Editor:

We now have a new addition to the hollow class of liberals that so pervade the redwood curtain. Joining such classics as "The Patriarchy Hurts Men Too,"  "I'm Not Homophobic; I Have A Gay Friend," and "I Hate All Races Equally," we have "One Man, One Penis!" Charlotte Stuart's letter, "No Lady Parts? Hmmm" (March 7) on the article "Abortion Prayers Unfazed," insists that Lance Madsen, one of our council members, should not be protesting because he doesn't have "woman parts" or any professionalism to go with them.

Here's the short and the long of it: Women don't necessarily have vaginas. Men and nonbinary people may. By equating vaginas and abortion rights to being a woman, you are being transphobic, a word that here means "oppressing people who don't live up to your limited expectations of gender and are committing the terrible crime of their anatomy."

This isn't just an ideological thing, either. Trans men and nonbinary people are actively denied abortions for their gender, a fact which I sure hope you are dismayed about (and it's the fault of you and our mutual friend Charlotte Stuart).

When transphobia is so casually thrown about in a journal that totes itself as progressive, it makes me wonder what makes a liberal in Humboldt County and if it's possible to test for the gene. Now, instead of being denied services for your gender not matching what's on your birth certificate, we can openly discriminate against those bleedin' hearts and their agenda. I, for one, am excited.

Emily Carlson, Arcata