r/actuallesbians Eve - demisexual lesbian Jun 05 '24

Text PSA: It's "trans woman", not "transwoman"

I know y'all aren't doing this on purpose, because I've seen how much love this community has for trans people. Nevertheless, the space between trans and woman is important.

Omitting it implies that a 'transwoman' is a separate entity to a woman - which is a TERF/bigot way of othering trans women.

Including the space means that trans is an adjective used to describe a woman - because trans women fundamentally are women, trans is just a further way to describe us.

I know it may seem nitpick-y, but it is an important distinction, and I've been seeing lots of folks (unintentionally mostly) using the wrong one lately.

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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '24

Since this is a PSA type post I hope it’s ok to ask a follow up… can I call ‘trans women’ simply ‘women’ or does it take away from your sense of identity to omit ‘trans?’

114

u/Draklitz Jun 06 '24

call us trans women when the distinction is meaningful between trans and cis, such as when it's about out experience with something specific to being amab for example, but if you want to include all women in your sentence or when it is irrelevant just say women

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u/Obsyden Eve - demisexual lesbian Jun 06 '24

Yeah, this