Erasing (excluding) ‘women’ from all mention is NOT inclusion. The group overwhelmingly affected by cervical cancer should be foregrounded in every general awareness campaign. Millions more women know they’re women than know they have a cervix. Clear messaging saves lives > https://twitter.com/cnn/status/1288948978088804355

That doesn’t preclude targeting ‘women & transmen’ or having separate targeted campaigns for ‘transmen’ etc but erasing women risks costing lives. Education should make aware in accessible ways that only people with female reproductive biology between 25 & 65 need screening.

This is not an isolated or incidental example of the harm being done to women in the name of a simplistic notion of inclusion, one that actually excludes, endangers & demeans them, half of all humanity. It is (consciously or not) part of a fundamentally sexist & misogynist push>

for the supremacy of ‘gender identity’ over biological sex. Erasing the words to describe female reality & oppression is part of attempts to erase females as an independent political, social & even legal category, a misguided & sexist campaign rejected by many trans people.>

Funnily enough, only if you look at life through a male-centred lens, one that relegates women’s needs, opinions & feelings to the margins or even to invisibility, can this blatant sexism & in many cases, misogyny wear the disguise of ‘niceness’, ‘kindness’ and ‘inclusion’.>

Erasure is not inclusive. Making invisible what is central & life-saving is the polar opposite of nice. I understand the personal sensitivities of dysphoria, I’ve lived through it. I understand the alienation from one’s sex, but we cannot & will not erase women & >

to continue down this path would show that this is not about liberation but about subordination & subjugation. Instead of cheerleading the backlash-inducing disaster of trying to erase half of humanity, which inevitably is backfiring spectacularly on trans people >

we can live with dignity & equity only by fully respecting ourselves, others & our differences, including sex. Instead of the outrageous & futile attempts to deligitimise ‘women’ so they can no longer be named or heard for themselves, we need to help lift up women >

and in so doing we can lift up ourselves because our struggle, though different is connected to women’s oppression. It is not in trans interests, nor is it kind, just, inclusive or necessary to erase women in order for trans people to have dignified & equal access to healthcare.