The SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies TERFs Contributors: Author:Cristan Williams Edited by: Abbie E. Goldberg & Genny Beemyn Book Title: The SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies Chapter Title: "TERFs" Pub. Date: 2021 Access Date: July 6, 2021 Publishing Company: SAGE Publications, Inc. City: Thousand Oaks Print ISBN: 9781544393810 Online ISBN: 9781544393858 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781544393858.n277 Print pages: 823-825 © 2021 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This PDF has been generated from SAGE Knowledge. Please note that the pagination of the online version will vary from the pagination of the print book. SAGE © 2021 by SAGE Publications, Inc. SAGE Reference Popularized in 2008 by an online cisgender feminist community, TERF is an acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist. The community used the term to refer to the sex essentialist feminists who were flooding into their discussion space. TERFs asserted that “sex” was reducible to specific body attributes or to early socialization and therefore saw trans women as men and sought to remove them from “women’s spaces” and the lesbian feminist movement. The term has been rhetorically helpful in distinguishing TERF activism from the long-term radical feminist community members who are inclusive of trans women and in recognizing that early radical feminist opinion leaders like Andrea Dworkin, Catharine MacKinnon, and Dana Densmore and pioneering radical feminist groups like the Lesbian Tide, the Olivia Collective, and Sisters were trans supportive. However, TERF activists characterize the acronym as offensive, which spawned the “TERF is a slur” campaign to discourage its use. Many TERFs see no distinction between their politics and radical feminist analysis, but if such a distinction is to be made, they encourage opinion leaders to use the term gender critical instead of TERF. Therefore, the rhetorical utility of TERF brings a not always welcomed linguistic nuance to feminist discourse, especially online discourse, wherein communication is frequently condensed through abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms. While TERF, as a lexical unit, can carry unflattering overtones in the same way that bigot, misogynist, or racist might, it nonetheless constructs a much-needed way to disentangle the sometimes subjugative, violent, and even murderous anti-trans behavior and rhetoric of TERF activism from radical feminism itself, even as TERFs work tirelessly to represent their activism as “radical feminism” on popular, social, and academic media platforms. TERF Activism The following is a timeline of TERF activism that proved structurally or culturally significant. 1973 Daughters of Bilitis: TERF activists organized to expel Beth Elliott, an out trans woman, from the organization. West Coast Lesbian Conference (WCLC) Disruption: A group of TERF activists calling themselves the Gutter Dykes physically attacked radical feminist cis performers Robin Tyler and Patty Harrison for attempting to protect WCLC coorganizer Beth Elliott from their attempted bashing. The disruption continued until Elliott fled the event. This attack represented the first time that anti-trans activism reached a national audience. TERF Activists Target Trans Rights Pioneer Sylvia Rivera: Angered that Rivera used “she/her” pronouns and the women’s bathroom, TERF activists attempted to stop Rivera from speaking at the Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade. According to Rivera, TERF activists beat her for attempting to speak, precipitating her withdraw from direct activism. 1977 Page 2 of 5 The Olivia Collective: TERF activists had long been opposed to Sandy Stone, an out trans woman, being a member of the Olivia Collective, an all-women group that produced records and concerts. A TERF organization named The Gorgons The SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies SAGE © 2021 by SAGE Publications, Inc. SAGE Reference issued a death threat against Stone should she appear at an Olivia music event that she was co-organizing in Seattle. The Gorgons did come with guns to the event but were disarmed by the security personnel hired by Olivia. As threats against Olivia escalated, Stone left the group. In 1987, Stone wrote a document foundational to trans feminism, “The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto.” 1979 The Transsexual Empire: Janice Raymond published what has become the manual for TERF advocacy, the book The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male. 1980–2013 Janice Raymond and Health Insurance Coverage: In 1980, the congressionally in their exclusion of trans care. In 2012, a State of California mandated National Center for Health Care study found that one of the most reliable predictors of suicide Technology (NCHCT) contracted Raymond to among trans women and men was not being able to access research the ethical nature of trans health transition-related medical services. In 2013, the U.S. care. Citing Raymond’s work to support its Department of Health and Human Services found that the findings, the NCHCT issued a 1981 report 1981 rationale for excluding trans health care from public recommending that health care related to “sex health care insurance programs was “no longer reasonable,” changes” not be covered by public health care and citing this finding, numerous public and private health insurance. Based on the NCHCT report, a care insurance policies lifted their bans against trans health National Coverage Determination (NCD) care. TERF activists continue to advocate against trans excluding trans care from public health care medical care. insurance was issued in 1989 in the Federal Register, and private health care insurers began citing the NCD 1991–2015 Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival (MWMF): In 1991, Nancy Burkholder was ejected from MWMF for being trans, and the incident became a cultural touchstone for the issue of transphobia within queer and feminist communities. In both 1992 and 1993, cis lesbian feminist Janis Walworth organized an outreach and education effort to support trans inclusion at MWMF. In 1993, MWMF security informed Walworth that her outreach group was in physical danger and that their safety could not be guaranteed. Even though some MWMF “leather dykes” volunteered to provide the group with security, they decided to move outside the gates of the festival, establishing what became known as “Camp Trans.” Outreach and education attempts continued until 2015, when MWMF ceased operations without officially lifting its ban on trans women. 1995–2019 Vancouver Rape Relief & Women’s Shelter: Since 1995, the Shelter has fought to remain a cis-only space, and in 2007, the Canadian Supreme Court set a legal precedent by refusing to hear an appeal of a trans woman who had been Page 3 of 5 The SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies SAGE © 2021 by SAGE Publications, Inc. SAGE Reference denied entry into the group’s volunteer counselor training program. In 2019, the shelter lost funding from the Vancouver City Council due to its commitment to anti-trans discrimination. “TERF Is a Slur” Following a 2012 right-wing “homophobe is a slur” campaign, TERF activists began organizing “TERF is a slur” and “cis is a slur” campaigns. TERF activists asserted that these terms were offensive and used to disparage (cisgender) women. While the “cis is a slur” campaign largely fell into obscurity after cisgender was added to numerous dictionaries, organizing around the “TERF is a slur” campaign continues. Some activists and academics do not use TERF, as they wish to avoid the possibility of a controversy that would detract from their arguments. For example, The Conversations Project, a trans and radical feminist historical project, tends to use sex essentialist activist instead, as they are concerned that TERF would be perceived as “unsisterly.” Other radical feminists reject the term because they do not believe that TERFs are truly “radical” or “feminist.” Moreover, TERF is critiqued because its use is sometimes expanded, especially on social media sites, to refer to those who promote a TERF-style sex essentialist discourse, even if the antitrans activist may not self-identify as being any type of feminist. However, these critiques are applied to any descriptive term that carries a level of social repudiation, such as homophobe, racist, or misogynist. For instance, in 2012, Kari Simpson, a right-wing activist, filed a human rights complaint in Canada because some schools used the term homophobic to describe anti-gay hate. Simpson claimed that homophobe was a “made-up” slur and that it was used to “deliberately mock Christians.” These terms are rarely accepted by those they describe and yet can be necessary, as they offer a means to name specific types of bias-based beliefs, rhetoric, behavior, and the resulting structural oppression, particularly for those who suffer the effects of this bias. At the same time, some sex essentialist activists, even a number of TERF opinion leaders, do, at times, identify with the term TERF. “Gender Critical, Not Anti-Transgender” In 2013, as TERF began to gain cultural currency on social media platforms such as Twitter, attorney and TERF opinion leader Elizabeth Hungerford began promoting gender critical as a feminist identity. Whereas gender critical had previously referenced a trans-inclusive, queer feminist critical analysis of the sexist aspects of gender, such as gender stereotypes, gender roles, and gender hierarchies, Hungerford promoted the term as a euphemism for beliefs, rhetoric, and behavior that were critical of trans people. Hungerford’s promotion of gender critical came in the form of an open letter to the hundreds of feminist opinion leaders and organizations who signed a letter opposing what the signatories referred to as “transphobic feminism” in academia and the wider society. Hungerford’s rhetorical work was aimed at languaging a sex essentialist anti-trans ideology as feminism, radical feminism, and the critical analysis of gender itself. Since Hungerford’s 2013 announcement, gender critical and radical feminist are the primary self-identities used by TERFs when publicly discussing the equality of trans people. For instance, the largest TERF recruitment site, with tens of thousands of members, is a Reddit forum named “Gender Critical” that describes itself as “a radical feminist subreddit.” Utility of TERF The linguistic and cultural utility of TERF becomes apparent when one considers the reality that practically every contemporary anti-trans sex essentialist argument was originally asserted in Janice Raymond’s 1979 TERF classic, The Transsexual Empire. A self-identified “radical feminist,” Raymond pioneered the anti-trans rhetoric that has been employed by the likes of the Heritage Foundation, Tea Party politicians, and pundits; Page 4 of 5 The SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies SAGE © 2021 by SAGE Publications, Inc. SAGE Reference alt-right activists; and anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom. Her goal, as she unambiguously stated in her work, was “morally mandating [transsexualism] out of existence” (p. 178). It is this shared vision of morality that discursively binds TERFs to the ideological right. Since both the radical feminist and gender critical traditions have a history of strong trans support and advocacy, the use of TERF, especially within the context of social media, serves as an important rhetorical intervention against the effort by anti-trans sex essentialist activists to colonize “radical feminist” and “gender critical” identities. While the term TERF is critiqued as being antagonistic, it nonetheless fills a discursive void in that it concisely assigns a lexical identity to a set of ideas pioneered by the TERF movement, regardless of who makes use of these arguments. In this way, TERF can be used both to identify a specific morality-driven rhetorical tradition and to distinguish it from trans-inclusive traditions and movements. Cristan Williams See also Anti-Trans Theories; Feminism; Rivera, Sylvia; Trans Women; Women’s Movement, Trans Inclusion In/Exclusion From Further Readings The Conversations Project. (2017). Retrieved from http://radfem.transadvocate.com Dworkin, A. (1974). Woman hating. New York, NY: Dutton. Raymond, J. G. (1994). The transsexual empire: The making of the she-male. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Stone, S. (1992). The empire strikes back: A posttranssexual manifesto. Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies, 10(2), 150–176. https://doi.org/10.1215/02705346-10-2_29-150 Williams, C. (2014, August 16). TERF hate and Sandy Stone. Retrieved from https://www.transadvocate.com/ terf-violence-and-sandy-stone_n_14360.htm Williams, C. (2014, August 17). How TERF violence inspired Camp Trans. Retrieved from https://www.transadvocate.com/how-terf-violence-inspired-camp-trans_n_14413.htm Williams, C. (2015, April 7). Sex, gender, and sexuality: The TransAdvocate interviews Catharine A. MacKinnon. Retrieved from https://www.trans-advocate.com/sex-gender-and-sexuality-the-trans-advocateinterviews-catharine-a-mackinnon_n_15037.htm Zaker-Shahrak, A., Chio, L. W., Isaac, R., & Tescher, J. (2012). Economic impact assessment: Gender nondiscrimination in health insurance. Los Angeles: California Department of Insurance. Retrieved from https://transgenderlawcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Economic-Impact-Assessment-GenderNondiscrimination-In-Health-Insurance.pdf Cristan Williams • feminism • activism http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781544393858.n277 10.4135/9781544393858.n277 Page 5 of 5 The SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies