I got called a TERF today,” I said as my friend sat down across from me in the booth. We were having dinner mid-week because we were both sick and tired of being at home.
“A turf? What kind? Bermuda? I’m more like crabgrass, I think,” she said.
“What? No, not turf, TERF,” I said. It made sense to me.,”T.E.R.F. You never heard of it?”
The blank look on her face answered my question.
“it’s an acronym for ‘Trans-exclusionary radical feminist’. It’s supposed to be a slur, I think. At least that’s how it was meant.” I sipped my iced tea and chuckled. I knew it was meant as an insult and at first, it stung for a moment, and then it made me smile.
As a writer, I had hit a nerve. A nice way to get paid; a reader responding is the whole point.
“The whole J.K Rowling thing is when I first heard about it. You know, she had the nerve to say that sex is biological. Can you even imagine?” I said.
“Oh, yeah. I heard a bit about that. Is it because of your work with women in prison?”
I nodded. “Yep. I knew it would eventually happen and I’m taking it as a badge of honor.”
“That’s good. Everyone is too afraid to say anything,” she said.
Our food arrived and we dug in and got caught up on the latest adventures, or lack of them in our lives.
I knew she was right. I knew I was sticking my neck out, but I didn’t care. It’s not as if I am anyone important or even well-known outside of my immediate life. I had a few followers online but rarely does anyone engage with me. Rarely did I engage with anyone else and I’m fine with that.
Until now. Now, I want to be heard and I want women to be safe. I don’t like that we women are aggressively being erased and told we aren’t real. When you tell someone, they aren’t real, you are saying they don’t exist.
No one has that right.
The hardest part is the amount of insanity that is being called logic and science and therefore truth. The “truth” is that anyone can change their biological sex just by saying so and we all must accept their reality and their truth.
The funny thing is, I’m fine with someone thinking that and feeling like that. I have no problem an individuals making changes that are closer to their own truth.
Somewhere along the line, the stance to keep women safe is equated as saying you hate trans people.
Like the time I said I hate liver. That doesn’t then mean I hate people who eat liver or any meat. It simply means that if liver is anywhere around me, I want to throw up.
A word is not the thing. Words represent the thing you are talking about.
2-sided logic. Reactive and not logical. Don’t like liver? That means you hate meat-eaters.
Do you want to stop males from housing with women inmates? You are anti-trans according to the “woke” mentality.
The truth is, being an anti-predator does not mean anti-trans, and how that came to be thought as true is beyond me but here we are.
It’s lazy, sloppy, and does not see they are not equal or similar. Absolute values of right and wrong, yet there are thousands of shades of gray on right and wrong.
Neither one is an absolute yet 2-sided logic says that is all there is.
What’s unfortunate for me is I like to talk with people and discuss all kinds of topics, but I know that it is almost impossible for most on this topic.
I received a DM from someone that they were shocked at what I was posting. This is where I got called a TERF and she happily announced she had unfollowed me. I was going to respond and thought better of it, so I blocked her.
She immediately posted this and of course, the pile on started. I ignored it and went on with my day.
But it made me a bit sad because I would have loved to talk about it and explain that anti-predator has nothing to do with anti-trans and let’s all work together to make this a better place for all of us.
Staying silent gives them power.
So, for those that object to 51% of the population (women) being raped by male prisoners and degraded by them, this is why I and many of us are fighting for same-sex spaces, to allow women (and men) to have our own space, free from the opposite sex from interfering – the following are just a few of the men that are currently being housed in women prisons in the United States:
Jakob “Dakota” Neves – Massachusetts. Jakob is convicted of sexually exploiting two children under the age of 4, 1 count of distribution of child pornography, 1 count of possession of child pornography.
Jordan “Sora” Kuykendalic – Illinois. Stabbed his 17-year-old girlfriend to death.
Jose Smith – Iowa. Convicted of multiple (15 minimum) of child sex crimes, ages 1-13 years old. 
Miguel “Michelle” Martinez – Wyoming. Convicted of two counts of sexual abuse of a 10-year-old.
Water M. Moore “AKA Nikki Petrovickol – Maine. Murdered 41-year-old Connie Gagliardi.
Louis “Lisa” Massei – New York. Convicted of gang-raping a 16-year-old, attempted murder, sodomy, unlawful imprisonment.
Mark Campbell AKA Nicole Rose – Wisconsin. The repeated rape of his 10-year-old daughter.
David Josef Lovejoy AKA Kendra Michelle Lovejoy – Minnesota. Four decades of attempted burglary, sexual assault, sex offender registry violations, battery, disorderly conduct. Five counts of child pornography.
Luis Morales AKA Synthia Blast – New York. Raped and murdered a 13-year-old girl. The child was decapitated, dumped under a bridge, and set on fire.
If fighting for the safety and welfare of women makes me a TERF…well….thanks! The fight is just getting started.
I also publish at my Patreon site. If you are inclined to help support my work, you can subscribe there. It’s not necessary and I intend to keep doing the work regardless of payment, so it’s cool. I appreciate your support and following along. https://www.patreon.com/SusanLewis
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