A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #363 - Culture - Read: Maud Royer, "The Transphobic Lobby" (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

How can we decipher the transphobic offensive underway since the early 
2020s? In this short essay, Maud Royer, a trans, lesbian, and feminist 
activist and co-founder of the association Toutes des femmes, takes a 
detailed look at the various transphobic networks, which she 
mischievously calls the "transphobic lobby" in France. She thus analyzes 
the attempt to establish a transphobic feminism. Discourse on the 
"erasure of women" through the mere existence of trans people, the 
invention of a conflict between trans women and lesbians, the 
victimization of transphobic feminists... while these strategies have 
worked in the United Kingdom and the United States, where "TERFs" 
(trans-exclusionary radical feminists) now hold a prominent place in 
public debate, particularly with the complicity of so-called left-wing 
media outlets like the Guardian, they have remained a dead letter in 
France in the face of resistance from the feminist movement.

On the other hand, it is through a very small conservative 
psychoanalytic community, with psychologists sometimes classified as 
left-wing, that transphobic discourse is taking root in France. These 
include the Little Mermaid Observatory, claiming to represent caregivers 
despite defending positions that are an ultra-minority in the scientific 
field, and the "parents'" association Ypomoni, which claims to defend 
the interests of children, who are allegedly encouraged to transition by 
trans movements.

These moral panics are quickly relayed by conservative media. Thus, 
Valeurs actuelles, but also L'Express, Marianne, and Charlie Hebdo are 
quick to relay any anti-trans discourse, and in recent years, 
transphobia has even become a component of far-right discourse. On the 
ground, it is the former members of La Manif pour Tous, largely defeated 
on the issue of equal access to marriage, who are converting to this new 
cause, which they consider more accessible. Although without any 
official religious justification, these activists nonetheless echo the 
rhetoric developed by the Vatican on the dangers of "gender theory" and 
the necessary binarity and complementarity between the sexes.

So how can we respond today to the rise of this transphobic lobby? For 
the author, one of the keys lies in the power of the feminist movement, 
a barrier against transphobia. Above all, it is essential to achieve 
victories. More than holding a position, we must conquer new rights. To 
this end, Maud Royer envisions a path to achieving free and unrestricted 
civil status change. With no illusions about its revolutionary nature 
("the patriarchy[...]will not suddenly be shaken," she writes), the 
adoption of this measure would make life easier for trans people and, at 
the same time, strengthen the feminist and bodily autonomy movements. 
It's when our rights advance on gender and feminist issues that 
conservatives weaken: "then we are useful to all those who fight for 
their emancipation."

Agrippine (UCL Nantes)

Maud Royer, Le lobby transphobe, Textuel, 2024, 160 pages, 17.90 euros.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Lire-Maud-Royer-Le-lobby-transphobe
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