ABSTRACT
Through an examination of both historical and contemporary trans feminist issues and activism, along with the everyday experiences of trans men, this chapter complicates the relationship between trans people and feminism. It uses trans to refer both to people who identify as transgender and, in a broader sense, to mean a crossing of gendered and other boundaries. Using this understanding, It documents how there have always been trans feminists. Trans people do not have one connection to feminist movements, but have many different relationships with feminisms. The chapter examines a few well-known controversies, centered on Beth Elliott, Sandy Stone, and Sylvia Rivera, it becomes clear that the inclusion and exclusion of trans women and trans issues more broadly was more complicated in this early period than common historical narratives would suggest. While there were lesbian feminists who fought to exclude trans women, there were both cisgender and trans feminists who fought for their inclusion.
