There has been a recent national wave of transphobia. In 2024 alone, a record 661 anti-trans bills were proposed at local and national levels. Of these bills targeting transgender individuals, 45 have already been passed.
This wave of anti-trans legislation is mirrored by misogynistic measures, with abortion bans sweeping our post-Roe v. Wade nation.
“It never ceases to amaze me how misogynistic the trans agenda is,” said Candace Owens via X.
Women’s liberation and LGBTQ+ rights are intrinsically tied. The far-right attempts to split these marginalized groups by claiming that trans and non-binary people pose a threat to cis women. LGBTQ+ individuals and cis women must unite in their common struggle for gender liberation.
Fearmongering Gendered Violence
The two most common arguments that frame trans women as a threat to cis women involve women’s restrooms and women’s sports.
“Your biological son does NOT belong in my daughter’s bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams,” said Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene via X.
Greene’s conservative talking point argues that women are at risk because trans women are allowed into traditionally gender-segregated spaces. This argument is manipulative. It exploits genuine fears, as men commit the most common violent crimes and primarily target women. These demographics compose 95% of reported assaults.
Men murder over 1,000 women every year. Men are not trans women. This is a conservative straw man argument that shifts the blame for the serious issue of male violence onto the shoulders of the LGBTQ+ community.
Those who perpetrate these claims often claim to be feminists. Trans women are a marginalized group of women. It is the opposite of feminism to make a marginalized group of women at fault for the violence of men.
This argument becomes even more insidious when violence against trans women is acknowledged. Trans women are one of the most victimized groups of women. Trans people are over four times more likely to experience violence compared to their cisgender counterparts.
Men are the most common demographic to perpetrate these hate crimes. Men routinely victimize both trans and cis women. These groups share a common struggle to end patterns of male violence.
I spoke with Lillie McDonough, a trans woman from Salt Lake City.
“[This rhetoric] is in an effort to create a fictional trans woman archetype that is supposedly attacking women, to distract from [conservatives’] real tangible attacks on women,” McDonough said.
We must not let the far right trick us into seeing these struggles as counterintuitive. Zero pertinent statistics point to a trend of trans women harming cis women.
Women’s Sports are Not at Risk
“This is where Kamala Harris’ ideas about gender lead: to a grown man pummeling a woman in a boxing match. This is disgusting and all of our leaders should condemn it,” said vice-presidential candidate JD Vance via X.
Vance referenced this about a 2024 Olympic boxing match where Algerian boxer Imane Khelif won gold after defeating Italian boxer Angela Carini.
The boxing match, without American athletes, sparked debate among U.S. politicians after allegations that Khelif had been disqualified from world championships for failing a “gender test” before the Olympics.
“A real woman, Angela Carini, who trained for years to box at the Olympics is ‘defeated’ by a real man pretending to be a woman. HE is a fraud, an imposter and a liar,” said Greene via X.
These statements from prominent political leaders are baseless, as Khelif was born a female. She is not transgender and has never undergone a gender transition.
The International Olympic Committee described the gender qualification test Khelif is accused of failing as “irretrievably flawed.” This test was administered by the International Boxing Association, an organization that is banned from the Olympics due to concerns about its governance and competitive fairness.
This nonsensical uproar by conservative politicians about a woman who isn’t transgender reflects the non-issue that trans women present in women’s sports.
According to a 2022 scientific review about transgender participation in sports, “any potential performance advantages are negated through testosterone suppression after 12 months (and sometimes sooner).” Most studies used to inform sports policies about trans women use cisgender men or non-athlete trans women as their subjects rather than trans women athletes.
These studies largely ignore sports in which cis women have well-documented advantages over cis men, such as long-distance swimming. The 2022 review goes on to state that “social factors like coaching, time to train and access to equipment contribute to performance far more than testosterone.”
Both cis and trans women are generally underrepresented in sports and are less likely than men to receive key societal benefits discussed in the 2022 review.
Whiteness and Femininity
Incriminating marginalized groups of women for threats that men pose is a tool to harm women of color. WOC are more likely to face scrutiny and discrimination regarding sex testing and false accusations of being male or transgender.
Historically, whiteness and femininity go hand in hand, as women of color tend to be hyper-masculinized. Scientifically disputed claims suggest that women from Africa and South Asia have naturally higher testosterone levels. As a result, women of color are more likely to be subjected to gender testing by World Athletics. The sports authority refused to reveal their identifying criteria for choosing certain female athletes for this “sex testing.”
Operating outside of the gender binary or undergoing a gender transition effectively dismantles the gender binary, which is crucial since the patriarchy depends on it. The concept of gender diversity embodies a radical feminist perspective.
“The cultural issues I’ve experienced are things I’m pretty sure happen to most cis women,” McDonough said.
Women of all identities must tune out the conservative talking points that seek to turn us against each other. We must unite in our common struggle for gender liberation in all forms.
