A lot of anti-trans stuff is framed in the context of “protecting women and girls” and often done in a patriarchal manner as if it’s our duty to protect them because “females are such fragile beings.” They’ll usually say “women and girls” instead of “cis women and girls” because they do not view trans women as real women and don’t want them to be included as women.

For example the bathroom stuff is typically argued like “we need to ban trans women from the women’s bathroom to protect [cis] women and girls” implying trans women are all predators who will rape any cis woman at first sight. (I could go into how they always forget trans men exist)

and in terms of sports it’s always “we need to ban trans women from women’s sports to protect [cis] women and girls” which implies trans women are all testosterone fuelled bodybuilders who will dominate all sports and do not understand how hrt works. (again they seem to forget trans men exist)

I would have thought “women and girls” includes trans women and girls.

I’d normally assume the same, and i wouldn’t suspect somebody is a TERF just for using that phrase. It’s just that i’ve seen it repeatedly in screenshots of TERF screeds posted on here. Also in news articles written by TERFs, so it’s not exclusively a twitter thing.