I am pretty liberal. I want our societies to be diverse, culturally rich, and caring. Erasing the meanings of words and allowing people to do whatEVER they want isn't freedom. It is not medical care to invert your penis nor is it "simply a personal choice" to claim an identity status that puts male body in women's rooms. As long as it's legal you can do it, but should other people be acting like it's anything other than a superficial and harmful alteration? That lie impacts us I try not to call people who are working against trans activism in their own ways things like "handmaiden." Calling people names and policing their associations is seldom effective. But I understand why women are profoundly and deeply angry at other women who prop up the model of trans identity instead of calling it out, full stop. Women who want others to stop promoting an unworkable compromise with men and a model that hurts us are not being mean or inflexible. They are fighting what they believe (rightly in my opinion) is our erasure, take-over, and gaslighting. They want other women to center other women and truth over political points and conceptual flexibility to say no. And they want women to say no not only when it impacts their pet project (be it sports or a single sex event), but also when it impacts other women and our legal status and rights. It's true that we may not be able to stop people from altering themselves (although quite frankly I think we can convince ethical medical boards to someday declare this unethical). But it is the acceptance of these alterations as a special status, as "transition" that encourage people to seek them out. I have learned a lot from the women in this community who have taken a hard-line and said no to the illusion of trans identity. I have friends who ID as trans, and when I started this work, it never occurred to me that I would come to the conclusion that it is all an illusion. The word "bigot" still has enormous sway among women. Many of us are deeply kind and want to accommodate people and the accusation of bigotry scares, shames, and hurts us. We seek optics of cooperation to make us feel safe and good. That's understandable, but it isn't right. Saying no to recognizing or affirming fictitious male identities isn't bigotry. The pictures below make me angry. They are only possible because some people are willing to pretend that men who alter themselves should be seen as women in language, law, and/or social policy. I ask people to say no to reframing men as trans "women." I ask people to shatter the illusion. Call them MEN and HE when you can, and signal to others that it isn't mean or subversive to say no to them. We will all make our own decisions, in the end. No one can speak for all of us. I know why each side makes the choices they do. But in the end, I must argue that we can and should dismantle this model. Thanks for considering it, wherever you stand. Please look at the pics and think about what reframing men as trans women does to us-and them #takebackWOMAN 1.