The law tells us that womanhood is now a certificate, a checklist, a narrow strip of biology that must be proven. It tells us that trans women do not belong. It tells us that being a woman is now a matter of government decree. This is hard to listen to.

In this day and age, trans women are women. No law can legislate humanity out of someone’s blood and breath and bones. No paper can flatten a life into something less. We are living in a time where truth does not come from the mouths of those in power. It comes from the margins. It comes from the ones who have survived not being believed.

We have always known that womanhood is bigger than anatomy. It is a way of moving through the world when the world was not built for you. It is a refusal to shrink. It is a tenderness that costs everything. It is rage sharpened into resilience. It is choosing, every day, to exist, to hope, to love, even when they build walls to keep you out.

Trans women are not waiting for permission. They never were. They are women.

And if you stand for women, if you believe in the right to define yourself beyond the labels handed down to you, you stand with trans women.

So we choose something different. We choose to recognise each other. To lift each other. To believe each other.

Trans women are women. And no law, no government, no broken system will ever change that. There is no progress without them. There is no feminism without them.