I am a millennial writing from the US. Ever since I turned 18 and gained the right to vote, I have voted as a Democrat. I have also supported Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, my university’s union, and a number of causes associated with the left. I have been a proud feminist ever since discovering feminism as a teenager. In fact, much of my artwork is focused on themes of biology, the female form, and life and decay. For years now, I have been observing the erasure of females in feminist circles in the name of “inclusivity” toward men “identifying as women” or “identifying as gender minorities”. For example, I have witnessed feminist artists being pressured to depict penises in their art, and women being told “not all women get periods” when merely describing their own experiences. I have been increasingly troubled to see the intrusion of gender ideology beyond feminist circles, into areas such as politics, universities, and workplaces.
The first time I expressed my concerns about women’s bathrooms being unsafe due to self-ID policies, I was accused of spouting Fox News, right-wing myths and dismissed by a young male at work. This was stunning to me, as a feminist and Democrat who has personally experienced street harassment. It seems like common sense to me that if I am harassed in broad daylight in public by strange males, then obviously they will continue their harassment in the bathroom once they discover it’s a “free-for-all”. After this incident, I stayed quiet for a few years but became upset once more when I was referred to as a “person with a cervix” when receiving a pap smear at a doctor’s office. I was previously diagnosed with HPV, so it was upsetting to be suggested as “less than a woman” while receiving such a sensitive exam and worrying about cervical cancer. Meanwhile, I was on a diversity committee at the university and asked for “sex” to be included with the listed categories; a male student identifying as a “genderqueer non-male” asked me, “Why would sex matter?” Finally, I expressed my opposition to a law that would allow any male prisoner to self-ID as a woman and be transferred to a women’s prison. I clarified that my opposition was to the self-ID aspect of the law, but I would support vetted transfers, creation of third prisons or wings, etc. The female friend of the same “genderqueer non-male” started interrogating me about this, and I finally stepped down from the diversity committee, fearing for my university position. In the past year or so, I have been sending detailed letters and phone calls to my Democratic representatives expressing my opposition to laws that push extreme gender ideology. My communications have been ignored. For the first time in 2020, I changed my voter registration to Independent and voted for third-party candidates. I have also stopped donating to ACLU and Planned Parenthood. I have stopped participating in the university union. I never intended to be a “single issue” voter or person, but I cannot in good conscience contribute to a party or organization that is stripping away the hard-earned rights of half the population. How many women must object, before leftists will listen? How many women and girls will be harmed, before leftists will admit there are conflicts of rights? I had always assumed women’s rights would improve in my lifetime, but I am saddened to discover that my daughter may be born into a world with less freedoms than what I enjoyed as a girl. My only consolation is that females are incredibly strong. We have weathered tremendous hardships in the past and will survive them in the future. Comments are closed.
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