@Rubyrecka
What's a TERF?
A bit of background:
Some people think that biologically male people who identify as woman actually are women (although no one has ever provided a definition of “woman” which makes sense of that).
Some people (including me) think that biologically male people who identity as women are... biologically male people who identify as women. I define “woman” the same way the dictionary does: adult human female.
As a feminist, I think it is vital for women to have some single sex spaces and services, given the long history of oppression of female people by male people and the continuing epidemic of male violence/sexual violence against women and girls.
Because I don’t recognise biologically male trans people as women and I want women’s single sex spaces to be exclusively for biologically female people, some people (who I think are misogynistic and anti-feminist) call me and women like me “TERFs” - which stands for Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists. More accurately, we’re Male Exclusionary, when it comes to women’s spaces.
The term is often accompanied by deeply misogynistic abuse and threats - such as “choke on my girldick, TERF” or “die in a grease fire, TERF”. It has been recognised as a slur in an English court of law. There are many examples here:
terfisaslur.com/
I consider anyone using that term to be a misogynist.
Those people would consider me to be “transphobic”, not because I wish trans people to be treated less favourably than other people (I don’t) but because I don’t subscribe to the ideological belief system that says a biologically male person who “identifies as a woman” actually is a woman. That in itself is “transphobic” according to those who use the word “TERF”, and many of those people would like to see women like me actually criminalised for not agreeing with their ideology.