Since every terf on this site would like to ignore my reblogs where I talk about the love affair between terfs and the far right I'm making an actual post.
In April, the House Judiciary Committee held its first hearing on the latest iteration of the Equality Act, federal legislation that would enshrine sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes under federal civil rights law. Included on the Judiciary Committee’s speakers list was Julia Beck, a 26-year-old lesbian, self-described radical feminist, and a member of the group Women’s Liberation Front, or WoLF. Invited by Republican members of the committee, she was there to decry the protections that it would provide trans women. where Republicans like Doug Collins and Louie Gohmert voiced their opposition to the Act in the name of women’s rights. The Equality Act, Gohmert said, represented “a war on women that should not be allowed.” Collins, an opponent of gay marriage and abortion rights, spoke approvingly of WoLF, before charging that the bill’s protections of trans people “would demolish the hard-won rights of women, putting them once again at the mercy of any biological man who identifies at any moment as a woman.”
And when it comes to WoLF it becomes very quickly apparent that they aren’t interested in women’s rights. Merely the aesthetic of it as a means to attack trans people whilst shielding themselves from criticism. Take for example the fact that WoLF board member Kara Dansky, she received a donation of $15,000 from the Alliance Defending Freedom.
For clarification, a report put together by the Southern Poverty Law Centre describes said organisation as; “Founded by some 30 leaders of the Christian Right, the Alliance Defending Freedom is a legal advocacy and training group that has supported the recriminalization of homosexuality in the U.S. and criminalization abroad; has defended state-sanctioned sterilization of trans people abroad; has linked homosexuality to pedophilia and claims that a “homosexual agenda” will destroy Christianity and society.
ADF also works to develop “religious liberty” legislation and case law that will allow the denial of goods and services to LGBT people on the basis of religion. Since the election of President Donald Trump, the ADF has become one of the most influential groups informing the administration’s attack on LGBT rights working with an ally in Attorney General Jeff Sessions.”
And the subject of reproductive rights is also mentioned ; “Using its international platforms, the ADF works with policymakers and other organizations to outlaw abortion, deny equality and marriage to LGBT people worldwide, and continue to push for a hard-right Christian theocratic worldview that is reflected in legislation and policies.”
WoLF has also received financial support from Imperial Independent Media. This is an organisation that sued a research clinic in Washington. Not out of hopes of stopping the research carried out there, but in hopes of gaining the names and addresses of the involved researchers. Now why did they do this? Well the clinic utilised fetal tissue samples. They had the intention of publishing the private details of the researchers involved in hopes that Stochastic terrorism would claim further victims. If you don’t know what Stochastic terrorism is, it refers to the use of public discourse to radicalise individuals and incite them to enact violence in a fashion that seems random. If you’ve ever heard of a so called ‘lone wolf’ terrorist, you’ve most likely heard this in practice. That’s why so many so called ‘lone wolfs’ share the same interests, the same backgrounds, follow the same people, share similar political ideologies, etc. Because it’s not random, it’s cultivated. Those open to being radicalised are filtered out by gradually worsening rhetoric until they reach a point where they hear some conspiracy podcaster saying something akin to ‘they’re killing babies’ and decide to act on that. And groups like those who fund WoLF have a large role in this.
But it’s not a case of simply taking money from these organisations. WoLF has actively worked alongside them in multiple instances. In 2017 WoLF filed a joint lawsuit against trans teenager Gavin Grimm. Their ally? The Family Policy Alliance. And organisation that asks you to ; “Join with Family Policy Alliance so pro-life, pro-family, pro-freedom Americans make their voices heard for preborn babies and school children!”
Then we come to WoLF’s involvement with the Heritage Foundation, specifically their ‘Biology Isn’t Bigotry’ talk. Active WoLF member Mary Lou Singleton took part in said panel, offering credence to the narratives surrounding trans people that have been constructed by the Christian Right these past few years. Narratives of the dangers trans people pose society, in particular young girls and vulnerable women.
And it’s not like they hide the fact that these are constructed narratives particularly well. LifeSiteNews hosted an article written by Mass Resistance, a conservative group from Massachusetts which fought against trans inclusive bathroom policy. Inside said article they state the following; “Now with the “transgender anti-discrimination” bills the same thing is happening. Our side concocted the “bathroom safety” male predator argument as a way to avoid an uncomfortable battle over LGBT ideology, and still fire up people’s emotions. It worked in Houston a few years ago.” And this follows on directly from mention of a similar tactic used against same gender parents at an earlier point in America’s history.
So considering this, is it that surprising that said organisation refuses to make a stand for the rights of bisexual and lesbian women? That it refuses to fight for reproductive care and abortion access which outside of trans men and some non-binary folk, disproportionately impacts women? Not really. What we have here is something known as astroturfing. A term that describes idea of creating a movement which has the outwardly appearance of being grass-roots, being self-formed by people impacted by a certain issue. The reality meanwhile is that said movement is artificial. WoLF is presented as a figurehead that speaks for the wellbeing of women, when the truth is it’s funded and backed by the Christian Right to the very opposite effect.
here we have an apparent radical feminist thanking a Tory MP who voted against lesbian rights for somehow standing up for lesbians.
One of her pals is another British woman. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, commonly known as Posie Parker. A woman who decries the evil of transgender people whilst posing with holocaust denying Trump supporters such as Hans Johansson.
At the start of this year one of said people, Jean Hatchet, broke off from the likes of WoLF and Keen-Minshull. But not before writing a post to explain her issues. Amongst them are some of the things I have already discussed. But there was more. For example, Hatchet took issue with Keen-Minshull’s friendship with Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson. Yaxley-Lennon famously jeopardize court cases surrounding child grooming gangs to line his own pockets. He breached court orders designed to protect the British judicial system and risked having the case thrown out or started again as a new jury was found. All to fuel his xenophobic narratives at the cost of the victims of said grooming gangs. Keen-Minshull praised these actions whilst dismissing the work of feminists who covered the topic without resorting to xenophobia. So it’s not a case of Keen-Minshull once spoke to a room full of Nazis, this is a repeated occurrence by said self-declared feminists. Hardly surprising once one wipes away the appropriated feminism.
And that’s part of the reason Irish feminists opened fire at these appropriators at the start of 2018. They went after the fact that whilst groups like Women’s Place UK and We Need To Talk assist the Christian Right and Fascist groups in harming trans people, women in Northern Ireland lacked access to safe and legal abortions.
I'll be adding more to this post as time goes on because this goes much more deeper than WoLF, Women’s Place and We Need To Talk, and extends beyond the US and the UK.
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