Category: Gender

Don’t mourn, organize! Celebrating the life of Robin Morgan

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By Ann E. Menasche

The prolific writer and passionate radical feminist organizer, Robin Morgan, passed away on September 5th, 2026, leaving a rich legacy for future generations of feminists.

  Known for her groundbreaking anthology “Sisterhood is Powerful” (she used the profits from that book to fund the first battered women’s shelters), and many other books and poems,. Robin was a product of the anti-Vietnam war, and civil rights Left of the 1960’s that birthed the Women’s Liberation Movement.

She was among the first to call out the Left for its sexism in an essay entitled “Goodbye to All That”  and proclaim the right of women to organize in our own name for our own liberation. http://blog.fair-use.org/2007/09/29/goodbye-to-all-that-by-robin-morgan-1970/.    Here is a short excerpt:

“Let’s run it down. White males are most responsible for the destruction of human life and environment on the planet today. Yet who is controlling the supposed revolution to change all that? White males (yes, yes, even with their pasty fingers back in black and brown pies again). It could just make one a bit uneasy. It seems obvious that a legitimate revolution must be led by, made by those who have been most oppressed: black, brown, yellow, red, and white women–with men relating to that the best they can. A genuine Left doesn’t consider anyone’s suffering irrelevant or titillating; nor does it function as a microcosm of capitalist economy, with men competing for power and status at the top, and women doing all the work at the bottom (and functioning as objectified prizes or coin as well). Goodbye to all that.”

Words that are, sadly,  still relevant to the misogynist Left today.

Robin cofounded radical feminists groups such as Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell (“WITCH”)and New York Radical Women, the latter group organizing in 1968 the first protests against the Miss America Pageant for its treatment of women as sex objects.

She was also among the first to call out male cross-dressers, including men claiming to be women, for their arrogant intrusion into women’s identities and spaces, when she spoke at the 1972 West Coast Lesbian Conference. “No, I will call a malc “she;” thirty-two years or suffering in the androcentric society. and of surviving, have earned me the name “Woman”; onc walk down the streel by a male transvestitc, five minutes of his being hasslcd (which he may enjoy), and then he dares.to think he understands our pain? No, in our mothers’ names and in our own. we must not call him sister. ” Lesbianism-and-Feminism-Synonyms-or-Contradictions-by-Robin-Morgan-April-14-1973.pdf

In the 1980’s, she collaborated with French feminist Simone De Beauvoir on international feminist work, co-founding with De Beauvoir the Sisterhood is Global Institute.  She also became editor in chief of Ms. Magazine.

In later years, she co-founded with Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda the Women’s Media Center, supporting women in media, and hosted a podcast almost up till her death.   Her activism never stopped.

You will not be forgotten, sister.

The 2026 Mid-Terms: Republicrats, Fetishists, and Asshats

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This piece is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Feminists in Struggle as an organization.

Well, it’s time for the gearing up of the duopoly for the midterms, and it is notable that both major parties once again think that targeting the rights of women and girls is a great idea. On the Republican side we have the zygote zealots attempting to block Mifepristone, criminalize abortion, and even wishing they could strip women of the right to vote. They should make Monty Python’s “Every Sperm is Sacred” their anthem because their fealty is more to Christian dominionist male supremacy than to the Constitution.

On the Democratic side, candidates are still pushing gender ideology, apparently ok with gender ideologues screaming “Trans women ARE women!” to anyone who is reality based enough to recognize biological sex, attacking defenders of girls’ sports, grown men calling young teenage girls “trash”. It’s ok, apparently for 12-year-old girls who don’t think they should have to undress in front of entitled, (and in the case of the recent plaintiff in the sports case, “BPJ”, who sexually harassed one of the girls in the locker room) revolting, little boys who claim they are “trans” in order to gain access to their sports and locker rooms.  It also appears to be completely acceptable to Democrats for trans-identified males to make rape and death threats to anyone who reminds them of the biological reality that men cannot be women.

Republicans continue to run woman haters and Democrats continue to run woman impersonators. The special treat this election season, after candidate for the Maine Senate, Nazi tattooed misogynist candidate Graham Platner, who finally was asked to step down after rape allegations (why should the Republicans get to be the only ones to run sex offenders?), is a trans “woman” who claims to have “ovaries” and menstruate from his rectum. This development prompted one person on social media to post “Susan Collins is the luckiest woman alive!” Either that or Democrats are doing a hell of a vetting job.

I’ve got news for you deluded Democrats and gender ideologues, “Ashley” Webb with his colonic periods and Bryon Noem of “bimbofication” and “looning” fame are what the majority of trans “women” are like—they are fetishistic, deranged men. Transgenderism is not a “human rights issue” or “just another healthy choice”, however hip, “innate”, or “kink positive” (a spurious and oxymoronic term if there ever was one) you think it is.

Republicans need to be reminded that there are women not only in their voter base but make up large percentages of elected representatives in state houses throughout the country, so maybe trying to deprive them of their right to vote, whether by passing the SAVE Act or attempting to roll back the 19th amendment, may be self-defeating, and that putting women’s health and lives in danger by criminalizing abortion and treating women like incubators is not only cruel and inhumane but not a winning strategy. Letting mothers die who need emergency abortions is not exactly “pro-family”, and elevating fetal life over the life of the mother is not exactly “pro-life”, since the woman’s life is primary. Republicans also should be reminded that the majority of voters do not support the views espoused by social “influencers” in the Manosphere or the brazen misogyny of Hegseth, Fuentes, or the Tate brothers, and that sexual harassment and assault are criminal and moral offenses.

Democrats, who hypocritically claim the mantle of “science” and “free speech” meanwhile engaging in the denial of biological, material reality in favor of metaphysical nonsense based on circular definitions and undefinable vagueries, attempt to silence anyone who even questions gender ideology, calling them “bigots” and “transphobes”, callously disregarding the proven harm of “gender-affirming care,” and dismissing the opportunities, privacy, dignity, and safety of women and girls in sports. “Blue” states like Connecticut, Washington, California, New Jersey, and Illinois have even opened up domestic violence shelters to men masquerading as women, and are putting trans-identifying sex offenders in the same cells with women prisoners. This is nothing short of “cruel and unusual punishment”, prohibited by the 8th Amendment, if anyone cares anymore about the Constitution.

Both Democrats and Republicans need to be reminded of the basic fact that women are human.

Democrats and those to their left, like the Greens, the Democratic Socialists, Peace and Freedom, etc., who have remained obeisant to gender ideology and callously heedless to its assault on the rights of real women and girls will be the focus in this post. But in the future, there are serious reforms we need to make to the system by breaking up the duopoly—some would call a uniparty. Here are some ideas:

  • get Independents and third party candidates on the ballot and on the debate stage
  • ensure candidates are vetted thoroughly for honesty and ethical, pro-social (or at least not anti-social or sociopathic) conduct; eliminate malignant narcissists (it is too much to hope for that we could sift out the shameless self-promoters or opportunistic soul sellers?)
  • institute rank choice voting across the country as well as proportional representation
  • validate and enforce the fully-ratified Equal Rights Amendment
  • pass the We the People Amendment to end the two illegitimate legal doctrines of corporate so-called “personhood” and money as protected “speech”
  • pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting criminals from holding federal office
  • end impunity for oligarchs and corporations
  • pass Single Payer healthcare
  • stop funding endless wars
  • publicly fund political campaigns
  • end legal bribery and corporate lobbying of candidates
  • tax the billionaires into penury
  • institute citizen oversight of all three branches of government

But for now, we need to rein in the insanity of the current administration and hopefully curtail some of its egregious excesses, so we are dependent on the Democrats getting in office and hopefully holding it accountable. But first Democrats need to realize that Trump was elected in 2024 due to the following top 3 concerns according to polling:

  • The economy/inflation
  • The border/immigration
  • Opposition to gender identity

Democrats need to read The Reckoning: How the Democrats and the Left Betrayed Women and Girls and course correct.

We therefore invite members of the public who care about the rights of actual biological women and girls to direct the following questions to primarily Democratic candidates who are running for the first time or for re-election but others as well who subscribe to sex denialism.

QUESTIONS FOR CANDIDATES CAPTURED BY GENDER IDEOLOGY RUNNING FOR OFFICE

  • Democrats/Greens/Socialists claim to care about the rights of women, but the only right you defend is abortion. Why don’t you care about the obstruction of the fully-ratified Equal Rights Amendment, the degradation of women in prostitution, and the incursions of males into our sports and private spaces? Why are you not speaking out about those rights?
  • Why are you pursuing policies that prioritize trans rights over women’s rights, when women remain the only demographic left out of the federal Constitution and comprise half the population?
  • Why do you not seem to be concerned about the impact of these policies on biological women and girls whom you purport to represent?
  • Why are trans people who represent a fraction of the population being given more consideration than 51% of the population?
  • Why are trans rights always at the expense of biological women and girls? What legitimate civil or human rights movements have demanded that their rights supersede the rights of others?
  • What legitimate activists attempt to compel the speech of others and demand that they adhere to their terms and beliefs, in defiance of reality?
  • What legitimate movement attempts to silence, de-platform, smear, or threaten anyone who questions their beliefs and demands? Why is there no debate of these issues allowed?
  • Who are your donors, and how much are you getting from trans rights groups or groups promoting pornography and protecting pornographers, pimps, johns, and traffickers?
  • Why are you supporting the whitewashing of prostitution by calling it “sex work” as if it’s a legitimate job? Prostitution is the oldest oppression (NOT profession) and the commodification of women in this way is sexual slavery. Why are you not condemning this?
  • Are you aware that pharmaceuticals are prescribing Lupron, a chemical castration drug, off label to children to arrest puberty, and that it prevents bone and brain development?
  • Are you aware that gender clinics are prescribing cross-sex hormones and sex-rejecting surgeries on children and minors, including increasingly on young girls, referrals for which have skyrocketed in recent years, and who are now getting mastectomies and hysterectomies, and experiencing osteoporosis and menopause in adolescence? What are you doing about this?
  • Are you aware of the Cass Review of the GIDS Tavistock Clinic in the UK that exposed the faulty research and junk science on which so-called “gender-affirming care” is based and that countries in Europe are backing away from the affirmation model with its iatrogenic, irreversible medical procedures that render these children sterile, sexually dysfunctional, and dependent on hormones for the rest of their lives? What action are you taking to combat this?
  • Are you aware that children and youth are being fast-tracked without thorough psychological evaluation for sexual abuse history, and that many of these children are autistic or same-sex attracted and have internalized homophobia? Is this something you wish to support?
  • Did you know that WPATH has been exposed as promoting medical experimentation on children and vulnerable adults, knowing of the deleterious effects including sexual dysfunction, sterility, and retarding bone and brain development? Why are you treating this organization like it is the authority on gender confused youth when it is perpetrating harm?
  • Did you know that WPATH is encouraging practitioners to submit fraudulent insurance claims so they can receive payment for sex-rejecting interventions whitewashed as “gender medicine”? Are you aware WPATH is being sued for fraud and deceptive practices by several states and the FTC?
  • Did you know that the claims of suicidality of youth denied sex-rejecting medicalization is spurious? The plaintiffs admitted in oral arguments before the Supreme Court in the Skrmetti case that the suicide claims were not true, yet this falsehood continues to be repeated by Democratic candidates like Tom Steyer in the California Governor’s race. Why?
  • Are you aware that states like California are trying to pass legislation smearing actual exploratory psychotherapy, practiced for over a century, as “conversion therapy” if it doesn’t abandon its ethics, training, and clinical judgment to fast-track clients into “gender affirming care” without thorough evaluations? Why aren’t you speaking up about this?
  • Are you aware that gender ideology indoctrinates young children with regressive sexual stereotypes and the negation of sexual orientation that the women’s liberation movement worked for decades to overcome? Why are you promoting sexual stereotypes over allowing gender non-conforming children to express themselves freely?
  • Why is it tolerated to refer to another human being by only her body parts, such as “uterine-havers, birthing bodies, or front-hole havers”? Why is this not correctly identified as misogynist dehumanization and denounced? Why would you support motherhood being reduced to and redefined as “pregnant people”, as if anyone but a woman gives birth?
  • Did you know that trans-identifying men are now demanding that they be given lactation-inducing drugs like domperidone so that they can “chest feed” infants for their own gratification, putting babies at risk of harm from these chemicals? What are you going to do about this disgusting practice?
  • Are you aware that the invasion of trans-identifying males into women’s safe spaces like locker rooms, changing rooms, and bathrooms are enabling predation and nullifying laws against indecent exposure and voyeurism? What are you going to do to ensure the safety, privacy, and dignity of women and girls?
  • Are you aware that women and girls are not only being denied opportunities, awards, and endorsements in sports, but even scholarships and are being subjected to physical injuries by trans-identifying males being allowed to play on the female teams? This is a clear violation of Title IX and its intent. What are you going to do to stop this?
  • Why do Democrats perpetuate the reprehensible falsehood that those trying to save women’s sports are trying to enable “genital checks” when all that is required to identify whether an athlete is male or female is a simple cheek swab?
  • Are you aware that trans-identified males are making rape and death threats online towards any woman who does not recognize them as females? Are you aware that trans-identified males have physically assaulted women, including elderly women, at Let Women Speak rallies? What are you going to do to protect women from trans violence?
  • Are you aware that men, some of whom are actual pedophiles, have been exposing themselves to young children at Drag Queen Story Hour performances, welcomed into young children’s classrooms without even having had background checks?
  • Did you know that children are being sexualized by pornographic material in grade schools under the guise of sex education? How do you explain the shift from exposure to pornography as a reportable sex crime to an educational tool for kids who identify as LGBTQ?! When are you going to address this?!
  • Did you know that there are men calling themselves “Beyond the Plus” who are pedophiles lobbying to be seen as a legitimate “sexual orientation”? This is a direct result of gender ideology. Do you intend to allow this to happen?
  • Are you aware that sex offenders, some of whom are also murderers, are being put in women’s prisons in the same cells with biological women, just because they self-id as “trans”, and that women are being raped and impregnated? Did you know that it is the WOMEN who are disciplined when they complain? What are you going to do about this horrific injustice?
  • Are you aware that rape victims are being required to refer to their trans-identified rapists as “she” in rape trials? What are you doing about this?
  • What are you going to do about crime statistics being skewed and rendered meaningless by attributing violent crimes like rape to women when they are being committed by trans-identified men?
  • Are you aware that there are 4 women murdered every day in this country by men (however they “identify”)? What are you going to do to put a stop to this public health crisis and ensure that it is prosecuted as the hate crime that it is?
  • How much money do you receive from Big Pharma and medical or political organizations who are practicing and greatly benefiting financially from gender medicine or pornography?
  • Why are you selling women out to a men’s rights movement and the corporate lobby that supports it?

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD A PDF OF THESE QUESTIONS TO ASK DEMOCRATS, AND ALSO A PDF FOR QUESTIONS TO ASK MEDIA CAPTURED BY GENDER IDEOLOGY BELOW

References:

Male Anatomy vs. Female Anatomy

https://genspect.substack.com/p/the-sex-binary-what-it-is-and-why

https://www.realityslaststand.com/p/biology-is-not-binary-but-sex-is

https://www.citationneededpodcast.com/p/male-or-female-separating-fact-from

Women Count USA

Affirming Trans Identities is Harmful

School Boards – Grooming Kids for an Orwellian World

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/4/19/cass-review-feminists-accused-of-being-unkind-have-been-vindicated

https://segm.org/Suicide-Gender-Dysphoric-Adolescent-Young-Adult-Finland-2024?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

https://environmentalprogress.org/big-news/wpath-files

How the Debate Over Men in Women’s Sports Both Obscured and Advanced Sport Science

The Female Category – WHAM (Women’s Hockey Assoc. of Minnesota)

https://uncommongroundmedia.com/the-rainbow-reich-transgender-ideology-and-totalitarianism-part-i/

California transgender convict pulled from female prison for alleged rape

DOC employee reports men are claiming to be women to transfer prisons

USA: Almost 50% of Trans Inmates in Federal Custody for Sex Offences

Jeffrey Epstein Was Into ‘Trans Kids’

NAMBLA’s Secret Weapon-Who’s Behind the “Sex Offender Rights” Movement

https://nypost.com/2026/02/21/us-news/trans-minnesota-dem-leigh-finke-argues-queer-kids-need-access-to-porn-sites-for-educational-reasons/

https://washingtonstand.com/news/pornhubs-year-in-review-sextrafficking-abuse-and-age-verification

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/07/us/politics/porn-actors-project-2025-ad.html

https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/10/10/porn-industry-runs-ads-for-harris-in-wake-of-vps-appearance-on-sex-podcast/

https://voz.us/en/politics/241009/17063/adult-film-industry-jumps-into-campaign-in-support-of-kamala-harris.html

https://uncommongroundmedia.com/why-womens-rights-are-not-really-unpleasant-and-harmful-a-response-to-jon-ronson-dr-em/

https://uncommongroundmedia.com/understanding-your-nigella-the-harms-of-transvestic-paraphilia/

https://uncommongroundmedia.com/martine-rothblatt-a-founding-father-of-the-transgender-empire/

Canadian Mounties Blame Mass Shooting On Random Gunperson, Pronouns Bang/Bang

https://www.civitas.org.uk/content/files/2454-A-The-Corrosive-Impact-of-TI-ppi-110-WEB.pdf

https://uncommongroundmedia.com/the-rainbow-reich-transgender-ideology-and-totalitarianism-part-i/

https://uncommongroundmedia.com/the-rainbow-reich-part-ii-academia-no-platforming-silencing-of-women/

https://gaysagainstgroomers.substack.com/p/pornhub-queers-the-algorithm

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/evolution-transgender-care-doctor

https://genspect.substack.com/p/dysphoria-inc-how-language-sells Dysphoria Inc: How Language Sells a Diagnosis

https://www.thedistancemag.com/p/forget-gender-dysphoria-almost-all Forget ‘Gender Dysphoria’: Almost All The Hormonal ‘Gender Medicine’ Is Billing Fraud

Unsealed Court Documents Show That Admiral Rachel Levine Pressured WPATH To Remove Age Guidelines From The Latest Standards Of Care

https://uncommongroundmedia.com/the-trojan-unicorn-queer-theory-and-paedophilia-part-i-dr-em/ The Trojan Unicorn: Queer Theory and Paedophilia, Part I. | Dr Em

https://uncommongroundmedia.com/the-trojan-unicorn-qt-and-paedophilia-part-ii-dr-em/ The Trojan Unicorn: QT and Paedophilia, Part II. | Dr Em

https://adflegal.org/article/leaked-files-reveal-ethical-concerns-pseudoscience-wpath-standards-care/ Leaked Files Reveal Ethical Concerns, Pseudoscience in WPATH Standards of Care

https://collider.com/linda-lovelace-deep-throat-complicated-relationship/ Linda Susan Boreman (Linda Lovelace) was coerced into filming Deep Throat, was sexually assaulted during it, and a gun was held to her head during filming.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/14/opinion/project-2026-2028-democratic-platform.html?unlocked_article_code=1.xlA.a2Fz.wb–Ojfre8Y5&smid=url-share If the Democrats Actually Want to Win, This Is What They Have to Do

https://www.thefemalecategory.com/p/embarrassing-the-scotus-decision/comments Sarah Barker on the ludicrous arguments of the dissenters in the SCOTUS sports ruling

https://www.racket.news/p/meet-the-censored-kara-dansky – Interview of Kara Dansky by Matt Taibbi June 8, 2022

The Reckoning: How the Democrats and the Left Betrayed Women and Girls

https://apnews.com/article/gender-affirming-care-transgender-health-wpath-ftc-91825f64800a6aadfa4f2da989742124 Federal Trade Commission sues leading transgender health group

FTC v. WPATH https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/cases-proceedings/wpath-ftc-v

https://womensliberationfront.org/poll-data

https://www.facebook.com/WDI.USA/posts/womens-liberation-front-shares-new-polling-shows-that-support-for-gender-identit/670878805209240/

https://hecheated.org/ A record of MALES who have robbed FEMALE athletes of success and opportunities in sport and the organizations who have helped them do so.

https://x.com/babybeginner/status/1885231518521712937?s=20 “Kill all terfs”

The Three Questions I’d Ask Someone Who Says, “Trans Women Are Women”

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Download a pdf of the Questions to Ask Democrats

Download a pdf of the Questions to Ask Media

THE POWER OF WORDS

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by Ann E. Menasche

This piece is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Feminists in Struggle as an organization.

Never underestimate the power of words.   Words are the weapons of both capitalist patriarchy and radical feminism.  Words can challenge the status quo and lead to radical transformation, i.e., be a force for good, or instead change the meaning of our reality – turning it on its head – blinding us to injustices and atrocities of all kinds, and, as George Orwell recognized, bolstering authoritarian regimes and practice

I can think of many examples of the Orwellian use of language.   War is often prettified by righteous and lofty sounding names that hide its bloody reality measured in the destroyed lives of civilian populations and the greed and thirst for domination that usually underlies it.  The U.S. named its Iran war of choice, “Operation Epic Fury”; Israel named its collective punishment and genocidal destruction of the people of Gaza, “Operation Roaring Lion.”

In the same vein, the City of San Diego, where I live, has set up camps for hundreds of unhoused people, packing them into tents two feet apart.  The camps are full of rats and other vermin, offer only two meals a day, with food poisoning commonplace, and residents who stay there months or years at a time – frying  in the summer and freezing in the winter – often have no choice but to agree to be placed there or risk jail for violating anti-homeless ordinances.  So far, 19 people have died at the camps.  The name for these camps?   “The Safe-Sleeping Program.”  You don’t get any more Orwellian than that.

Then there is the war on women, a war we women of the world live every day even outside an official war zone.  The anti-abortion or forced pregnancy movement found a good Orwellian name for itself – “pro-life.” or the “right to life” movement.  As feminists would chant at abortion rights marches – “Right to life, your name’s a lie, you don’t care if women die.”  And they don’t.

Not to be outdone, another front in the same war on our sex, is the sex denialist/”gender reassignment” industry and its followers.  They have been working overtime to change the meaning of everyday language to its opposite.   Men/women, female/male no longer refer to sex, which is deemed either not to exist or has become a dirty word, not to be mentioned in polite company.  The substitute for actual sex is some amorphous subjective feeling called “gender identity”, basically, where you believe you fit within the spectrum of 1950’s style “masculine” and “feminine” stereotypes – between GI Joe and Barbie.

When women as a distinct category of persons based on our sex are erased, it becomes impossible to name, measure or remedy sexism or male supremacy.

The principal catechism, or article of faith promoted by these fundamentalist ideologues that is beyond questioning or reasoned discourse is “trans women are women.”   In other words, some men are women (and vice-a-versa) though we mostly care about the men, of course, since they are, well, men. And it follows that some men are lesbians, which defines out of existence that pesky group of women, a thorn in the side of patriarchy, that have said “no” to males and just want to be with each other.

Though this ideology has parasitically attached itself to the “left” and the LGB movement, there is nothing progressive or pro-gay about it.

Even to refer to someone’s sex, is now treated as a confession of “bigotry” and “hate.”    Ask a group like Amnesty International that used to do- and still sometimes does – good work.

But words can trick you. Would anyone not in the know understand that the gentle sounding supposedly “lifesaving” “gender affirming care” for “trans kids” consists of drastic quasi-medical interventions that sterilize them, and remove healthy body parts?

Or understand that “Safe Sleeping” is actually unsafe?

Or that “sex work” refers to the buying and selling of the bodies of women and girls, whose lives are characterized by childhood trauma, poverty, and lack of options, not to some freely chosen though perhaps unfairly maligned profession? Mis-leading language works.

Supporters of “gender identity” are serious about promoting this particular form of insanity and punishing dissidents all over the world. And we should pay attention.

In New South Wales, Australia last year, Kirralie Smith was ordered to pay $95,000 to two trans-identified males for opposing the inclusion of men identifying as “women” in women’s sports and referring to men by their sex.  By doing so, the Court found that Kirralie had “incited hatred towards, serious contempt for or severe ridicule of a soccer player for being transgender” and that she had violated Australia’s Anti-discrimination Act.  She was ordered to admit her guilt and post her confession on social media. And told of course to shut up and never say such a thing again.

The grand inquisitor of 15th century Spain, Tomas de Torqueda, would have been proud.

Use your words wisely, sisters, but use them.

Tell the truth as you understand it. Don’t let yourselves ever be silenced.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who are the Men Who Oppose Women’s Equality?

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Well, the list is quite long indeed. There are the unabashed women haters of the Manosphere, the Broligarchs, the corporate moguls, the tech billionaires, the pornography pushers, the pimps, the johns, the sex traffickers, the Evangelicals, the Catholic church, the Christian Nationalists, the Dominionists, the fundamentalists and male supremacists of every variety of patriarchal religion, the incels, rapists, pedophiles, and lest we forget, the trans-identified fetishists and autogynephiles, sex addicts, and sadists.

All across the political spectrum, women are commodified, vilified, debased, silenced, dehumanized, and sentenced to second-class citizenship and would be rendered handmaidens of the Right, transmaidens of the Left if these men had their way. Women’s agency, bodily sovereignty, freedom, and autonomy are restricted on the one hand, and exploited on the other, but denigrated and dismissed by both. From the bedroom to the boardroom, women are treated as nothing more than objects to be manipulated and used. The tyranny of the ruling sex class of men, however they ‘identify’, reveals itself not only in the handling of the Epstein files and case, but in the staggering statistics:

  • Over 4 women a week were murdered in California in 2020; now there are 4 women a day being murdered in the U.S.
  • Over 298.000 rapes of women were reported in the U.S. in 2020
  • Spousal abuse of women is estimated at 4.8 million every year
  • Approximately 1 million women are stalked annually in the U.S.
  • Over 78% of sexual harassment charges were filed by women between 2018-2021
  • 7 in 10 human trafficking victims are women and girls
  • Over 500,000 cases of female genital mutilation have occurred or are at risk of occurring in the U.S.
  • Abortion rights and birth control are increasingly under attack, risking women’s health and lives
  • “Women in every state report injustice in their family law cases, especially battered mothers trying to protect their children from abusive fathers who aggressively litigate against them, using family court to stalk, harass, punish, and impoverish their former partners and children” according to NOW
  • Child marriage is still prevalent in the U.S., 87% of victims of which are girls
  • Women still earn around 82 cents to every dollar men earn
  • Single women and mothers with children are the two fastest-growing groups of people experiencing homelessness in the United States
  • Sexual assault victims are overwhelmingly female and their assailants are male
  • Women and girls’ safe spaces are being invaded by trans-identified males, including prisons where female prisoners are being assaulted and raped
  • Women and girls’ achievements, opportunities, endorsements, scholarships, and trophies are being stolen by mediocre male athletes – over 600 individuals in 29 different sports have been affected
  • Girls are the fastest growing group to be medicalized, sterilized, and mutilated by sex-rejecting “gender affirming care”

See:

Women Count USA

Domestic Violence Abuse Rates

Violence Against Women Statistics

Human Trafficking in the USA

FGM Statistics

Crisis in Family Courts

Child Marriage

Gender Pay Gap

Women and Homelessness

UN Report on Effect of Trans-identified Males in Female Sports

How the Debate Over Men in Women’s Sports Both Obscured and Advanced Sport Science

The Female Category – WHAM (Women’s Hockey Assoc. of Minnesota)

California transgender convict pulled from female prison for alleged rape

DOC employee reports men are claiming to be women to transfer prisons

USA: Almost 50% of Trans Inmates in Federal Custody for Sex Offences

https://washingtonstand.com/news/pornhubs-year-in-review-sextrafficking-abuse-and-age-verification

No platforming and Silencing of Women in Academia

Special Report on Trans Youth

Irreversible Damage

If you’re wondering why the system enables this abuse and exploitation, and why there is little to no accountability, read this:

If We Win, This Changes Everything

And join us on March 24th, 2026 2:00 pm to listen to oral arguments on the Equal Means Equal vs. Donald J. Trump case scheduled to be heard before Judge William G Young in the Boston Division of the US District Court of Massachusetts.  At that time, the Court will hear arguments on the Trump Administration’s Motion to Dismiss in the matter of Equal Means Equal, et al v Trump, et al.

For those unable to attend in person, please register at this link, for that date. Registration will open two days prior to the hearing.

https://forms.mad.uscourts.gov/courtlist.html

Tell PBS News Hour to Interview Equal Means Equal

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PBS News Hour recently aired some segments entitled “On Democracy” wherein they failed to acknowledge the fully-ratified Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment, in addition to other errors and omissions in their reporting. They also interviewed Colleen Shogun, the previous National Archivist, without mentioning her failure to publish the ERA onto the Constitution, as was her duty. Equal Means Equal protested this failure of Shogun and the Biden Administration at the National Archives in January of this year.

The Green Alliance for Sex-Based Rights has posted a letter it penned to PBS in this regard, and are calling for supporters of the ERA to write and call PBS to get Wendy Murphy, J.D., Kamala Lopez, CEO, and Arlaine Rockey, Legal Consultant, of Equal Means Equal on the show. If EME gets on the show, it can correct the reporting by PBS News Hour  and update their viewers on current cases EME lawyers have filed to validate the ERA in the courts, like Equal Means Equal v. Donald J. Trump.

We urge our members and allies to pressure PBS News Hour to get Equal Means Equal on their show. Women need to unite behind securing Equality and end the second-class handmaiden citizenship to which we are currently subjected. #ERAis28A!!

THOUGHTS ABOUT THE SKRMETTI DECISION

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By Ann Menasche

This piece is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Feminists in Struggle as an organization.

Radical feminists, parents and many others holding a range of political views, welcomed the Supreme Court decision in U.S. v. Skrmetti issued on June 11th upholding the constitutionality of a Tennessee law banning the practice of so-called “gender affirming care” for minors under 18.  Many were anxious to put a stop to this medical experiment on a vulnerable group of children and teens, mostly girls, who are gender non-conforming, autistic, and/or survivors of trauma, a majority of whom, if provided appropriate support, would be likely to grow up lesbian or gay with their bodies and fertility intact.

The decision moved the struggle to the states against this sexist and homophobic practice (based on the idea that some people are born “wrong” and need “fixing” so their bodies “align” with sex stereotypes).  Already, 26 states have passed restrictions or bans on use by minors of puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, and cosmetic surgeries for “sex change” and more such laws are now likely.  This is good news especially for these “trans kids” whose bodies are being experimented on and permanently harmed.

But like all victories issued under this right-wing court, some of the reasoning in the decision may be a bit of a two-edged sword that could be used against women’s rights in the future.

The majority decision by Justice Roberts held that Tennessee’s law was not subject to heightened (“intermediate”) scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment because it did not classify based on sex.  Neither did the law classify based transgender status but merely regulates a medical procedure, removing one set of diagnosis – gender dysphoria or incongruence – from a range of treatable conditions.  Such classifications based on age or medical use are subject only to rational basis review.  This is easily passed here.  The Court points to medical and scientific uncertainty and the reviews and restrictions on use of these treatments on minors coming out of the UK, Sweden, Norway, and other countries.  Justice Roberts also distinguishes Bostock; and further points out that Tennessee law has nothing to do with sex stereotyping or restrictions on clothing, behavior etc. All good news.

However, the Court majority relies on and reinforces some very bad law – that discrimination based on pregnancy or pregnancy-related conditions, including bans on abortion do not constitute sex discrimination because not all women are pregnant, even though only women can get pregnant or seek abortions.  “Thus, although only transgender individuals seek treatment for gender dysphoria, gender identity disorder and gender incongruence – just as only biological women can be become pregnant – there is a ‘lack of identity’ between transgender status and the excluded medical diagnosis.”  Therefore, even were the ERA recognized as part of the Constitution and sex treated as a suspect class subject to strict scrutiny, abortion bans or other discriminatory treatment based on pregnancy could not be successfully challenged as sex discrimination with the current Supreme Court majority.

The concurring opinions are noteworthy.  Justice Thomas’ description of the horror of what “gender affirming care” actually consists of in practice is quite good; as is Justice Barrett’s review of why the transgender population does not share “the obvious, immutable or distinguishing characteristics of a discrete group” to be a suspect class, like sex or race.  Rather, the transgender population is “large, diverse, and amorphous.” and lacks a history of de jure discrimination that women and people of color have faced. The dissent points to bans on cross-dressing and sodomy laws as proof of de jure discrimination against transgender persons; however, in my view, those laws target gays and cross-dressers, and do not specifically target individuals with transgender identities or who medicalize to hide or deny their sex.

Justice Sotomayor’s dissenting opinion argues that discrimination based on transgender status is a sex-based classification, and that the Tennessee law is discriminatory.  She believes that hormones and surgeries are “a matter of life or death”; she also implies that it is possible to switch puberties.  Justice Kagan, while also calling for heightened scrutiny, to her credit, takes no view on how the Tennessee law would fare under such scrutiny.

Finally, not one Justice thinks sex discrimination claims under Equal Protection should be subjected to strict scrutiny.  Of course, there is no mention of the ERA.  Though sex is deemed immutable, because of the existence of biological sex differences that society “celebrates”, the Court unanimously rejects strict scrutiny for “sex” that is accorded race discrimination.  The entire Court is therefore committed to maintaining women’s second-class status.

LESBIAN DEVIL: A BOOK REVIEW

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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/

Minority Statement on Missouri Senate bill Banning Child Transition

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Members of FIST voted to support the Missouri Senate bill banning so-called trans “affirming” care for minor children, as posted on this blog March 31.  However, that vote was quite close and those of us in the minority would like to put forward our arguments in the spirit of furthering the feminist debate on this important issue.

The Missouri bill does not “stand-alone” but is one of a tsunami of bills released recently sponsored by the Right, as part of a concerted build-up for the next presidential election—basically to get a far-right person elected president in 2024 (DeSantis or Trump).  The fact that some feminist groups joined the Right in promoting these bills has no influence on the Right’s culture war strategy.  Other rightwing bills that are part of this strategy include: the plethora of abortion bans in 13 states (including the recent attack on medication abortion); the erasure of actual US history from K-12 curricula, in the name of “protecting children” from knowing the truth about slavery (and civil rights and women’s rights); the attacks on affirmative action, Social Security and voting rights. We cannot separate all of these right wing attacks (even the one that we might agree with) from the general attack on everything progressive that is unfolding before our eyes—and we do not think FIST should play a part in what will play into that build-up by the Right despite our best efforts to separate ourselves as Leftists, lesbians, etc. .

A major argument in the fight for abortion has always been: “politicians should not be legislating healthcare—this is the province of medicine, not politics.”  “Bans off my body”  should be upheld for all adults, but minor children are often treated with additional care.  Any legislation on specific medical procedures can be used to strengthen the hand of politicians to adjudicate and police abortion care.

If state power is used to enforce “healthcare” bans at a time when there is so much sentimentalized propaganda FOR “gender affirming treatment”, it will make the parents seeking these procedures for their children into MARTYRS and will simply strengthen public sympathy FOR “gender affirming care.”

Even when the Right seems to be in agreement with us on transgender ideology, the way they see women and gender is very different  from a feminist perspective.  They want to preserve gender norms while feminists have always argued that the stereotypes associated with sex are confining and oppressive and should be eliminated.

A better strategy for us might be to put our energy into pressuring medical organizations (AMA, etc) or mounting a public service campaign to increase public understanding of the dangers of these “treatments.” Really putting on the pressure as to how their junk science is mutilating children, making them sterile, some unable to ever enjoy orgasm while simultaneously turning children into lifelong medical patients consuming the exact same powerful steroid hormones that the Women’s Health Movement of the 1970s worked so hard to warn us about. We could be spreading the word about the reasons Sweden, Finland and the UK have closed “gender clinics” and publicize the fact that even the US FDA has been forced to add the word “experimental” to its definition of sex hormones in “gender affirming treatment.”

FIST issues statement supporting Missouri Senate bill 843 banning child transition

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On March 25, 2023, FIST sent a statement to the Missouri legislature supporting a bill that would ban medicalized transition for children under 18.  The letter declared in part, “Child transition involving puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries that remove or modify healthy body parts are extremely sexist and homophobic practices.  They disproportionately harm a growing number of girls, most of whom are same sex attracted, i.e., are likely to become lesbians, and girls that don’t fit in with sex stereotypes of traditional “femininity” imposed on them by a sexist society.

Medical transition is experimental, cosmetic, and doesn’t cure anything.  Instead, it results in sterilization, prevents proper development of brains and bones, and causes other permanent physical disabilities and shortened life spans.  No child is born in the wrong body! As feminists solidly on the Left, we call for saving the tomboys and future lesbians and feminists as well as all children struggling with being different from these permanent medical harms.”

The bill passed the Missouri Senate and is now pending in the House. If it passes, it will join a number of other states that have passed similar laws. According to ABC News, “At least 11 states — Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah — have passed laws or policies that restrict gender-affirming care for people under the age of legal majority, which is the threshold for legal adulthood.”

FIST is highly appreciative of the work of Scott/Kellie Newgent who has been traveling all over the country working on bills to protect children and who encouraged our participation in this campaign.  Please support her work at trevoices.org.

Building Hope for the New Year

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It’s been a tough year for women’s rights.  We lost abortion rights (even though access had been eroded for years) when the decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health was issued this past June with our reactionary Supreme Court overturning Roe vs. Wade and 50 years of precedent to give a green light to states to outlaw abortion.  Now 13 states ban all or virtually all abortions and only 17 states and the District of Columbia broadly protect abortion rights. No doubt, many women’s lives and liberty now hang in the balance.

Meanwhile, the Biden Administration has continued to fight in the courts against adding the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution, even though already ratified by the requisite 38 states. See Maura Casey’s article, Publish ERA, let skirmishes begin and watch Equal Means Equal’s video: Joe, Do It!

The ERA would establish sex as a protected category, with the same weight as race, which would make it far easier to challenge all kinds of discriminatory practices in every state in the union, including jobs discrimination, violence against women, and yes, abortion bans. See and share our Why We Need the ERA brochure.

And then the coordinated worldwide effort to deny the existence of sex, and to remove sex-based protections including the ability of women to organize against our oppression and to even have language to talk about ourselves, has continued apace in 2022.  California passed two horrific bills this year, SB 923 and SB107 and would respectively indoctrinate the medical and mental health professions in gender identity ideology and make the state a magnet for minors seeking sterilizing and mutilating so-called “gender affirming care.”  See our post about these dangerous bills.

Indoctrination in our schools and universities is endemic.  Feminists are losing jobs and livelihoods and facing civil rights complaints for refusing to deny the existence of two biological sexes. A lesbian in Norway was even facing criminal charges and up to three years in prison for supposed “hate speech” for stating that men could neither be lesbians or mothers.

And most recently, Scotland passed a gender self-ID law, the Gender Recognition Reform Bill, that will allow any male, including convicted sex offenders, to enter women’s spaces and programs simply on his say-so, disregarding concerns about women’s safety.

So, there is plenty of reason to despair.  But there is also reason to hope.

Women can and are fighting back.  Women in Scotland protested and sang a rendition of Auld Lang Syne outside of parliament during the vote, “women’s rights are human rights.”  Their struggle is not over.

Rise-Up for Abortion Rights has done amazing organizing in response to the overturning of Roe.

Two women who challenged their sacking in the UK for their gender critical views were vindicated in court:  Allison Bailey  and Maya Forstater.

Our Duty, a non-partisan group of parents opposing child medical transition, organized a successful “First Do No Harm Unity Rally” of 100 people in Anaheim California in front of a national convention of pediatricians.  The central organizer is a mother, lawyer, and liberal Democrat.  The Tavistock Gender Clinic in the UK has been shuttered following the investigation headed up by Dr. Hilary Cass revealing dangerous invasive procedures being recommended for gender dysphoric youth with little screening or oversight.

And then there are the women of Iran, who are leading a struggle against an extremely repressive and misogynist fundamentalist regime.  In response to the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, in custody of the morals police for not wearing her headscarf properly, and at great risk to themselves, our Iranian sisters have poured out into the streets again and again.

The song, Baraye, has been the anthem of the protests:

For the sake of dancing in the street

For the fear felt in the moment of kissing

For my sister your sister, our sisters

For changing the rotten minds

For shame, for pennilessness

For the yearning for an ordinary life

For the sake of the children that mine the garbage and their dreams…

For women, life, liberty

 

For women, life, liberty!  If they can do it, we can do it!

Happy New Year, sisters!