NWL Member Emily Speaks at International Transgender Day of Visibility in Gainesville, FL, March 31, 2023

My name is Emily, and I'm the chair of the Gainesville chapter of National Women's Liberation. We're a grassroots gender affirming radical feminist organization fighting back against male supremacy, white supremacy, and capitalism.

 

I've been asked to speak today as a cis ally, so I am not here to speak on the trans experience, but I am here as a feminist organizer and a cis woman who has the honor of loving many trans family members and friends, so I want to talk about my personal stake in trans liberation, which I will do my best to do without centering my cis experience. 

 

I want to start by clarifying that when I say “women,” I mean ALL women, trans and cis, and when i say trans people, I mean all trans people–trans women, trans men, nonbinary people, etc., and there is of course an overlap between the two, and that's the point–it's a Venn diagram. My freedom as a cis woman is inextricably linked to trans liberation. In the words of Audre Lorde, ‘I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.'

 

And while the differences between us are important and vast, so are the similarities.

 

All women and all trans people are oppressed by male supremacy and sexism, and we all want to live freely without being squeezed into these binary boxes of what it means to be “man” or “woman,” who should be a caretaker and take on all the “domestic” roles, versus who should be a worker or a soldier to feed the capitalist war machine. 

 

We are all targets of gender based violence by cis men, be it state sanctioned or interpersonal, and we are all punished in one way or another for not fitting into the impossible and oppressive gender norms imposed on us.

 

We are all harmed by the anti trans bills, trans or not, just like we are all harmed by the abortion bans, regardless of whether you can get pregnant or not– they are regulating all of our bodies in one way or another, and we have to fight back together.

 

Our liberation is one in the same, and that is why we have to fight together to demand our collective freedom!

 

We demand universal healthcare that covers gender-affirming care!

 

We demand control over our own bodies and free, on-demand access to life-saving reproductive care!

 

We demand equal access to housing and protection from discrimination!

 

We demand an end to the criminalization of trans people!