Seven feminist organisations across Europe launch joint manifesto for transfeminist solidarity
At a time when civil society and emancipatory movements need each other more than ever, solidarity is not optional, but strategic. This manifesto is an invitation to choose solidarity over division, to expand rather than narrow our understanding, and to defend a feminist future where everyone is free to live safely as themselves.
Developed through messaging research, focus group testing, and collaboration with AWID – Association for Women’s Rights in Development, Deutscher Frauenrat, EL*C – The Eurocentralasian Lesbian* Community, ENAR – European Network Against Racism, Heinrich Böll Foundation, and IPPF European Network, it articulates a shared vision for transfeminist solidarity in practice. We wrote it because taking a clear stance in the current political landscape matters and makes a difference.
‘In This Together’ is TGEU’s strategic communications campaign, developed through cross-movement collaboration and grounded in messaging research on how to build common ground across diverse feminist movements.
Add your organisation’s signature to this collective commitment to transfeminist solidarity.
In This Together: a joint manifesto for transfeminist solidarity
Feminist movements must act as a united front against threats to our fundamental freedoms, fighting together for human rights principles, justice and equality.
Across Europe, women and LGBTI people are facing unprecedented attacks as part of a global backlash that reaches far beyond the region. Exclusionary laws, hostile media campaigns, and restrictions on essential healthcare, education and housing are rapidly escalating. The consequences are devastating.
Misogyny, including transmisogyny, intersects with transphobia, racism and xenophobia in deadly ways. These overlapping systems of oppression are reinforced by racist policies that fortify borders, criminalise migration and justify surveillance of racialised communities. The result is the consolidation of illiberal, right-wing power and the erosion of protections for women and LGBTI people. Gender-based violence remains shockingly high, with one in three women experiencing physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. Trans people are particularly affected: in recent years, 90% of reported murders of trans people were transfeminicides, targeting trans women, transfeminine people, and disproportionately affecting Black and trans women of colour, as well as trans sex workers.
This systemic violence shows up as economic and societal violence as well. Anti-rights actors and governments continue to restrict abortion access, refuse to recognise diverse families and protect bodily autonomy. Austerity cuts deepen these inequalities, cutting essential public services and shaping who has access to safety nets, healthcare, legal protections, and the time or resources to seek gender-affirming care.
None of this is happening by chance. Anti-rights movements are becoming more organised and strategic in weakening the hard-won freedoms that women and LGBTI people have fought for. They exploit and deepen existing divisions within feminist and queer movements for political gain, framing basic human rights that ensure safety and equality for trans people as incompatible with the same human rights that guarantee women’s safety and equality. This puts our rights at risk and makes it harder for our movements to fight back.
In the face of this hostile political landscape, solidarity has never been more urgent. We must act together to resist these attacks and defend human rights.
We call on feminists, in all our diversity, to act together and defend the shared principles that have always driven our collective fight: equality, human rights, and equal protections for everyone.
We, the undersigned organisations and individuals, come together to dismantle patriarchy in all its forms, through the following principles:
We take action for a solidarity-based, transfeminist future
A transfeminist future is shaped by solidarity. It expands rights, care, and justice for all: a future where trans people can live safely and openly is a future where everyone can do the same.
We stand in opposition to the authoritarian and exclusionary future that anti-gender movements seek to build – one rooted in racism, ‘traditional’ family structures and gender roles that maintain patriarchal control and roll back the rights of women, LGBTI people, and other marginalised communities. We envision a future where everyone can enjoy their freedoms regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, race, migration status, disability and economic status.
We firmly believe the rights of trans people are part of the feminist fight
Defending the rights of trans people is a feminist fight and a key part of the broader struggle for reproductive justice, bodily autonomy, equality and human rights. When we fight for the rights of trans people, we also acknowledge how the feminist movement has been strengthened and shaped by the leadership and labour of trans people. Historically, Black and brown trans women, in particular, have been at the forefront of feminist activism, advocating for housing and healthcare, fighting violence and advancing social justice for everyone.
We centre intersectionality
Discrimination and oppression impact our lives differently depending on our social positions, while privilege shapes who is protected from harm. An intersectional feminism recognises that capitalism, colonialism, racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, lesbophobia, ableism, whorephobia, and classism reinforce one another and must be dismantled together.
We are interdependent
Our collective liberation is fundamentally and intrinsically interconnected because human rights don’t discriminate; they are universal and indivisible. We understand that to achieve this, we need to come together. Fighting for equality is not about choosing one group’s rights over another. It is about holding governments accountable for providing effective responses to pressing issues such as ending gender-based violence, ensuring access to comprehensive healthcare, freedom of movement, and securing stable, affordable housing so that everyone can live freely without fear and leave situations that limit their rights.
We unite across differences
We cannot afford to be divided and enable anti-rights movements’ efforts. We have a collective responsibility to act when anyone’s rights are under attack and to speak out for and with trans, racialised, undocumented and disabled people. Across our differences, we commit to dialogue, mutual respect, and working together to build stronger, united movements. We take active steps to stop anti-rights movements in their tracks with much-needed cross-movement conversations and spaces for knowledge and experience exchange.
We choose solidarity over neutrality
Solidarity requires commitment to action. Silence in the face of injustice reinforces harmful norms, isolates those being targeted, and signals to bystanders that violence and discriminatory behaviour are acceptable.
We build a transfeminist solidarity that will stand the test of time with concrete actions in our organisations, communities, and daily lives. That’s why we commit to:
- Advancing an intersectional, anti-racist and anti-oppressive feminism, recognising that liberation for women must include trans and racialised women, migrants, and sex workers.
- Showing cross-movement support by defending the rights of marginalised groups under attack, across feminist, migrant-led, anti-racist, decolonial, disability, labour and sex worker movements, and civil society organisations.
- Demanding that governments and funders resource and sustain grassroots human rights organisations, especially those led by trans people and Black and Brown people, whose frontline work is essential yet chronically underfunded.
- Defending each other against debates and policies that misuse ‘protections’ to target and stigmatise trans people.
- Call for the right of every person to bodily autonomy, integrity, agency and the right to identity protected by law without exception.
- Creating inclusive, welcoming, respectful and representative feminist spaces within our groups.
- Amplifying trans, racialised, and disabled feminist voices in leadership and decision-making, ensuring contributions to shaping agendas, priorities, and political strategies.
We act in solidarity with all trans and non-binary people to build a world where human rights, social justice, and equality are a reality for everyone. This is our shared vision: a future where no one is left behind. Feminism wins when we choose transfeminist solidarity.
AWID – Association for Women’s Rights in Development
EL*C – The Eurocentralasian Lesbian* Community
ENAR – European Network Against Racism
Heinrich Böll Foundation, Global Unit for Feminism and Gender Democracy
TGEU – Trans Europe and Central Asia
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