It came towards the end of a very long acrimonious thread about conflicts between TERF and non-TERF feminism, which I don’t especially want to reblog, but I’m still stuck on the observation from that thread that “TERFs see trans issues like gender affirming surgery as being a distraction or taking resources away from issues like abortion or FGM, but it’s not. It’s all the same fight.”

There’s no contradiction between opposing FGM and supporting gender affirming surgery. There’s no contradiction between supporting the right of women to get abortions or hysterectomies, and protecting women (and men!) from being sterilized against their will by eugenics policy. There’s no contradiction between supporting the right of women in France to wear a hijab, and the right of women in Iraq not to. There’s no hypocrisy. There’s no gotcha. These are all the same right. The right to control one’s own body, life, and lifestyle.

It’s not about loving or hating a headscarf, or prizing a dick over a lack of a dick. These are details. The fundamental principle is always about autonomy. It’s all the same fight.

Or, to pull another quote that has stuck with me, “If you don’t own your own body absolutely, then you don’t own anything at all.”