Introduction
Since Global Women's Strike issued our statement below, the UK Supreme Court judgment on 16 April 2025 ruled that the legal definition of a woman for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010 does not extend to trans women.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) draft Code of Practice has sought an interpretation of the law that would bar trans people from accessing virtually all gendered spaces and services aligned with their gender.
We reject any attempt by the courts or the state to decide who is a "real" woman.
This ruling is not about protecting women. We will not allow those in power to turn one group of us against another while they continue to steal the wealth of our society, criminalise poverty and survival, expand police powers and ignore the violence that women and children face.
As Marina, a trans migrant woman in our network said:
“Why the refusal to recognise me as a woman? While you sit here debating my womanhood, my sisters are in poverty, are killed in the streets, denied healthcare, housing, forced into prostitution, and denied any legal protections, but you are telling us that our suffering does not count in the same way?
You say this is about biological facts, but it’s not. This is and has always been political. Don’t anyone here be mistaken. Look at history, Black women have been here, this is not new, women are policed and told by those in power who is a “real woman“ and whose life matters. Black women were told they did not meet this standard, working class women, disabled women, whores, queer women, we are all told this. The target and the language may be different but the intention is the same.
You say this is to protect women, which women are you talking about? Defining a “real woman“ protects no one. It’s sexist, it’s racist, it’s transphobic. You are seeking to make us easier to harm and you call yourself a feminist?
The policing this will bring has violent consequences for all women and that you do not see that, or do not care says all I need to know about you and your agenda here”.
An attack on TRANS women is an attack on WOMEN
We reject all attacks on trans people. They have led to over 5,000 murders globally since 2008 (when the Trans Murder Monitoring was set up) at the hands of violent men – 94% of the victims were women, 93% women of colour, 46% of those whose occupation was known were sex workers.[i]
Trump and others who target trans communities do not speak for women, regardless of how many (blonde) women they surround themselves with. They are male (usually white, anti-immigrant, anti-gay) supremacists seeking to reinforce men’s dominance over women and children. Why else would they take away women’s right to abortion, health care, asylum and the benefits we need to survive and feed our children? Why else would they defend, demean or deny rape and sexual abuse? The nuclear family they advocate was never a safe place for women. Many of us suffered domestic violence there and the constant threat of having our children taken from us if we fled – globally 140 women and girls are killed every day at the hands of a partner or a close relative.[ii]
It is shocking that some prominent feminists have devoted their energies and funds to target trans women, as if trans women were responsible for rape. This most violent crime has been practically decriminalised by a law-and-order establishment, including the police, which constantly sides with men over women and children – only 1.5% of reported rapes in England and Wales result in conviction. As we all know, rape is widespread, not in public toilets as they would have us believe, but in homes and institutions, not by strangers but by family members and men in positions of power. We will not defeat male violence by attacking trans women who are some of the most vulnerable among us.
We are acutely aware that some of the feminists who attack trans women now, attacked lesbian women when we first came out and even victims of rape in marriage – accusing us of discrediting women’s liberation by ‘widening the issue’. They are hostile to sex workers and to housewives – two sectors seen as bringing ‘sisterhood’ into disrepute by ‘commodifying’ or ‘institutionalising’ women in the bedroom or the kitchen. Instead of supporting our movement for decriminalisation and financial independence, they have undermined us at every turn, even in the face of police crackdowns, deportation and benefit cuts. They have no problem making alliances with right wing religious organisations and political parties[iii]. Their model of liberation is based on personal advancement. It forces women to compete with men in the job market by being available 24/7, just like men are supposed to be, despite any caring responsibility for those of us who are children, have a disability or ill-health, or are elderly.
We are also aware that, in many places, trans and non-binary people are, with women, the most active organisers, including for Palestine. The struggle for the liberation of Palestine is liberating us all from our common enemy – the genocidal supremacist greedy capitalists who care nothing about life, especially if we are women and children of colour, and are only interested in increasing their money and their power. Anti-trans feminists have been conspicuously silent in the face of genocide[iv].
Women are the primary carers everywhere in the world, and the poorest sex. Our 2024 international survey, What Mothers and other Caregivers Want, heard from over 1,000 people in 50 countries, including trans women who movingly described the caring work of looking after each other and each other’s children in a hostile environment. Our demand for a care income spoke to all, regardless of gender.
As survivors of violence, poverty and discrimination we are united against all supremacy – of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, dis/ability, nationality, immigration status, religion, language, wealth…
An attack on any woman, is an attack on all women. Invest in caring, not killing!
Issued by Global Women’s Strike (GWS), Women of Colour GWS, English Collective of Prostitutes, Queer Strike, Street Workers Collective of Ireland, US PROStitutes Collective, WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities), Women Against Rape, and Payday men’s network.
February 2026
trans sex workers in Latin America speak about MOTHERING AND CARING: Global survey 2024
The survey took a long time to do because of the translation and it is hard to know what to select on some answers, but we made our best effort. Twenty surveys completed: 13 from Brazil, two Mexico, two Venezuela, one Colombia and two women living in the US who arefrom Honduras and Dominican Republic. Some are undocumented.
The gender question: some tick “trans woman” and write “travesti” in the “other” box because it is cultural and political. It is not just to respect trans identity, but because it is anti-racist and recognizes Indigenous cultures. In many cultures the binary does not exist like it does [in the West], and in many places where it does it is because it has been enforced by colonialism.
Most are young, 20s and 30s because life expectancy is not good. Most are mixed race, some Black, a few Indigenous and the rest Latinx.
Most are living with long term health issues but not all marked this as a disability. Continue reading here on Page 27: