Shelter for Battered Women and Rape Victims Vandalized with ‘Kill TERFs’ and ‘Trans-Power’ Graffiti, Dead Rat Nailed to the Door

A Canadian shelter for battered women and rape victims has been the target of persistent threats from transgender activists over their denial of services to those who are biologically male.

They have now been vandalized twice in approximately two weeks.

A follow up to the dead rat that was nailed to our door recently... this morning we found this writing scrawled across the windows of our storefront space that we use for support and training groups #Misogyny pic.twitter.com/vm6Gv8jWcj

— VancouverRapeRelief (@VanRapeRelief) August 27, 2019

In one incident, a dead rat was nailed to the Vancouver crisis center’s door.

When staff at the shelter and crisis center arrived for work on Tuesday they were greeted by vandalism declaring“kill TERFs,” which stands for “trans-exclusionary radical feminists,” and “trans-power.”

Those running the shelter, which has been open since 1973, say that they are dedicated to ending male violence against women and want to provide a space free from biological males where the victims they are serving can comfortably heal. Activists have taken issue with this, declaring that transwomen are women and should thus be entitled to the center’s services.

Hilla Kerner, spokeswoman for Rape Relief, explained to City News that “women who are born female and socialized to submit to male domination do not feel comfortable around women who may appear and sound like men and don’t share the same life experience.”

The organization does not simply turn transgender victims away without help, they link them up with services that can help them.

This is the Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter storefront, where they run support and training groups. Imagine vandalising a rape crisis centre. Imagine thinking that’s a progressive act. This is where confected victimhood and entitlement leads. https://t.co/EGbta7RNn4 pic.twitter.com/FkgIK0Ljwx

— Stephen Daisley (@JournoStephen) August 27, 2019

In March, Vancouver announced that the rape crisis center would no longer receive a $34,000 annual grant from the city, “saying the charitable group does not meet its trans equality and inclusion criteria, adopted in 2016,” City News reported at the time.

“While (Vancouver Rape Relief Society) services have been and are very important, staff identified concerns about the organization’s position on trans women in relation to the full intent of grant criteria,” the city said in a statement.

Morgane Oger, who chairs the Trans Alliance Society, had been lobbying for their funding to be pulled since 2013.