‘Let women speak. No not like that’: TERFs pile on female Guardian writer for pro-trans article
TERFs have inundated the Twitter of a female Guardian writer for her pro-trans article. (Daniel Knighton/Getty Images)
A cis female journalist who wrote an article supporting trans rights and calling for “more inclusive” feminism has unsurprisingly been piled on by TERFs.
Writer Kathryn Bromwich penned an article published in The Guardian on Sunday (18 June) in which she argued that cis women should be trans allies.
“If women are united by anything – and there are 3.8 billion of us, so there’s going to be little common ground – it is the risk of sexual violence, from which no woman is safe, especially not trans women,” Bromwich wrote.
“No rapist is going to stop to check whether you have fallopian tubes. The fact that we are all targets of this particular kind of violence should only increase cis women’s solidarity towards our trans sisters.”
She added that feminism should aim to become “more inclusive rather than less”, and welcome “trans men and women as well as non-binary, queer, intersex and gender-nonconforming people”.
“There is no one correct way to be a woman: what we need to remember is that we are stronger together than we are apart.”
While Bromwich’s article received a lot of support, anti-trans commenters piled on, with some claiming that the term ‘cis’ is “offensive”, and that trans women should not be allowed in female spaces.
Shortly after her article was published, Bromwich claimed that her Twitter page had been spammed with hate, in what amounted to an “intimidation campaign”.
“Who exactly is it who decides which women should ‘wheesht’ and which are allowed to speak?” Bromwich asked.
“This is an intimidation campaign, plain and simple. Just because I’ve written an opinion piece, it doesn’t mean I have to allow everyone on the internet to spam my Twitter page with hate.”
As one Twitter commenter said, referencing infamous anti-trans campaigner Posie Parker’s Let Women Speak rallies: “Let women speak … no, not like that.”
The Guardian article received a great deal of support, however, with some saying Bromwich’s allyship was especially necessary in the wake of leaked footage showing prime minister Rishi Sunak mocking trans women.
“So refreshing to see a column on trans rights, written by a cis woman, that finally represents my position and the position of the overwhelming majority of women I know,” journalist Elle Hunt wrote.
Writer Caspar Salmon added: “A good and reasonable article which, as is now customary when a woman says ‘no transphobia in my name please’, has seen its author deluged with accusations of treason and being a handmaiden, and crazed rantings about penises.
“The aim is to sicken LGBT+ allies into silence.”
A June survey of 30 countries found that Britain is among the least supportive of trans people.
Among the countries surveyed, the UK was one of the least supportive of gender-affirming care, after the US and Hungary, with less than half (47 per cent) of Brits believing teens should have access to life-saving gender-affirming healthcare.
