Cis Women’s Defiance of Transphobia
In a political climate increasingly defined by hostility towards trans lives, it is rare, yet vital, to see acts of principled, collective resistance from those outside our immediate community. The recent petition “Not in Our Name: Women in support of the trans+ community”, signed by over 36,527 cisgender women (at the time of writing), is not only a powerful rebuke of rising transphobia, but an act of genuine feminist solidarity.
This petition does more than declare support, It articulates an informed rejection of the dangerous falsehoods used to justify the marginalisation of trans people, but particularly trans women. It refutes the idea that trans inclusion threatens cis women’s safety, and challenges the cynical weaponisation of feminist rhetoric by reactionary forces who have no interest in gender liberation, but every interest in sowing division.
To see so many cis women publicly state: “we will speak for ourselves, we will stand with our trans siblings, and we demand better”, is awe-inspiring.
For years, the UK and much of the world has experienced an orchestrated backlash against trans people, led by conservative media outlets, opportunistic politicians, and extremely well-funded anti-rights groups. This escalated in the UK with Prime Ministers like Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, and was then turbocharged by the incoming 47th president, Donald Trump. The current Labour leadership in the UK is not doing very well, either.
In this current political environment, trans people have been cast as a cultural threat, with our identities questioned, our existence politicised, and our access to healthcare, safety, and dignity increasingly denied.
Nowhere has this been more insidious than in the co-opting of feminist discourse. The language of “women’s safety” has been strategically misused to exclude trans women from public life. A calculated moral panic has positioned trans people as predators, without any evidence, rather than victims of systemic violence. It is both a sleight of hand, to hide the epidemic of gender-based violence committed by cis men, and a deliberate tactic to use a small minority as a political distraction. A distraction that can be beaten with a big stick and pointed at, at any opportune moment.
This petition strikes directly at the heart of that divisive strategy. It refuses to let feminism be co-opted into a tool of exclusion. It reminds us that trans liberation and feminist liberation are not at odds. They are inextricably linked.
It also destroys the common myth (especially in the UK), that the public think a certain way. Politicians will often profess that public opinion is fixed on any given topic to strengthen their arguments, and this modus operandi is often adopted by gender critical elements while targeting trans people. This petition shows that the ‘consensus’ gender critical antagonists seek to try to conjure, in order to give the impression that their views are widely held by the rest of society, is, patently, untrue.
There is something uniquely powerful about seeing cis women, who are the very group of people transphobic campaigns claim to defend, stand up and say: “We will not be used against you.”
This petition matters, not only because of its symbolic weight, but because it demonstrates a real willingness among cis women to have those conversations: to speak up in workplaces, social settings, media spaces, and political spheres where trans people are frequently misrepresented, silenced, or scapegoated.
It reflects an understanding that allyship cannot be passive. It must be active, uncomfortable, and unwavering. These women are not speaking for us, they are standing with us, and that distinction is crucial.
What the Not in Our Name petition affirms, is that feminism, at its core, is about dismantling structures of violence and exclusion. It is intersectional. When trans people speak about the intersections of misogyny, racism, classism, and transphobia, we are not distorting feminism, we are expanding it.
The signatories of this petition seem to grasp that. They understand that the safety and liberation of all women, both cis and trans, depends on a shared resistance to patriarchal violence, not on artificial boundaries drawn around gender identity.
They are challenging the idea that we must choose between one group’s safety and another’s. In doing so, they model a feminism that is intersectional, collective, and future-facing.
For trans people, especially in the US, and the UK, where public discourse has grown increasingly hostile in 2025, this kind of solidarity is not just welcome, it is vital. It is a reminder that we are not alone. That there are millions of people who reject hate, who see through the fearmongering, and who are willing to stand beside us.
At Wipe Out Transphobia, we work to combat the rising tide of anti-trans violence, misinformation, hate crime, and policy rollbacks. We know the toll this climate takes on trans people, especially young people, people of colour, disabled trans people, and those living without access to supportive communities or resources.
In that context, a statement like Not in Our Name is more than a gesture. It is a shield. A signal. A refusal to abandon us. And in a world that often treats trans lives as disposable, that refusal is everything.
Solidarity is not a final act, but an ongoing commitment. This petition can now be the beginning of something larger: a visible, vocal, and persistent coalition of cis and trans people working together to dismantle structural transphobia, and gender based hate crime.
We urge cis allies who signed this petition to take further steps:
- Challenge transphobia when it arises, especially in feminist spaces, professional settings, and families.
- Support trans-led organisations doing grassroots work to provide mutual aid, legal support, healthcare access, and advocacy. We are but one of many such organisations. You may find one local to you.
- Amplify trans voices—not just when we’re under attack, but when we speak of trans joy, our hopes, and our futures.
- Push back on anti-trans narratives in media and politics, calling out the lies that frame trans people as threats, and exposing the real patterns of gender-based violence.
There is no credible statistical evidence showing that transgender people, as a group, are dangerous to women and girls. Multiple studies show that transgender people, particularly trans women, face disproportionately high rates of violence, harassment, and discrimination.
For example, a 2021 study in the American Journal of Public Health found trans people were over four times more likely than cisgender people to experience violent victimisation. The idea that trans people pose a unique threat in women’s spaces is often based on fear or fabrications, rather than population-level statistics or trends. When violence does occur in such spaces, the perpetrators are overwhelmingly cisgender men.
You can sign the petition yourself, here:
https://www.change.org/p/not-in-our-name-women-in-support-of-the-trans-community
