Trans sisters are still my sisters.

I was reading about the boycott of Feministe and Feministing by transgender women. Apparently there's a lot of transphobia and hate in the cisgendered feminist world that I, in my cisgendered privilege, never noticed. Now it's been pointed out to me, it's as plain as day.

I wanted to take this opportunity to say that I consider transgendered women as simply women (while not denying them the struggle and tough journey they took to be a woman in the first place). I think their issues are as much women issues as my own issues. I have had discussions with a friend who is transitioning recently, and it was very enlightening to see how being born in a body that you don't feel matches your gender affects a person. If that spirit inside the body is still a woman, if they are still marginalised for not being heteronormative or cisgendered, who are we to decide whether their issues are feminist or not? Are they not still suffering discrimination due to their gender? I look at their transition as a sort of late puberty, but one infinitely more painful and one they have to fight tooth and nail to achieve. How does it matter how one becomes a woman? A woman is a woman, and their rights are the stuff of feminism.

I think it's good the feminist blogs are discussing this issue because it's one a lot of people are unintentionally uneducated about. I think Calpernia's video about stupid questions people ask transgendered women is a great place to start if you're curious about them. :)