Charles Rae covers the anti-free speech political climate surrounding transgender activism in March 2017.

After women have pushed and forced their way into the political dialog in order to have a say in their lives, their societies, and representation in leadership and media, transactivists are silencing feminists left and right because they disagree with various mainstream ideological talking points.

Employing bullying tactics, activists are attempting to push women of political discourse because they do not agree on topics such as transgender ideology, the sex industry, and other religions like Buddhism. Gender identity is a particularly controversial subject. Disagreeing with the mainstream stances on these issues has gotten women death threats, fired, doxed, and harassed. These women have contributed thoughtful and substantial arguments to the ongoing discussion within feminism, not hateful ideologies–in fact, quite the opposite. Many of these women campaign against violence and bullying, yet their thoughts and words are being banned or labeled bigoted, with campaigns created against them to push them out of political conversation altogether.

Just the other day Jenni Murray from Women’s Hour was corrected by corporate entities at BBC for ‘impartiality’ for stating that there is a difference between being born a female and transitioning to become a woman. Isn’t this common sense? She was issued this correction because of the severe backlash she received and is still receiving, some even calling for her dismissal. Transgender newcaster India Willoughby says Murray should be sacked after Murray criticized Willoughby’s comments on shaving. Murray has been at Women’s Hour for 30 years!

Another case from just this month is that of St. Paul School Board candidate Tasha-Rose Hodges. Within 24 hours of announcing her bid for the seat there is already an online campaign made specifically to target her that includes comments consisting of fear-mongering. Hodges has lobbied against domestic violence in Minnesota, and has worked on education campaigns in her state and is a mother of 6 who has a vested interest in her community. Hodges has taken a firm stance against bullying, even specifically regarding gender identity, in her video announcing her bid. But because she does not firmly believe in this ideology, she’s getting hateful and even gross messages. One commenter posted something about Hodges adding “Friendly reminder to punch your local TERF”. One basically told her to shut up and masturbate.

Hodges said in a statement tonight,

How, with this example, will children who are bullied be able to find an adult who they can trust? How will adults teach children not to bully? How will these things happen when the very adults charged with keeping children safe, cannot even engage in dialogue without resorting to abusive methods? When I stated in my video that all children deserve safety, respect, access, and inclusivity, I meant it.

And just about a month ago, at the new Women’s Library in Vancouver, the opening was met with transactivists protesting; tearing posters, yelling in the library, demanding books be banned and then vandalizing the doors of the library. This was to silence women who disagree on transgender activism, the sex industry, and Buddhism, who they pejoratively labeled “TERFs and SWERFs”. This all happened regardless of the fact that the library has and accepts books written by transwomen, and is just looking to provide access to books, thoughts, and ideas, which women have been denied time and again throughout history.

Will these activists not stop until all women who disagree with them are removed? We should be building bridges between our movements, hearing each other out and looking to find common ground and areas of compromise, but that can’t take place while trans activists are using bullying tactics to silence women and attempt to remove them from political access.

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