I as a midwestern trans women came into feminism a little too naive. So much of the mantra of feminism is about accepting the choices and rights of all women so naturally I assumed being a trans women would give me the same access to safe spaces because I am a woman. When I was coming into my queerness and gender Riot Grrrl really made me feel strong about being a feminist and that all women deserve a voice. Shortly after getting into activism I saw more and more in many white feminist spaces is this line of “Trans women are women but” this is the reasoning given for excluding trans women by a women’s colleges, feminist festivals and exclusion of trans women in a majority of feminist porn. So many of these feminists consider themselves trans allies but come back to the point of “Trans women are women but”.

I felt inspired to write this piece after this year’s feminist porn award where I’m nominated for two films. I think its important to bring up the point there is having a space open to trans women and having a space be safe for trans women. This is a feminist space accepting money from a company that depicts trans women as predators with the slur “Shemale” among extremely unhealthy standards for performers (http://chelseapoe.com/2015/03/13/an-open-letter-to-mainstream-trans-porn/). I am all for trans women reclaiming any word by when non trans people are labeling us as shemales against public out cry from the trans community ( change.org/p/mainstream-trans-porn-sites-who-market-models-as-shemales-give-them-motivation-to-change-the-use-of-the-term?just_created=true#) the term shemale defined as a passible male homosexual this is putting trans women into a place of being defacto misgendered which is in the words of Laverne Cox “Is an act of violence to misgender trans women”. Its however is not extremely surprising that money to promote an award show is that has never given a performer award to a pre/non op trans woman whilst nominating Lily Cade, Madison Young and a slew of other white cisgender feminist women who refuse to cast trans women under the repeated mantra of trans women are women but. Everyone’s sexuality is clearly of their own but when you are a casting as a producer under the name of feminism and even claiming to be allies to trans women there is no excuse to exclude trans women. I realize this is a very specific issue that relates to porn yet its one of the extremely few job options for an extremely large amount of trans women due to employment discrimination else where as well and is certainly part of the systematic work place discrimination of trans women.

In 2012 High School Senior Calliope Wong was in the process of applying for college and decided to apply for her dream school of Smith with terrific grades and excellent extra curricular yet she was not accepted. Smith declined her application due to that fact that she legally was male due to the fact that she at age 17 didn’t get an Sexual Reassignment Surgery which was the requirement in both Connecticut and Massachusetts. This concept that many women’s colleges such as Smith reduce women down to a vagina but using the language of only accepting “Females”. This concept is often quote by feminists as they should be able to have women’s spaces without the fear of rape and due to the fact that some trans women have penises thus including us is a huge risk. Besides the facts that trans women and particularly trans women of color have the highest rate of being victims of sexual assault this is extremely transphobic to assume anyone is more likely to rape based upon what parts they have. After being rejected Calliope started a tumblr blog to rally support in hopes to attend her dream school including saying “I am not a rapist; I am not a criminal, and its not fair to assume I am such person”. I think its extremely problematic that a 17 year old girl has to defend herself from being an assumed rapists by some feminists due to the fact alone of her trans status. Students at Smith have been protesting the exclusion of trans women yet the board still refuses to allow trans women to attend based upon only accepting “Females”.

The one thing I cannot stress enough that is 100% false is as trans women we men sneaking into women’s spaces as sexual predators. If you feel comfortable with a trans woman in a women’s space that is no reason to exclude trans women anymore than feeling a uncomfortable around a person of color is a reason to exclude people of color in a feminist space. We hear bathroom laws based around this fact with literally no evidence that a trans women are doing anything nefarious in women’s bathrooms yet there’s video of a trans woman getting beat to the point of near death in a Mcdonalds bathroom while bystanders looked on. As great that this is becoming more and more visibility many people still have these hangups of “Trans women are women but” If we want to really stand for feminism we need to include all women and stand up for our own trans misogyny no matter the reasoning. White feminism has a history of giving of passes to other white feminist who have histories of being abusers, racists, slut shamming and even sexual predators (remember how everyone was outraged at Lena Dunham then the new season of Girls started.).

This year has been an extremely dark one for the trans community with a lot of loss. Before this year I never knew anyone who was personally attacked to the point of near death as a result of being trans or succeeding in suicide attempt. I am in an extremely privileged situation where I have a level of passing, income and stable housing where I have a little bubble of isolation where I don’t really think twice walking into a public bathroom or wearing a dress while running errands but this systematic trans misogyny effects all trans women. I can say without a doubt if I were cis I would be in a better place in my career as nearly all trans women can say no matter their careers. It comes down to what really being an ally means and being an ally when it matters. There is no place for excuses when you are calling a trans woman a woman and until we as feminists reach that point feminism is failing some of the women who need it the most.