‘Why would a trans woman need a women’s health hub?’

Firstly, happy Pride month 😆 I hope you’ve all had a wonderful time at the parades and the stalls and with all the music and celebration.

I want to highlight all of these wonderful Pride posts from , who’s newsletter is always so full of inspiration. In particular, this post here, and the video he links of Sylvia Rivera at Pride in 1973, is incredibly powerful and related to what I wish to share today.

I also want to share this post here from with a beautiful and also heartbreaking video of a trans girl giving a speech in her local area. It is a really powerful watch and a really important one to witness.

If you are reading this and you are trans, I’d suggest you end here ❤️. Go grab yourself a cuppa and know that I see you and that you are awesome. All the cis-folks (those of you happy with the gender you were given at birth) can keep reading, thanks 🙏🏼

Just to start ~

I would like to be clear that I will not be responding to transphobic rhetoric - trans women are women, not unicorns, not santa claus, not the tooth fairy - they are women who are real and you do not get to argue that.

I am however, very open to talking about the gender binary with anyone who genuinely has questions and would like to learn more. It’s a lot to take in at first and I’m always really happy to chat to people about it all.

I would very much encourage you also to seek out trans activists, trans literature, and film & movie depictions of trans women simply existing - places and spaces where trans women have been allowed to speak for themselves and share their voice. It is much harder to argue that someone does not exist when they are stood right in front of you.

The header of this letter is a direct question someone took the time to email to me.

I posted something on Instagram this month that landed in a way that I truly was not expecting. And so I feel I really need to share it here, too, to make it absolutely clear where I stand.

I feel a bit scared sharing it here because it has lost me a lot of followers on Instagram and I fear many of you will unsubscribe to this newsletter in a similar way. This is scary because I rely on these numbers growing so I can highlight my following as a reason for funders to give me money. It’s scary because we need that money to keep The Women’s Health Hub open, and to continue to offer all of the free-to-access support we currently provide there.

postpartum_matters

A post shared by @postpartum_matters

Could all the TERFs here please exit stage left, please?

I was honestly under the impression that I’d built an online following that would not see the above statement as a threat or anything radical. I have regularity shared the work of trans activists in the birth world and beyond, I post pictures of Pride events every year, we run a monthly Queer social at The WHH and so I thought that my position on all of this was pretty clear.

I was posting the statement in response to an increasingly transphobic world which has only been further highlighted by the upcoming UK general election. I wanted trans women to know that I saw them and that my space was their space, that they were welcome ❤️🏳️‍⚧️.

What I have came to realise, from this post and the responses it garnered - responses in the comments, in my DMs, even via email - is that many people are super happy with me supporting trans men & non-binary folks (basically with folks who were assigned female at birth) but it it is a whole other level, it would seem, to suggest we should also support trans women in a ‘women-centered’ space.

I am honestly floored by the things people have been saying, by the beliefs and ignorance’s of cis-women who, largely promote themselves as being safe, inclusive feminists. Many of them are doulas and birth-workers in my own local community, which I find heartbreaking and scary. But I guess we don’t have to delve into the history of white cis feminism in this particular letter.

What perplexes me even more is that we regularly have cis-men come to the space. Whether it’s to support their partner with infant feeding, or to educate themselves on cloth nappies or how to use a particular sling. Whether it’s to help their partner access the building or space or just to learn about a particular topic. I have never had a cis-man question whether they were allowed to come inside and I don’t think anyone would argue that allowing cis-men in to the WHH do those things is harming anyone.

I was asked why I had gone on out of my way to welcome trans women specifically and my answer really is because look what happened when I did.

Trans women do not typically feel safe in, nor are they openly welcomed, in most public spaces. So, in the same way that a cis-man would never think to wonder if that space was for him, trans folks often just assume they must hide their gender identity to fit in. I wanted to make it clear that this was not the case at the WHH, and that they are very welcome 🏳️‍⚧️❤️.

But why would a trans woman need a women’s health hub

So, back to the original question - why would a trans woman need a women’s health hub?

I guess my main answer is in mutual care and community support.

Community building is the main tenet of our space, it is why we exist. I passionately believe that many of the issues we see - from postnatal depression rates, to menopausal women dropping out of employment, girls missing their education due to their period, women with endo waiting ten million years for a diagnosis - all of it really, could be helped or the impact lessened if we were in community. And trans women are part of that community - whether you choose to ignore or belittle them or welcome them, they still exist.

A lot of the care we offer is in peer support and is largely around building a safe space for people to share openly and be heard. I think trans women need and deserve this just as much as cis-women.

Aside from the community aspect - the majority of ‘women’s health care’ issues also apply to those assigned male at birth. Trans women have pelvic floors, they suffer from incontinence, they can develop and die from breast cancer (all this applies to cis-men too, though we never talk about it and so receiving help must be incredibly hard). With support, trans women can breast/ chest feed their babies, they can play active roles in their children’s lives. In fact, when you pick it apart really, trans women are not much different to their cis-gendered sisters (and thank goodness really, as cis-men have tried really bloody hard to find some sort of evidence that we are the ‘weaker sex’).

And so my question really is, why would a trans woman not need or want to be a part of a women’s health hub?

I cannot fully explain to you how this topic impacts me personally. That part of the story is not mine to tell. However, I would like to end by saying I know trans women, I love trans women, I am in friendship and community with trans women and what I know to be true, without a single doubt, is that being trans is not a choice, it is not a mental illness, it even goes far beyond the ‘born in the wrong body’ trope.

Trans women are people, just as we all are. They are a vulnerable group of women and they deserve autonomy, respect, and love, in just the same way as we all do. If any here cannot commit to that then, as sad as I feel about it, they have no business being in this space. I do hope that turns out not to be true, though.

With love & solidarity (I hope),