Have the TERFs Won?

And some related thoughts on compromise

December 7, 2024

On December 1, feminist Meghan Murphy posted on X that we have won and urged that no compromises be made in the battle to protect the sex-based rights of women and girls and to stop the abolition of sex.

It will come as a surprise to no one that I agree with her completely on the question of compromise. But some people took her to task for complacency, warning that there is still plenty of work to do (a sentiment with which I’m sure she agrees).

But the question got me thinking. Have we won? Is Murphy right to declare victory? The question made me think about activist Bill Moyer’s Movement Action Plan and his description of eight stages through which social movements progress.

I wrote about this in March of 2023 in a free and shareable post. At that time, I said I was cautiously optimistic that we had reached Stage 4 of the Movement Action Plan, “Social Movement Take-Off.” That post continued:

According to the Plan, though, following Stage 4 comes Stage 5, “Identity Crisis of Powerless,” where “[a]fter a year or two, the high hopes of movement take-off seems inevitably to turn into despair. Most activists lose their faith that success is just around the corner and come to believe that it is never going to happen. They perceive that the powerholders are too strong, their movement has failed, and their own efforts have been futile.”

We don’t have to go through that stage, though. If we can stay strong, we can proceed relatively quickly to Stage 6, “Majority Public Support.” According to the Plan, “[t]he movement must consciously undergo a transformation from spontaneous protest, operating in a short-term crisis, to a long-term popular struggle to achieve positive social change. It needs to win over the neutrality, sympathies, opinions, and even support of an increasingly larger majority of the populace and involve many of them in the process of opposition and change.” To do this, we must avoid despair.

We can do this. We’re going to win.

Was I right? This post explores where I think we are now in the movement to protect the sex-based rights of women and girls and to stop the abolition of sex, and some related thoughts about compromise.

Paid-only content follows. If you are not already a paid subscriber and would like access to content that delves deeper into the movement to protect the sex-based rights of women and girls and to stop the abolition of sex, please consider becoming one today.