Ok, I haven't really gathered my thoughts on this so this post is really thinking out loud.
I have been a feminist for about 20 years and for a long time I wasn't terribly aware of the transgender controversy - it wasn't something that I perceived as being terribly important and it seemed a fuss about not very much. I didn't have an issue with transexuality other than thinking that the medical side seemed pretty brutal, and disagreeing with the reinforcement of sexist gender stereotypes when they occurred. Like a lot of feminists I had a 'live and let live' attitude to the practice of living as the opposing gender, even though I didn't really agree with the concept (for political reasons), I empathised with people affected by the issue (for human reasons).
Then, as I said above, there seemed to be a shift in trans politics as they took on a post-modern approach. I disagreed with the post-modern analysis - again for political reasons. I continued to empathise with the humans involved in the reality of feeling very unhappy with their body as related to their feelings about gender.
Then there was another shift - this time a legal one. People affected by transgenderism have had a long hard struggle against discrimination and that struggle is far from over. They do, of course, need their human and civil rights enshrined in law and respected in society as does any group of people who are badly treated when patriarchal paradigms of domination and submission are allowed too free a run.
Historically, discrimination and equality laws have always been designed to establish and protect rights , and to protect minorities from dominant groups exercising unearned privilege.
However with certain gender laws there is a conflict of ideologies and consequently, what is considered a right and what is considered an unearned privilege, is controversial. There is also an incompatibility between sex segregation legislation which has been put in place to protect women and girls, as an oppressed class, from male violence and male privilege, and the validation of the ideology of transwomen as being truly female.
Additionally, gender laws have changed the definition of what it is to be female in a manner that is extremely useful to maintaining the status quo and upholding patriarchal society, as it effectively erases the group formerly known as women as a political class and makes it discriminatory for them to exercise the right to gather as an oppressed minority and to express themselves about their sex based oppression.
As Vesuvia said so well upthread, in reality only lip-service is being paid to the rights and protection of trans people. It suits patriarchal institutions to redefine what it is to be a woman but little is being done to address the issues of homophobia and misogyny which are wrapped up in how trans people are viewed and treated in wider society.
Also, as I have already referred to on this thread, little is done as part of the (government endorsed) transitioning process to responsibly educate the person transitioning about the history, culture, socialization, politics, biology and lived experience of the group they are transitioning to. Little is done to address issues of underlying male privilege and male socialization and how they will affect the transwoman herself and how she is perceived by others. And that is unfair on the transwoman and insulting to FAAB women.
Anyway, back to censorship and the current context which is one of anger on both sides. I think it is fine to be angry and I think it is important to be able to express dissent and criticize ideology and ideological actions and aims. I don't think it is ok to do so using offensive terms or intimidation tactics. I can, however understand (that doesn't mean agree with) why some women have reached the point in which they express themselves using nasty language. These women have been harassed and threatened over a period of years and they have been threatened with sexualised violence from people demanding to be recognised as female. Honestly how are women expected to react to people claiming they are women who threaten to rape them or who call them all manner of misognyist names if they don't STFU about ideological differences? People don't always manage to rise above such violence and never react back. I don't think it is ok to use language that is derogatory to trans people but there is only so much a person (even a woman who is socialized to submit to intimidation) can take. I see nothing being done to halt the campaign of intimidation, on the contrary, I see it being reflected back and legitimized by power structures, liberals and progressives.
I think the whole situation is ghastly and I absolutely don't agree with generalized nasty statements being made about trans people. I equally do not agree with the ante being upped and upped by certain people (some trans, many not) who want to close down women's discussions about their right to a distinct political identity and their right to name their oppression (female oppression as a result of male supremacy). And I do not agree with death threats, threats of sexualised violence and intimidation tactics - all of which strike me as distinctly masculine behaviours. Being offensive about trans people is not nice and it isn't acceptable to generalize - a lot of the rudeness is however, (I think) bravado on the part of some women who are trying very hard not to be intimidated into submission by the group aggression and threats they are targets for.
I blame the patriarchy for the current situation.
Apologies for long post - obviously I am not very concise when thinking out loud!
I'm afraid I'm going to make it longer by linking to this which expresses things better than I do;
I suspect, the experiences of many others, support the finding that transphobia is less often discussed in terms of discrimination and violence and more often in terms of invalidation of the trans identity.
And by ?invalidation of the trans identity,? what I really mean is refusing to allow men to appropriate your experiences, identifying your sex as the basis of your oppression, setting up sexual boundaries that exclude males, fighting for the right to assemble as females. Saying that girlhood matters, that women have the right not to be attracted to males, that vaginas are more than just holes to stick things in, that breasts are more than just lumps of flesh or silicone, is the kind of rhetoric that genderists call transphobia and seek to erase. With enough threats, with enough intimidation, with enough male-driven, male-powered campaigns, trans activists are bullying feminists into silence, shutting down feminist discourse, and invading women?s spaces. Transphobia is not about identifying violence or discrimination: It?s about targeting and taking down those women who dare to acknowledge that their femalehood matters.