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JOIN US FOR A FORUM ON PROSTITUTION, EPSTEIN & THE MYTHOLOGY OF “SEX WORK” Saturday, Sept. 19th

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TICKETS ARE NOW ON SALE FOR THIS FASCINATING FORUM ON PROSTITUTION scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 19th at 11:00 a.m. PT/2:00 p.m. Eastern.  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1999212123278?aff=oddtdtcreator

Hear feminist abolitionists analyze the myths surrounding prostitution & how to fight to end it.

THIS FORUM IS ON ZOOM. A link will be sent to registrants before the event.

Is prostitution ever a free choice? What is the connecting between Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking of women & girls to wealthy & powerful men, and an ordinary pimp? What are the problems with decriminalization? What is the Nordic model for ending prostitution?

Hear two renown anti-prostitution feminist activists tackle these issues, and join the discussion:

1) Melissa Farley is a clinical research and psychologist who has coauthored 55 peer reviewed articles on prostitution. As a result of 30 years of research interviews with prostitution survivors and also with sex buyers, Dr. Farley is now a prostitution abolitionist. She recently wrote Demystifying Epstein which you can access at the nonprofit Prostitution Research & Education website www.prostitutionresearch.com has 15 libraries on different topics related to the sex trade. Melissa Farley welcomes questions, volunteers, and donations. mfarley@prostitutionresearch.com or 415-254-4377.

2) Samantha Berg is a writer and organizer focused on reducing men’s demand for prostitution. Over twenty years, Sam has directed several key radical feminist events and co-founded the Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF). Before social media, anti-prostitution activists coordinated actions on Sam’s forum Genderberg.com, one of the earliest internet radical feminist communities. Her latest published articles are at Johnstompers.com.

This forum is women-only and will be taped.  Men can watch it later on You-Tube.  It is also an interactive event with plenty of time for questions and discussion.

PLEASE JOIN US FOR THIS DISCUSSION ON THIS IMPORTANT TOPIC FOR FEMINISM!

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A REPLAY OF THE LAVENDER MENACE: NATIONAL NOW CONFERENCE SILENCES AND DISAPPEARS LESBIANS

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By Ann E, Menasche

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

Lesbian existence is fundamentally about women’s autonomy and independence from men- the freedom to say “no” to men and to say “yes” to other women.  Both are acts of resistance that are deeply stigmatized and often severely punished.   Without the freedom to be an open lesbian, there can be no women’s liberation.

From the early days of the Second Wave, some feminists did the work of the patriarchy – silencing, excluding and disappearing lesbians.

It happened once again at the national conference of the National Organization for Women (NOW) held in Alexandria, Virginia, June 25th to 27th 2026.   About 200 people, mostly women, attended the conference in person, and a couple of dozen attended remotely.

At the Conference, lesbians who met in caucus to demand the basic right to meet together and self-organize as lesbians in women- only spaces (apart from males, whatever their “gender identity”) were treated abysmally.  They were disrespected, yelled at, called “TERFS” – an anti-lesbian, anti-feminist slur –  accused of “discrimination” and verbally abused.

The lesbian caucus proposed a resolution calling on NOW to support Lesbian-only spaces.   The resolution read in part, “WHEREAS, lesbians have a right to define their sexual orientation on the basis of same sex attraction…WHEREAS the sex-based rights of lesbians includes the freedom to assemble and to organize on the basis of their common same sex sexual orientation…THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Organization for Women (NOW) reaffirms its solidarity in standing with lesbians when lesbians seek to create sex-segregated spaces to gather to discuss their lives in safety and mutual support.”

The leadership of NOW pulled all stops to make sure this resolution did not reach the floor for a vote.  Gender ideologues have captured most of NOW’s leadership and part of its membership.   There are, of course, dissenters, but at least until recently, they have been terrified of speaking out and facing the fury of witch-hunters who not only ostracize apostates but destroy jobs and livelihoods, and threaten or even carry out physical assaults.   The true believers at the Conference, in an apparently coordinated fashion, spent substantial time challenging every resolution and bylaw that came before the body, nitpicking every word and phrase in an attempt to take up as much time as possible.

Exactly twelve minutes before the time the conference was set to close, the delegates finally began to address the lesbian resolution.  After a couple of lesbians including myself spoke in favor, one woman asked “what about transwomen, are they to be included in these spaces since they are lesbians too?”    Then a motion was made to table the resolution “indefinitely”, which is not even possible under Roberts Rules. That motion was defeated.  The resolution itself was now ready to be voted on. It was  exactly 4:00 p.m., the time the Convention was scheduled to end.  Voting would have taken two to three minutes, done quickly by raising hands and credentials, as it had throughout the day.  However, the chair, NOW President Kim Villanueva, closed the meeting and called my motion to allow the vote to proceed “out of order.”  The message was that lesbians, at least those who stand up for their community, are not truly welcome in NOW.

Lesbians have always fought back.   In May of 1970, lesbians attending the Second Congress to Unite Women were sick of being forced into the closet, and the exclusion of  lesbian issues from the movement. They took over the stage, unveiled “lavender menace” tee-shirts, and demanded  recognition of lesbian issues as part and parcel of the struggle for women’s liberation.

For a time, the women’s movement embraced  its lesbian sisters.  No longer.  The misogyny and homophobia of gender identity ideology has assigned lesbians to irrelevance and conspired to our complete erasure.  For if men can be lesbians, there ARE no lesbians!

But our little group of lesbians and radical feminist allies, many defiantly sporting their own Lavender Menace tee-shirts at the Conference,  have just begun to fight to take our movement back. THE LAVENDER MENACE SHALL RISE AGAIN!

 

 

 

 

CAN ANY WOMAN BE A LESBIAN? FASCINATING FORUM SET FOR JULY 11th – TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

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FEMINISTS IN STRUGGLE IS SPONSORING THIS SPECIAL WOMEN-ONLY FORUM ON ZOOM.

What if heterosexuality wasn’t innate, but enforced and expected?

Can any woman be a lesbian?

Saturday, July 11th, 12:00 noon Pacific Time, 3:00 pm. Eastern

TICKETS ON SALE NOW: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1992292981940?aff=oddtdtcreator

Participate in this fascinating discussion on feminism, political lesbianism and compulsory heterosexuality led by contributors to the recently published anthology, “I Wiah I Was a Lesbian: Women’s Lives Beyond Heterosexuality” (Spinifex Press, 2026).

FIST FORUMS are interactive events with plenty of time for questions and discussion. Zoom link will be provided after registration close to the event.

SPEAKERS:

  1. ANGELA C. WILD is a political artist, lesbian feminist activist, and writer. An unapologetic radical feminist her work is dedicated to promoting uncompromising lesbian visibility, building a lesbian culture, defending women-only spaces, and dismantling patriarchal institutions such as compulsory heterosexuality, compulsory motherhood, sexual violence, and pornography. She is the editor of “I Wish I Was a Lesbian.”
  2. TABATA SPINSTER is a radical lesbian feminist, writer, and multi-disciplinary artists from Mexico, deeply committed to creation from political consciousness and lesbian rebellion. Her photography and graphic art has been published and exhibited in cities like Mexico City, Prague and Argentina. She has collaborated with various feminist organizations focused on arts and independent cultural management.
  3. ANN E. MENASCHE is a radical lesbian feminist and revolutionary with roots in both the feminist movement and the socialist left. She is a founding member and co-coordinator of Feminists In Struggle and works as a civil rights attorney representing low income tenants and unhoused people. She is the author of Leaving the Life, and many poems and essays.
  4. CHARLIE MAY is a lesbian, feminist, seafarer, writer, and scientist with a long history of campaigning for human rights. She first stepped into radical feminism sharing her experiences living with a trans identity and extreme discomfort around her sex. Despite ongoing threats and harassment, Charlie helped open dialogue around the unmet needs of women who were previously trans identified.

FIST ISSUES STATEMENT ON THE WAR ON IRAN

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At the time of this posting, the world remains on edge as we wait to hear whether a final settlement of this war is reached, or whether the war will sooner or later flare up again with more violence, death and destruction.  Meanwhile, the killing of civilians in Lebanon and Gaza has continued unabated.  The time for feminists to speak out for peace and in solidarity with our sisters everywhere is now.

Members of Feminists In Struggle have approved by consensus a statement against the U.S./Israel War on Iran and in support of Iranian feminists. 

Here it is below:

FIST stands against the unjustified and reckless war being waged against Iran by the Trump Administration.  The Epstein Axis, led by Trump and Netanyahu is in part about distracting their populations from issues of systemic rape and pedophilia by the elites.  But is also about acquiring and protecting wealth, power, and empire, while being indifferent to the deaths of innocent civilians.

We  must oppose this war as it violates all of the Geneva Convention rules, including starting a war of choice not justified by self-defense, committing war crimes by targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure (hospitals, schools, energy facilities) and openly admitting genocidal intent (Trump’s recent threat to send Iran “back to the stone age” ).

Women suffer from war, often disproportionately, from the increased violence, displacement, poverty and fanaticism it engenders. Clearly, this war is not in our interests.

However, our opposition, as feminists, to this war does not mean we support the authoritarian theocratic government in Iran.

SUPPORT FOR FEMINISTS IN IRAN

While many on the left believe that the only two possible positions in this conflict are to side with the theocratic regime or the U.S. attack, FIST takes the position that we must support neither, but instead support Iranian ​Feminists and other progressives, now being murdered and jailed by their government by the thousands (current figures are 7,000 killed, 40,000 arrested) as a result of recent uprisings. The attack by the U.S. will only strengthen the hand of this cruel regime and worsen its crackdown against its citizens.

Women in Iran face systemic legal discrimination and operate under male guardianship that restricts their rights in marriage, divorce, travel, and employment; legally, a woman’s testimony has half the value of a man’s; inheritance by women is a pittance of what men receive; a woman needs her father’s or grandfather’s permission to marry and husbands have an almost absolute right to divorce, while initiating divorce for women is difficult; Iranian law mandates strict, state-enforced hijab with penalties that include flogging, fines and imprisonment (and in the case of the death of Jina Mahsa Amini murder–which is what sparked the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement of 2022-2023). Women in Iran have been resisting this sex apartheid system since 1979!

.EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON THE U.S.

The unprovoked attack by the U.S. on Iran is having and will continue to  have devastating effects on U.S. society.  The over one trillion dollars spent on weapons each year benefitting war profiteers, leaves little for education, childcare, healthcare, affordable housing, DV shelters, and public benefits that so many women need to survive.

The war will give the Trump administration an excuse to increase the military budget even further and defund human needs programs (many of which particularly impact women).  Working people will have an even harder time to survive, as prices across the board increase, possibly leading to a worldwide depression. There is also the possibility of a further spread of the conflict (many Gulf states have now been forced to become involved) and a World War III scenario cannot be discounted

While serving as distraction to the scandal over the Epstein files, this war is being waged mainly for reasons of imperialism: the controlling of resources—in this case, oil—of another country, and it reinforces a worldwide economy based on fossil fuels, which can only hasten the ongoing ecological planetary crisis. None of this is in the interest of women in the U.S., Iran, or elsewhere.

For the above reasons, we say NO to Islamic (or any) Theocracy. We say NO to U.S. imperialism. We say NO to government funds going into the pockets of war profiteers and advancing the aims of the warmongers while regular people in all nations suffer. We demand a U.S. government that honors international law, that prioritizes spending for peoples’ needs and centers the needs of women, and that promotes peace throughout the Middle East and the world.

EXCITING FORUM COMING UP FEBRUARY 7TH ON THE DEMISE OF WOMEN’S STUDIES

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How did Women’s Studies change into “gender studies”, promoting “queer theory”, and leaving women behind?

This feminist Zoom forum features KARLA MANTILA to lead discussion on this timely topic for feminists. A zoom link will be provided two days before the event for all registrants.

The Forum is schedule for Saturday February 7th at 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time/4:00 p.m. Eastern.

Tickets are on sale now!  WHAT HAPPENED TO WOMEN’S STUDIES?? Tickets, Sat, Feb 7, 2026 at 1:00 PM | Eventbrite

Karla Mantila is a radical feminist whose grounding in feminism coalesced as a collective member of Off Our Backs, a newsjournal by, for, and about women that was published from 1970 to 2008. She is the author of Gendertrolling: How Misogyny Went Viral (Praeger, 2015), and she taught sociology at George Mason University, Gettysburg College, McDaniel College, and University of Maryland at College Park. She was the managing editor of Feminist Studies, a women’s studies academic journal, where she was witness to the fundamental erosion of feminist thought throughout the field of academic women’s studies.

FIST’s Feminist forum series are women-only interactive educational events where participants are encouraged to ask questions, express their opinions, and engage in vigorous discussion.

THE STATE-SANCTIONED FEMICIDE OF RENEE GOOD

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By Al Addesso

(This post is the opinion of the author and not an official statement of Feminists In Struggle as an organization.  However, many of our active members share these sentiments and are similarly appalled by Renee’s murder at the hands of ICE agents. )

Renee Good was a mother, writer, former chorus singer, lesbian, wife and American citizen. But she will be forever remembered for her murder that was recorded and viewed by millions on the internet.

On January 7, 2026 Good blocked ICE agents in the middle of the street with her SUV in an effort to stop their terrorizing of her Minneapolis neighborhood, even though she had only lived in the city for a year.

“..we stopped to support our neighbors,” said her wife Becca Good. “We had whistles. They had guns.”

The ICE agents surrounded her car while her wife stood in the street.

As she began to reverse and turn to get away from them, one officer who was lightly tapped by Good’s vehicle shot her at point blank range. In the audio of the video Jonathon Ross, the agent that shot Good, can be heard saying “fucking bitch” after shots are fired, the same slur that most women hear before they are murdered by males.

Renee Good’s death was a femicide committed by an agent of the State.

Good was the widow of a military veteran and was also murdered by a military veteran. Ross served in the Iraq War and had worked for ICE since 2016. Ross was dragged 50 yards by a vehicle 6 months earlier after he bashed in a car’s window and unlocked the door while trying to detain someone.

               The State sanctioned murder of Renee Good spotlights not just the fascist terror of the current US administration and militarized aggression being used against US residents, but also the patriarchal system and blatant woman hate that undergirds it. Ross gets the thoughts and prayers of the federal government and those that support it. Good, as women often do, gets blamed for her own murder.

PUBERTY IS NOT PATHOLOGY – OPPOSE THE UK EXPERIMENT ON HEALTHY CHILDREN!

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Feminists In Struggle has signed onto  a statement protesting this horrific UK experiment on the bodies of healthy children, most of whom, if left alone, would likely grow up to be gay or lesbian.

Our FIST member, Shannon, who also runs the Hear She! Hear She! list, has issued this powerful statement about why this experiment must be stopped:

The UK Destruction of Children Continues with Wes Streeting’s Puberty Blocker Medical Trial.  They are experimenting on  LIVE HEALTHY CHILDREN. Not guinea pigs, rabbits, or even just the decency of reviewing existing data. Children as young as 9, as old as 15, 220 children will be burdened for life from UK’s new 2 year medical trial set to ask the all important transgender question: Does medicalization make you feel good or bad? There is only ONE correct answer.

The cult is strong. The burden of global peer pressure on said children being set up to “save” all transgender children of the world leaves only one correct answer. No scientific methods needed for trans global capture! Sterilized? Oh well. Disabled? So sorry. Brain damage? Small price. Suffering as patients for life, is part of the trans joy afterall (see trans-tiktok). STOMA bags are sold as the ultimate freedom. Surgeries (100% failure rate) also introduce infections, necrosis, sepsis, opioid use.

Dr. Cass supports this trial stating, “At least children won’t have to get the drugs from the dark web.” Do we do this with heroin? Crack? ANYTHING? If it’s not legal, it is criminal. How could a child stand against such global pressure and check off “NO” at the end of this trial? Could a child have stood up to the Spanish Inquisition? Is BIID next? The removal of arms is illegal, but female organs are now disposable. One “trans care” surgeon calls the hysterectomy surgery “jack-o-lanterning.” No misogyny there. No elective body parts. ONE BODY. NO child is born in the wrong body. Would we tell this to disabled children?

We have the DATA, rendering this trial as unnecessary. The white lab coat effect and powerful, profiting industry and lobbyists have allowed this latest medical atrocity to play out on our youngest girls, who are always vulnerable, especially during prepubescence. But the money! $1 million per female by the age of 21 put through the medical system. The T industry won’t give it up easily. Why do NHS social medical systems AND the US “for-profit” system both agree on trans medicalization? Money.

PUBERTY IS NOT PATHOLOGY. Puberty is a human right. Ratified by 196 countries, the UN convention on the Rights of the Child upheld to “ensure the right to development and freedom from abuses”…including from a doctor. We are not Peter Pan. After the lovebombing of the all-curing snake oil of false “gender-affirming care” (sold by doctors and preschool teachers alike), the data demonstrates use of puberty blockers lead 98% to continue onto cross sex hormones and many have irreversible surgeries. Suffering broken bodies, chronic pain, brain fog, decreased IQ, prolapsed uteruses, osteoporosis, cut clitoris nerves, anorgasmia, even heart attacks in their 20’s! Dr. Malone of SEGM states, “it is me who has to tell the 29 yo woman who suffered a heart attack to stop the hormones. The gender clinic from 15 years ago doesn’t do it, I have to.”

NO evidence exists that support these interventions. This is modern Skoptsy cult, and as brutal as the thalidomide and lobotomy horrors. Our children deserve protection. Shame on us. Selling false promises. For example, many children have “a strong desire” (this is the decisive measurement (?) to justify child mutilation for this trial) to fly, but we don’t surgically attach wings and throw them out the window telling them emphatically, we are adults, we know you can fly! Who are we to say they shouldn’t try? Facts must matter.

As the fact of “woman” was erased, so now is “child.” “Mature minor” and the atrocious “Gillick competence test” makes a child as young as 12, an adult. We know “consent” is its next use. Children can consent to dismemberment, why not sex? What types of men love the idea of a child’s body of legal age?

“If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. – Confucius

Trans suicides are a lie, used to push T medicalization. Parental hatred is another falsity. The Skirmetti Supreme Court case forced T pusher/lawyer Chase Strangio (f) (funded in perpetuity by HRC to ACLU) to admit in court that transgender suicides are nil. Suicides DO happen AFTERWARDS, when the lovebombing of the T cult fades, when broken promises remain with broken bodies, chronic pain, no family, sunken costs, and a cult that will destroy them if they “detransition.” Facts must matter.

Women are always the barrier for the child, their only protection. FGM, misogyny, mastectomies, deadnaming, family alienation, glitter families, no outside information, no debate, men in women’s prison cells/shelters/sports/bathrooms, kidnapping, billionaire T pushers/lobbyists, shunned or worse if detransition ..literal pound of flesh -stunted bodies, minds, IQ’s.. all CULT based.

Politically, trans ideology TAKES rights. T is destroying many countries’ next generation, compelling speech, voiding laws and constitutional rights..The T is a boon for any enemy. We must give NO QUARTER. Puberty creates victors, not victims! Stand against forcing every child to “choose” between a “cis” or a “trans” puberty.

Trans industries need us to accept biology and body parts as “optional” in order to socially engineer society for transhumanism. It is here. The new “conversion therapy bans” actually legally force medicalization! Trans IS medical conversion! The Trans cult spreads by social contagion AND powerful trans pushers. Foster care children are used as trans guinea pigs!

Tavistock data, and many others data already exist showing harmful irreversible outcomes. Thus far, when children are left alone, PUBERTY literally cures the so-called “gender dysphoria/dysmorphia. This WES STREETING medical mutilation of children “TRIAL” cannot know which child would be cured naturally, and which will not. This moment calls to us to have courage, so we can answer the question, “where were you when the global child dismemberments were happening?”

NOT one more child. We must NOT obey. Women always protected the children. Fists up!

Please SIGN: https://protectingpuberty.com/#sign-statement Protecting Puberty – Memorandum of Understanding LET your legislators know too! # PUBERTYISNOTPATHOLOGY

Thank you sisters of FIST, for standing up for children.

In Solidarity, Shannon

Hear SHE! Hear SHE! Join us! 1 anonymous action email/week: hearshehearshe@gmail.com .

A NEW YEAR’S MESSAGE FROM FEMINISTS IN STRUGGLE

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Sisters,

We in FIST have had an amazing year.  We have continued our highly successful program of feminist forums on zoom.  We took stands on important issues like opposing so-called “gender affirming care” that does permanent physical harm to gender non-conforming children and youth, mostly future lesbians and gays.  We supported the duly ratified Equal Rights Amendment which we women need desperately to give us the tool we need to achieve equal rights under the law everywhere in this nation.

We signed onto two amicus briefs for recognition of the ERA ; one, the case of Equal Means Equal v. Donald Trump, which will be heard in Federal Court this coming March.  The second, Putnam v. Putnam, is a North Carolina case challenging sex discrimination in application of the child welfare standard for custody.

We did all this while growing our grassroots membership-run multi-issue radical feminist organization.

Our 2026, feminist forum series should start off with a bang.  We will be hosting Karla Mantilla on February 7, 2026 to lead a discussion on “What Happened to Women’s Studies”,  the erosion of feminist-oriented women’s studies programs at universities by misogynist ideologies like “gender identity” and “queer theory.”  Tickets are on-sale now. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/what-happened-to-womens-studies-tickets-1979025432342?aff=oddtdtcreator

For International Women’s Day, we will be hosting an organization advocating for women refugees and mothers who are escaping domestic violence. In addition, we have plans for a forum to help launch the lesbian-feminist anthology, “I Wish I Were A Lesbian” that will be published later this year by Spinefex Press. Stay tuned!

In a time of darkness, we the women, hand-in-hand, struggling for our liberation are the light!

PLEASE JOIN US BY BECOMING A MEMBER!  SISTERHOOD IS POWERFUL!

THE LEAST OF THESE

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By Ann Menasche

This opinion piece is that of the author and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Feminists In Struggle as an organization.

Working as I do representing people who lack regular homes, many of them sheltering in RVs or other vehicles, I have noticed a demographic change in this population.  When in the past unhoused people were mostly men, and mostly people with disabilities and retirees on fixed incomes that were not enough to live on, or people whose drug and alcohol addiction precipitated their homelessness, nowadays the population is more and more female, with many holding down jobs, sometimes more than one.   They are often single and divorced women, women who more often than not are escaping domestic violence from male partners, some without children, others with young children and still others grandmothers.  They are native-born women who have to fear police drowning them in tickets they cannot afford to pay, impounding their vehicles and criminalizing them as they attempt to stay safe and build an independent life away from their abusers; and immigrant women, who are terrified of ICE raids and deportations on top of everything else.   The women are even sometimes working professionals.  A medical doctor that I know moved into her RV after her divorce but unlike most of my clients, can afford to pay for an RV park in the city.  She just can’t afford the $3,000 to $4,000 per month cost of renting an apartment in San Diego.  I know women lawyers who came darn close to being on the streets.

Rather than their homelessness being a “choice” or a “lifestyle”, these women are the victims of factors beyond their control – the skyrocketing cost of housing that has left half the population of San Diego struggling to pay the rent – one illness, one layoff, or one rent raise away from homelessness; and abysmally low female wages. Even women in the professions still make less than their male counterparts.

The average women makes 81.5% of what men make when compared to men with similar demographic characteristics, family situations, work hours and experiences. This discrepancy is worse for women of color. Wage inequality begins early and worsens over time. Lower pay means women in their senior years have lower pensions and Social Security payments.

Decades after the passage of the Lily Ledbetter Act, and we are still being denied equal pay for equal work.  The recognition of the Equal Rights Amendment as part of the Constitution and stronger equal pay laws are needed, which, given the segregation of the workforce itself,  should also include equal pay for work of comparable value.  Why should a school teacher or social worker, female dominated professions that require advanced education, get less pay than an engineer?

When we think about the poor this holiday season, let’s keep the female face of poverty uppermost in our minds.  And if we want to put a dent on homelessness, paying women fairly would be a start.

Happy holidays, sisters!