TRANS people’s experiences — and in particular, trans women’s experiences and viewpoints — are sometimes presented as being separate and distinct from feminism. However in my experience and understanding, feminism and trans experiences are inextricably linked.

Most trans women I know are feminists and all of them have experienced the oppression which comes with being treated as women and for identifying as female, regardless of their age or how far they have travelled along the transitioning road.

As a young adult I identified with lesbian feminism. I had a lot of anger about all the restrictions forced on women, the continual patronisation and over-sexualisation of women, mostly by men.

I resented how men treated women and I also resented how some women appeared to be complicit in this. My experiences of being refused access to the things I enjoyed and yearned for — primarily just to be treated as an equal — ensured that I would be a feminist for life, despite transitioning to become a male in my thirties.

No-one should be prevented from doing the things that they aspire to do because of their gender. I know of a trans woman who ran a football club for young girls. This makes me quite emotional because as a child I was prevented from playing football — at that stage my overriding joy in life. In those days girls were prevented from playing after the age of eleven.

The changes of behaviour from others after you transition are quite remarkable and really stand out.

People behave very differently towards you, and this includes friends, family, work colleagues and shopkeepers — everyone in fact. This is the case even if they knew you before you transitioned, but even more so if they didn’t.

The absolute absurdity of having so many gender rules and boundaries really stands out to trans and gender-fluid people, who challenge such restrictions on their behaviour. Feminists the world over recognise that this is a fight for liberation and for individual expression.

I know a trans woman who is a mechanic but has to deal with harassment from men and women who don’t consider this a female occupation. I hear regularly of trans women being catcalled in the street, verbally abused and much worse. Inappropriate and oppressive behaviour from men affects all women, full stop.

Feminism is a broad movement with many aims and has a lot to work for, but I think it should encourage everyone to support it and be more inclusive, and even include men as well where appropriate.

The campaigns for equal pay and for equal division of childcare and housework are relevant to all. There is much common ground and feminists should be able to provide spaces for shared experiences.

Unfortunately due to misunderstandings and dividing lines this has not been taking place for many years. A small group of people have polarised trans women and feminists, which is neither helpful nor necessary.

Charlie Kiss is a member of LGBTIQ Greens and the Green Party candidate for Islington South and Finsbury.

TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) — or, as they prefer to call themselves, “gender-critical feminists” — frequently like to make it appear that they speak for all feminists, or indeed for all women, when in fact they represent a tiny minority of both groups.

Similarly this group likes to make it appear that there is a profound conflict between trans women and cis women (a woman who identifies as being the same gender as they were assigned at birth). In fact there is no such conflict.

The vast majority of women and feminists accept trans women as women. In fact “gender-critical feminists,” rather than — as they claim to be — engaging in critique of gender, invariably resort to insulting trans people, denigrating our experiences, and misrepresenting us.

Ultimately, rather than critiquing gender they simply abuse and harm trans people and try to force us back into the boxes originally allocated. This is why their preferred term “gender-critical feminists” is misleading. Not only does it try to blur the distinction between them and other feminists, it doesn’t do what it says on the tin.

In reality trans people increasingly challenge and subvert hegemonic gender stereotypes, and they understand the injustice of gender and experience its unfair restrictions as much as anyone. This is why so many trans people are feminists.

At the end of last year 17-year-old trans girl Leelah Alcorn committed suicide.

She had been forced to undergo “Christian” talking therapies to try and force her to be male. It is well known that these types of “talking therapies” only produce depressed and suicidal people.

Yet this type of talking therapy — except with the label “feminist” in front of it — is the only “solution” that so-called gender-critical feminists have to the “problem” of trans people.

So it’s no surprise that this group has worked with US Christian fundamentalists and right-wing Republicans to cause actual harm to trans people.

Nor is their hatred of trans people recent — they have campaigned against our existence and wanted trans people to be “mandated out of existence” since the 1970s.

Probably the most telling element of Terf/gendercrit discourse is the way many of its proponents use the dehumanising descriptor “transgenderism” to talk about trans people.

Their methods have also included threats of violence, misrepresentation, outright lies, abuse of trans people, outing us (including minors) online against our will, using legal means to try to silence us and trying — and sometimes succeeding — to get us sacked from our jobs.

The fact is that trans people have existed throughout human history, in every culture and in every civilisation that has ever existed on this planet. Yet “gender-critical feminists” try and present our existence as some kind of recent “movement” or an anti-feminist plot by psychiatrists.

One must ask oneself why this group needs persistently to engage in such dishonesty, deception and disingenuousness.

Natacha Kennedy is a member of LGBT Labour.