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32869157 |journal=Archives of Sexual Behavior |volume=49 |issue=7 |pages=2531–2546 |doi=10.1007/s10508-020-01803-x |issn=1573-2800 |pmid=32869157}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Feinman |first=Saul |date=1981-03-01 |title=Why is cross-sex-role behavior more approved for girls than for boys? A status characteristic approach |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287543 |journal=Sex Roles |language=en |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=289–300 |doi=10.1007/BF00287543 |issn=1573-2762|url-access=subscription }}</ref> This is due to the societal devaluation of femininity, often referred to as femmephobia. Rhea Ashley in her journal about the topic explains how femininity is seen as low-value trait when compared to masculinity. She also notes that femmephobia is rooted in discrimination against femininity itself, rather than a person's identity.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hoskin |first=Rhea Ashley |date=2019-12-01 |title=Femmephobia: The Role of Anti-Femininity and Gender Policing in LGBTQ+ People’s Experiences of Discrimination |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-019-01021-3 |journal=Sex Roles |language=en |volume=81 |issue=11 |pages=686–703 |doi=10.1007/s11199-019-01021-3 |issn=1573-2762|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Trans feminists point to this as being one of the reasons why feminism needs to include transgender identities for a complete liberation of all feminine expressions.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hoskin |first=Rhea |date=2017 |title=Femme Theory: Refocusing the Intersectional Lens |url=https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/atlantis/2017-v38-n1-atlantis010224/1119647ar.pdf |access-date=2026-04-23 |website=www.erudit.org}}</ref>

==References== {{full citations needed|date=March 2023}} {{Reflist|2}}

===Works cited=== * {{cite book |last1=Anzaldua |first1=Gloria |last2=Keating |first2=AnaLouise |title=This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation |date=2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-93682-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1zhhzwEACAAJ |language=en}} * {{cite book |last=Califia |first=Patrick |year=1997 |title=Sex Changes: The Politics of Transgenderism |publisher=Cleis Press |place=San Francisco |isbn=978-1573440721}} * {{cite web |last=Courvant |first=Diana |date=May 25, 2003 |title=Thoughts on 'Now That You're a White Man' |website=confluere.com |url=http://www.confluere.com/column/20030527-diana.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080827195848/http://www.confluere.com/column/20030527-diana.html |archive-date=2008-08-27}} * {{cite magazine |last=Crabtree |first=Sadie |year=2002 |title=Finding common ground between movements for reproductive freedom and transgender/transsexual liberation |magazine=The Fight for Reproductive Freedom: A Newsletter for Student and Community Activists |publisher=Hampshire College. Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=9–11}}{{better source needed|date=March 2023|reason=This appears to be a student news letter}} * {{cite book |last=Feinberg |first=Leslie |year=1996 |title=Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Marsha P. Johnson and Beyond |publisher=Beacon Press |place=Boston |isbn=978-0807079416}}

==Further reading== * Salas-SantaCruz, Omi (2024). "What Is Decolonial Trans* Feminism and What Can It Do for Queer/Trans BIPOC Education Research?" ''Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education'' '''1''':1. {{doi|10.60808/f6by-hh48}}. {{ISSN|2837-9659}}.

Category:Transfeminism Category:Feminism and history Category:Feminism and transgender topics Category:Feminist theory Category:Intersectional feminism Category:LGBTQ feminism Category:Third-wave feminism Category:Transgender studies