Feminism Must Be Led by Love, or Not At All

Recently, I have experienced a round of attacks by some radical-identified feminists and lesbian feminists for my writings and transgender advocacy. There is a long history of conflict between transgender/transsexual people, especially trans women, and radical feminists and lesbian feminists that dates back beginning in the 1970s. The pinnacle of this battle was when lesbian feminist Janice Raymond published her notorious book The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male in 1979. For nearly 15 years, Raymond’s anti-transsexual screed often stood as THE feminist statement on transsexualism. However, beginning in the early to mid-1990s, there was an explosion in transgender advocacy, visibility, writing and speaking out. Within Women’s Studies, transgenderism was re-evaluated and seen in an entirely new light thanks to writings by luminaries such as Leslie Feinberg, Kate Bornstein, Martine Rothblatt, Judith Butler and many others. I have a unique place in this complicated issue because I came out

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