The Theological Basis for Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist Positions

This essay argues that Irish lesbian feminism has been largely anti-theocratic and post/colonial in its perspective and has therefore remained opposed to current UK Trans-exclusionary Radical Feminist (terf) activism, which has received much media attention. We examine how the Radical Lesbian Feminist, Mary Daly engaged with the theology of St Thomas Aquinas to provide crucial conceptual underpinning of terf perspectives. We see how Daly’s rigid adherence to her metaphysical concepts designed to refute Aquinas meant that she was unwilling to engage with evolving feminist theory on gender, and unable to respond to feminist critical race theory. As Irish lesbian feminism has remained conscious of its post/colonial legacy, it is characterized by a political practice of building alliances, coalitions and by an intersectional thinking that is critical of claims to supremacy and hierarchy. Irish lesbian feminism has also been generally engaged in an oppositional politics to theocratic rule. This essay argues that an intersectional post/colonial lesbian feminist politics and an anti-theocratic perspective that is critical of categories such as the pure and impure (the real and the fake; the true and the dissembling) means that Irish lesbian feminist culture has not proved amenable to terf activism which rests on the version of Radical Feminism espoused in the work of Mary Daly.