Yes, all people, especially marginalized people, need protection under the law and the right to live, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Yes, AND we did not expect that trans activists and so-called progressive politicians would advance gender politics by denying, restricting, or abolishing hard-won female autonomous spaces and services in the personal and public sphere as if there was no longer a need for them. Physical safety from male violence for both transgender individuals and females is a basic human right. It is revealing that concerns for physical safety has only been addressed by trans activists in either/or terms, while dismissing female concerns for safety as “bigotry.” We assert our right to freely discuss both/and solutions that can provide safety for both transgender individuals and assure that same safety for everyone else. A truly progressive society whose empathetic moral values of equality for all of its citizens has the capacity to ensure rights and safety without removing the rights to safety from other oppressed people within its care.

Currently in nineteen US states, with no objective proof required, self-identification as a woman is the only requirement to grant a man legal access to intimate female spaces, overriding female rights to privacy in all public accommodations including clinics, hospitals, bathhouses, swimming pools, gymnasiums and other spaces. Other spaces of concern are battered women’s shelters, homeless shelters, and women’s prisons. Women and children who are often fleeing male violence have no recourse to address their vulnerable situations when forced to share these spaces with males who now have access simply by saying they are now a “woman.” While it is well-documented that physical and sexual violence against women and girls is on the rise globally, so-called progressives and the transgender lobbyists are acting to silence, disrupt, and legislate against our ability to name, gather and address the issues of our own oppression.

The intention of the FEMALE ERASURE anthology, Facebook page, Twitter, and website, are to stimulate, educate, and promote respectful discussion. Not all the views that participate in these formats are in accord with the views of the publisher. Individual contributors to these formats are solely responsible for the content and accuracy of their views, opinions, and positions.