I find it ironic and disheartening that trans organizations and activists recognize the importance of setting boundaries and having their own spaces while at the same time trying to invade, attack, defund, and shut down women-only spaces and organizations like VRR are for doing the exact same thing for the safety and well-being of the people they are trying to help.

A few years ago, I looked into being a volunteer operator for a trans suicide support hotline. However, it wouldn’t be possible for me to be a hotline operator because the very first rule for being an operator was “Be trans.”

I’ll be honest, it stung a little to be faced with such a hardline exclusion when all I wanted to do was help. They would be training all volunteers on how to counsel callers to the hotline, why wouldn’t that training be enough for me to help? Why didn’t they want MY help? But rather than lawyering up, dragging this organization to court, paying thousands of dollars in legal fees, and wasting years and years in court, I sat down and had a two second think. And that’s when I realized, “oh yeah, if I were trans and in the middle of a CRISIS, I’d want to speak to someone who was trans.” I’d feel much safer opening up to someone like me and reliving traumatic experiences with someone who has gone through those experiences.

It’s wild to me that in certain circles it’s taboo to recognize that women have very different life experiences/ concerns than trans women do, and therefore need different/ their own spaces and resources. And this isn’t to say that trans people don’t have legitimate concerns, because they do. But like you said in your (amazingly written might I add) essay, the focus seems to have shifted in the last five years or so from establishing resources and spaces for trans people to taking over the spaces and priories of women’s organizations— many who have spent years and years of hard work to build themselves up.