Why feminists should support transgender rights

Can you call yourself a feminist if you don’t support the rights of transgender people? Amelia Abraham doesn’t think so. As someone who identifies as the ‘L’ in LGBT, Amelia has always felt empathetic towards the societal prejudice trans people face, but, on speaking with her friends, she was shocked to discover how many of them struggle to reconcile their feminism with transgender rights. Amelia addresses the common concerns listed by some about trans people - principally the risk to women’s safety. She demonstrates why conflating sexual violence with transgender rights denies the reality of rape culture and its actual perpetrators, whilst also unjustly demonising the trans community and increasing the prejudice, discrimination and hostility towards trans people.