Trans women are female, pass it on.

The claim that trans women are "male" runs contrary not only to how we understand ourselves, but also to the way we're treated socially, and often to the physical reality of our bodies (e.g. if we have a "female" endocrine balance, body hair distribution, breasts, etc).

No man ever stopped to ask about my genital history when groped me at a concert, catcalled me and my girlfriend, or discriminated against me in the workplace on the basis of my (female) sex.

The very concept of someone being "female" entirely predates the discovery of chromosomes. And there have always been females who can't or don't reproduce. Tying femaleness to these definitions isn't just regressive or anti-feminist, it's patently inaccurate.

There are some transmasculine people who call themselves female. I'm cool with that. If you experience your body as female and/or experience sexism, that's something we share, even if our gender history differs. We need to recognise one another. This isn't a race to the bottom.

And just to be completely explicit, my above comment isn't in any way intended to deny the maleness of trans men - it's more an acknowledgement that sex is complex and we don't all fit into simple categories, be they social or biological.

All trans people are liable to experience misogyny, female, male, or otherwise. With sex and gender diversity, the patriarchy has us coming *and* going. https://mobile.twitter.com/trans_catboy/status/1305579596964720640

We are not denying the reality of sex - we are challenging ideas around what that reality is. Sex is a label we put on a whole range of physical characteristics that do not always align - there are always females who differ from other females, males who differ from other males.

Telling that a group of anti-trans campaigners found this thread half a month after I first tweeted it. Bizarre to see people call me "misogynist" for talking about violent sexism and male abuse. Well, here I am doubling down: we need to get more thoughtful about this, not less.

If you are a "gender critical" person seeing this thread - take a moment, have a think. Do you really need to quote-tweet this with petty insults? Do you feel I threaten you because I have thoughts about sex and gender? Are there points on which we agree as well as disagree?

There is a reason I haven't allowed replies from people I don't follow on this thread, and that is because I am intensely bored of how rude and aggressive people are on this website. Think about that. If your instinctive response to this is to get personal, why is that?