hello children

sapphickpop:

a lot of young teen lesbians on tumblr r aligning with the terf ideology without knowing properly what it stands for. so as an Older Lesbian with some 6 years of Being Out Experience i wanna clarify some things for you.

nobody is forcing you to be attracted to anyone

nobody is saying that if you aren’t attracted to [insert a trans woman name], you’re automatically transphobic and a terf. nobody is saying you have to have sex with trans girls if you aren’t attracted to them. just as nobody is saying you have to be attracted to every cis woman. and nobody is saying you have to have sex with gay girls you aren’t attracted to.

we are only asking you to respect trans women as women

and that’s really the least you could do! trans women (trans lesbians and wlw in particular) are just other girls out here trying to survive in this hetero world. and it’s hard being a lesbian already – but being a trans lesbian is so much harder. don’t make these girls feel even more alienated, don’t contribute to the hate that is turned against them. 

“but i don’t wanna have sex with someone with a penis”

if you end up never sleeping with anyone w a penis, that’s okay. being a lesbian isn’t just about who you have sex with. it’s also about who you love, who you’re attracted to and who you date. and one day you might find yourself falling in love with a trans girl. 

if that happens, just like in any relationship, you can negotiate your limits in sex. there’s no point in saying “i am not attracted to trans women” – because it makes it seem like trans women are inherently so much different from cis women, makes you sound like you think all trans women look/are the same and like you think of women as walking genitals. which is pretty misogynist! 

so please just don’t listen to terfs. protect your trans sisters because they need it and they will always be there to support you if you support them too. 

there’s TERFs in the notes of this trying to explain ‘penis privilege’ as ‘no one is trying to legislate against penises’.

trans women’s penises are absolutely legislated against. bottom surgery in many places is legally mandated for trans women to be recognised as women. A few states in Australia tried to change the law just a few months ago but was shot down by conservatives. globally, it is the norm for psychiatrists and gatekeepers to only ever allow hormones and even legal name changes to trans women who are dead set on bottom surgery in the future. bottom surgery, in most countries is very rarely covered by health insurance and usually costs $20-30k AUD. This is a measure designed to do two things: uphold the sex binary and keep trans women poor. Sex work is often the only way a trans woman can make that money in a lifetime because we’re locked out of most workplaces. ‘penis privilege’ is a statement that can only come from someone who knows absolutely nothing about trans women and how the patriarchy treats us. please google how legislation affects us next time