I spent Saturday night in desperate need of a shower, trying to sleep sitting up on a bus. My feet are still sore, and my voice is hoarse. But I’m glad I went to the various protests surrounding Donald Trump’s inauguration, including the Women’s March on Washington, D.C.The march was powerful. The organizers did an incredible job of lifting up the voices of women who are often pushed to the sidelines. But by the end of the day, I was left feeling sad — shattered, really. Because while the Women’s March made history, it left behind one of the world’s most marginalized groups of women: transgender women.By my count, there were three trans women onstage during the six-hour program, which included more than 60 talented and notable speakers and performers. That’s just two more trans women than were featured at Donald Trump’s inauguration. There were zero trans performers. There were no nonbinary or genderqueer trans people on the list of speakers.With each minute that passed, as speaker after speaker took the stage without a single trans woman’s voice, my heart sank. I felt like I was disappearing. I mentioned the fact that there had not been a trans woman onstage yet to the people around me. A kind but misguided cis woman attempted to reassure me. “One thing at a time, dear,” she said.The rally had been running for at least two hours before a trans woman spoke: the brilliant Janet Mock , perhaps one of the best-known members of our community. But those two hours were painful, and nerve-racking for myself and other transfeminine people in attendance. I started getting texts from my friends, asking, “Are they going to have ANY trans women?!”All movements struggle to avoid re-creating the systems of oppression they are trying to dismantle. Many elements of the women’s movement for years have excluded , marginalized, and contributed to societal violence against trans women. This reality led me and lots of trans people I know to feel apprehensive about attending the march, fearing that we would not be welcome or represented.The exclusion and marginalization of trans women in “women’s spaces” has real consequences. It contributes to the widespread belief that trans women are "really" men — the very lie that catalyzes violence against trans women. We see this lie repeated in the pages of The New York Times, in state legislatures passing anti-trans bathroom bills, and in the so-called "feminist" briefs filed before the Supreme Court challenging the basic dignity of trans youths' lives.