As people who are on Twitter may have seen, last week the Cambridge University Students' Union Women's Officer tweeted a new guide on How to spot terf ideology
This material makes a number of statements which misrepresent the views of gender critical feminists. For example, it alleges that all people who hold gender critical or radical feminist views are transphobic. It states that gender critical or radical feminism puts trans and non-binary people in danger. It claims that gender critical feminism “fails to recognise that women are not homogeneous”.
None of these statements is a fair representation of GC feminism. Speaking as a GC feminist, I am not transphobic - believing that there are some differences between women who were born female, and trans women who were born male and retain male bodies, is not, in my view, inherently transphobic. I believe that any person should be able to live in the gender of their choice, free from discrimination and prejudice. I support the better provision of services for trans people, including gender-neutral services where appropriate. But I also think that it should not be unacceptable for women to maintain some spaces as for female-bodied people only - particularly when it comes to spaces like DV shelters or rape crisis centres.
There are also some contentious points in the material presented as fact, with no evidence - e.g. that the sex binary is just a colonial construct, and that being a woman means being "assigned female" at birth, both being statements that I think are problematic. We also object to the use of the word "terf" which is used to silence and intimidate women. Material like this is divisive and, given attacks that have taken place on GC feminists, it's also dangerous.
I and some others have drawn up a letter to protest this material from CUSU, and if anyone wants to read it, the link is here There's also information there on how to sign, if you want to (the letter is from Cambridge alumni, students, and past/ present staff).