Roxane Gay: ‘A lot of feminists are very comfortable being anti-trans’
Writer Roxane Gay attends the Feminist AF Panel at Vulture Festival in Los Angeles, California.(TARA ZIEMBA/AFP/Getty)
American writer and commentator Roxane Gay has hit out at anti-trans feminists, saying they “should know better, having been marginalised as women throughout history and today.”
Speaking to the New Statesmen, Gay explained that trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs) have “woefully” let down transgender people.
“The world is transphobic and I think it’s appalling, because trans women are women,” she said.
“When I see how trans people are treated and the agony that a lot of trans people deal with—the suicide rates, the murder rates of black trans women—I just think, ‘Do you really think that’s a choice?’”
Roxane Gay: “Trans women are women”
The 44-year-old author, whose work often deals with her personal experience as a rape survivor, continued: “I think a lot of feminists are very comfortable being anti-trans and that’s painful to see because we should know better, having been marginalised as women throughout history and today.
“How dare we marginalise others now.”
“I think a lot of feminists are very comfortable being anti-trans and that’s painful to see because we should know better.”
—Roxane Gay
Gay’s works include The New York Times best-selling essay anthology Bad Feminist (2014) and the memoir Hunger (2017).
Roxane Gay attends Vulture Festival Los Angeles 2018 at The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on November 18, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Gregg DeGuire/Getty Images)
Her most recent essay collection, Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture, was published in 2018.
Roxane Gay offers to be a writer on re-booted The L Word
In July 2017, Gay, who is openly bisexual, offered to be a writer on the re-booted series of The L Word.
She wrote on Twitter: “Dear @Showtime I will be a writer on this for you.”
In January 2019, it was confirmed that The L Word is officially being revived, with several members of the original cast in line to return.
Showtime announced on Thursday (January 31) that the TV series, which originally ran for six seasons between 2004 and 2009, is getting a long-rumoured revival.
Although the original series ended with several fan favourites dead or in prison, three of the show’s original cast—Jennifer Beals (Bette), Katherine Moennig (Shane) and Leisha Hailey (Alice)—are all set to reprise their roles.
