THE KILLING OF DEI AND THE MYTH OF MERITOCRACY

By Ann Menasche

This article is the opinion of the author and doesn’t necessarily represent the opinions of FIST as an organization.

Many feminists breathed a big sigh of relief when President Trump issued his Executive Order on gender ideology, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government/, recognizing two immutable sexes and restoring the definition of women to adult human female, without which any women’s rights, even the ERA, lose all meaning.  This has the immediate benefit of women’s bathrooms and changing rooms, prison cells and sports teams at least on the federal level being reserved once again for us alone apart from males, regardless of their gender identity.

At the same time, Trump revealed through another EO that what he had in mind for the sex class of women wasn’t exactly what we feminists have struggled for over the past century.  https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing/ Instead, he sought to undermine women’s right to equal job opportunities alongside men and to return to the mythical past of a “meritocracy” where white males somehow were always the ones who managed to get ahead not of course because of the “old boys” network providing a leg up, but because they were simply the smartest and most qualified around.

Trump’s direct target was to destroy DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs, which he labelled “radical and wasteful”, both in the federal government and in private companies that contract with the government. DEI is the corporatized watered-down version of the robust affirmative action programs of the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s that helped even the playing field and advance women and African Americans in all sectors of society where they had previously been excluded.  Those affirmative action programs were eroded by successful court challenges and Proposition 209 in California in 1996.

DEI, reduced to a shadow of its formal self, at times even became a caricature -removing sex as a protected class in favor of gender identity, targeting gender critical feminists and lesbians as “bigots”, and emphasizing “politically correct” language (the rules of which changed frequently), virtue signaling, avoiding micro-aggressions, and urging brow-beating and confessions of guilt, as a substitute for real meaningful measures that would provide equal opportunity to women and people of color in the workplace.  Yet DEI was the only way the white males that still dominate the workplace were forced to pay a little attention to whether they were truly the only ones capable of exercising leadership and doing a job well or whether a few Blacks, Latinos or women should be allowed that opportunity.

As anyone  knows who has looked at the research or who has opened their eyes to the dynamics in the workplace, sex and race discrimination are still widespread though difficult to prove on an individual basis.  (Employers and managers frankly don’t always tell the truth.) See https://hbr.org/2017/10/hiring-discrimination-against-black-americans-hasnt-declined-in-25-years. See also https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/12/14/gender-discrimination-comes-in-many-forms-for-todays-working-women/.  And it is not white males that are experiencing the brunt of the discrimination.

Yet the Trump administration is making the preposterous claim – rooted in white supremacy and male supremacy – that without DEI, there will be a meritocracy that will return us to the time where our “betters” – white males like himself- the only or best qualified, will regain their rightful place in society. He is being cheered on by people who are claiming all over social media that the problem with the Los Angeles fires arose because the Mayor and Police Chief are two “unqualified” women (one, also a person of color) rather than due to policies of austerity and the failure to maintain the fire hydrants which have nothing to do with sex or race.

The most frightening part of Trump’s actions against DEI is his mandating that people report their co-workers who violate his new DEI policy, launching a witch-hunt against anyone who is suspected of utilizing DEI. Of course, the best way to prove one’s innocence is to never hire or promote women or people of color in the first place.

It is essential for women’s existence as a sex to be recognized, but obviously, it is not the whole enchilada.  WE WANT EQUALITY! And affirmative action is a necessary part of getting us there.

 

 

ON DARKNESS, BETRAYAL, AND THE POWER OF SISTERHOOD

By Ann Menasche

This piece contains the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the collective views of Feminists in Struggle.

Many spiritual and religious traditions celebrate the dark, cold time of the year – winter solstice – by lighting candles, stoking a fire, and gathering close with loved ones.  We do so to help us survive this dark time and to remind us that after darkness comes the light.

The sadness for me this year is palpable.  We lost our beloved dog, Jaz, on December 9th.  And I can’t forget the state of the world that haunts me and disturbs my sleep: the relentless slaughter of the women and children in Gaza; the women in Afghanistan prisoners in their homes, denied work or study.  And closer to home, my homeless neighbors including a growing number of women – virtually all survivors of male violence -subsist crammed into government-sanctioned rat-infested camps, tents three feet apart, with no way to stay warm or dry.

And the state of our rights as women in the U.S. is abysmal.  Over 100 years after Alice Paul introduced the Equal Rights Amendment into the Constitution, we are still considered second class citizens, as first Trump, then Biden refused to register the duly ratified Amendment into the Constitution. This weakens our ability to fight to regain reproductive rights, to end violence against women, and to achieve equal pay and opportunity in the workplace for women. Meanwhile, trans activists are attempting to erase our sex class from existence in law and public policy so it will be impossible to name, measure, or remedy ongoing sexism.

Is it any wonder that so many young girls are attempting to “identify” out of their womanhood?

Then there is the bitterness of betrayal. Over the last several months, FIST joined with Equal Means Equal and became part of a broad coalition of organizations demanding that the Biden administration instruct the archivist to publish the ERA.  We recently learned that behind our backs, leaders of mainstream feminist organizations such as NOW and the Feminist Majority, supposed feminists and ERA supporters, were urging Biden not to publish the ERA.

How do we explain this treachery?  Is it their loyalty to the corporate dominated Democratic Party that while using women’s rights as a campaign slogan to win votes and donations, never had women’s best interests at heart?  Or do they really believe that the best way to fight for our rights is to be “ladylike” and polite, to not rock the boat?

I’m with Frederick Douglass who said in 1857, “Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation are people who want crops without ploughing the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning, the want the ocean without the roar of its many waters…Power concedes nothing without a demand.  It never did and it never will.”

I learned a lesson in courage and tenacity watching my sick dog with her back legs failing her, forcing herself up again and again and walking through the house, and up and down stairs.  No matter how many times she fell, she persisted, until she could no longer move at all.

Building movements takes that level of persistence, along with a recognition that when women unite, collectively we have the power to bring in the light, to change everything.  We have that power regardless of who is in the White House.

Like the women in Iran who against incredible odds, led (and will continue to lead) their people in a movement against theocracy proclaiming, “Women, Life, Freedom.”

Like our foremothers, the suffragists.  Women like Alice Paul and the Women’s Party that declared their independence from the patriarchy and its two political parties and were relentless in carrying out their struggle.

It took 100 years to win the vote, but we were not defeated.

 

 

 

 

 

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM PLANNED FOR SATURDAY FEBRUARY 1st: THE TRUTH ABOUT PEDIATRIC “GENDER AFFIRMING CARE” FEATURING WHISTLEBLOWER JAMIE REED

Feminists In Struggle is proud to host JAMIE REED who will be providing an in depth educational presentation on Zoom about so-called “Gender Affirming Care” for minor children and its life-long negative impacts on them.  

The Educational event will take place on Saturday, February 1st at 11:00 a.m. Pacific time/2:00 p.m. Eastern time.

TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/feminist-educational-the-truth-about-gender-affirming-care-for-minors-tickets-1114924201299?aff=oddtdtcreator

Jamie is one of the first public whistleblowers from a pediatric gender clinic in the United States. Her explosive first person account, “I thought I was saving trans kids, Now I am blowing the whistle” was published in The Free Press in February 2023. The story traveled the globe.

Jamie is now the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Courage Coalition, an American based nonprofit of lesbians and gay male adults seeking to reform youth gender medicine. The Courage Coalition seeks to impact culture and medicine to accept and support gender non-conformity in a non-medicalized way. Jamie recently spoke on the steps of the United States Supreme Court at a rally on the day of the US v Skrmetti oral arguments.

Jamie is an accomplished public speaker and has been interviewed and profiled in The New York Times, the podcast Triggernometry, Gender: A Wider Lens, and Transparency. She has spoken at numerous conferences including Genspect: The Bigger Picture in Colorado, at the International Perspectives on Evidence- Based Treatment for Gender-Dysphoric Youth in New York, and Psychotherapeutic Process with Young People Experiencing Gender Dysphoria in Tampere, Finland.

Jamie is a lesbian and foster and adoptive parent of five boys. She holds a Master of Science in Clinical Research from Washington University in St. Louis and a bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology.

Feminists in Struggle’s forums and educational events are interactive, encouraging questions and participation from the audience. This special event is open to both men and women; however, women will be given priority during the discussion segment of the event.

 

 

 

Trump’s Threat to Women’s Rights & the ERA

The Equal Rights Amendment MUST Be Published Before Trump Takes Office!

In view of recent election results and, despite denials, the clear intention of the Trump Administration to implement Project 2025, which reads as a male supremacist manifesto, it is imperative that Biden reverse his obstructionism and instruct the National Archivist, Colleen Shogun, to publish the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution.  The ERA has met all the legal requirements, having been ratified by ¾ of the states, the 38th of which, Virginia, ratified on January 27, 2020.  Women have been waiting for over a century for the ERA to first be passed by Congress, and then be ratified by the required number of states.

The National Archivist is a ministerial position under the Executive Branch, and Biden is the only person who can reverse the decision by the Trump Administration to unconstitutionally interfere with its automatic publication following ratification by the requisite states, and reverse his own administration’s continuation of the Trump obstructionism.  The ERA represents our best, and only, real bulwark against the tide of male supremacism Trump promises to deliver.

We acknowledge that biological women, as a sex class, have enemies on the Left and on the Right. The embrace and promotion of gender ideology on the Left and its erasure of women has been breathtaking, despite its utter lack of scientific evidence; its having been founded on junk science; its clear misogyny and homophobia in its exaltation of sexual stereotypes; its disregard for the safeguarding of children and legitimate concerns of parents; the willful blindness to the real harms of medicalization, and the corporate pharmaceutical money behind it; the pain of detransitioners and regretters; and total disregard of the infringement on the sex-based rights and safety of women and girls.

In addition, the cancel culture, McCarthyist repression of free speech and de-platforming of anyone questioning gender ideology and so-called “gender affirming care”, has exposed the authoritarian nature of this men’s rights movement, which has captured the Left, with rare exception.

Among other issues such as Gaza, the border, the disastrous handling of the exit from Afghanistan, concerns about the price of living, etc., the Biden Administration’s elevating the rights of trans-identified males over the rights of women and girls and the promotion of gender ideology was one of the reasons that the Presidential Democratic ticket lost the election to Trump.

In following the dictates of the TQ+ gender lobby, the Biden/Harris Administration and the Harris/Walz campaign ceded rational ground to the other enemies of women’s rights, the Christian nationalists and their MAGA allies, men’s rights activists, and other garden variety misogynists, who nevertheless know what a woman is and that there are only two sexes, observable at birth. Their adherence to this ideology contributed directly to Trump’s appeal and ultimate win, as this is an issue he plans to confront, some long-time Democrats even voting for him because they hope for some relative sanity to be restored in this regard.

The men’s rights activists insist that women are inferior, should cater to men, be subservient, and allow themselves to be sexually exploited. Some young incels and “bros” have been emboldened by Trump’s win to the extent that they are now exultantly proclaiming “Your body, MY choice!” in defiance of the abortion rights battle cry and women’s right to bodily autonomy and agency and in their zeal to dominate and control women’s lives and bodies.

The Christian Right, the other enemy of women’s sex-based rights, has embraced Trump as their champion and tirelessly devoted itself to his campaign, and has been greatly empowered by Trump’s win and takeover of Congress and the Supreme Court. It would like to not only turn women into handmaidens, but outlaw and criminalize abortion and also birth control, attempt to grant fetuses “personhood”, track women’s pregnancies and penalize miscarriages, do away with no-fault divorce, treat rapists with kid gloves and accuse victims of “false reporting”, end investigation of campus rape, penalize unmarried women, and generally return women to 1950’s America. The Christian Nationalists also take a very dim view of our federal government and welcome Trump’s plan to dismantle it.  The truth is, it aims to destroy our representative democracy, do away with the separation of church and state, and transform this country into a theocratic dictatorship. If you think this is an overstatement, please view the recently released documentary, “Bad Faith”, and prior to that, “The Family“. This is the enemy that will be in ascendance with Trump in power.

We call on all women and men who oppose tyranny and the destruction of the rights of natal women and girls to help us get the ERA finally published onto the Constitution in order to protect us from the twin threats of gender ideology and the religious right.  We have allies in Congress who have signed onto the resolutions, SJR 39 in the Senate, and HJR 82 in the House, which recognize that the only remaining step for the ERA to become law is publication, and that it is up to Joe Biden to finally take this step to ensure that all the hard-won rights women have fought for, including voting rights, abortion rights, contraception, equal pay, no-fault divorce, owning property, obtaining credit in one’s own name, safe spaces, sports, etc. are not rolled back. The ERA would ensure that women cease to be treated as second-class citizens before the law, and would have prevented Roe being overturned.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the sponsor of SJR 39, is hosting a virtual Town Hall on the ERA on this coming Tuesday, December 3rd at 4 PM PDT, 7 PM EST and we need supporters of the ERA to register now and attend! We also need you to call these Senators and U.S. Representatives and direct them to apply pressure to Biden to publish and text Biden at 302-404-0880 and Harris at 310-861-2977.

The time is NOW!  We cannot let the efforts of our First Wave Feminist forebears like Alice Paul’s efforts to be in vain.  Sign up for the Town Hall and start calling and writing these representatives and the White House, remind them on social media, and don’t stop until Biden makes the call to the National Archivist and gets the ERA in the Constitution!

FIST establishes collaboration with LGBT Courage Coalition in Campaign to End Child Transition

On November 20, 2024, three members of FIST’s Coordinating Committee and an additional FIST member met with Jamie Reed and Lauren Leggieri of the LGBT Courage Coalition to plan joint work to stop the misogynist and homophobic practice of child medical transition.  That practice targets for sterilization and permanent medical harm mostly girls and gender non-conforming children, the large majority of whom are likely to grow up to be lesbians or gay men.

We all agreed about the importance of challenging mainstream LGBT organizations that promote this practice in the name of the LGB community and that the voices of gender critical lesbians and gay men are particularly vital in this struggle.

The common work we outlined at the meeting includes:

  • Participation at the December 4th “Do No Harm” rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C..  That day the Court will hear oral arguments in the case of United States v. Skrmetti, on the issue of whether state bans on so-called “gender affirming care” for transgender identified minors are unconstitutional.  FIST members and supporters on the east coast in particular should consider attending this important protest!
  • Participation in protests at medical conferences planned for the spring and summer of 2025 in Los Angeles and San Francisco.  Stay tuned for details!
  • Educating FIST members and our periphery on the effect of puberty blockers on developing adolescents and the other permanent harms associated with these “treatments”.

All of us in FIST look forward to working together with the LGBT Courage Coalition in the coming months!

Report on the Nov 1 Solidarity action with German Women—by Butch Barbie

On November 1, 2024 Germany’s new “Self-ID Law” went into effect.  Under this law, any man can declare himself a woman without any verification. They can do this once per year.  Parents can determine the gender of their babies; from age 5, children can agree to this. Children age 14 and up can determine their own gender with parental consent.

There is a ban on disclosing the former name and sex of a person; any violation can incur a fine of 10,000 Euro. Any quotas German law had for women are cancelled; gender identity, not sex is the determining factor for quotas for women. German feminists asked for a solidarity action around the world and women responded. In addition to holding demonstrations on November 1, they asked for letters of support to be sent to the German embassies and consulates.

I and other FIST members participated in some of these demonstrations. I attended a zoom following the day of action which was attended by 25 women around the world.

Here is a summary of the reports:

Berlin turned out 250 people and had a tent labeled “Ministry of Truth”. There was an opening in the tent made to look like a jail, where people’s faces peered out. The German media didn’t respond, but the press in Italy and France did report on it. Activists felt they broke through the “wall of silence.” Trans activists who attended claimed the feminists were paid by Russian and Mexican evangelicals. The media portrayed the TIMs as ugly old men, instead of pretty young boys as usual.

London’s demo had 300 women.  Maya Forstater made an appearance.  Other UK actions included Ireland.

Other demos in Europe were held in Spain and Portugal.  Brazil had demos in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo; women showed up in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Women in Columbia and Chile delivered letters to their German embassies.

Canadian women held protests in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver.

In the US, women gathered to protest in Chicago, Washington DC, Atlanta, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and Oregon.  The German women expressed heartfelt gratitude that their American sisters showed so much support.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_slN_HKObc

YouTube post from Rona.

For more information on the law, see Rona Duwe’s Substack Ronalyze.

 

ERA Attorney Wendy Murphy Blows Whistle on New York State’s Equality Act, Amendment 1

A few years ago, the Equality Act was pending in the U.S. Congress that would have harmed women’s and lesbian/gay rights by allowing gender identity to override sex based protections for women, including for lesbians. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/5  Feminists in Struggle called for amending the Equality Act by adopting the Feminist Amendments to the Equality Act that would make sex protections separate and distinct.   Now, a New York initiative is trying to do the same thing as the Equality Act threatening the rights of women in New York in the name of equal rights for marginalized groups.  New York’s Equality Act to be voted on November 5th, would, if approved, similarly erode women’s rights by conflating gender identity with sex.  https://ballotpedia.org/New_York_Proposal_1,_Equal_Protection_of_Law_Amendment_(2024) Under New York’s Proposal 1, sex becomes no longer a distinct protected class under law with women entitled to sex based protections.  Rather, some men , those who claim to be women, must be included.

To understand this issue better and why it is such a threat to women’s rights, we highly recommend the Thursday, October 24, edition of Joy of Resistance: Multicultural Feminist Radio at WBAI that featured esteemed women’s rights attorney Wendy Murphy being interviewed by host/producer Fran Luck, in a passionate and legally informative takedown of the New York State Equality Act (on the November 5 ballot) and how it pushes backward our chances of obtaining equal rights under the law.

This omnibus anti-discrimination legislation, which, if passed, will be permanently added to the New York State Constitution, claims to give protection to people in every possible vulnerable category, such as age, race, disability, religion, etc. However, when it comes to the category of sex, we see the following language: “or sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.”

As Wendy points out, including “gender identity” as a sub-category of “sex” waters down the meaning of “sex” and the idea of women being a separate “sex class” worthy of our own piece of legislation — i.e., an Equal Rights Amendment, with a requirement of “strict scrutiny” (the highest level of legal commitment to monitor and enforce discrimination laws). “Gender Identity” also implicitly asserts that sex is “mutable” (change-able) and “strict scrutiny” is only granted to groups of people whose status is immutable: they cannot change their status because they are born into a particular group and will be part of it for their entire lives. (The category of race is granted strict scrutiny for this reason.) So, although “sex” is included in this omnibus “equal rights” legislation, its use for women is undercut by the inclusion of “gender identity” within the category of “sex”.

Wendy Murphy makes many other important points about how the law works and doesn’t work in regard to women in compelling and accessible (to non-lawyers) language and the strongest clearest LEGAL argument for immediately adding the 101-year-old already fully ratified Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that you will hear anywhere. The program contains a feminist news segment and listener call-ins at the end — including one by a FIST member! You can hear it at https://wbai.org/archive/program/episode/?id=53797.

You can help to keep this radical feminist radio program — one of the only ones on terrestrial radio — on the air by contributing in its name at https://wbai.org or by becoming a sustaining member of the station (non-commercial, alternative) for as little as $5-$10 a month. Just go to https://buddy.wbai.org. (And please don’t forget to check Joy of Resistance as your “favorite program” on the donation form.)

Below is contact information for Joy of Resistance.

Joy of Resistance: Multicultural Feminist Radio @ WBAI,
99.5 FM, NYC, airing Thursdays, 11:00 AM (Eastern)
Broadcasts to NY/NJ/Conn, streams live at https://wbai.org/listen-live/

Facebook: http://facebook.com/joyofresistance

Blog: http://joyofresistance.wordpress.com

AFTER THE ELECTION: THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES

By Ann E. Menasche

This is the opinion of the author alone and does not represent the official views of Feminists in Struggle (FIST).  FIST is a non-partisan organization and takes no position on the Presidential elections.  

It should go without saying that whoever wins the 2024 Presidential election, women will not be free, and we feminists will have a long struggle ahead of us. I would go further and predict that the nature and extent of the struggle that we will need to engage in after November 3rd will not substantially change regardless of which of the two leading candidates, Harris or Trump, wins.

The U.S. has one of the least democratic systems among the so-called democracies.  Our big money-soaked winner-take-all corporate duopoly with its undemocratic Senate and electoral college (both violate one person one vote principles) and its denial of ballot access and media attention to third parties, has never represented ordinary working people.  It certainly has never championed the rights of women.

Every victory women have won, without exception, was wrested out of the hands of the ruling elite, through our own determined mass struggle. That’s true whether it was Alice Paul leading the suffragists against Democratic President Woodrow Wilson, or the radical feminists of the Second Wave who won abortion rights starting at a time when every state and both parties made abortion a crime.

Some feminists, me included, have rejected lesser evil politics for a long time. I have seen the evils get greater and greater each election cycle while a genuine independent Left, along with an independent feminist movement become weaker and weaker to the point of disappearing entirely.  As a strategy for change, even for winning modest reforms, it has proven time and again its utter bankruptcy.  Besides, some evils are just too darn evil to be deemed “lesser.”  Even when the face of one of these evils is a woman of color who could possibly become our first woman President.

So, horrified at the unfolding genocide in Gaza carried out with U.S. bombs and taking the lives of tens of thousands of women and children with the support of both Harris and Trump, and cognizant of the imminent existential threats of nuclear war (90 seconds to midnight according to the Union of Atomic Scientists) and climate catastrophe (devastating storms and rising temperatures), I voted for the only viable peace candidate, Green Party Presidential candidate Jill Stein. It was important to me to register my dissent at the ballot box to the unfathomable violence being perpetrated in our name and to work toward creating a real alternative to the twin parties of war, empire and patriarchy, an urgent task that we cannot afford to put off any longer.

I voted for Stein despite the major flaw of the Green Party and her campaign in fully embracing gender identity ideology, following blindly in the footsteps of the Democratic Party. Indeed, there is no daylight between the positions of the two parties on this issue, in contrast to most of Stein’s platform in which the differences are stark and Stein’s planks far stronger.  There can be no substantive social change that leaves behind the sex based rights of half of humanity born female.

At the same time, when it comes to women’s rights as a whole,  the Democratic Party leadership has failed women miserably.   Though they all talk a good game during election time, as Harris is doing during her campaign, the Democratic Party has missed every opportunity to secure abortion rights nationally, both before and after Dobbs. Most recently, the Biden/Harris administration did nothing to even attempt to fix the Supreme Court or open up abortion clinics on federal land.  The administration has also done nothing and actually worked against the Equal Rights Amendment arguing in court against it, and refusing to instruct the archivist to register the ERA into the Constitution.  In terms of actions, not rhetoric regarding the ERA, the current administration is indistinguishable from the Trump administration before it.  Despite Stein’s faults, she has made the pledge to register the ERA into the Constitution. The ERA is a central issue because with sex in the Constitution, women are on far stronger legal ground to fight for everything else including abortion rights. (Of course, we must continue to fight for sex to mean sex, and not be conflated with, “inclusive of”, or overridden by gender identity, so the potentially powerful impact of the ERA on the status of women will not be undermined.)

Should Trump prevail on election day, there will be those inclined to blame Stein for this victory.  But it doesn’t work that way.  If I had no option to vote for Stein or another anti-war, anti-genocide candidate for President, I would leave that ballot line blank.  (Or else write-in Alice Paul.) That’s the case for the vast majority of Stein’s voters including the many Arab and Muslim voters who are  voting third party for the first time.  With their families being killed in Gaza or Lebanon, they are refusing to vote for perpetrators of genocide, no matter what.  Can you blame them? Harris could have taken a stand against arming Israel at least during this ongoing massacre of civilians in Gaza and won back much of that support. She didn’t.  Instead, she has emphasized her uncritical loyalty to Israel, and to United States imperial dominance and its forever wars.   Reinforcing her pro-war message, she has travelled around the country with neo- con war criminals including Dick Cheney.

I respect that many feminists have made or are making different choices than I have this election. Some feminists have argued that Harris is far better than Trump on reproductive rights, and other issues of concern to women and that she is at least not Trump, who some label a “fascist” and whose circle of supporters are promoting Project 2025, a truly frightening agenda, that if implemented could set women back a century.  Other feminists, many life-long Democrats and liberals, argue that Trump is the lesser evil because of his opposition to gender identity and the transitioning of children. They believe that Trump will save women’s sports and spaces, get convicted rapists with women gender identities out of women’s prisons, and stop this horrendous medical experimentation on children’s healthy bodies (mostly same sex attracted girls) that is tearing apart so many families.

In my view, it is a mistake to believe any one of the promises from Harris or Trump that would help women.  None of our issues are likely to disappear regardless of who is elected. Women’s rights will be defended and secured, as always, by the relationship of forces on the ground, by the women’s liberation movement that we build that addresses the full panoply of women’s rights.  This is the case whether we are talking about winning back abortion rights, fighting against male violence in all its myriad forms,  getting the ERA at long last into the Constitution, or putting a stop to the sex-denying gender ideologues and the transition industry that have done such harm to women and children.

My hope is that we feminists put aside these differences post-election without recriminations and join hands together.  We have a lot of work ahead of us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LESBIAN DEVIL: A BOOK REVIEW

By Ann Menasche

“Lesbian Devil to Straight Man Saint: a trip through trans hell and back” by Scott Newgent (2024)

Lesbian Devil is a gripping, no-holds-barred, finely crafted page turner that exposes the significant role of homophobia in “transing away the lesbian.” It chronicles Scott Nugent/Kellie King’s life including the myriad influences that conspired to convince a 42-year-old lesbian, successful career woman, and mother that she was born in the “wrong” body and needed to pursue medical transition.  After ingesting cross sex hormones and obtaining multiple drastic surgeries, Kellie emerged with a male appearance – though still a woman – and with her health severely compromised by constant pain and frequent life-threatening infections.  Tellingly, the acceptance and self-acceptance that she sought in a sexist and homophobic world through medical transition continued to elude her.

Kellie also emerged soon afterwards with a profound commitment to save gender non-conforming and lesbian/gay children and teens from a similar fate.

Kellie was a spirited and athletic child who grew into a woman who excelled in business, obtaining an executive position in sales.  Like many other women, including many lesbians, Kellie’s outspoken and competitive personality did not conform to the narrow sexist stereotypes of “femininity”, and she often felt it would have been easier being a man.  Yet, she dressed the part of a professional woman, wore make-up and heels, and did not appear “butch.”  This did not stop the first gender counselor she met with, a trans-identified male, from asking her, “how long have you been dressing as a man, Kellie?”

Though Kellie was not unloved as a child, she experienced significant trauma.  Her father was physically abusive, and her mother struggled with addiction.  As a teen, she was raped. A few years later, Kellie attempted suicide. But to the gender industry, this was irrelevant. All the counselors and doctors Kellie spoke to about transitioning “affirmed” her, led her down the conveyor belt of medical transition without ever asking any questions about her mental health history or even why she wanted to transition.

“Each medical professional I came across guaranteed a utopian paradise on the other side of the transition. I wanted finally to be accepted, loved and seen as straight in this fantasy land.”

The most compelling promise for Kellie was that once transitioned she would escape the stigma of being a lesbian. When Kellie first came out as a lesbian, her grandfather, the greatest source of emotional support in her life, her “guiding light” as she called him, disowned her for being a lesbian.   This was a major blow.

Then some years later, Kelli fell passionately in love with a co-worker, Jacqueline. Jacqueline came from a close knit religious Catholic family and was in a loveless marriage to a man.  What followed was a tumultuous on again, off again relationship where Jacqueline went back and forth with her abusive husband as she struggled to accept herself, and by extension, Kellie, as a lesbian.  Needless to say, Jacqueline’s parents did not accept Kellie and encouraged their daughter to return to her husband.

As Kellie explained, “The vitriol that Jacqueline’s family directed at her was unbearable to my ears.  Their pleas for her to be purified and cast out the so-called demons were incessant.  The yearning for acceptance and sense of belonging and an unconditional love devoid of violence was all I ever sought.  Yet (Jacqueline’s) family painted me as a pariah, undeserving of love from even God himself.”

Jacqueline was quick to embrace the idea that Kellie was really a man and encouraged her transition.

Later, in her transman “disguise,” Kellie got to know and became very close to Jacqueline’s family.  Except for their rabid homophobia, they turned out to be very fine, caring people. As a “man”, Kellie was totally accepted and welcomed into the family circle.  But this acceptance was based on a lie, and she found herself deeply troubled by this deception.  Kellie was still female, still a lesbian.

Much of the book describes Kellie’s struggles with severe medical complications from her surgery, complications that brought her close to death.  She worried about not living long enough to meet her grandchildren.

Finally, breaking it off with Jacqueline, she began to regret the path she had taken.

Yet, there was no going back for Kellie.  The physical changes carved onto her body are permanent.  Kellie graciously forgave Jacqueline and others who had hurt her.  She could forgive everyone but herself.  She writes, “…a more profound forgiveness still eludes me – self-forgiveness.  The mirror reflects a face I do not recognize, physically or spiritually and fills me with hate for myself that I fight daily; it’s my face.  Yet there might be a day when I look into my eyes and find redemption…Still after all these years, I miss Kellie horribly.”

I wish Scott/Kellie healing as she continues her essential work of saving future generations of gender non-conforming children, future generations of lesbians from the false promises and permanent harms of medicalization.

As she frequently proclaims in urging opposition to gender medicalization of children, “Scream louder.”

“Lesbian Devil to Straight Man Saint” can be purchased through Amazon or Barnes and Nobel.  Please purchase  a copy and support Kellie/Scott’s important work. https://www.scottnewgent.com/

NOTES FROM THE WDI CONFERENCE

by Christy Hammer

FIST’s inaugural conference last July was my first conference on gender critical/sex realist issues, and WDI in Atlanta this last weekend was my second.  Both had fascinating presentations, deep dialogue , and networking on important issues of sex and gender in our culture, social institutions, and political economy.  Provocative and deeply political issues were bravely shared, including historical perspectives and future collective actions.  I was delighted to meet the incomparable Kara Dansky, who along with Ann Menasche both supported me when I was canceled and punished by a few trans activists and current DEI madness for not admitting to more than two sexes and for accidental misgendering.

Protecting sex-based rights politically as Democrats was the first plenary session that including analysis of gender identity in schools that led one to admit she was going to vote for Trump.  I learned histories of both the poor definitions of gender dysphoria in the DSM by Amy Sousa and the increasing anti-female sentiment in fetal personhood laws by Marylou Singleton.  I appreciated analysis of transgender ideology in cartoon fanfiction popular among current youth, and Karla Mantilla on the some of the flashpoints between the LGBT movement and transgender ideology.  Of note, several sessions were fashioned specifically with a cross-generational focus.  Especially with desisted and detransitioned women participating and in the context of what is happening to butch lesbianism it was powerful for younger women to hear from older ones how they would likely be encouraged to transition to males when they were that age with the rush to trans young females adding to the persistent misogyny and sex-role stereotypes.

Learning more from FIST members Suzanne Forbes-Veiling and Denice Traina at WDI was wonderful, as it was to see the remarkable leader of LGB Alliance, Arianne Gieringer, again.

I’m  grateful for my involvement in both FIST and WDI, and look forward to future conferences, especially as my book develops.  If you’re interested in responding to a 10-item interview with your anonymous reflections on critical issues for Canceling sex: Gender ideology, Title IX, and DEI in schools and society please email me ASAP at chammer@maine.edu.