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.