Thread by @SuddenlyVanessa

Rowling's TERF manifesto is now out there, complete with disabling comments. She's not interested in discourse, only in furthering the backwards logic of TERFs who don't understand what it means to be transgender.

#rant #terf #JKRowling

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She calls Maya's position a "philosophical belief." She doesn't acknowledge that it's a "belief" against medical science. That doctors and researchers agree in the spectrum of sex in addition to the spectrum of gender.
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She talks about how her research into trans and gender issues lead her to her TERF-y conclusions. She says she talked to actual trans people. Only to think us disturbed? Clearly she wasn't listening to us due to her own pre-conceived notions.
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She paints herself as the victim of abuse at the hands of militant transgender people. Guess what? We're going to fight for our right to exist. When someone with a platform as big as yours denounces us, you can bet your ass we're going to fight back.
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She talks about the increased number of people, specifically trans men, who have decided to self identify as transgender and who have decided to transition. Then she makes a BUNCH of assumptions about why that might be, all of which she sees as an attack on femininity.
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Could it be that knowledge of what transgender is and means is becoming more accessible? Could it be that we're finally, as a culture, exploring and learning more about gender than ever before?

Nope, it's women being pushed to transition because their afraid of being women.🙄
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She talks about her belief in freedom of speech, but somehow that doesn't include freedom of expression? Oh that's right, we're allowed to wear dresses and "call ourselves" whatever we want, but not expect anyone to sleep with us. I remember that particularly harsh speech.
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She talks about Littman and "Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria" and these social echo chambers where entire friend groups announce their trans all at once. Did you ever think that maybe trans people found each other, made community, and support each other in coming out?
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Maybe them being trans is why they are friends? If I had known trans people existed earlier, and been able to make friends with them, I would have figured myself out decades ago. The signs were there, I just didn't know how to read them. Now that knowledge is more accessible
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She talks about how trans kids not being allowed to transition may kill themselves is false "because there's no data." No, it's anecdotal. That's what most of what we know about being transgender is: anecdotal. Because few have spent the time or resources on that research.
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She equates being trans with self-harm and self-hatred. Don't you think that the anxiety of being trans might be related to hateful people like you setting bad examples and making life hard? No? We're just broken. Great.
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She claims that "studies have shown that between 60-90% of gender dysphoric teens will grow out of their dysphoria." WHO IS SAYING THIS? There's no research to back that up, just assumptions. Trans people go back in the closet to stop being harassed. We give up and fake cis
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Rowling goes on to complain about the removal of gatekeeping. Do you know how long it takes someone in the EU or GB to be able to START HRT if they want? YEARS! Meanwhile people give up or consider suicide. They're waiting us out and Rowling applauds them.
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She writes, "A man who intends to have no surgery and take no hormones may now secure himself a Gender Recognition Certificate and be a woman in the sight of the law."

She sees trans women as men. She thinks men are going to spend years of legal battles to pee next to women.
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Some folks can't or don't want to take hormones.
Some folks can't or don't want to have surgery.

Not all trans people are the same.
Not all people are the same.

All we want is the right to exist, pursue happiness, and not be harassed. "But what if" isn't logic, it's fear.
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She then goes to compare trans activists with misogynists and incels. How we're all about attacking women. Doesn't she see that by equating me with my genitalia, she's boiling gender down to function? That's what misogynists do: claim women have a specific function and—
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shouldn't step outside those lines. Her argument agrees with misogyny. She rants about offense to inclusive terms like 'people with vulvas' as dehumanizing to women.

To assume vulva = woman is dehumanizing to trans people
Judging people by their anatomy, like misogynists
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Lastly she plays the sympathy card of her history of assault and violence. I'm sorry that happened to you, Jo. I truly am. But forcing transgender women to use the men's rooms is putting us in a far worse position.
You use the term 'single-sex spaces' like it's about genitals
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But it's about endangering others to make yourself feel good. You think trans men want to have to change next to you? How uncomfortable will that make everyone feel? You don't think he's going to get accused of "a man in the women's room?" Because that's what it is.
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She ends with more "man who claims he's a woman can go anywhere" bullshit, but that doesn't happen. It's not a real problem. It's a made up problem.

She talks about women (she means cis women) being afraid of speaking out because they might get harassed or doxxed.
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Yet, she wants that to be the "normal" for transgender people. She claims she wants our safety, but "I do not want to make natal girls and women less safe."
That's fear of what 'might happen.'
That's a phobia. Of trans people.
It's transphobia.
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