The Transunitist Manifesto

Luke B. - 2023

A Google Docs version of this manifesto is availiable here

Introduction:

21st Century trans politics is in many ways different to 20th Century trans politics. Some of the problems facing trans people then are gone. Others remain. And yet others are entirely new, borne out of the political landscape which we walk today. This Manifesto is simultaneously a response to the world as it is today for trans people and a commitment to building better solidarity and unity amongst trans people of all kinds. It is an affirmation to love, respect and help others in our community whenever we can- and to be alert to each others needs and problems, so that no-one ever feels like they are on their own. This is Transunitist theory at its core: compassion, respect and solidarity above all else.

Why Transunitism?

Transunitism was coined in the early 2020s by myself and a few other trans and nonbinary acquaintances online. Collectively we noticed that 21st Century trans politics had become unstable and imbalanced, inadvertently feeding into the transphobia it was supposed to be guarding against. Transunitism could be considered a wave of transfeminism, in that it draws from the same roots as transfeminism (and thus feminism as a whole), but recognises that a shake-up of the current trans politics is needed to better serve the community as it stands today.

The name Transunitism was chosen for its immediate understandability. Simply, it describes the desire to explicitly strive for greater transgender unity against our common and uncommon oppressions. In the last few years, trans politics has seen a rise in toxicity and vitriol between different transgender groups. This has had a negative effect on overall trans solidarity and unity when fighting against transphobia. As a result, transunitism is needed to help repair those bonds and create lasting solidarity against transphobia in all its forms.

Transunity theory largely draws from transfeminism, however, transunity theory also has some key developments of its own. Transunitism utilises transfeminisms beliefs that everyone has the right to define their own identities and to expect society to respect them- especially without the fear of discrimination or violence (1). It also utilises the transfeminist idea that trans peoples relationships with oppression, privilege, patriarchy and feminism are complex and at their most basic interpretations, are rarely black and white or as clear cut as is often suggested (1). These principles have been a part of transfeminism since its inception, however, subsequent interpretations of transfeminism have neglected one or both of these principles, leading to the need for transunitist theory to develop.

Transfeminism originated as a movement mainly by and for trans women, but much like feminism as a whole, many others can find solace and support in it. However, one of the flaws in early transfeminist theory was the neglect of non trans women in transfeminism. This has since been recognised by many early writers of transfeminist theory, however, mainstream transfeminism continues to neglect or even deliberately deprioritise non trans womens issues in the movement. The initial error is understandable, but is by no means the way forward. Feminism (as arisen from cis gender dynamics) prioritises mainly cis womens issues due to the lack of support womens issues have compared to those of cisgender men. The error is that those cis gender dynamics are frequently applied to transgender politics, but such a thing is not possible to achieve and often leaves other equally marginalised people with little to no support from transfeminism. The truth is that transfeminism has its roots in the mainstream feminist movement, but has different dynamics to it and requires more nuance in its application. Often, the (incorrect) application of transfeminism has been to prioritise trans womens issues on the unfounded assumption that other kinds of trans people's issues (particularly trans mens) have more support. Clearly, this is not the case for the following reason: Namely, that patriarchy does not value trans men as men the same way it does cis men (nor would it value nonbinary people the same way), therefore non trans womens issues are not receiving support from the patriarchy and thus prioritising trans womens issues at the expense of other, struggling trans groups is in the long run, damaging for solidarity and detrimental to non trans women.

Transfeminism's Role:

Since transfeminism was coined in 2001, its usage has morphed and changed. At present, the dominant strand of transfeminism does not promote unity and solidarity. Instead, it has fallen into relying upon toxic and often separationist politics- a crude distortion of the founding ideas of transfeminism. Emi Koyama, author of The Transfeminist Manifesto, was explicit in transfeminisms inclusion of all trans people in its movement. She wrote that transfeminism began primarily for trans women and that "it is also open to other queers, intersex people, trans men, non-trans women, non-trans men and others" (2). Her initial publication of The Transfeminist Manifesto was in the year 2001. Two years later, she revisited it and added the following in the postscript of the 2003 edition "I take full blame for the fact that this manifesto is heavily focused on issues male-to-female transsexual people face, while neglecting unique struggles that female-to-male trans people and other transgender and genderqueer people face" (3). Numerous other transfeminist publications recognise the need for greater solidarity between all trans people and for transfeminism to be explicitly inclusive of all transgender and nonbinary people. Talia Bettcher explained in 2017 that "since trans men are also vulnerable to sexism, transphobia, and the interblending thereof, trans feminism would be ill-advised to exclude them from its purview" (4). Despite the academic push for greater inclusion and solidarity, socially these ideas have not manifested. And so transunitism was created to bring awareness to these ideas with clarity of intent and purpose.

Transunity Theory:

Transunitism is not solely created from transfeminist and feminist theory. It also draws upon ideas of stewardship towards fellow trans people that are based upon ecological and environmental concepts.

Transunitism was coined by myself and a small group of other trans people online, but what is known as the transunitism symbol is my creation. I took inspiration from ecological and environmental movements to create a metaphor to explain transunity theory. Hopefully, many readers will be familiar with the recycle symbol and a variation on the three Rs. The recycle symbol usually consists of three arrows in a triangle shape. Each arrow point melds into the point above it and so on. The symbol represents how steps taken to recycle refuse follow on from one another and are interconnected. Typically, the three Rs are reduce, reuse, recycle and all three are equally important steps one can take to help the environment. The three Rs can be reordered and the sentiment still makes sense. For transunitism, the concept is much the same- three elements of trans theory which interlock and intersect which must all be upheld, otherwise neglect is risked. Instead of the three Rs, transunitism considers the three Transphobias.

The Three Transphobias

The three transphobias (or types of transphobia) are the subdivisions that transphobia can be broken down into. Transphobia itself is an umbrella term and while it can be used universally on any kind of anti-trans discrimination, it is helpful to subdivide it further in some instances to describe the specific challenges each part of the trans community faces. Over recent years, there has been a movement to establish a term for the transphobia primarily experienced by trans men. This manifesto will use the most popular term, transandrophobia, to refer to the concept. The transphobia primarily experienced by trans women is known as transmisogyny, while the most popular term for the discrimination primarily experienced by nonbinary people is exorsexism. There exist less popular terms for these concepts, but these will be the three used in this manifesto. I also acknowledge that further groupings exist within the trans community which the terms trans women, men and nonbinary people do not adequately cover.

Transmisogyny is described variously as either the transphobia primarily experienced by trans women or as an intersection of transphobia and misogyny. The term transmisogyny itself is at a crossroads- it is used often to refer to the transphobia usually experienced by trans women, but it is also often used to refer to any intersection of transphobia and misogyny- this has proved to be problematic, especially when attempting to include non trans women's experiences in transfeminism. There are transfeminists who believe that only trans women, as women, can experience an intersection of transphobia and misogyny. However, this is a flawed understanding of misogyny, since many non-women experience misogyny frequently (i.e. much homophobia directed at gay men is based in misogyny). Nevertheless, this has become the prevailing view in much of mainstream transfeminism. This is a problem, since transmisogyny as a concept could very much describe the experiences of trans men and nonbinary people as well as it does the experiences of trans women. However, it is my view that transmisogyny, at its crossroads, should take the path in which it simply describes the transphobia primarily experienced by trans women. This manifesto will use that definition henceforth.

Transandrophobia describes the transphobia primarily experienced by trans men. While trans men do experience an intersection of transphobia and misogyny, they also experience an intersection of transphobia and a hatred of men or masculinity. Arguably, much of what is called transmisogyny for the experiences of trans women is also partially an intersection of transphobia and a hatred of men or masculinity. The ideal word for the concept is sadly marred by disingenuous cis men, but to use 'misandry' here tentatively is not an endorsement of any kind of MRA-style politics, but a convenient shorthand for a kind of hatred of men or masculinity which has a significance in (and only in) the context of transphobia. As alluded to, the term transandrophobia is the most popular term presently for the transphobia primarily experienced by trans men. Earlier terms did include 'transmisandry', which, aside from one academic usage in the context of an intersection of transphobia and racism (5), has not enjoyed much usage due to knee-jerk rejection of the term's suffix. In short, 'misandry' in this solely trans context conveys the transphobia rooted in a hatred of men or masculinity.

Exorsexism describes the transphobia primarily experienced by nonbinary people, which, like transmisogyny and transandrophobia, can contain elements of misogyny, 'misandry' and discrimination based on existing outside of binary sex or gender (henceforth 'misandrogyny'). Like transandrophobia, other terms exist for exorsexism, such as ceterophobia or simply 'nonbinaryphobia'. The most high frequency term is exorsexism and this manifesto will use this term for clarity and consistency.

The three transphobias (as has been touched on somewhat already) intersect, interconnect and intermeld into each other, much like the 3 arrows in the recycle symbol. Hence, in the transunitist symbol, it is transmisogyny, transandrophobia and exorsexism feeding into each other. They are the 'arms' of transphobia. This metaphor comes with some important tenets to transunitism theory:

You cannot dismantle transphobia as a whole by only focusing on one arm of transphobia. E.g. eradicating transmisogyny, for instance, will not bring about the eradication of transandrophobia and exorsexism. Eradicating transmisogyny is a noble goal, but it can't be achieved in isolation. It is interconnected to other two transphobias. By working on eradicating them all, transphobia can truly be fought in all of its forms. Relating back to the recycle symbol, only doing one 'R' will technically help, however, it will have more impact if one strives to do all three. Just recycling is helpful, but reusing will extend the lives of items that would have only been recycled, and reducing your consumption altogether would prevent some waste altogether. The same is true of transphobia- all arms must be tackled to achieve greater trans liberation.

The three arms of transphobia are not exclusively experienced by their main target. E.g. Transandrophobia is the transphobia usually experienced by trans men, but a nonbinary person could be targeted with it for resembling a trans man. The same goes for anyone resembling a trans woman being targeted with transmisogyny (e.g. gender nonconforming cis men) or anyone who is perceived as nonbinary (exorsexism). When helpful terminology is gatekept because the victim of the bigotry doesn't belong to the main group targeted by it, nobody benefits. It is useful to defer to the main targets of a bigotry as authorities on it, but space must be held for all victims of bigotry. Not just some. E.g. Many Sikh men have reported being the victims of islamophobia because bigots had mistaken them for muslim men. While not the main targets, they are equally victims of islamophobia as the muslims who are targeted with it.

All trans groups experience a mixture of misogyny, 'misandry' and misandrogyny- the levels of which vary from group to group. Trans women may experience misogyny (such as unwanted sexualisation for being female and trans), however, they may often experience 'misandry' (such as the vitriol some transphobes espouse which accuses trans women of being 'violent males) and misandrogyny (such as transphobic rhetoric which centers around a trans person's appearance being androgynous and thus not easily sortable into male or female categories . This may result in slurs like 'heshe' being used). Trans men, on the other hand, may experience 'misandry' (such as accusations they are going to transition into -'violent men'), misogyny (such as insinuations trans men are being led astray and that they are incapable of thinking for themselves) and a similar kind of misandrogyny trans women may face. Nonbinary people may experience misandrogyny (such as being forcibly put into a male or female category against their wishes, especially in a medical setting), misogyny (such as rhetoric which claims being nonbinary is a social contagion amongst those assigned female at birth) or 'misandry' (such as rhetoric that claims those assigned male at birth who are nonbinary are identifying as such in order to be predatory). In short, every kind of trans person experiences a mix of misogyny, 'misandry' and misandrogyny. It differs from group to group as well as from person to person.

These tenets are foundational to transunitism. A synthesis of transunitism theory and transfeminism results in what the transunitism movement stands for.

It is my hope that through transunitism theory, we will create a trans community that includes all, aids all and fights for all.

Thank you for reading.

Luke B., 01/01/2023

References:

Koyama, Emi. The Transfeminist Manifesto, 2001 & 2003 p. 2-4

Koyama, Emi. The Transfeminist Manifesto, 2001 & 2003 p. 1

Koyama, Emi. The Transfeminist Manifesto, 2001 & 2003 p. 10

Bettcher, Talia, Trans Feminism: Recent Philosophical Developments, 2017, p.2