Never mind inclusion, it’s about validation

Vancouver Rape Relief has a statement on the city council’s defunding:

1. On March 14, 2019, at the end of a flawed and unfair process, Vancouver City Council voted to terminate the yearly grant given to us in support of our public education work.

2. Vancouver City Council’s decision is intended to coerce us to change our position and practice of offering some of our core services only to women who are born female. Our organization’s status as an equality-seeking group and our entitlement to serve women who are born female was reaffirmed by the Supreme Court of British Columbia in 2003, by the British Columbia Court of Appeal in 2005 and by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2007.

3. Vancouver City Council’s attempt to undermine our autonomy as a women’s group — to decide who we serve, who our membership is and who we organize with — also undermines the protections the law has granted us. Such conduct has no place in a democratic society.

4. Vancouver City Council’s decision to cut funding from Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter is discriminatory. Many Vancouver City grants are given to organizations that deliver programs and support to specific groups of people such as Aboriginal youth, Chinese seniors, deaf persons and migrant workers. Rightfully, none of these groups have been challenged with the demand that they demonstrate “accommodation, welcomeness and openness to people of all ages, abilities… and ethnicities.” Such a demand of these organizations would be incomprehensible, as it would contradict the essence and purpose of their work. Yet, this is what is being asked of us under the guise of inclusivity.

And it very much is a guise, too. It’s a mask, a trick, a ploy. It’s not about “inclusivity” at all, it’s about validation. It’s about forcing people to agree or pretend to agree (and if it’s forced it’s bound to be pretend to, isn’t it) that trans women are literally women. The problem is that trans women aren’t literally women, but the more vocal of them (like Morgan Oger for instance) want to force everyone to say they are. The problem with VRR isn’t that they don’t include everyone, it’s that they don’t pretend to think trans women are literally women in every sense. Validation is everything.

Men who “feel like” women on the inside working to force women to agree that they are women even in contexts such as counseling rape victims are doing a massively narcissistic thing: one guy’s feefees are more important than the safety and peace of mind of a whole bunch of raped women. That’s not politics, it’s self-love.

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