We have grappled a lot with language in our trans inclusion work at WAVAW. The term ‘people of marginalized genders’ was created in order to describe our mandate – the longer version of it might read: trans and cis women, as well as all trans, Two Spirit, and nonbinary people. It’s used to describe the ways that all of these people experience marginalization due to their genders; not in all the same ways, but always in ways that heighten our risk of experiencing sexualized violence. People of marginalized genders are made unsafe because of our gender, and it’s this oppression that we speak to as a feminist organization.

In deciding how to describe our new mandate, we’ve struggled with some of the nuances of using language to organize a community. We want to challenge the tendency to name trans identities only in English, which whitewashes the trans community and erases essential cultural ties and history. We also consider the ways in which access to language is classed since it requires books, internet access, and hours spent learning new vocabulary.

On top of this, trans and queer language is constantly, beautifully evolving. It’s exciting to be in the midst of all this radical naming. At the same time, whenever we try to make a list of who we serve, we worry about who is being left out simply because their words haven’t reached us yet.

Like all queer and trans language, ‘people of marginalized genders’ is made from a need to give language to something important that hasn’t been named yet. Like all good language, it’s not perfect but is hopefully useful instead. It can’t capture the nuance of different gender identities, and we need to be careful not to erase specificity under it.

It’s our hope that ‘people of marginalized genders’ will speak to the shared vision of trans and feminist movements to end gendered oppression. We hope this language will help push back against the idea that we’re at odds with each other. We hope as well that it can highlight the shared history between us, and provide an avenue to explore the contributions that trans people have made to feminism all along.