Black Women Are Not Human Shields for Transgender Ideology

Some of the most vocal defenders of transgender ideology are Black women. They speak out fiercely against critics of transgenderism—especially when those critics are also Black women. These activists argue that because black women have never historically fit neatly into society's narrow definitions of femininity, individuals born male are equally entitled to define womanhood on their own terms. Some black trans rights activists (TRAs) even claim that only white women are truly viewed as women or as feminine. This belief is not only deeply flawed—it is also both racist and abhorrently dishonest.

Oddly, many liberal black women have accepted the myth that our historical struggle for recognition and human dignity somehow obligates us to extend the definition of womanhood to include males who identify as women. Anchored in identity politics and convoluted interpretations of intersectionality, these activists believe their liberation is bound up with the liberation of transgender individuals—even when it comes at the cost of women's and children’s rights and protections.

There is now a de facto social expectation that Black women must support trans ideology as if our humanity depends on theirs. For some, if males cannot claim womanhood, then Black women cannot be seen as fully human. To placate the white liberal masters they serve, some Black female TRAs celebrate individuals who reject their biological sex through extreme medical intervention, praising such actions as brave, authentic, and enlightened.

Black women who are critical of gender ideology are often labeled as ignorant, uneducated, bigoted, or even tools of white supremacy. In this framework, black women who question or reject trans ideology are cast as villains. Meanwhile, black TRAs accept a role that dehumanizes them—serving as emotional and rhetorical shields for an ideology that exploits their identities while undermining their own womanhood.

Many have no issue with their existence being used to “prove” that penis owners can be women. They are willing to allow their femininity to be diminished. They support medical interventions on children in the name of “gender-affirming care,” and they shrink themselves in service of a movement that erases the reality of sex-based differences.

Black women—stop! We must reject this misguided loyalty. Our ancestors endured too much for us to now surrender our identity and truth. Our Blackness does not negate our femaleness, our femininity, or our womanhood. And none of these give anyone the right to redefine or colonize the boundaries of sex.

Black women who disassociate from their womanhood, whether it be gender dysphoria or a social trend, are not any less female than those who embrace it. Black men who experience gender dysphoria, or who are more feminine are not any less male than their counterparts who are more masculine. Gender nonconformity does not change biological sex. It’s absurd that this must be said.

Some black TRAs cite slavery as proof that Black identity exists outside the gender binary. They point to the fact that enslaved women worked alongside men, using this to argue that black women were never fully recognized as women. But this ignores the historical and biological reality of sex differences.

Even during slavery, black women and men were not seen as interchangeable. Women were midwives, wet nurses, cooks, and caregivers, homemakers—roles that have been assigned to women since the beginning of time. Our womanhood was never in question, even as we fought alongside black men for our human dignity.

Transgender ideology relies, in part, on a subtle but powerful form of racism—one that seeks to deny black women their right to define themselves within the female sex class. It elevates white women as the ideal of womanhood while using black women as political tools to justify the dismantling of sex-based categories. But again: Our Blackness does not erase our womanhood. And womanhood is not a resource to be co-opted.

Black women—this movement does not love you. You do not have to serve as its emotional support pets. Do not allow guilt or social pressure to convince you that recognizing the material differences between males and females is wrong. The transgender industry is spearheaded by white male billionaires. As much as they want you to think that trans people are part of some uber-oppressed class, rest assured that they are supported financially by some of the most wealthy and powerful institutions in the world.

If some of you choose to cape and devote your precious energy to this movement, that is your right. But do not demand that the rest of us dehumanize ourselves or sacrifice the rights of our daughters to uphold your ideological commitments.

How asinine is the idea that expanding the definition of “woman” to include males will make black women—or any women—safer? It does not liberate us to alter our bodies to imitate the male form. We can support our gender-expansive brothers and sisters without allowing ourselves to become the doormats for a movement that seeks to erase the foundational realities of sex.

Most black women do not support this movement. Like, our non-black sisters, we’ve been bullied into silence – afraid to lose our livelihoods for speaking truth to power. As a mother to a black daughter, as an aunty, a sister, a daughter, a woman, a human, as everything I am -- I cannot afford to be silent any longer.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author's own.