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/

ON PRIDE & SHAME

This is an opinion piece submitted by two lesbian members of FIST and does not necessarily reflect the position of FIST as an organization.

We used to look forward to participating in Pride parades. In the days when they were called Lesbian/Gay Pride, they were political events with a feminist message. In 1977, 5,000 women marched at the head of the Pride March in San Francisco, right behind Dykes on Bikes. Lesbian-feminists spoke and sang from the podium. We needed Pride because our same sex love had been shrouded in shame – the silence and invisibility of the closet, something never demanded of heterosexuals. We were losing jobs, housing, and custody of our kids because we were openly gay or lesbian or because the sex of our partners had been discovered.

But Pride has changed. And we don’t mean the drag. Gender non-conformity including cross-dressing was always extremely common among lesbians and gay men, and was, from the beginning, pervasive at our Pride events. There were always drag queens on elaborate floats in attendance, and women in full butch regalia. But, until quite recently, the idea that cross-dressing and other behaviors that do not conform to sex stereotypes meant your sexed body was “wrong” and in need of medicalization, was exceedingly rare among gay men and almost non-existent among lesbians.

In addition, overt sexual displays such as BDSM did not exist at Pride events to any significant extent until the 1990’s. Lesbian, gays, bisexuals, and our straight supporters always brought their kids to Pride without hesitation. These were not X- rated events. Now they are.

To be blunt, Pride is no longer the event we remember. It has become thoroughly corporatized, pornified, and coopted, a shadow of its former self that was forged in the struggle for lesbian and gay rights.  The extent of the merger that has occurred between Pride and corporate America is a bit shocking.  For example, the list of sponsors of San Diego Pride is a virtual Who’s Who of corporate America. Sponsors include Bank of America, Starbucks, Northrup Gruman, Charles Schwab, Jack-in- the-Box, Coca-Cola, Greystar, San Diego Gas & Electric, and Chevrolet.  There are also sponsors from the medical industrial complex, including Blue California, Kaiser Permanente, Genentech, and notably, Rady’s Children’s Hospital which works in the highly lucrative field of gender medicine, operating the Center for Gender Affirming Care for “children, adolescence and young adults.” 

The community, too, has changed. The growing amalgam of lettered identities introduced heterosexuals into our community and has increasingly marginalized lesbians and gay men. Lesbians especially have been almost completely squeezed out of the community now dominated by the “TQ”. Women’s spaces and cultural events that nurtured and supported lesbians such as the Michigan Women’s Music Festival were labelled “trans-exclusionary” and are now gone; female-only lesbian groups and a lesbian same-sex sexual orientation itself have been redefined as “transphobic bigotry.” A misogynistic and homophobic sex-denying ideology has become dominant and is encouraging the medical transition and sterilization of mostly female teens – tomboys and future lesbians – into facsimiles of the other sex, at great cost to their long-term health.

Pride has also been torn from its roots. Our lesbian and gay history is being rewritten so that we have forgotten that in 1969 drag queens were gay men, rather than “trans”; that it was not transgender identified males but an African-American butch lesbian, Storme DeLarvarie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm%C3%A9_DeLarverie who kicked off Stonewall; and that gays and lesbians, not trans identified individuals, organized the first Pride March. Please listen to the words of Fred Sargeant, who was there. https://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_C9A3B5DB7A6848F7B5F9858C106C6854

So, has Pride outlived its usefulness? Despite the progress we have made since Stonewall, anti-lesbian/gay prejudice continues to run deep within the population. Witness that homophobia – both external and internalized – is one of the main forces propelling medical transition in both children and adults.

In the U.S., lesbians and gay men are still at risk. It was only in 2003 that the Supreme Court in a 6 to 3 decision invalidated sodomy laws in Lawrence v. Texas https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/539/558/while such laws criminalizing homosexuality between consenting adults remain on the books in Texas and 11 other states. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodomy_laws_in_the_United_States#:~:text=As%20of%20May%202023%2C%2012,result%20of%20Lawrence%20v.%20Texas.

We are still not protected by federal laws explicitly prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination. Instead, we have one Supreme Court decision, Bostock v. Clayton County, https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/17-1618_hfci.pdf that protects against employment discrimination based on sexual orientation under sex discrimination; and another, Obergefell v. Hodges, https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/14-556 that recognizes the right to marry a same sex partner. But we have seen how Supreme Court decisions can be quickly reversed as happened regarding the issue of abortion. Justice Thomas has recently called for revisiting both Lawrence and Obergefell. It would be foolish to let our guard down now.  

Large sections of the world present an even more dangerous picture. Places like Iran and Uganda continue to criminalize same sex love, subjecting lesbians, and gay men to the death penalty.

Yes, we still need Pride, as a movement for lesbian/gay rights, not as a market share.  Our liberation from anti-gay prejudice and compulsory heterosexuality has not yet been achieved.

One of the most persistent myths used against us is that we lesbians and gay men are “perverts” who “groom” and molest children to “recruit” to our “lifestyle”. Yes, as in all sectors of society, there are gay people, especially gay men, who think “love” between grown adults and minors is just fine. Pornography has permeated our community just as it has straight society. But the vast majority of our community, both men and women, have long ago and wholeheartedly rejected pedophilia and continues to do so, in part due to having been influenced by a feminist understanding of power and abuse. Moreover, the Catholic Church was far more of a hotbed of sexual abuse of children then the lesbian and gay community is or has ever been.

This reality did not prevent anti-gay right wing Christian fundamentalist forces from campaigning against lesbian/gay rights in the early years based on the risk lesbians and gay men supposedly pose to children. Witness in the late 1970’s the “Save Our Children” campaign of Anita Bryant to overturn local gay rights protections in Florida; and the California Briggs Initiative, one year later, ultimately defeated, that proposed to exclude gay teachers and anyone else in the schools that openly supported lesbian/gay rights.

These arguments seem to be resurfacing once again, from right wing anti-gay politicians like DeSantis who write overly broad bills and policies; and even from members of the our own community who, in fighting against child medical transition and indoctrination of children into gender identity ideology in schools, appear to agree that (open) gays and lesbians are a threat to children and should be kept away from them until they are 18 to avoid the adults being “groomers.” For example, Rainbow Rebellion and Gays Against Groomers are organizing a Pride counter-protest in St. Louis which proclaims, “LGBTQ+ Stay away from the kids.” https://www.trevoices.org/

But lesbian/gay parents and teachers do not threaten children’s safety nor do they “recruit.” Moreover, it should be o.k. to “say gay” in schools, to discuss and read books about same sex families and relationships or learn about lesbian/gay history. Gay, lesbian, and bisexual teens dating and exploring their same sex sexuality with their peers also deserve our support. The teaching of age-appropriate sex education in schools, including that related to homosexuality, is fine. Even being exposed to cross-dressing or drag is not in itself a risk to kids. Rather, pornified displays by adults whether by drag queens or by Beyonce, Lady Gaga or other similarly hyper-sexualized “straight” performers, are inappropriate for young children.

It is not gays and lesbians, nor, for that matter, individual adults that identify as transgender, that pose a risk to kids. We do not need to stay away from children. Rather, it is the teaching of gender identity ideology to children, whoever does the teaching – that a child may have been born in the “wrong” body which the doctor can “fix” for you, that “feminine” men and boys, and “masculine” women and girls are not really members of their sex, and that biological sex either doesn’t exist, or can be changed. chosen, or overridden by an amorphous feeling called “gender identity” that everyone is supposed to have- which causes children profound confusion and can unleash untold physical harm.

Lesbians and gays are not responsible for how our community has been hijacked. Let’s reject the shame and take-back Pride from our corporate masters. We can fight against child transition while remaining vigilant in defense of lesbian and gay rights and not giving an inch to homophobia. WE WILL NOT GO BACK.

FIST FORUM: SAVING THE TOMBOYS FROM THE MEDICAL ATROCITIES OF CHILD “TRANSITION”

The medical “transition” of gender non-conforming, mostly lesbian, girls has increased exponentially.  How do we fight it?

JOIN US on AUGUST 13TH at 11:00 a.m.Pacific time, 1:00 p.m. Central, and 2:00 p.m. Eastern for this timely discussion of the harmful practice of medicalization of a growing number of gender non-conforming girls, a majority of whom are lesbian, through use of puberty blockers, wrong sex hormones, double mastectomies, and genital mutilating surgeries. Reserve your tickets now.

Girls are being taught that their non-conformity and same sex attraction mean they have been born in the “wrong” body, with the result that they pursue dangerous treatments before they even reach adulthood, causing permanent harm to their healthy developing bodies and turning them into life-long medical patients. Many of these girls will in a few years join the growing ranks of detransitioners and regretters. Is this the face of the new homophobia? How can we fight back and save new generations of tomboys, lesbians, and future feminists?

TICKETS ONLY $5 – SAVING THE TOMBOYS FROM THE MEDICAL ATROCITIES OF CHILD “TRANSITION” Tickets, Sat, Aug 13, 2022 at 11:00 AM | Eventbrite

SPEAKERS:

CAROL is an advisor for de-transitioned people, having gone through transition and de-transition herself. She is a co-founder of Detrans Voices: Detransition Stories, Resources, and Community and a member of LGB Alliance USA | Leading the Fight for Same-Sex Rights She currently co-facilitates a gender dysphoria support group for lesbian and bisexual women through LGB Alliance USA and continues to work on outreach and awareness around de-transition.

ERIN FRIDAY is a licensed attorney in California and the mom of a desister. She is co-leader of Our Duty, U.S. branch, a parent support group for parents of Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoric kids.

T is the founder and national organizer of Lesbians United, a grassroots lesbian-only organization in the U.S. Lesbians United is creating public information campaigns both online and on the street to fight back against the anti-lesbian transgenderist movement.

ANN MENASCHE is a radical feminist, lesbian, socialist, political activist, and co-founder of Feminists in Struggle and Green Alliance for Sex-Based Rights. Growing up in the 1950’s and 60’s, she seriously thought about “transitioning” when she read about Christine Jorgensen, because she yearned for the career opportunities and authority only available to men. The advent of feminism helped her to accept herself for the first time as she dedicated herself to women’s liberation and radical social change.

FIST’s Feminist Forums series are interactive and organizing events. At our forums, women have an opportunity not only to hear interesting speakers on a variety of feminist topics but to meet each other, make comments, ask questions of the presenters and discuss feminist politics together. We also usually tape the events so they may be viewed later. Women in attendance are free to shut off their cameras and mute themselves, should they prefer to do so. If you prefer to remain anonymous within the group, or plan to sign in under a different name from the name you have used for registration and purchase of your ticket, please contact the organizer prior to the event. Thanks.

While some of our events are open to both men and women, THIS IS A FEMALE ONLY EVENT. We ask that our male allies respect our right to meet together as women.

#Save the Tomboys! Defeat SB 107!

STOP PROMOTING THE TRAVESTY OF SO-CALLED “GENDER AFFIRMING CARE” on CHILDREN!  We Urge a NO Vote on California’s SB 107!

 

California Senator Weiner is at it again. After sponsoring SB 923 that would indoctrinate the medical profession in gender identity ideology, he is now proposing another bill, SB 107 that would turn California into a haven for the medical experimentation on gender non-conforming children, shielding those seeking these interventions from prosecution based on the laws of their state.  There is nothing progressive about this bill; rather it is misogynist, homophobic, and reactionary to its core.

Gender non-conforming minor children and youth, mostly female, and many same-sex-attracted future lesbians and gay men, are being subjected to a ghastly medical experiment that will likely shock the consciences of future generations.   Though covered up by euphemisms like “gender affirming care”, these children are being taught that their gender non-conformity, same sex attractions, and/or unhappiness with their sexed bodies (how many girls hate their bodies growing up under patriarchy?) mean that they were born in the “wrong” body, and they are “transgender”.

Unlike being gay, lesbian, or bisexual, transgender is usually a medicalized identity with the end goal of turning children into a facsimile of the other sex.   Children must “treat” their condition not just by changing names, pronouns, and clothing choices and by denying their sex, but by taking puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones that prevent brain and bones from developing properly, and which result in sterilization, early onset osteoporosis, undeveloped lungs and hearts, and the inability to experience sexual pleasure.

Medicalized young people are also channeled into multiple surgeries, removing or modifying healthy body parts, such as double mastectomy at ages as young as 13, often followed by genitally mutilating surgeries with frequent and severe side effects.  In other words, we are destroying children in order to “save” them.

While other countries, including highly liberal, tolerant societies such as Sweden and Finland, move back from embracing this model of treating societal and emotional problems with major body modifications, California is moving full speed ahead.

As lesbians from the U.S. group, Lesbians United, stated in their recent campaign, #Save the Tomboys, “tomboys need shoes they can run in, not artificial hormones.”  Since 84% of girls diagnosed with “gender dysphoria” are same-sex attracted, the fear that this is indeed an insidious form of reparative conversion therapy targeting and disappearing the next generation of lesbians is a valid one.

Feminists in Struggle, as an organization composed of radical feminists and progressives, holds that children should be free to dress as they like, play with the toys and pursue the interests that they like, and express their personalities freely without sex stereotyping, rather than be medicalized for their gender non-conformity.  No one is born in the “wrong” body.  Children unhappy with their bodies due to sexism, homophobia, and related traumas need psychological support, and to be allowed to grow up whole, not be put under the knife.

We therefore urge the defeat of SB 107. #Save the Tomboys.

See also: LGB Alliance’s post: SB 107: Trans Refuge Legislation and Green Alliance for Sex-Based Rights’ post: California Aspires to Become a Sanctuary State for Those Who Mutilate Children for Profit

SISTERHOOD IS GLOBAL: The Feminist Strikes in Poland

Feminists in Struggle proudly hosts a panel of grassroots radical feminist activists from Poland to speak about their struggle.

About this event

Hear first hand reports about the challenges facing Polish radical feminists as they fight their anti-abortion right wing government on the one hand and gender ideologues on the other.

Saturday, June 5th, 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time, 1:00 p.m. Central time; 2:00 p.m. Eastern time.

SPEAKERS and TOPICS:

Hanka Kulikowska: “Broken dream of reproductive freedom. The rise and fall of Women’s Strike.”

Natalia: “Why Poland – a Catholic conservative country is embracing trans ideology? A paradox that’s not really a paradox.”

V.L.: “Lesbians in Poland, the law vs. real life.”

Michalina Bychenko: “Fandon, anime and cosplay culture influence on trans-identified and nonbinary identified popularity in Poland.”

Aleksandra: Radfem and left wing political parties in Poland.

Register for event

Coalition for the Feminist Amendments submits written comments to the Judiciary Committee

Our Coalition made a concerted effort to contact the Senators on the Judiciary Committee to press for an opportunity to testify at the Judiciary Committee hearing in order to present a feminist and LGB perspective on the Equality Act and the need to amend the bill. However, feminist voices critical of female erasure were not to be found. Abigail Shrier was the only witness that exposed the bill’s threat to women and girls, without throwing in right-wing talking points like “religious freedom” or opposition to abortion. However, two of our Coalition members, Callie Burt, and Lynette Hartsell, were able to submit written testimony.
Below is testimony from Lynette Hartsell of LGB Alliance USA. The testimony of Callie Burt can be found here.

Re: Testimony of M. Lynette Hartsell, LGB Alliance USA and the Coalition for Feminists Amendments– Equality Act: AMEND AND PASS

March 17, 2021

The Honorable Richard Durbin
Chair, Senate Committee on the Judiciary

The Honorable Charles Grassley
Ranking Member, Senate Committee on the Judiciary

Dear Senators Durbin and Grassley,
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to present this written testimony regarding the Equality Act.


LGB Alliance USA is part of an international group of lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals living in the United States. We define ourselves in terms of same-sex sexual orientation. Sex, not “gender.”
The Coalition for Feminist Amendments to the Equality Act (CoFA) is a national alliance of individuals and organizations representing feminists as well as lesbian, gay, and bisexual people.
We support many of the positive provisions put forth by the Equality Act. Federal statutory protections for lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals based on sexual orientation are long overdue.

However, the Equality Act’s attempt to protect transgender-identified individuals from discrimination—by redefining sex to ”include sexual orientation and gender identity,” and by replacing “sex” in civil rights laws with “sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity),” creates ambiguity, confusion, and introduces a conflict between the sex-based rights of women, long acknowledged in the law, and claims recently being raised based on gender identity as a rationale for overriding separate provisions. The Equality Act as written then enshrines as law this premise that self-declaration of one’s gender identity takes primacy over biological sex.


Clearly, sex is not “sexual orientation” or “gender identity.”
Merging two distinct groups—who possess different sets of experiences and needs, as well as unique histories of discrimination and marginalization—is detrimental to preserving human rights protections currently afforded to females as a uniquely subjugated class.

More importantly, “gender” or “gender identity” is conflated with “sex” throughout the bill without clearly defining either term. The term “gender identity” is subjective in that it describes a state of mind that may or may not be manifested in dress, grooming, or behavior, and is generally based upon discriminatory sex stereotypes that feminists have been working to abolish for decades. This subjectivity opens a loophole ripe for abuse and provides no objective test useful to a court, which will ultimately litigate the conflicts sure to arise from this legislation.


As written, the Equality Act erases sex as a protected class in law, weakening protections as well as undermining the existing rights of females as a unique class and will erase the progress women have made toward achieving equality with men.


By eliminating sex as a protected class, the bill as currently written would:
• Undermine targeted remedies for the exclusion or under-representation of women and girls in education as well as in jobs and professions traditionally held by men
• Eradicate competitive women’s sports by undermining Title IX protections
• Make it impossible to track (and remedy) disparity between the sexes, such as the pay gap and domestic violence, which is overwhelmingly male violence against women
• Prevent the gathering of accurate crime, health, and medical research statistics


It is not necessary to erase or redact sex in the law in order to protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and gender non-conforming people, whether trans-identified or not; in fact, to erase or obfuscate the definition of sex renders it impossible to address sex discrimination or to protect sexual orientation.


These conflicts must be addressed. Failure to do so will threaten long-settled statutory and case law developed to protect the rights of females as a distinctive class. Our amendments provide a solution.


Like the Equality Act, the Feminist Amendments expand civil rights laws to cover lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender-identified people, and other individuals who don’t conform to gender stereotypes (social roles traditionally imposed based on one’s sex), while continuing to uphold sex-based protections. In doing so, everyone’s concerns and rights to privacy are protected.


The Feminist Amendments eliminate “gender identity” and instead establish two new categories in civil rights law: “sexual orientation” and “sex-stereotyping.” Doing so more effectively protects all classes, including transgender-identified people, without negating sex-based protections.  These amendments contain clear definitions of “sex” and “sex-stereotyping” that will preserve female facilities and programs, allowing women and girls to participate fully in public life.


At the same time, the Feminist Amendments protect lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and all people who don’t conform to imposed gender roles and stereotypes—including transgender-identified people—from discrimination in employment, education, housing, credit, jury service and in places of public accommodation.
These amendments also allow for the establishment of “gender-neutral” (mixed-sex) facilities for individuals who may feel safer or more comfortable in such spaces, so long as the availability and access to female-only facilities is not diminished. Thus, these amendments allow each protected class to continue to make progress toward achieving true equality.

Female-only facilities, groups, and spaces are an important legacy of women’s organizing, key to the protection of the female sex against male-pattern violence and to the broader participation of women in public life. It is vital that these basic human rights provisions remain in place.


Male-pattern violence against females is so well-documented that Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act in an attempt to protect women and girls from sexual and physical assault. However, such predatory violence remains pervasive as demonstrated by the “Me Too” movement and numerous well-documented instances of such violations by males in the entertainment business, the military, and even Congress. A Swedish study showed that this pattern of behavior is not mitigated by male-to-female sex reassignment surgery.


Moreover, the current bill’s “gender identity” provisions require that males who identify as women, including those with intact male genitalia (85-90% of males who identify as women retain male genitalia), must be admitted, solely on the basis of “self-identification,” into female facilities such as rape crisis centers, battered women’s shelters, homeless shelters, prisons, hospital rooms, communal showers, changing rooms, restrooms, and nursing homes.


Social scientists and international policy bodies have underscored the importance of maintaining separate statistics based on sex as a key means of tracking disparities between the sexes, recording accurate data, and measuring our progress on addressing sex-based discrimination. In addition, there are multiple instances, such as within the context of healthcare and medical research, where maintaining accurate information about a person’s sex is vital, even life-saving.


One hundred years after women’s suffrage, women are still paid less, are denied equal opportunities in the workplace, and continue to be underrepresented in many fields and positions of economic and political leadership in our society because of their sex. Females still suffer disproportionately from domestic violence and rape because of their sex.


The world is watching. Will the United States remain a leader for women’s rights and the rights of the LGB community, or will Congress replace biology and science by redefining sex to include fictions created on the fly by anyone, at any time, for any reason?
I respectfully submit the above to the Judiciary Committee and request that this document and the Feminists Amendments  be included in the record for consideration by the Committee.

M. Lynette Hartsell, LGB Alliance USA
Co-Chair of Coalition for Feminist Amendments
Cedar Grove, North Carolina
US-lgb-alliance@protonmail.com
@LGBAlliance_USA

The Ride:  A Woman’s Rebellion

One of our FIST members, Sky, is making a coast-to-coast trip on her motorcycle, at 61 years of age, in order to be a “visible role model” for youth.  In her words, “I am one woman. One woman on a motorcycle. I am calling out to my sisters across the globe, to stand up, speak out, be seen, be heard.”

Her message:

1. Women’s rights are human rights. We have basic human rights to safety, dignity and privacy separate from males. This is a BASIC HUMAN RIGHT. We demand it.

2. Women have a right to compete with other women, without men destroying our sports.

3. Lesbians are Female Homosexuals who do not want men, even in pretty lipstick. No Men. Simple. The rape culture being forced on lesbians WITHIN our own so-called community is heinous and WILL stop.

4. Transitioning Children is the worst Homophobic Conversion Therapy ever invented. Let kids be kids. Stop the child abuse!

The Ride could use donations, help setting up rallies, hanging posters in the cities to which she will be traveling, and getting out the word.  She also welcomes any feminists or allies to join her for one leg of her journey or all of it.

 

If you wish to join the public planning group go to The Ride: A Woman’s Rebellion

 

For more information about her journey, see a video interview of Sky by Graham Linehan.

Supreme Court Ruling: Cause for Celebration and Concern

On June 15, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a surprise 6 to 3 decision written by conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch in three cases interpreting Title VII of the Civil Rights Act banning sex discrimination in employment, The first two cases involved gay men who lost their jobs for being gay (Bostock vs. Clayton County, Georgia, and Altitude Express Inc. v Zarda) and the third involved a transgender-identified male who was fired upon announcing he was “transitioning” and would be returning to work in women’s garb (Harris Funeral Homes vs. EEOC.).

First the good news. The Court held that discrimination based on homosexuality was covered under Title VII as a form of sex discrimination since it is intrinsically tied to biological sex. This means that after many decades of struggle, lesbians and gay men finally now have federal civil rights protection against job discrimination. Also, the interpretation of Title VII is so broad that sex-based dress and grooming codes and discrimination based on all forms of gender non-conformity may be successfully challenged in the future, something important to feminists.

The decision in the Harris case is far more problematic for feminists concerned abut the maintenance of sex-based rights. True, Judge Gorsuch did not fully embrace transgender ideology,; he did not deny the existence of sex; he didn’t use the popular expression among transactivists, “assigned at birth”, and instead, referred to “observed sex at birth.”, But he did refer to Stephens as “she” and find transgender status to be a form of sex discrimination.

Though the Court limited its ruling to firing someone based on homosexual and transgender status, and stated that the Court was not ruling on single sex bathrooms and changing rooms, we do indeed have to worry about the future.  Title VII law has a strong influence on the interpretation of Title IX and other Civil rights statutes. Even getting the Equal Rights Amendment into the Constitution as currently written will be a double edged sword, since sex and transgender status are now merged. Fighting for legislation that spells out sex-based rights to female-only spaces and programs, as FIST did in its proposed Feminist Amendments to the Equality Act, has become in light of this decision, more important than ever.

Don’t Disappear the “L” Action in San Diego

On Friday, July 12, eve of San Diego’s gay pride parade, 5 intrepid FIST lesbians sallied forth to put up stickers. The slogan was “Don’t disappear the L. Lesbians are women who love women. ” First we all enjoyed a great meal and conversation.

Then we started our stealth stickering on University Avenue in Hillcrest, which is San Diego’s version of San Francisco’s Castro. I must say this, yours truly was a bit nervous. The place was packed with revelers making merry. At times it was almost impossible to walk.

We plastered many street poles and “No Parking Pride Parade” signs. In fact just about anywhere the festivities were being advertised.

My favorite was the box giving out free “Gay San Diego” newspapers. Our stickers looked great there, an attempt to return us to the community from which we were rejected.

At the end of University was ground zero for all of this, the “Center” which houses all communities related to pride. Everyone is welcome, that is except for those lesbians who just want to be with other women. We are commonly called “terfs.”

The place was deserted of course as everyone was out at the bars and in the streets. But we left our calling cards there too.  After that we walked back to our cars, plastering the last of our stickers. Between the feeling of comraderie and subversiveness, a good time was had by all!

Reporting from San Diego, a proud radical feminist.