TERF
“”TERFs try to speak for feminism, but the feminist movement has already spoken. It stands with trans people.
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—How feminists resist TERFs |
It's a social construct Gender |
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Spectra and binaries |
TERF ideology (trans-exclusionary radical feminism) is a specific form of transphobia that presents itself as feminism while aligning with far-right populism and targeting trans people, especially women. Emerging from fringe anti-trans views on the margins of second-wave feminism, it rejects core feminist principles, while claiming the legacy of radical feminism. At its core are essentialist definitions of womanhood and efforts to police bodily autonomy, particularly that of trans people. In practice, the TERF movement draws from the far-right playbook: presenting bigotry as "reasonable concern," exploiting populist fears, and weaponizing culture war narratives. TERFs are a key faction of the transnational anti-gender movement, a loose coalition of reactionary, authoritarian, and populist actors opposing LGBTQ+ rights, feminism, gender studies, and so-called "gender ideology." A defining feature of the movement is its increasing radicalization
and turn toward anti-democratic, conspiracist politics.
TERF ideology draws on manipulative populist rhetoric, portraying trans rights as threats to “ordinary women” in order to stoke moral panic, grievance, and resentment. It relies on dehumanization, “just asking questions” and appeals to so-called “common sense,” cloaking transphobia in a distorted imitation of feminist language. This rhetoric is often deeply anti-intellectual, rejecting academic consensus, feminist scholarship, and expertise in gender studies in favor of reactionary slogans, pseudoscientific claims, cherry-picked data, fringe sources, emotional manipulation, and misleading anecdotes. A common tactic is the use of pseudolegal language: made-up legal claims that mimic human rights discourse to give transphobia a false sense of legitimacy. One example is “sex-based rights,” a slogan used to justify anti-trans policies while claiming that gender diversity “erases women.” They employ simplistic slogans like “adult human female,” which reduce womanhood to anatomy and function as dog whistles for biological essentialism. TERFs are hostile to modern feminist movements, including third-wave and fourth-wave feminism, which center intersectionality, stand with trans people, and reject biological essentialism. Because their views conflict so sharply with contemporary feminist values, mainstream feminist scholars and groups do not consider them part of the feminist movement, viewing their ideology instead as a manifestation of transmisogyny, the specific and obsessive hatred of trans women.
TERF networks function as an extremist hate movement. They coordinate harassment campaigns through doxxing, trolling, and targeted abuse, spread disinformation
, and promote conspiracy theories like “groomer
” rhetoric and claims that gender-affirming care is a “Big Pharma” scheme. Their efforts focus on erasing trans people from public life, often through attacks on trans healthcare, education, legal recognition, inclusive language, manufactured panics over bathroom and locker room access, trans participation in sports, and the framing of trans people as a “debate” rather than a marginalized group with basic rights. They work closely with the far right—including MAGA Republicans and neo-Nazis—religious fundamentalists, and other anti-LGBTQ+ groups, forming alliances that promote bigotry, fuel moral panic, and attack basic rights through coordinated bad-faith campaigns. Reactionary TERF messaging plays a central role in radicalizing people into authoritarian, anti-democratic, and anti-LGBTQ+ politics, and has increasingly been studied for its role in pathways to broader and violent extremist worldviews. The COVID-19 pandemic saw a sharp rise in online radicalization: isolation and instability pushed large amounts of people to adopt more antisocial attitudes,[1] and conspiracy-driven online spaces were a place where transphobia acted as a low-barrier entry point into far-right ideology, including racism. TERF ideology is predominantly associated with older generations, though its reach has expanded through radicalizing online spaces and populist media. A growing number of scholars describe TERF ideology as a form of neofascism, citing its fixation on social purity, scapegoating of marginalized groups, authoritarian populism, rejection of pluralism, and alignment with white nationalist and ultra-conservative movements.
Well-known TERF groups include Women's Declaration International, FiLiA, and their new umbrella group, Women's Platform for Action International. TERF activists include Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, a far-right provocateur, and J.K. Rowling, whose platform has helped normalize transphobia and fuel a climate of hostility toward trans people. The term TERF originated in 2008 to describe this form of transphobia. Although some TERFs attack the label, this is a rhetorical tactic to deflect criticism and avoid accountability. In practice, many use the term themselves without hesitation, alongside euphemisms like "gender critical" (GC). Whatever the label, TERF ideology inflicts real harm on trans people under the guise of feminism. Over 100 French feminist organizations described TERFism as "a confusionist and conspiratorial ideological movement using the cover of feminism to disrupt real feminist fights."[2] Judith Butler warned that TERFism is “a fringe movement that is seeking to speak in the name of the mainstream, and our responsibility is to refuse to let that happen.”[3]
What are TERFs?[edit]
A trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) is someone who organizes or promotes anti-trans activism, particularly targeting trans women, while claiming to speak for feminism. Though often presented as a defense of "women’s rights," TERF politics are defined by hostility to gender diversity and the rejection of trans people’s legitimacy. At their core is the belief that womanhood is biologically fixed and that recognizing trans identities threatens women’s safety or status. TERF ideology does not advance feminist goals; instead, it constructs a new, reactionary worldview that uses feminist-sounding language to justify the exclusion and marginalization of trans people. Increasingly, scholars describe TERFism as part of the global anti-gender movement, where it functions as a gateway to broader authoritarian and anti-LGBTQ+ politics.
TERF ideology is predominantly associated with older generations. The original wave of TERF activists often came from self-identified radical leftist circles, exemplifying a broader strain of leftists who turned right with age. Today, newer recruits are more likely to be drawn in through online radicalization and right-wing populist media, with little or no prior involvement in feminism or progressive movements. This generational and ideological shift has helped expand the movement’s reach beyond its original roots, deepening its alignment with far-right and anti-democratic politics.
The roots of TERF ideology[edit]
TERF ideology has its roots in radical feminism, a fringe subculture that developed out of 1970s second-wave feminism. Radical feminists believed that men form a “sex class” that systematically oppresses women, and that gender — not class — is the primary division in society. Many embraced separatist politics, calling for “women-only spaces” and rejecting alliances with men. As Anuradha Ghandy describes it in Philosophical Trends in the Feminist Movement, “women should relate only to women, they should build a women’s culture and institutions.”[4] Within this insular mindset, some radical feminists began to see trans women as a threat to women’s ability to organize as a “sex class,” a fixation driven by paranoia and boundary obsession, treating trans existence itself as an intrusion. In 1979, Janice Raymond published The Transsexual Empire, a foundational text of TERF ideology, which claimed: “All transsexuals rape women’s bodies by reducing the real female form to an artefact, appropriating this body for themselves.”[5]
Second-wave-style radical feminism as a whole has never been especially popular. Even at its height, it remained relatively niche, especially compared to more mainstream feminist movements that embraced working with men, coalition-building, and a broader commitment to gender equality and, over time, openness to gender diversity as understandings of gender evolved. Though TERF ideology remained marginal for decades, it persisted in spaces like the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival and re-emerged in the 2010s as so-called “gender critical feminism,” particularly in the UK. There, its talking points were promoted by anti-trans media outlets and right-wing politicians.[6] In the UK transphobia now constitutes a public health crisis.[7] These anti-trans talking points were then exported to the U.S., where they provided ideological framing for Republican and Christian nationalist anti-trans campaigns.[8]
TERFs in the anti-gender movement[edit]
TERFs have become a key faction in the global anti-gender movement: a loose alliance of far-right populists, religious fundamentalists, and authoritarian interests opposed to LGBTQ+ rights, feminism, and gender equality. Though they frequently present themselves as grassroots feminists, many TERFs are embedded in coordinated disinformation campaigns and legal strategies aimed at rolling back trans rights.
Increasingly, TERF groups collaborate with right-wing think tanks, religious lobbyists, and far-right politicians to promote policies that restrict gender-affirming care, education on gender and sexuality, and the legal recognition of trans people. By presenting themselves as the "feminist" wing of the anti-gender movement, TERFs help provide a rhetorical cover for broader attacks on trans rights.
Internationally, TERFs have participated in events and campaigns that oppose so-called "gender ideology," a catch-all term used by anti-gender actors to attack everything from same-sex marriage to comprehensive sex education. In Europe and Latin America, TERF talking points are increasingly echoed in far-right and religious rhetoric. In the United States and the UK, TERFs have testified in court cases, submitted amicus briefs, and engaged in media campaigns to influence public opinion and legislation against trans rights.
By aligning themselves with broader authoritarian and anti-LGBTQ+ forces, TERFs play an instrumental role in normalizing transphobia in populist discourse. Scholars like Sophie Lewis have traced how TERF ideology has actively enabled the global far right. As Lewis writes, “American rightwing transphobia was only able to roar into life after the infusion of radical-feminist language, framing, support and vocabulary.” Far from being a separate or opposing force, TERFs have supplied the rhetoric and legitimacy that allows far-right actors to justify attacks on trans rights in the name of “protecting women.”[9]
TERF ideology as a form of fascism[edit]
A growing body of scholarship identifies TERF ideology not simply as a reactionary form of transphobia, but as a manifestation of contemporary neofascist politics. While it presents itself as a defense of "women’s rights," its core features, such as authoritarianism, biological essentialism, moral panic, and scapegoating, align closely with classic fascist strategies.
TERFs portray trans people, especially trans women, as existential threats to society, morality, and “real” women, echoing how fascist movements have historically targeted marginalized groups as corrupting forces. As Judith Butler has noted, “it is painful to see that Trump's position that gender should be defined by biological sex, and that the evangelical and right-wing Catholic effort to purge 'gender' from education and public policy accords with the trans-exclusionary radical feminists' return to biological essentialism." Butler has described anti-gender movements as part of a “fascist trend.”[10]
TERFs routinely collaborate with far-right political parties, white nationalist groups, Christian nationalist networks, and anti-democratic actors who also target LGBTQ+ people, migrants, and reproductive rights. Their rhetoric about “protecting women” functions as a moral alibi for increasingly authoritarian policies, including the suppression of education, healthcare, and civil rights.
The fascist tendencies of TERF ideology are especially evident in its reliance on:
- Biopolitics: Reducing womanhood to reproductive anatomy and enforcing rigid gender roles based on "biological sex."
- Authoritarian populism: Positioning themselves as the silenced voice of “ordinary women” against elites or institutions.
- Purity discourse: Obsessive boundary policing of who counts as a “real” woman.
- Scapegoating: Blaming trans people for social decline or violence, despite evidence to the contrary.
- Eliminationist rhetoric: Calls for exclusion, criminalization, or erasure of trans people from public life.
Some scholars compare TERF rhetoric to the early stages of fascist discourse, where hate is laundered through pseudo-intellectualism or protective concern, only to escalate toward dehumanization and systemic violence.
In this context, TERF ideology must be understood as a key component of a broader global reactionary movement. Its role in enabling authoritarian politics, undermining democratic norms, and legitimizing structural violence reflects the hallmarks of modern fascist resurgence. Feminist resistance must reject not only the transphobia at the heart of TERF ideology but also the fascist frameworks it increasingly advances.
Why TERF ideology is not feminism[edit]
TERFs often claim to represent feminism, but their beliefs and actions contradict what feminism actually stands for. Feminism is about fighting for the freedom, safety, and dignity of all people affected by sexism and patriarchy. That includes trans people. At its heart, feminism challenges rigid gender roles and fights for bodily autonomy — not just for cisgender women, but for everyone. TERFs, on the other hand, promote a version of womanhood that is fixed, narrow, and defined entirely by biology. They argue that womanhood begins and ends with being born female, and they use that claim to exclude and attack trans women.
This isn't just a disagreement about language or definitions. TERFs actively campaign against the rights and well-being of a marginalized group. They oppose gender-affirming care, fight to exclude trans people from public life, and work to roll back legal protections. None of this is in line with feminist principles. Instead of challenging power structures, TERFs reinforce them. Their politics depend on drawing hard boundaries, creating an “us vs. them” view of womanhood that echoes the same gatekeeping feminism has fought against for generations.
Feminism — including intersectional, queer, and radical currents — recognizes that gender oppression is not one-size-fits-all. It understands that trans people face serious harm under patriarchy and that their struggles are deeply connected to the broader fight for gender justice. TERFs reject that solidarity. They deny that trans people even belong in the conversation, often attacking them as intruders or threats. This scapegoating approach mirrors the strategies of conservative and far-right movements, which also target gender minorities to stir fear and division.
TERFs often claim that they are protecting women. But real feminist protection means opposing violence, supporting autonomy, and standing with those most at risk. Trans people, especially trans women, face disproportionate violence and discrimination. Excluding them from feminist movements doesn’t make anyone safer — it just reinforces the same hierarchies feminism exists to dismantle.
Feminism means standing with people facing harm, not pushing them out. It means listening, showing up, and recognizing that the fight against gender oppression includes everyone affected by it.
How TERFs operate[edit]
How TERFs follow the far-right playbook[edit]
TERFs don’t act alone: they operate as part of a broader backlash against LGBTQ+ rights and gender equality. Their strategies, language, and alliances closely mirror the far-right playbook. They borrow tactics long used by authoritarian movements—spreading fear, pushing moral panics, and presenting bigotry as “common sense”—while appealing to bad-faith narratives about “protecting children” or “saving women’s rights” to justify exclusion and discrimination.
A core tactic is the appeal to so-called “common sense,” positioning regressive, exclusionary beliefs as natural or self-evident truths. Anti-trans claims are framed not as ideology, but as what “everyone knows,” turning complex debates about rights and identity into simplistic binaries and obscuring their reactionary roots.
TERF disinformation campaigns focus on gender-affirming healthcare, trans participation in sports, and fabricated crime statistics. These narratives rely on pseudoscience, cherry-picked data, and fearmongering to stoke public anxiety. Simultaneously, TERF-aligned groups engage in targeted harassment campaigns, including doxxing of trans individuals and allies, smearing professionals, and organizing efforts to have events cancelled or people fired.
These strategies are often backed by legal activism (“lawfare”). TERF organizations file amicus briefs and lobby for laws that restrict gender recognition, access to healthcare, and civil rights protections, often in collaboration with right-wing groups. Meanwhile, through media framing, they brand themselves as rational or evidence-based critics, adopting euphemisms like “gender critical” to distance themselves from the far right, even as they echo its rhetoric and share platforms with its actors.
Their campaigns closely track far-right attacks on so-called “gender ideology,” using the same conspiracy theories about trans people, schools, and healthcare. They repeat the same talking points and push for the same policy goals: bans on gender-affirming care, censorship of inclusive education, and rollbacks of legal recognition.
Many TERF groups have formed direct alliances with far-right political parties, anti-LGBTQ+ lobbyists, and religious extremists. Organizations like Women's Declaration International (WDI) and Women's Liberation Front (WoLF) have worked with hate groups, attended far-right conferences, and supported regressive policies promoted by ultraconservative networks. These are calculated partnerships grounded in shared goals.
By copying the far right’s methods and working within its networks, TERFs help mainstream bigotry under a feminist disguise. This playbook has been used to inflame moral panic, consolidate political power, and undermine hard-won rights. TERFs are now a central part of that agenda.
What TERFs say and mean[edit]
“”TERFs often self-refer as “gender critical” or “adult human female.”
They refer to believing in “sex-based rights”, “LGB rights”, and “protecting women and girls.” They refer to trans people as “TRAs” (Trans Rights Activists), “the trans lobby”, “the trans debate”, and to trans women as “TIMs” (Trans Identified Males). |
—How to Spot TERF Ideology, Cambridge SU Women's Campaign[11] |
TERF ideology defines womanhood strictly by birth-assigned sex and reproductive anatomy. This view is central to their opposition to gender recognition laws, inclusive policies, and protections for trans people. Under slogans like “sex-based rights,” TERFs promote a rigid, exclusionary vision of gender that denies the legitimacy of trans identities, especially trans women.
To make their positions more acceptable to the mainstream, TERFs often present them as “concerns" about “fairness” or “safety” for “real women.” They focus heavily on public spaces like bathrooms, sports, and shelters, where they claim trans inclusion poses a threat. These arguments aren’t supported by evidence; they rely on fear, stereotypes, and moral panic.
Although TERFs often claim to speak for radical feminism, their ideology is rejected by most contemporary feminist scholars and movements. Rather than challenging patriarchy, TERF rhetoric reinforces its logic by policing who qualifies as a woman and by marginalizing gender-diverse people.
Language is central to this strategy. TERFs rely heavily on euphemisms and rebranded terms like “gender critical” and “sex-based rights” to make their positions sound reasonable or feminist. This language helps them gain platforms and appeal to liberal audiences unfamiliar with the movement’s deeper alignment with far-right politics and anti-LGBTQ+ networks.
At the same time, TERF spaces use dehumanizing language to describe trans people, especially trans women. Phrases like “men in dresses,” “female impersonators,” or predator comparisons are common. These slurs are designed to provoke fear and disgust. Memes, hashtags, and insider slang circulate widely online, spreading these ideas in ways that seem casual or ironic, but serve to normalize hate.
Dog whistles TERFs use: “Sex-based rights”, “adult human female” and “what is a woman?”[edit]

TERFs use slogans that sound like feminist advocacy to push anti-trans messages. Phrases like “sex-based rights” and “adult human female” act as political dog whistles: terms designed to sound like neutral or feminist concerns, but which covertly signal transphobic beliefs to those in the know. These slogans didn’t come from feminist theory. They were created by anti-trans activists in the 2010s to deny trans people’s legitimacy, rights, and participation in public life.
The slogans follow a populist logic. They rely on appeals to “common sense,” present trans rights as demands imposed by out-of-touch elites, and stir distrust toward institutions like media, academia, and NGOs. This anti-elite narrative is typical of the broader anti-gender movement, which portrays gender equality and LGBTQ+ rights as ideological projects pushed by global elites against the will of “ordinary people.” Rather than encouraging real understanding, these slogans flatten complex issues into messages designed to provoke, mislead, and shut down conversation.
Far from defending women’s rights, this rhetoric is designed to narrow the definition of womanhood to birth-assigned sex, erase trans identities, and legitimize discrimination. The slogan “adult human female,” popularized by far-right campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (Posie Parker), reduces womanhood to a dictionary-style formula. It relies on argumentum ad dictionarium, the flawed idea that citing a basic dictionary definition can resolve a complex issue. It reduces a deeply personal and complex aspect of human life to a slogan designed to shut people out. Gender isn’t just a word or a matter of anatomy. It’s a multidimensional reality shaped by psychological, social, cultural, and lived experience.
Phrases like “what is a woman?” and claims that someone “knows what a woman is” act as rhetorical tools, not sincere questions. They assert that womanhood is fixed and biological, excluding trans women while presenting that exclusion as “common sense.” Another such phrase is “ordinary meaning,” seen on placards and online. In each case, the implied answer is the same: “adult human female.”
The phrase “sex-based rights” is central to this strategy. It is not a long-standing feminist concept, but a recently coined pseudolegal slogan with no foundation in actual human rights law. Human rights scholar Sandra Duffy described it as "a fiction with the pretense of legality", noting that the word "sex" in international human rights law is widely understood to include gender and is not interpreted in the narrow, exclusionary sense promoted by TERFs.[12] Legal scholar Catharine A. MacKinnon likewise states "the recognition [that discrimination against trans people is discrimination on the basis of sex, that is gender, the social meaning of sex] does not, contrary to allegations of anti-trans self-identified feminists, endanger women or feminism," noting that "women do not have 'sex-based rights' in the affirmative sense some in this group seem to think."[13]
The language of “sex-based rights” isn’t grounded in real feminist concern. It’s a political strategy designed to police who gets to count as a woman and to push trans people out of legal protections, healthcare, education, and public life. It exploits fears about women’s safety, fairness, and bodily autonomy to weaponize them against a marginalized group. This mirrors the broader far-right playbook, where bad-faith actors co-opt rights-based language to attack vulnerable people and roll back social progress. Whether on placards, online, or at rallies, they’re used to taunt and harass trans people rather than invite any honest debate.
Symbols TERFs co-opt: Suffragette colors and feminist iconography[edit]
“”The purple, green and white flag is associated with the women’s suffrage movement in the United Kingdom and has become a rallying flag for a specific brand of anti-trans so-called “feminism.” If a website or third-party group really seems to be leaning into the colour palette, you might want to give them pause.
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—How to tell if that ‘feminist’ election group is actually anti-trans[14] |
In addition to slogans and dog whistles, TERFs make deliberate use of symbols to associate themselves with feminist history. One of the most visible tactics is their appropriation of suffragette aesthetics, especially the colors purple, white, and green. These colors, once used by early 20th-century British suffragettes to represent dignity, purity, and hope, now appear on TERF banners, merch, and online avatars, and are widely used by anti-trans groups. By displaying them, TERFs attempt to claim continuity with historical feminist struggles and to portray their movement as a defense of "women’s rights."
TERFs invoke suffragette colors and symbols to borrow the credibility of feminist history. But the suffragette movement, while imperfect, fought to expand rights, not to deny them. Co-opting its imagery to attack trans people doesn’t continue that legacy.
TERF groups also often use the raised feminist fist, the double Venus symbol, and other long-standing feminist icons. These are paired with messages like “adult human female” to falsely frame anti-trans views as part of a radical feminist tradition. In reality, mainstream and academic feminism overwhelmingly reject this co-optation.
There’s a reason behind the co-optation of feminist aesthetics: TERFs rely on visual cues to gain credibility. For people unfamiliar with the movement, suffragette imagery can create the illusion that TERFs are simply advocating for women. The symbols act as cover, helping hide the movement’s close alignment with far-right, anti-LGBTQ+, and anti-democratic politics.
Like their slogans, TERF symbols are used to make hate look like activism. Recognizing this tactic is key to understanding how the movement spreads and disguises itself.
Conspiracy theories, disinformation, and moral panics[edit]
—A lecture by TERF group Women's Declaration International (WDI)[15] |
TERF ideology relies heavily on conspiracy theories and disinformation to justify exclusion, incite fear, and portray trans people as a threat. These include claims that trans rights are part of a secret plot to “erase women,” that schools are “indoctrinating” children into being trans, or that gender-affirming healthcare is a profit-driven scheme by “Big Pharma.” While baseless, such conspiracy theories are widely circulated through social media, blogs, books, and public events, often with the intent to provoke outrage and block policy advances. Though rejected by actual feminists, medical professionals, and human rights organizations, TERF narratives feed into larger moral panics. Their talking points are increasingly promoted by right-wing politicians, religious fundamentalists, and far-right media.
“Erasure of women” conspiracy theory[edit]
One of the most persistent conspiracy theories promoted by TERFs is the idea that recognizing trans people, especially trans women, “erases” women from society. This narrative claims that inclusive language, legal recognition, and trans participation in public life are part of a broader campaign to eliminate the category of “woman” itself. TERFs describe this supposed erasure as an attack on the word woman, on women's rights, and on what they call the “female sex class.” The narrative follows classic conspiratorial logic by imagining a powerful trans movement working to undermine women through cultural manipulation, “institutional capture,” and control over language. Like other far-right myths, it turns growing visibility for marginalized people into a sign of crisis and collapse.
The “erasure of women” conspiracy theory is a major point of convergence between TERFs and the far right. Groups like the Heritage Foundation push the same narrative to justify anti-trans laws and policies.[16]
“Groomer,” “safeguarding,” “women’s spaces” and weaponization of “violence against women” narratives[edit]
One of the most common myths is that trans women are “men in disguise” trying to infiltrate “women’s spaces.” This claim draws from older far-right tropes that depict marginalized groups as deceptive or dangerous. TERFs recycle this claim in language that mimics “feminist” rhetoric, but turns it against trans people to justify their transmisogyny.
A central component of TERF rhetoric is the portrayal of trans people, especially trans women, as predators or threats to children. This is often couched in the language of “safeguarding,” a term increasingly weaponized as a dog whistle to mask anti-trans hate speech as concern for child protection. In this context, “safeguarding” functions as coded language for moral panic, portraying trans existence as inherently dangerous. It's an example of how superficially “neutral” language can be weaponized to advance discriminatory agendas. TERFs routinely promote conspiracy theories that depict trans people as “groomers” or part of a supposed campaign to manipulate or sexualize youth. These accusations are not neutral or protective; they are a form of hate speech rooted in the long-standing LGBTQ grooming conspiracy theory, used historically by far-right and authoritarian actors to incite fear, justify censorship, and rationalize violence. By adopting and amplifying this rhetoric, particularly in attacks on schools, libraries, drag events, and gender-affirming care for minors, TERF groups are actively contributing to the normalization of anti-LGBTQ+ hate, with trans people as the primary target.
TERFs weaponize “violence against women” narratives to push anti-trans conspiracy theories. They claim that trans women endanger so-called “women’s spaces” and call their presence a form of “male violence,” twisting feminist language to justify fear and repression. These claims have no basis in actual patterns of harm. They recycle conspiracy logic that has long been used to brand marginalized people as infiltrators or predators. The result isn’t “protection.” It’s targeted dehumanization: treating trans existence as inherently violent, and trans people as dangerous by default. In reality, trans people, especially trans women, experience staggering levels of violence, assault, and systemic neglect. Hijacking the language of feminism to justify these attacks doesn’t protect anyone, but turns real concern for gender-based violence into a weapon against those most at risk.
How TERF ideology is connected to racism and other bigotries[edit]
The overlap between TERFs and the far right isn’t just about shared tactics. It’s also about shared targets. After copying far-right strategies to attack trans rights, TERFs have moved deeper into the same networks that promote racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, and ableism. The same spaces where TERF talking points spread online are full of content targeting immigrants, Muslims, Jews, and people of color. These connections reflect a broader backlash against equality.
Many of the conspiracy theories pushed by TERFs follow a pattern long used to spread hate. The claim that trans people are being forced on society by powerful elites echoes classic antisemitic myths about secret influence and control. The idea that “Western women” are under threat draws from racist fearmongering about immigration and multiculturalism. TERF groups often rely on these same dog whistles, just directed at a different target.
Many TERF organizations go further, working openly with groups that promote white nationalism and authoritarian politics. In doing so, they help build alliances across different kinds of hate movements. The result is a wider campaign to roll back social progress and attack the rights of many marginalized groups at once.
How TERFs use trolling to target trans people[edit]
Trolling and online abuse are major parts of TERF culture. TERF-aligned users often organize dogpiles on social media, directing waves of harassment at trans individuals, allies, healthcare workers, and researchers. These campaigns frequently involve doxxing, impersonation, misgendering, and the spreading of disinformation. Targets are often chosen not only for their visibility but for their symbolic value, such as being trans, supportive of inclusive policies, or holding institutional authority. The use of mockery and coordinated trolling allows TERFs to frame their attacks as just "debate" or "criticism," while inflicting real harm.
In TERF online spaces, harassment is a bonding activity. Forums, group chats, and social media circles celebrate successful trolling campaigns and amplify one another’s content. Screenshots, memes, and inside jokes are used to build a shared identity that thrives on outrage and ridicule. This toxic culture contributes to radicalization and reinforces the movement's alignment with broader reactionary and extremist networks. Rather than advocating for any meaningful version of feminism, TERF language and trolling function as tools to enforce exclusion, provoke conflict, and escalate harm against marginalized people.[17]
Hostility to knowledge and expertise[edit]
TERF ideology is marked by a deep hostility to academic expertise, particularly in fields that challenge biological essentialism or affirm the realities of gender diversity. This extends across contemporary feminist scholarship, gender studies, trans studies, sociology, psychology, and medical research. TERFs frequently dismiss the legitimacy of these disciplines, portraying them as ideologically captured, "anti-scientific," or even dangerous. This rejection of established fields mirrors a broader anti-intellectual strain found throughout the anti-gender movement and the far-right populist backlash against "elites."
In place of peer-reviewed research or engaged scholarly debate, TERF discourse elevates fringe voices, cherry-picked studies, and pseudoscientific claims that support predetermined conclusions. Trans healthcare, for instance, is routinely denounced as "experimental" or "mutilation" despite widespread professional consensus supporting gender-affirming care. Rather than engage with the nuances of contemporary medical literature or feminist theory, TERFs often rely on anecdotal evidence, moral panic, and appeals to "common sense" as substitutes for evidence-based reasoning.
This anti-knowledge posture is foundational to the movement’s populist appeal. TERFs position themselves as brave truth-tellers defying a "corrupt" or "captured" establishment. In this narrative, scholars, medical professionals, and activists who support trans rights are portrayed as ideologues silencing dissent. This framing mirrors far-right conspiracy logics, in which entire disciplines are delegitimized to create space for reactionary beliefs. Gender studies is not critiqued on scholarly terms but dismissed wholesale as "indoctrination," often lumped together with so-called "gender ideology," a term popularized by anti-LGBTQ+ religious fundamentalists and authoritarians.
This rejection of expertise goes hand-in-hand with epistemic closure. TERF networks promote closed information ecosystems where only approved narratives circulate. Disagreement is labeled as betrayal, and formerly respected feminists are disavowed if they express support for trans inclusion. In this way, TERF spaces mimic cultic dynamics: insulating their worldview from scrutiny, isolating followers from broader feminist thought, and reinforcing ideological purity through constant repetition and policing of belief.
The result is a worldview that not only resists new knowledge, but aggressively polices the boundaries of acceptable inquiry. TERFs do not merely disagree with gender studies or trans-affirming scholarship, but seek to dismantle these fields altogether, often through campaigns aimed at harassing researchers, defunding academic programs, and pressuring institutions to silence dissent.
Who's involved[edit]
Key TERF organizations[edit]
Several groups form the backbone of the international TERF network. While each claims independence, they frequently collaborate and share infrastructure:

- Women's Declaration International (WDI): One of the most openly far-right TERF groups, WDI is closely aligned with Trumpist, alt-right, and fascist movements. Known for its anti-trans "declaration," WDI is designated as part of an "anti-LGBTQ+ pseudoscience network" by SPLC.[18][19] It has publicly supported Donald Trump’s anti-trans policies and even claimed credit for inspiring his attacks on trans rights. WDI boasted about its influence on May Mailman
, a far-right anti-abortion activist and Trump appointee who co-wrote Trump's executive order "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government" with Stephen Miller.[20]
- Standing for Women/Let Women Speak: A UK-based group founded by far-right provocateur Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (or Posie Parker), it uses transphobia to push fascist talking points into public discourse. Known for inflammatory slogans, provocative rallies, and attracting neo-Nazis, it acts as a bridge between TERF ideology and white nationalist networks.[21]
- Women's Liberation Front (WoLF): Based in the U.S., WoLF is an anti-trans astroturf group that works with far-right networks and SPLC-designated hate groups, including Alliance Defending Freedom, Concerned Women for America, and the Heritage Foundation. It has received funding linked to James Dobson and Focus on the Family, and has opposed the Equal Rights Amendment after trans rights advocates voiced support for it. Leaked emails in 2023 revealed WoLF’s coordination with other religious far-right actors to push anti-trans legislation nationwide.
- FiLiA: FiLiA is a UK-based TERF conference, often nicknamed "TERFest," that brings together key figures and groups in the international anti-trans movement. The Trans Safety Network noted that FiLiA is characterised by "a disturbing trend of anti-trans extremism, conspiracy theory and harassment of trans and GNC people" and that "much of the content on their website indicates a hostility to trans women [and] conspiratorial beliefs."[22]
- LGB Alliance: A UK-based anti-trans hate group posing as an "LGB" organization. Operating from the same office as several anti-immigrant and climate change denial organizations in London, it has branches in several countries. It is classified as a far-right hate group by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.[23]
- Women's Platform for Action International (WoPAI): Co-founded by WDI, FiLiA, the Swedish Women’s Lobby, and the misleadingly named European Network of Migrant Women (a TERF group posing as a migrant rights organization) in 2025, WoPAI coordinates international TERF activity and claims to oppose the "queer agenda", a "pro-gender movement" in academia and NGOs, and "non-legal and not agreed upon by the international community concepts of ‘gender identity’"[24]
- Swedish Women's Lobby has emerged as one of the most influential global hubs of anti-transgender activism. Though not originally founded as an anti-trans organization, it underwent a spiraling anti-trans radicalization beginning in the late 2010s and now plays a central role in the transnational anti-gender movement, closely tied to far-right populist anti-LGBTQ+ networks.
- Sex Matters: A UK-based anti-trans lobbying group founded by Maya Forstater
, best known for asserting a "right" to misgender trans people in the workplace. Masquerading as a civil liberties organization, Sex Matters campaigns to undermine trans rights and pushes a relentless agenda to erase legal recognition and protections for trans people, particularly in law, education, and workplaces.
- For Women Scotland: An anti-trans campaign group that cloaks its agenda in "women’s rights" language while opposing gender recognition reforms and promoting exclusionary, essentialist definitions of womanhood. Closely aligned with other UK-based TERF actors.
Other organizations that are central to the movement are:
- Genspect: A self-described “parent advocacy” group that is, in reality, a pseudoscientific anti-trans network opposing all forms of gender-affirming care. Founded by Stella O’Malley, Genspect spreads moral panic about trans youth, champions the debunked “ROGD” hoax, and platforms conspiracy theories under the guise of “concern.” SPLC designates Genspect as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group.[25][26]
- Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM): Closely linked to Genspect, SEGM is designated by SPLC as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group and described as “a hub of pseudoscience” promoting anti-trans disinformation under the guise of medical objectivity.[27][26]
- Fair Play For Women: A single-issue hate group that fixates on banning trans women from sports and public spaces. It uses fearmongering and disinformation to portray trans inclusion as a threat to fairness and safety, aligning closely with far-right and religious fundamentalist talking points.
- Save Women’s Sports: A U.S.-based anti-trans pressure group that exploits fears around athletics to promote exclusionary policies targeting trans women. While presenting itself as a grassroots movement, it collaborates with religious conservatives and far-right lawmakers to push bans on trans participation in sports, serving as a vehicle for broader attacks on trans civil rights.
- Irish Women's Lobby: A British-influenced TERF group created to push transphobia into Irish discourse, largely in reaction to the National Women’s Council of Ireland’s inclusive stance. Founded and amplified by UK-based TERFs, it aims to replicate Britain’s anti-trans moral panic on Irish soil.[28] One of the primary anti-trans groups in Ireland alongside Radicailín, LGB Alliance Ireland, and The Countess Didn’t Fight For This.[29]
- Women’s Place UK (WPUK): Once a central hub of the UK TERF movement, WPUK organized anti-trans rallies and campaigns under the pretense of defending feminism. It collaborated with right-wing politicians, platformed notorious transphobes, and spread disinformation to undermine trans rights, all framed as “debate.” Sociologist Sally Hines noted that “the primary goal of WPUK is to agitate against self-declaration of gender within recognition processes”.[30] Initially seen as the movement’s “moderates,” WPUK once distanced itself from Posie Parker’s overt racism and ties to the far right, but as the movement radicalized, it was sidelined and ultimately dissolved in 2024.
A number of lesser-known radical feminist organizations, often framed as focused on issues like prostitution or surrogacy and known under opaque acronyms, are nonetheless deeply embedded in the same circles as TERF groups. Though they may not always position themselves overtly as anti-trans, they share extensive personnel, participate in the same conferences, and collaborate closely with explicitly transphobic organizations. In many cases, it's the same activists, just wearing a different organizational hat. Groups like CAP international, SPACE International (founded by Rachel Moran who is deeply involved in TERF campaigns), Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW), Equality Now, Nordic Model Now, and Surrogacy Concern frequently appear at TERF-aligned events, co-sign joint statements, publicly and knowingly support outspokenly anti-trans actors, and amplify each other’s messaging. Their leadership and rhetoric often align with the core narratives of the TERF movement, particularly around essentialist definitions of womanhood and the policing of bodily autonomy, alongside a deep hostility to contemporary feminist scholarship, gender studies, and forms of knowledge that challenge their worldview, revealing a shared ideological foundation cloaked in parallel advocacy.
Key TERF activists[edit]

Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, better known as Posie Parker, plays a major role in promoting TERF ideology internationally. Keen, who popularized the TERF movement’s signature slogan, "adult human female," is among its most openly fascist-aligned voices. She regularly appears alongside far-right activists, has platformed white nationalists and Holocaust deniers, and has openly praised groups like the National Front. Her rallies have drawn neo-Nazis giving Hitler salutes, and she continues to collaborate with white supremacist networks and Christian nationalist extremists. Keen’s rhetoric is violent, conspiratorial, and explicitly eliminationist, including calling for “men with guns” in women’s bathrooms and encouraging discrimination in employment, housing, and healthcare. Some TERF groups initially distanced themselves from her — not because they disagreed with her anti-trans views, but because of how openly racist and fascist her affiliations were. But over time, those concerns faded. Keen has become one of the movement’s most recognizable figures, celebrated by J.K. Rowling. Her relentless trolling, viral stunts, and embrace of far-right talking points have not only helped mainstream transphobia but have actively merged it with broader fascist ideologies.[21]
J.K. Rowling has used her massive platform to promote overt transphobia, routinely mocking trans people online and engaging in targeted trolling. She has amplified far-right and conspiracy-laden voices like Posie Parker and Reduxx, helping spread disinformation and vilify trans women as dangerous.[31] Her actions have emboldened TERF groups, legitimized anti-trans panic in the media and policy debates, and contributed to rising hostility and institutional backlash against trans rights, especially in the UK.[32] She has even engaged in Holocaust denial,[33] and attacked cis women who do not match Western European standards of beauty.[34]
Other key TERF voices include Lierre Keith, Meghan Murphy, Helen Joyce, Graham Linehan, Kathleen Stock, Julie Bindel, Sheila Jeffreys, Kajsa "Ekis" Ekman, Allison Bailey, Kara Dansky, and Holly Lawford-Smith. While some portray themselves as feminist intellectuals, their views stand in stark opposition to the overwhelming consensus within mainstream feminist scholarship, which overwhelmingly rejects trans-exclusionary ideology as regressive and harmful. Others, like Linehan and Murphy, focus on trolling, disinformation, and harassment campaigns. Murphy is especially notorious for pushing conspiracy theories and orchestrating harassment campaigns, including mass trolling and disinformation, which led to her Twitter ban in 2018.[35]
Reem Alsalem has used her role as one of dozens of unpaid special rapporteurs for one of many UN entities to promote anti-trans talking points globally, presenting herself as if she is speaking for the UN. She has appeared with far-right groups such as WDI and Alliance Defending Freedom.[36][37] As a result, she has been condemned by hundreds of feminist and human rights organizations such as Women Deliver and Planned Parenthood.[38]
Who funds the TERF movement?[edit]
The TERF movement often presents itself as grassroots feminism. But when you follow the money, a different picture appears. Many of the groups pushing anti-trans policies and rhetoric are not funded by feminist networks or community organizing — they’re backed by powerful right-wing interests. These funders include Christian fundamentalists in the United States, far-right political actors in Europe, and even authoritarian-aligned interests in Russia. Their shared goal: to roll back human rights, gender equality, and the progress made by feminist and LGBTQ+ movements.
One of the clearest examples is the Women's Liberation Front (WoLF), a U.S.-based group that works closely with far-right Christian organizations. WoLF has received support from James Dobson, a Christian fundamentalist leader, and his network, including Focus on the Family and the Family Policy Alliance. These groups have a long history of opposing LGBTQ+ rights, abortion access, and even protections against domestic violence. In 2016, WoLF accepted a donation from the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a far-right SPLC-designated hate group.
In the United Kingdom, the LGB Alliance has tried to present itself as a rights-based organization. But it was headquartered at 55 Tufton Street, sharing office space with groups known for climate change denial, anti-immigration campaigns, and support for authoritarian populism.
Across Europe, similar funding patterns have been documented. A 2021 report for the European Parliament revealed that over $700 million in funding was directed to anti-gender movements between 2009 and 2018. Much of this came from conservative Catholic and evangelical networks, but also from sources linked to Russia and other authoritarian regimes. These funders view gender equality and LGBTQ+ rights as threats to “traditional values,” and they see anti-trans campaigns as useful tools in their broader culture wars.[39]
A 2024 study found that between 2013 and 2017, at least $3.7 billion was spent worldwide by religious and political groups to oppose gender equality and LGBTQ+ rights. That money supported everything from lobbying efforts to disinformation campaigns to strategic litigation designed to erode protections for trans people.[40]
These financial networks reveal that the TERF movement is part of a larger reactionary push, funded and supported by those who want to control bodies, restrict rights, and maintain traditional hierarchies. The language of feminism is being used as a mask for efforts that are fundamentally anti-feminist and anti-democratic.
How media amplify TERF ideology[edit]
Far-right platforms and the TERF ecosystem[edit]
“”What kind of “feminist news” site has zero articles on fair pay or reproductive rights, and only articles about transgender people who have allegedly committed crimes?
|
—The Washington Post on Reduxx[41] |


Far-right alternative media outlets play a significant role in amplifying TERF narratives. One notable example is Reduxx, a Canadian website co-founded by Anna Slatz and Genevieve Gluck. Slatz, its editor, was previously affiliated with the far-right website Rebel News, where her colleagues included Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes. Known for mainly publishing articles accusing trans people of being pedophiles, Reduxx is described by SPLC as “nothing but rabid transphobia,”[42] and by Media Bias/Fact Check as far-right.[43] Reduxx content is widely shared among TERF circles. J.K. Rowling has regularly amplified Reduxx articles.[31]
Beyond Reduxx, TERF ideology circulates widely across far-right digital platforms and social media networks. Outlets such as The Daily Wire, Breitbart, and GB News frequently host anti-trans talking points that mirror or amplify TERF rhetoric, often under the guise of defending “women’s rights” or “free speech.” These platforms provide broader audiences for TERF narratives, framing them as mainstream dissent rather than coordinated attacks on trans rights. This ecosystem creates a feedback loop where far-right media and TERF figures mutually reinforce each other’s messaging.
Sensationalist and right-wing media[edit]
In the United Kingdom, mainstream media outlets, particularly sensationalist tabloids and right-wing publications, have been instrumental in promoting TERF ideology and normalizing anti-trans narratives. These outlets often platform self-described “gender-critical” voices without challenge, presenting their views as “reasonable debate” while sidelining trans perspectives entirely. Headlines frequently emphasize fear, threat, and controversy, framing trans rights as in conflict with the safety or rights of others, especially cisgender women.
Research indicates a significant increase in negative media coverage of transgender issues over the past decade. For instance, the Daily Mail's coverage of trans topics rose from six articles in January 2013 to 115 in January 2023, with nearly all adopting a hostile or alarmist tone.[44] Other major outlets, including The Times and The Telegraph, have run campaigns opposing gender-affirming care, inclusive education, and legal recognition for trans people. These narratives are often echoed by columnists and editorial boards, helping to entrench moral panic and misrepresent trans communities as inherently controversial.
This surge in negative reporting correlates with a documented rise in anti-trans sentiment, online harassment, and hate crimes.[44] The British press has created a uniquely hostile media environment for trans people, where bigotry is routinely reframed as legitimate skepticism, and public understanding of trans issues is shaped by misinformation and sensationalism.
How TERFs harm people and society[edit]
TERF politics harm not just trans people, but also women’s rights, pluralism, knowledge systems, and democratic structures.
Harassment, radicalization, and violent extremism[edit]
“”TERFs have deployed dangerous and extreme online tactics like hate campaigns against trans youth, doxxing of trans activists, and even creating their own online forums when they are kicked out of other online spaces. Often the online abuse has made its way into the real world.
|
—National Women's Law Center[45] |

TERF rhetoric contributes to online and offline harassment. Trans people, especially women, are frequent targets of abuse, threats, and doxxing. But the impact doesn’t stop at harassment. TERF ideology often functions as a gateway into broader extremist worldviews. Scholars of radicalization have noted how seemingly niche or “culture war” issues like trans rights can serve as entry points into far-right ecosystems. Many anti-trans talking points overlap with conspiracy theories about “globalist elites,” child protection, and cultural decline, narratives also central to white nationalist, Christian nationalist, and accelerationist movements.
TERF communities frequently share content, tactics, and rhetorical frames with extremist actors. These include “groomer” conspiracy theories, anti-UN paranoia about “gender ideology,” and the misappropriation of liberal values like “free speech” or “women’s rights.” These ideas circulate through a radicalization pipeline that blends pseudofeminist transphobia with authoritarian populism, disinformation, and moral panic.
In the UK, Craig McLean argues that discourse around trans rights has been increasingly radicalized by the anti-transgender movement pushing “a radical agenda to deny the basic rights of trans people (...) under the cover of ‘free speech’.”[46] This mirrors the findings of other researchers, who have identified “gender-critical” ideology as a vector for political hardening and identity-based extremism, particularly in online spaces where transphobia, antisemitism, and misogyny often co-occur.
The COVID-19 pandemic saw a surge in online radicalization, as isolation, fear, and political instability pushed more people toward conspiracy-driven spaces. In that environment, anti-trans rhetoric became a gateway into broader extremist ideologies. What started as posts about “protecting women” or “free speech” often led users into far-right narratives about global elites, cultural decline, and “gender ideology.” Transphobia acted as a low-barrier entry point, that was emotionally charged, seemingly “common sense,” and deeply tied to identity, making it an effective tool for pulling people deeper into the online culture war.
Researchers studying violent extremism have increasingly focused on TERF ideology and its role in fueling radicalization. While not all individuals influenced by TERF ideology become violent, its alignment with far-right narratives, dehumanizing
rhetoric, and conspiracy-driven grievance makes it part of a broader ecosystem that has contributed to real-world violence. Anti-trans hate crimes are rising, and TERF or “gender-critical” forums have been documented as overlap zones with explicitly extremist communities that promote stochastic terrorism
, doxxing, and political intimidation. What begins as a “reasonable concern” about language or bathrooms can quickly become a broader worldview that sees social equality itself as dangerous. This is how TERFism feeds and is fed by the radical right.
Legal and policy rollbacks[edit]
TERF groups have played a prominent role in campaigns to restrict trans rights around the world. In the UK, the U.S., Sweden, and elsewhere, they’ve opposed gender recognition reforms, lobbied against trans-inclusive policies, and successfully pressured institutions to adopt exclusionary definitions of sex. These efforts have often focused on redefining legal terms, blocking updates to existing laws, or introducing new legislation that frames trans existence as a threat to "women’s rights."
These rollbacks undermine civil rights for trans people and reinforce structural discrimination across healthcare, education, and public services. In many countries, legal definitions of sex have been narrowed to exclude trans people, limiting access to ID documents, healthcare, employment protections, and equal treatment under the law. In practice, this means denying trans people the ability to fully participate in society, from voting and traveling to accessing shelter, insurance, or justice.
TERF-driven policy changes often become test cases for broader authoritarian and anti-rights agendas. By aligning with far-right actors, TERFs help normalize policies that restrict bodily autonomy, suppress minority rights, and weaken legal protections. These legal rollbacks contribute to a chilling climate that discourages advocacy, undermines trust in democratic institutions, and signals that trans lives are disposable.
Attacks on healthcare access[edit]
TERFs have played a key role in spreading fear and disinformation about gender-affirming care. Their messaging often focuses on the false claim that this care is dangerous, experimental, or part of a broader effort to "confuse" or "recruit" children. In reality, gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and support services, is backed by decades of research and is supported by major medical organizations around the world. Despite this, TERF-aligned groups have launched aggressive campaigns to restrict access, especially for young people.
Attacks on healthcare access often rely on emotional manipulation and misleading anecdotes. TERFs promote stories of “regret” or “detransition” as if they represent the norm, when in fact the vast majority of trans people who access care report long-term improvement in mental health and quality of life. They use cherry-picked data and fringe sources to spread panic about supposed “harm,” often in collaboration with far-right media outlets, religious lobbying groups, and right-wing politicians. Together, they push for laws and policies that ban or severely restrict gender-affirming care for minors, delay treatment for adults, or criminalize medical providers.
The impact of attacks on healthcare access is severe. Denying access to care doesn't make trans people disappear, but it increases suffering. Studies consistently show that gender-affirming care is linked to lower rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide attempts, especially among trans youth. When that care is taken away, those risks rise dramatically. TERF activism has contributed directly to clinic closures, harassment of healthcare professionals, and the chilling of medical research. In some countries and U.S. states, the climate of hostility is so extreme that families have been forced to flee in order to access safe, legal treatment for their children.
Attacks on gender-affirming care often go hand in hand with efforts to restrict reproductive healthcare. Both are driven by attempts to control people’s bodies and enforce narrow, binary ideas of gender. Trans healthcare and abortion rights are deeply connected struggles, both about the right to make personal decisions without coercion, punishment, or discrimination. TERF opposition to gender-affirming care directly undermines this principle, and contributes to a broader climate of fear, stigma, and suffering for trans people.
Attacks on education[edit]
TERF groups have increasingly focused on influencing school policies, curricula, and classroom environments. They claim that teaching about gender identity or including trans students in schools is “confusing” or “dangerous” to children, claims not backed by evidence. In reality, these attacks are part of a broader effort to push trans people out of public life, starting with the youngest generation.
They have supported book bans, opposed LGBTQ+ inclusive lessons, and pushed to exclude trans students from school activities, restrooms, and sports. These exclusionary policies, often introduced with backing from far-right or religious conservative groups, don’t make anyone safer. Instead, they create a hostile environment and increase harm, especially for trans and gender-diverse students who already face high rates of bullying and discrimination.
Attacks on inclusive language[edit]
TERF groups often target inclusive language in schools, healthcare, media, and government policies. They claim that terms acknowledging gender diversity “erase” women, but this claim is unfounded. Inclusive language aims to respect and encompass all individuals affected by gender-based issues, including trans, nonbinary, and intersex people. TERFs reject this inclusivity, promoting rigid and outdated views of gender.
In her 2023 review of recent scholarship on language, gender, and sexuality, Lucy Jones notes that "gender-critical" actors often oppose linguistic practices affirming trans and nonbinary identities, citing the preservation of "sex-based rights" as justification. She observes that this resistance is typically framed by a binary and essentialist ideology that defines "woman" exclusively as someone assigned female at birth. Jones characterizes this stance as part of a broader "cisnormative preoccupation with trans people's bodies" and a form of linguistic policing aimed at denying the legitimacy of trans and nonbinary identities.[47]
Claims that inclusive language “erases women” are rooted in conspiracy-driven narratives, and are a major point of convergence between TERFs and the far right. Anti-trans groups portray gender-inclusive terms as part of a hidden effort to abolish the “category of women” or what TERFs call the “female sex class,” accusing institutions and public bodies of “erasing women from language and law.” These claims rely on imagined threats and exaggerated consequences, typical of moral panic, where social change is cast as a danger rather than a shift toward inclusion.
Rodrigo Borba examines the emergence of an "anti-gender register" in trans-exclusionary discourse, including gender-critical feminism. He argues that this register, drawing on essentialist ideas about sex and gender, gains traction through "enregisterment," a process making certain ideological positions appear natural or commonsensical. Borba suggests this has been achieved partly by appropriating the language of feminist and LGBTQ+ antidiscrimination activism, reframing it to emphasize threats to the rights of cisgender women and children.[48]
Attacks on inclusive language don’t stop at internet harassment. TERFs have advocated for laws and policies banning inclusive terms in public documents, education, and medical settings. They often collaborate with far-right politicians and religious groups opposing LGBTQ+ rights. This shared focus on restricting gender discussions underscores how closely TERFs align with broader far-right campaigns to reverse social progress.
The inclusive terms targeted by TERFs are not attempts to erase the word woman, but context-specific language meant to include all those affected – like trans men and nonbinary people in reproductive healthcare. Phrases such as pregnant people are typically used in medical, legal, or policy settings to reflect this diversity. However, TERFs and other anti-gender actors frequently distort and ridicule such language, presenting it as absurd or offensive to stoke populist outrage. This rhetorical strategy fuels disinformation, inflames culture war narratives, and makes it harder for trans and nonbinary people to be seen, respected, and protected. Beyond semantics, the ultimate goal is political: to restrict visibility, enforce exclusion, and deny trans people safe and equitable participation in public life.
Attacks on inclusive sports[edit]
“”Take the story of Fischer Wells, a 13-year-old trans girl who helped recruit for her school’s field hockey team, opening up new team spots for herself and cisgender girls. Despite basically creating this team, Fischer was heartbreakingly kicked off her team as the lone middle-schooler targeted by Kentucky’s anti-trans sports ban.
|
—National Women's Law Center[49] |

Anti-trans activists have weaponized sports as a key front in their broader campaign to exclude trans people from public life. The attacks are part of a coordinated effort to stir moral panic, spread misinformation, and isolate and shame trans women and girls.
From state legislatures in the United States to right-wing media campaigns in the UK, TERFs and their far-right allies have turned trans athletes into political targets. Their attacks rely on public misunderstanding of biology and sport, turning trans people into scapegoats and portraying their presence in sports as a threat.
Stories are routinely stripped of context, turned into viral outrage bait. Sensationalized anecdotes and dehumanizing headlines dominate coverage, often at the expense of actual trans people, especially children. Young athletes are bullied, misrepresented, and dragged into national debates they never asked to be part of. Slogans like “Save Women’s Sports” are used not to promote fairness, but to attack and exclude. Behind the attacks is a clear intent: to push trans youth out of public life by making their basic participation controversial.
Major feminist, civil rights, and public health organizations reject the scapegoating of trans athletes. Trans women and girls are not and have never been a threat to women’s sports. An overwhelming number of gender justice organizations — including the National Organization for Women and the Women’s Sports Foundation — have stated clearly that policing gender in sport harms all women and girls, not just trans athletes. They affirm that inclusive sports policies reflect feminist values such as fairness, participation, and access. Trans girls, like all girls, deserve the benefits of playing sports: improved mental health, academic success, and a sense of belonging.[50]
Bathroom panic[edit]
Anti-trans activists, including TERFs and far-right groups, have spent years fueling fear about trans women using public restrooms and locker rooms. The narrative is almost always the same: that trans women are “men in disguise” seeking to harm cis women and girls. It is a baseless claim rooted in misogyny, transmisogyny, and age-old tropes that portray marginalized groups as predators.
There is no evidence to support this panic. Study after study shows that trans people are not a threat in public facilities. In fact, trans people, especially trans women, are far more likely to be harassed, assaulted, or denied access when using bathrooms and locker rooms than to pose any danger to others.[51]
Despite this, TERFs and their allies relentlessly invoke worst-case scenarios and urban legends to justify exclusion. They frame basic access to public restrooms as a battleground for “women’s safety,” knowing that this rhetoric plays on deeply emotional fears. But these scare tactics do not protect women, they harm them.
Here’s how:
- They fuel violence against trans women, who are often harassed or physically attacked for using facilities that align with their identity.
- They lead to policies that criminalize bathroom use, forcing trans people to “hold it,” avoid public life, or risk arrest.
- They create a chilling effect where anyone who doesn’t conform to narrow gender norms, including masculine-presenting women, butch lesbians, and nonbinary people, is subjected to suspicion or harassment.
In this way, “bathroom panic” becomes a tool of broader gender policing. It reinforces the idea that only certain bodies are allowed to exist safely in public. It punishes trans people for being visible and makes everyday acts, like using the toilet or changing at the gym, a flashpoint for hate.
Feminist analysis reveals how this panic plays into patriarchal myths. For generations, women have been told to fear public space, to see men as lurking threats, and to accept surveillance as protection. TERF rhetoric revives this logic, but redirects it toward trans women, who are not perpetrators, but among the most vulnerable to violence.
Legal scholar Ntina Tzouvala notes that this rhetoric also revives the long-discredited “stranger danger” myth of sexual violence, one that feminist theorists, including radical feminists, spent decades dismantling. She argues that this panic erases the reality that most gender-based violence occurs in private, not public, and warns that so-called “vigilant” approaches to bathroom policing result in increased harassment of gender-nonconforming cis women, especially butch lesbians, who are wrongly targeted based on their failure to conform to stereotypical femininity.[52]
When TERFs claim to defend women by excluding trans women, what they’re really defending is a narrow and exclusionary idea of who gets counted as a woman. In doing so, they make all women less safe. Surveillance, suspicion, and bathroom bans don’t stop harm, but amplify it, especially for those already marginalized.
Access to safe, inclusive facilities is not a special right. It’s a matter of dignity, health, and public participation. Denying it to trans people under the false banner of “protection” betrays both feminist values and basic human decency.
Cultural and political distortion[edit]
TERF ideology doesn’t just cause harm through laws or online abuse. It also damages how people understand feminism, gender, and trans rights. By borrowing the language of "fairness" and "protection," TERFs make exclusion sound reasonable to people who might not know the full picture. This creates confusion, especially for those who want to support women’s rights but aren’t familiar with trans issues. It blurs the line between advocacy and discrimination in a way that misleads the public and distorts the meaning of feminism.
This kind of cultural harm has wide effects. It makes teachers, journalists, and politicians more hesitant to speak out for trans rights, fearing backlash. It spreads suspicion, encouraging people to treat trans lives as controversial instead of simply human. For trans people, especially youth, it sends a harmful message: that who they are is up for debate, and that they don’t truly belong.
But this damage doesn’t stop at individuals. It also weakens the foundations of democratic society. TERF rhetoric fuels distrust in public institutions, undermines respect for expertise and research, and attacks the values of pluralism, the idea that society should make space for many voices and experiences. It encourages people to reject knowledge they find uncomfortable, and to treat inclusion as a threat rather than a strength. In doing so, it plays into broader patterns of democratic backsliding, where fear and control take the place of reason and dialogue.
At its heart, this is not just a fight about policy or language. It’s about what kind of world we want to build. A society rooted in fear, exclusion, and rigid control, or one that values compassion, curiosity, and care. Pluralism and democracy depend on our ability to live with difference and to protect one another’s dignity. A society that fails to do that doesn’t just harm trans people. It loses part of its humanity.
How feminists resist TERFs[edit]
Real feminist movements stand with trans people[edit]
“”Don’t Be a TERF
|
—National Women's Law Center[45] |
Mainstream feminist organizations have made it clear: transphobia has no place in feminism. Sociologist Kelsy Burke observed that "TERFs aren't aligned with most feminists" and that "most American feminists are far from trans-exclusionary and have long been among the most supportive groups of LGBTQ equality".[53] Groups like Women’s March, the National Organization for Women, and the National Women’s Law Center have all affirmed that the fight for gender justice must include trans people.
That clarity comes from feminism’s core purpose. Feminism challenges the systems that control people’s bodies, identities, and autonomy. Transphobia reinforces the very hierarchies feminism exists to dismantle. Excluding trans women harms all trans people, and it falls especially hard on those who also face racism, poverty, or ableism. It upholds the logic of patriarchy: deciding who qualifies for rights, safety, and belonging.
Feminist organizations reject TERF ideology because it contradicts both the history and future of the movement. From the struggle for reproductive justice to the fight for equal pay, feminist progress has always depended on standing together across difference. Supporting trans people is not a side issue: it is part of the work. TERFs try to speak for feminism, but the feminist movement has already spoken. It stands with trans people.
- What real feminist movements say
- In 2020 28 feminist groups in France denounced TERF ideology, and said that "questions disguised as 'legitimate concerns' quickly give way to more violent attacks" and that "it is a confusionist and conspiratorial ideological movement using the cover of feminism to disrupt real feminist fights."[2] The declaration has since also been signed by over 100 additional feminist, LGBT, and progressive groups
- In 2021, over 110 feminist organisations in Canada signed a statement stating that they "vehemently reject the dangerous and bigoted rhetoric and ideology espoused by Trans Exclusionary Radical 'Feminists' (TERFs)", and saying that "trans people are a driving force in our feminist movements and make incredible contributions across all facets of our society".[54]
Intersectional and queer feminist critiques[edit]
Feminist scholars such as Judith Butler, Julia Serano, and Susan Stryker have critically examined the pseudo-feminist framing of TERF ideology. They highlight how trans-exclusionary politics rely on outdated, biologically reductionist concepts of sex and gender that contradict decades of feminist research.
Intersectional and queer feminists reject the notion that womanhood can be narrowly defined by reproductive anatomy or by sex assigned at birth. Instead, they demonstrate that gender is shaped by complex social, cultural, and historical forces, and that genuine feminism must address intersecting systems of oppression, including transphobia. From this view, now dominant in contemporary feminist thought, TERF ideology is not just exclusionary but actively undermines feminist goals by reinforcing patriarchal and anti-queer narratives.
By centering lived experience, challenging biological determinism, and resisting binary thinking, intersectional and queer feminists make clear that trans liberation is inseparable from broader feminist struggles for justice and equality.
Radical feminist critiques[edit]
“”Radical feminism has been co-opted by a few powerful transphobes who do not represent radical feminist ideology. As a result, many of the students I taught at Cambridge were anti-radical feminists. They believed radical feminism was inherently transphobic. But it isn’t.
|
—Charlotte Proudman[55] |
Legal scholar Ntina Tzouvala argues that TERF ideology represents a betrayal, not a continuation, of radical feminist thought. In her 2021 article "Salvaging the ‘RF’," she shows how trans-exclusionary politics contradict the core commitments of early radical feminism, which focused on structural oppression and the power of social systems, not biology. Tzouvala stresses that foundational thinkers like Andrea Dworkin and Catharine A. MacKinnon saw gender as a social force that shapes lives through subordination, not something fixed at birth. From this view, trans women, who also suffer gender-based harm, belong within feminist struggle.[52]
Tzouvala also critiques the way TERF discourse revives dangerous myths under a feminist mask. Fears about “predators in bathrooms” and the policing of identity echo long-standing patriarchal tropes about male violence as random and external, rather than structural and often domestic. She argues that true radical feminism targets the systems that allow violence and inequality to flourish, not vulnerable individuals. By turning feminist energy against trans women, TERFs misdirect the fight and weaken feminist goals.[52]
Catharine A. MacKinnon, one of the most influential feminist legal theorists of the 20th century, has also strongly rejected trans-exclusionary ideology. Writing in Signs in 2023, she warns that defining womanhood by biology is a dangerous return to the essentialism feminists have long fought. She argues that the oppression of women is not caused by chromosomes or body parts, but by power structures that impose dominance and submission through gender roles. In her words, “women are not oppressed by our bodies,” and feminism should not fall into the trap of defending the very ideas patriarchy has used to control women.[56]
MacKinnon is clear that trans women are not a threat to feminism, they are part of it. She sees anti-trans panic as a distraction from real violence, often used by the right to push regressive laws. By siding with conservatives, trans-exclusionary feminists end up reinforcing male dominance and rigid gender roles. She calls instead for a broader, more inclusive feminism: one that stands with all people harmed by patriarchy, including trans people. For both Tzouvala and MacKinnon, feminism’s power lies in resisting hierarchy and domination, not replicating it.[56]
Trans people are not a debate[edit]
“”It’s not “the Jewish question”, it’s “the anti-semitism question”. Likewise it’s not “the transgender question”, it’s “the transphobia question”.
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—Sophie-Grace Chappell[57] |
One of the most insidious tactics used by trans-exclusionary movements is to frame trans people, particularly trans women, not as individuals with rights, lives, and dignity, but as a “debate.” This framing is not neutral. It is a political weapon designed to deny justice, legitimize harm, and elevate bad-faith arguments to the level of public discourse.
TERF ideology thrives in the language of “just asking questions.” But when those questions concern the legitimacy of someone’s identity, the safety of their healthcare, or their right to exist in public life, it’s not a debate, it’s a denial of personhood.
The philosopher Sophie-Grace Chappell draws a chilling historical parallel: there is no such thing as “the transgender question,” no more than there was any such thing as “the Jewish question” in 19th- or 20th-century Germany. These so-called “questions” were never about curiosity. They were tools of dehumanization. As Chappell puts it, the real question is not about transgender people, but about transphobia itself.[57]
Framing trans existence as controversial is not harmless. It creates real, measurable harm. In schools, it justifies excluding trans students from recognition and support. In healthcare, it fuels misinformation campaigns that block access to life-saving care. In media and law, it lends undue credibility to hate groups and bigotry by treating them as merely one “side” of an issue. And on social media, it gives cover to harassment campaigns that target trans people for simply living their lives.
This manufactured “debate” also distorts feminism. Feminist movements have long fought to make the personal political, to reject the framing of systemic oppression as a matter of opinion. Feminism did not succeed by treating sexism, racism, or reproductive rights as abstract topics to be argued over. It succeeded by asserting that those affected should be heard, believed, and empowered. The same must hold true for trans people.
From a feminist standpoint, the humanity of trans people, especially trans women, is not up for discussion. Their inclusion is not negotiable. Feminism that abandons trans people is not feminism.
What’s at stake is not a semantic dispute over words like “woman.” What’s at stake is whether we allow ourselves to be pulled into a rhetorical trap where bigotry masquerades as “free speech,” and structural violence is treated as reasonable disagreement. The consequences of that trap are not theoretical: They are visible in rising hate crimes, suicidality among trans youth, and the rollback of rights across education, healthcare, and law.
Trans people are not a debate. They are our sisters, comrades, and fellow travelers in the struggle against patriarchal domination. Feminist resistance must include them, not as a gesture of charity, but as a matter of justice.
Terminology[edit]
Why “TERF” is not a slur[edit]
The term "trans-exclusionary radical feminist" or "TERF" was first coined and popularized in 2008 by trans-inclusive radical feminist blogger Viv Smythe (known online as TigTog). Smythe introduced "TERF" as a deliberately neutral, descriptive shorthand for distinguishing radical feminists who actively opposed the inclusion of trans people, particularly trans women, from those who were either supportive or neutral regarding trans rights. Smythe explained her intention clearly in a 2014 interview:
“”It was meant to be a deliberately technically neutral description of an activist grouping. We wanted a way to distinguish TERFs from other radfems with whom we engaged who were trans-positive/neutral, because we had several years of history of engaging productively and substantively with non-TERF radfems...
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Despite its straightforward origins, some individuals labeled TERFs publicly reject the term, claiming it to be a slur. In practice, however, many openly embrace the term without hesitation, underscoring the inconsistency and tactical nature of these objections. The claim that "TERF" is a slur is widely viewed as a rhetorical maneuver designed to frame TERFs as victims while continuing to propagate transphobia. Serena Bassi and Greta LaFleur note that "the argument by trans-exclusionary radical feminists that the term TERF (an acronym for "trans-exclusionary radical feminist") is a "slur"—rather than a description of a particular approach to politics—leans on a "politics of injury" that distances itself from the real and very harmful work trans-exclusionary radical feminism is doing in the world."[58]
In The SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies Cristan Williams notes that
“”The term has been rhetorically helpful in distinguishing TERF activism from the long-term radical feminist community members who are inclusive of trans women and in recognizing that early radical feminist opinion leaders like Andrea Dworkin, Catharine MacKinnon, and Dana Densmore and pioneering radical feminist groups like the Lesbian Tide, the Olivia Collective, and Sisters were trans supportive. However, TERF activists characterize the acronym as offensive, which spawned the “TERF is a slur” campaign to discourage its use. Many TERFs see no distinction between their politics and radical feminist analysis, but if such a distinction is to be made, they encourage opinion leaders to use the term gender critical instead of TERF. Therefore, the rhetorical utility of TERF brings a not always welcomed linguistic nuance to feminist discourse, especially online discourse, wherein communication is frequently condensed through abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms. While TERF, as a lexical unit, can carry unflattering overtones in the same way that bigot, misogynist, or racist might, it nonetheless constructs a much-needed way to disentangle the sometimes subjugative, violent, and even murderous anti-trans behavior and rhetoric of TERF activism from radical feminism itself, even as TERFs work tirelessly to represent their activism as “radical feminism” on popular, social, and academic media platforms
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—Cristan Williams[59] |
Feminist philosopher Judith Butler argued that the label "TERF" accurately reflects the beliefs and actions of those it describes:
“”I am not aware that terf is used as a slur. I wonder what name self-declared feminists who wish to exclude trans women from women's spaces would be called? If they do favour exclusion, why not call them exclusionary? If they understand themselves as belonging to that strain of radical feminism that opposes gender reassignment, why not call them radical feminists?
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—Judith Butler[60] |
Rebranding as “gender critical”[edit]
Since the 2010s, TERFs have increasingly attempted to rebrand their ideology under the term "gender-critical feminism" (abbreviated GC). Scholars and feminist critics have characterized this rebranding effort as a calculated rhetorical strategy and a form of dogwhistling intended to obscure overt transphobia. Researcher Claire Thurlow highlights how this shift from "TERF" to "gender critical" serves as a euphemism designed to mask anti-trans activism as legitimate feminist critique.[61] Similarly, Aleardo Zanghellini has argued that "gender-critical feminism" fundamentally seeks to exclude trans individuals. Further scholarly critiques by Mauro Cabral Grinspan, Ilana Eloit, David Paternotte, and Mieke Verloo identify "gender-critical feminism" as problematic precisely because it is intended to sanitize and normalize anti-trans sentiments. They emphasize that the phrase functions primarily as a rebranding tactic.[62]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ Aria Bendix (September 28, 2022). "Pandemic may have made young adults more neurotic and less agreeable, study finds". NBC.
During the 2020 period, the responses were fairly consistent with those gathered before Covid emerged. But the researchers saw significant changes during the 2021-2022 period, suggesting that the collective stress of the pandemic affected people's dispositions over time. … [F]rom 2021 to 2022, adults ages 64 and under saw declines in extroversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Le débat sur la place des femmes trans n'a pas lieu d'être". 2020. Archived from the original on 17 May 2021.
- ↑ "Judith Butler on the culture wars, JK Rowling and living in "anti-intellectual times"". New Statesman. 22 September 2020. Archived from the original on 17 April 2022.
- ↑ Ghandy, Anuradha. Philosophical Trends in the Feminist Movement. Utrecht, 2016.
- ↑ Raymond, Janice. The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male. Boston, 1979.
- ↑ John, Tara (9 October 2021). "Anti-trans rhetoric is rife in the British media. Little is being done to extinguish the flames". CNN.
- ↑ Connolly, D.J., Meads, C., Wurm, A. et al. Transphobia in the United Kingdom: a public health crisis. Int J Equity Health 24, 155 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-025-02509-z
- ↑ Ffrench, Méabh (2022). "Transphobia is the Feminism of Fools". Rupture.
- ↑ Wong, Julia Carrie (21 February 2025). "'It's a scary time': Sophie Lewis on the 'enemy feminisms' that enable the far right". The Guardian.
- ↑ Butler, Judith (23 October 2021). "Why is the idea of 'gender' provoking backlash the world over?". The Guardian.
- ↑ "How to Spot TERF Ideology 2.0" (PDF). Cambridge SU Women's Campaign (Cambridge Students' Union). 2021–2022.
- ↑ Duffy, Sandra (26 October 2021). "An International Human Rights Law Analysis of the WHRC Declaration". Archived from the original on 16 May 2025.
- ↑ MacKinnon, Catharine A. (2023). "A Feminist Defense of Transgender Sex Equality Rights" (PDF). Yale Journal of Law and Feminism. 34.
- ↑ "How to tell if that 'feminist' election group is actually anti-trans". Xtra. 2021-08-17.
- ↑ Women's Declaration International (WDI): "Did Freemasonry have a role in the roots of the trans movement?"
- ↑ "The Erasure of "Women" Is Escalating". The Heritage Foundation. 2021-10-14.
- ↑ Ploch, N. (2025). "A systematic review of TERF behaviour online in relation to sociopsychological group dynamics". Journal of Gender Studies. 34 (4): 526–539. doi:10.1080/09589236.2024.2431569.
- ↑ "Timeline: Building a Pseudoscience Network". Combating Anti-LGBTQ+ Pseudoscience. Southern Poverty Law Center. 2023.
- ↑ "Group dynamics and division of labor within the anti-LGBTQ+ pseudoscience network". Combating Anti-LGBTQ+ Pseudoscience. Southern Poverty Law Center. 2023.
Table 5.2: Networked Groups by Typology [...] Narrative Manipulation: [...] Women's Declaration International
- ↑ Kara Dansky: FFS Friday: May Mailman
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 Sam Elkin (25 March 2023). "TERF wars and neo-Nazis". The Saturday Paper.
- ↑ "FiLiA conference 2022: Transphobia, harassment and arrests at conference in Cardiff". Trans Safety Network. 2022.
- ↑ "New GPAHE Report Profiles Far-Right Hate and Extremist Groups in Ireland". Global Project against Hate and Extremism. 21 August 2022.
- ↑ "Why WoPAI is needed". Women's Platform for Action International (WoPAI). 5 February 2025. Archived from the original on 2025-02-20.
- ↑ "Hate Map". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on 12 July 2024. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 "Extremist Files: Anti-LGBTQ". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on 5 September 2021. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
- ↑ Cravens, R.G.; McLamore, Quinnehtukqut; Leveille, Lee; Hodges, Emerson; Wunderlich, Sophie; Bates, Lydia (December 12, 2023). "Group dynamics and division of labor within the anti-LGBTQ+ pseudoscience network". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2023-12-21.
- ↑ O'Toole, Emer (2021-03-12). "Irish feminists must avoid British trap of transphobia". The Irish Times. The Irish Times. Retrieved 2025-06-07.
Trans-exclusionary ideas lack compassion and must be repelled from Ireland
- ↑ Duffy, Sandra (2023). "Postcolonial Dynamics in Pro- and Anti-Trans Activism in the UK and Ireland". feminists@law. 12 (2). Retrieved 2025-06-07.
- ↑ Hines, Sally (2020). "Sex wars and (trans) gender panics: Identity and body politics in contemporary UK feminism". The Sociological Review. 68 (4): 699–717. doi:10.1177/0038026120934684.
- ↑ 31.0 31.1 "JK Rowling slammed for 'demonising' trans inmates at prison where women raped by guards". PinkNews. 31 May 2022.
- ↑ "JK Rowling and anti-trans rhetoric have caused 'significant damage' to the UK, international LGBT+ report warns". PinkNews. 17 February 2021.
- ↑ McCall, Vivian (2024-03-20). "Yes, JK Rowling, the Nazis Did Persecute Trans People: We Asked the Leading Expert on the Topic". The Stranger.
- ↑ Ewe, Koh (2024-08-02). "Taiwan Turns Against J.K. Rowling for Stirring Olympic Boxing Gender Controversy". Time.
- ↑ "TERFs Don't Have a Right to Be Transphobic on Twitter, Court Rules". Them.us. 16 February 2021.
- ↑ Theilen, Jens (2024). "Intersectionality's Travels to International Human Rights Law". Michigan Journal of International Law. 45 (2). SSRN 4504732.
- ↑ "Rights For Me, Not For Thee: How Anti-Trans Feminists Took Their Advocacy to the United Nations".
- ↑ "Joint Statement Concerning the Call for Input by the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls".
- ↑ Hughson, Greta (27 May 2021). "Who's financing the 'anti-gender' movement in Europe?". Aidsmap. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- ↑ Johnson, Sarah (2024-09-11). "Religious groups 'spending billions to counter gender-equality education'". The Guardian.
- ↑ Hesse, Monica (March 6, 2023). "Listening to 'The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling' is exhausting work". Washington Post.
- ↑ Miller, Cassie (April 18, 2023). "Male Supremacy Is at the Core of the Hard Right's Agenda". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved August 4, 2024.
- ↑ "Reduxx". Media Bias/Fact Check. 31 December 2024.
- ↑ 44.0 44.1 "Why has the Transgender community been left behind? Rampant increase in transphobia and the role of the media". British Politics at Queen's. 18 April 2024.
- ↑ 45.0 45.1 "Happy Pride! Don't Be a TERF". National Women's Law Center. 2023-06-21.
- ↑ McLean, Craig (2021). "The Growth of the Anti-Transgender Movement in the United Kingdom: The Silent Radicalization of the British Electorate". International Journal of Sociology. 51 (6): 473–482. doi:10.1080/00207659.2021.1939946.
- ↑ Jones, Lucy (2023). "Language, gender and sexuality in 2022: Documenting and resisting regressive ideology". Gender and Language. 17 (2): 1–18. doi:10.1558/genl.26176.
- ↑ Borba, Rodrigo (2022). "Enregistering 'gender ideology': the emergence and circulation of a transnational anti-gender language". Journal of Language and Sexuality. 11 (1): 57–79. doi:10.1075/jls.21003.bor.
- ↑ "Once and For All: This Is Why We Support Trans Women and Girls in Sports". National Women's Law Center. 6 December 2023.
- ↑ "A statement from Athlete Ally on the future of women's sport" (PDF). Athlete Ally. 2021.
- ↑ Hasenbush, A.; Flores, A. R.; Herman, J. L. (2019). "Gender Identity Nondiscrimination Laws in Public Accommodations: a Review of Evidence Regarding Safety and Privacy in Public Restrooms, Locker Rooms, and Changing Rooms". Sexuality Research and Social Policy. 16 (1): 70–83. doi:10.1007/s13178-018-0335-z.
- ↑ 52.0 52.1 52.2 Tzouvala, Ntina (3 February 2021). "Salvaging the 'RF': Radical Feminism and Trans Exclusion". Critical Legal Thinking. Retrieved 5 June 2025.
- ↑ Burke, Kelsy (2023-07-27). "Feminists have long supported trans rights". The Washington Post.
- ↑ "Our Feminism is Trans Inclusive". 2021. Archived from the original on 12 June 2021.
- ↑ Proudman, Charlotte (28 July 2022). "Being a radical feminist means being a trans ally at the same time". The Independent.
- ↑ 56.0 56.1 MacKinnon, Catharine A.; Mackay, Finn; Shuman, Mischa; Fredman, Sandra (2024). "Exploring Transgender Law and Politics". Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 50 (1): 279–318. doi:10.1086/731625.
- ↑ 57.0 57.1 Chappell, Sophie-Grace (2 November 2020). "Getting the question right: reflections on transgender and "the transgender question"". Open for Debate. Cardiff University.
- ↑ Bassi, Serena; LaFleur, Greta (2022). "Introduction: TERFs, Gender-Critical Movements, and Postfascist Feminisms". Transgender Studies Quarterly. 9 (3): 311–333. doi:10.1215/23289252-9836008. S2CID 253052875.
- ↑ Williams, Cristan (2021). "TERFs". The SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies. London, Los Angeles: SAGE Reference. pp. 822–825. ISBN 978-1-5443-9381-0.
- ↑ Judith Butler on the culture wars, JK Rowling and living in “anti-intellectual times”, Alona Ferber, The New Statesman, September 2020
- ↑ Thurlow, Claire (2022). "From TERF to gender critical: A telling genealogy?". Sexualities. 27 (4): 962–978. doi:10.1177/13634607221107827.
- ↑ Grinspan, Mauro Cabral; Eloit, Ilana; Paternotte, David; Verloo, Mieke (2023). "Exploring TERFnesses". Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies. 10 (2). doi:10.21825/digest.90008.
Further reading[edit]
- Explainers and introductions
- "How to Spot TERF Ideology 2.0" (PDF). Cambridge SU Women's Campaign (Cambridge Students' Union). 2021–2022.
- "Happy Pride! Don't Be a TERF". National Women's Law Center. 2023-06-21.
- "The rise of anti‑trans "radical" feminists, explained". Vox. 2019-09-05.
- "How the far-right is turning feminists into fascists". Xtra. 2022-04-01.
- "How to tell if that 'feminist' election group is actually anti-trans". Xtra. 2021-08-17.
- Gutzwa, J. A. (2022). "Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs)". Brill's Encyclopedia of Critical Understanding in Education. Brill. doi:10.1163/2949-7299_ECUE_COM_04137.
- Williams, Cristan (2021). "TERFs". The SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies. London, Los Angeles: SAGE Reference. pp. 822–825. ISBN 978-1-5443-9381-0.
- Ellis, Rowan (2017). "What are TERFs?" (Video). YouTube.
- Alexandre, Lily (2024). "The Feminist to Far-Right Pipeline" (Video). YouTube.
- Books and academic volumes
- Vincent, Ben; Erikainen, Sonja; Pearce, Ruth, eds. (2020). "TERF Wars: Feminism and the Fight for Transgender Futures". The Sociological Review (Special issue). 68 (4).
- Bassi, Serena; LaFleur, Greta, eds. (2022). "Trans-Exclusionary Feminisms and the Global New Right". Transgender Studies Quarterly (Special issue). 9 (3).
- Cabral Grinspan, Mauro; Eloit, Ilana; Paternotte, David; Verloo, Mieke, eds. (2023). "Varieties of TERFness". Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies (Special issue). 10 (2).
- Butler, Judith (2024). Who's Afraid of Gender?. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-60823-1.
- Lewis, Sophie (2025). Enemy Feminisms: TERFs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses Against Liberation. Haymarket Books. ISBN 9798888902493.
- Selected academic papers
- Rogers, Baker A. (2023). "TERFs aren't feminists: lesbians stand against trans exclusion". Journal of Lesbian Studies. 28 (1): 24–43. doi:10.1080/10894160.2023.2252286. PMID 37679960. S2CID 261608725.
many lesbians despise TERF ideology
- Williams, Cristan (2016). "Radical Inclusion: Recounting the Trans Inclusive History of Radical Feminism". Transgender Studies Quarterly. 3 (1–2): 254–258. doi:10.1215/23289252-3334463.
- MacKinnon, Catharine A. (2023). "A Feminist Defense of Transgender Sex Equality Rights". Yale Journal of Law and Feminism. 34.
- Fradella, Henry F. (2023). "The Imperative of Rejecting 'Gender-Critical' Feminism in the Law". William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice. 30 (2). doi:10.2139/ssrn.4419750.
- Thurlow, Claire (2022). "From TERF to gender critical: A telling genealogy?". Sexualities. 27 (4): 962–978. doi:10.1177/13634607221107827.
- Billard, Thomas J (2023). ""Gender-Critical" Discourse as Disinformation: Unpacking TERF Strategies of Political Communication". Women's Studies in Communication. 46 (2): 235–243. doi:10.1080/07491409.2023.2193545.
- Ploch, N. (2025). "A systematic review of TERF behaviour online in relation to sociopsychological group dynamics". Journal of Gender Studies. 34 (4): 526–539. doi:10.1080/09589236.2024.2431569.
- Hines, Sally (2017). "The feminist frontier: on trans and feminism". Journal of Gender Studies. 28 (2): 145–157. doi:10.1080/09589236.2017.1411791.
- Hotine, E. (2021). "Biology, Society and Sex: Deconstructing anti-trans rhetoric and trans-exclusionary radical feminism". Journal of the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences. 2 (3).
- Da Costa, Jade Crimson Rose (2021). "The "new" white feminism: trans-exclusionary radical feminism and the problem of biological determinism in western feminist theory". In Carter, Kristi (ed.). TransNarratives: Scholarly and Creative Works on Transgender Experience. Canadian Scholars' Press. pp. 317–331.
- Worthen, M. G. F. (2022). "This is my TERF! Lesbian feminists and the stigmatization of trans women". Sexuality & Culture: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly. 26 (5): 1782–1803. doi:10.1007/s12119-022-09970-w.
- Bishop, Ben (2025). "TERF by Any Other Name: The Constitutive Rhetoric of Gender-Critical Feminism". Women's Studies in Communication. 48 (2): 229–248. doi:10.1080/07491409.2025.2483692.
- Morgenroth, Thekla; Kirby, Teri A.; Zehnter, Miriam K.; Ryan, Michelle K. (2024). "Sex Wars and TERF Wars: The Divisiveness of Who is Included in Feminism" (PDF). Sex Roles. 90: 676–705. doi:10.1007/s11199-024-01473-2.