Caitlin Koller

The argument that cis women aren’t safe in women’s toilets because trans women might assault them (which was just stated on @Channel9 news) is an absolute lie. Both cis women AND trans women are far, far more at risk (in women’s toilets and everywhere else) from the actions of violent cis men. No woman I’ve ever personally heard of has been hurt by the presence of a trans woman in a women’s bathroom. Women don’t disrobe in front of each other at any time in a women’s bathroom: they go into a single, private stall to relieve themselves. The only things they do in front of other women are to wash their hands and possibly touch up their makeup or have a chat. There is virtually no risk to women from a trans women being in the same room or the next stall. Any man wanting to hurt a woman in a woman’s bathroom doesn’t need to look like a trans woman to do so. Men can walk into unlocked women’s public bathrooms whenever they like. In fact, women ARE assaulted in public women’s bathrooms and almost always by violent cis men. Condemning trans women to using cis men’s bathrooms is to put them in grave danger. Trans women CANNOT use cis men’s bathrooms because of valid fears they will be assaulted (physically or sexually) by cis men. Failing to understand or care about this makes women campaigning to ban trans women from women’s bathrooms total fucking arseholes of the first order. There are a very, very small number of women who appear to honestly find the idea of being in a reasonably intimate space such as a women’s bathroom with a trans woman seriously traumatising. These are women who are victims of serious sexual assault (as children or as adults) and who therefore can’t tolerate the idea of trans women being welcome in women’s bathrooms because they’re terrified of all men (to put this baldly, our information is that these women - because of sexual violence committed against them - are scared of penises). Such women deserve our understanding, support and compassion. However, the answer to their trauma and this difficult issue is to treat such women for their trauma and hurt, NOT to instead subject trans women to exclusion, bigotry and harm. TERFs like to post links and other information claiming trans women hurt cis women in bathrooms, prisons and other locations which are generally single-gender. In fact, the true number of trans women who have ever committed sexual violence against other women is vanishingly small. It is unhinged to claim that because one or two or five trans women in history have committed sexual violence against other women this is a reason why ALL trans women should be subject to restrictions and bans. Trans women should not have to define themselves as a class by the tiny number of violent or horrible people in their midst, and anyone who tries to define them by their worst members is an absolute cooked human. If it were reasonable to ban some people from some spaces because of their propensity to commit sexual or physical violence, cis men would be banned from almost all shared-gender spaces way, way before any trans woman would be banned. Finally, decent women don’t need to define themselves by who they accept and who they exclude. Feminism is a broad church and being a woman is (or should be) about inclusion, acceptance and concern for the rights and needs of others. Trans women are women. Get the fuck over it or get out of the fucking way.