Blog # 80: Condemning the Intimidation Tactics of the “Rad Fem” Hate Brigade

Posted on May 18, 2012 by transmeditations

As a trans feminist activist, I am used to taking some hits.  Sadly,
there is a long history of hate, exclusion and discrimination in
second wave feminism against transgender and transsexual people,
especially trans women.  The upcoming “Rad Fem 2012” Conference in
July in London is utilizing a “womyn-born-womyn” policy a la Michigan
Womyn’s Music Festival to exclude transgender women and girls from
attending.  They are acting in accordance with some streams of lesbian
feminism and radical feminism developed in the 1970s that they call
“trans critical” and the rest of the world calls “hate-mongering.”
GenderTrender has written a Blog post decrying my efforts and the
activism of many others to call attention to the bigotry at this
separatist conference.  Within it, GenderTrender spreads many lies
about me, which is par for the course for this hate blog.  I will not
even respond to the specific charges leveled there because they are
all predicated on lies, distortions and a total commitment to hatred,
bigotry and discrimination.  It would be akin to responding to some
other hate-based organization.

As an activist who stands up for what I believe in, I can take these
types of hits—Blog posts, comments to posts, article responses,
“doxing”, Facebook statuses, Tweets, etc.  This is all “fair comment”
even if their views are egregious and based upon total misinformation.
 What I find truly vile, and repulsive, is when their side writes to
my colleagues and supervisors at my place of employment, trying to
jeopardize my employment and possibly even get me terminated.  Have
these folks ever heard of something called “freedom of speech”?  You
know, the same “freedom of speech” that allows them to spread their
hateful words and discriminatory ideologies?  Or perhaps they have
heard of something called “academic freedom”?  You know, that
long-standing principle operating within academia that allows
professors, lecturers, instructors, researchers and others the freedom
to have their own opinions and views, including the right to
“controversial” perspectives?  So, Attorney Cathy “Bug” Brennan, et.
al. perhaps you can explain to me why you are allowed to your
opinions, perspectives and ideologies, but I apparently am not?
Perhaps you can explain to me why my activities as a free citizen and
activist have to do with my place of employment and responsibilities
to my profession?  Oh yeah, you can’t.  That’s because your activities
are motivated by hatred, malice and harassment and there is a very
simple reason why you are filling my poor colleague’s in-boxes with
your hate messages: because you want to get me fired or otherwise
negatively impact my employment.  How charming!  This is a classic
form of intimidation.  The goal is to make me fear losing my job so I
will stop.  They want me, and all other trans women and are allies to
stop.  Guess what Bug and Co.?  We are not going to stop.  Ever.
Whether cis-supremacy, cissexism, or transphobia emanates from the
religious right, from neo-con ideologues, from the mainstream media,
or from “rad fem” ideologues such as yourself, we are going to
continue to fight back.  We are going to fight back against it because
we are fighting for our lives and those of our sisters.  And we
understand that your side will use all manner of cyber stalking,
intimidation, harassment, threats, lying and defamation to try to stop
the progress of trans people from enjoying our full civil and human
rights.

I belong to a new generation of trans academics.  We are not very many
in number.  We have been “out” as trans for our entire academic
trajectories: as undergraduate students, as graduate students, as
graduate teaching assistants, on the job market, and now in our first
positions post-Ph.D. as Post-Doc Research Fellows, Adjunct Faculty
Members, Instructors, Lecturers, and Assistant Professors.  We did not
wait until “after tenure” to come out as who we are (which is  not in
any way a “put down” of those who did; it is to say that our journeys
are very different.)  I wish I could say it has been a cakewalk, but
it has often been very, very difficult.  As an “out” trans person and
as a working-class, first-generation college student, it has been
challenging trying to climb the academic ladder.  In addition, trans
women face some of the most massive employment discrimination in the
entire nation.  Like many of my trans sisters, I have faced large
blocks of time where I was unemployed, underemployed or doing work
that was not commensurate with my level of experience or educational
credentials.  Those who write to our supervisors to jeopardize our
employment know these facts very well.  That is precisely why they do
it.

As we continue our valiant efforts to get Rad Fem 2012 to understand
that women means all women, including our trans sisters (and yes Bug,
we are also “females” so get over it), I hope that we also work
together to expose and condemn these Fred Phelps-style tactics of
activism.  It was incredibly heartening to read all the wonderful
comments (twitter hashtag #radfem2012) that oppose the hate, the
exclusion and the perversion of true feminism.  There are WAY more of
us than there are of them, and though it is going to be difficult, I
have no doubt that we will ultimately be victorious in our quest for
full trans equality and liberation.  Keep up the fight trans peeps and
allies!

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About transmeditations

Dr. Joelle Ruby Ryan is a professor, activist, writer and speaker.
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