Tag: lesbians

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!

 

 

 

 

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

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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.

Reportback from the Boston Dyke March

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by An Anonymous Dyke

Friday, June 7th, 2019. The Boston Dyke March. Before it began, an anonymous group of lesbians dispersed stickers throughout the Boston Common and surrounding area, site of the Boston Dyke March.

DOWNLOAD AND PRINT YOUR OWN STICKERS here at https://feministstruggle.org/2019/05/18/dont-disappear-the-l-campaign/

Going to the Dyke March again since I went for the first time a number of years ago, all the memories of the experience of lesbian erasure flooded back. It is obvious (to me, at least, as a lesbian who is indigenous to this continent) that the playbook of colonialism is being used on lesbians. I won’t say it’s 100% the same, but I can’t unsee the parallels. I saw a sign that said “all white people are immigrants”, which was a relief to see and is true: all europeans are colonizers, invaders — “immigrants” is only a euphemism, if only they were immigrants it would be so much easier. But the invaders run the show. They tell indigenous people south of the colonial border that they’re the outsiders. That the europeans are the true “natives”. This is a settler colonial state that tells indigenous people that we are foreigners on our own land, and works hard to erase indigenous people through many different means that I won’t get into here. The irony of having anti-capitalist, anti-corporate, pro-brown and pro-black signs, while promoting the colonization of lesbians by heteropatriarchy, is lost on the organizers of the Boston Dyke March. Do they think that black, brown, and indigenous lesbians don’t know what sexual dimorphism is, what female biology is? Do they want to tell us that the dinosaurs aren’t real and humanity is only 2,000 years old, too? Do they not realize that they (like many others) drive a wedge into the communities of the most marginalized lesbians? The colonization of a people (lesbians) who have existed here for thousands of years and since the beginning of time, by separating the youth from their elders and indoctrinating the youth with self-hating beliefs that promote our own eradication, encouragement of the appropriation of our cultural space and customs by straight people, enabling the rape of lesbians through compulsory heterosexuality with males “identifying” as lesbians, turning our selves against our selves, and losing touch with our selves. Gay conversion therapy in colonial form — tools of the patriarchy. Because if the patriarchy can’t convince us to stop loving women, then patriarchy does everything they can to keep us from saying no to men even if we say yes to women.

This is plainly visible when taking in my surroundings of what is supposed to be Lesbian Cultural Space. All the straights are taking over. Straight men are appropriating in the most blatant and offensive ways, but straight women are doing it too. Actual lesbians don’t feel welcome at Dyke Marches and other Pride related events. Having signs at an anti-corporate “grassroots” march that is supposed to be for you while people carry signs like “gender =/= genitals” and “terfs are lame” etc, is DEEPLY troubling for lesbians who should otherwise expect to be welcomed into that space. In reality, the word “lesbian” is rarely mentioned if at all (IT WAS NOT the first time I went!). Young lesbians coming to terms with themselves find this erasure re-traumatizing, on top of the emotional process of coming out, as this so-called “Dyke March” stigmatizes the core of what makes us lesbians: our exclusive same-sex attraction, our exclusive desire for females. I know that simply being there brought back a lot of anger and pain for me. This is supposed to be a LESBIAN march!

The Boston Dyke March reacted quickly to Boston FIST members stickering up the Boston Common and surrounding area. Calling it “graffiti”, they claimed that FIST is a “known transphobic group”, and well, I’ll let them speak for themselves:

“Hey Friends! We’re already setting up for our 24th March! As we’re getting ready for all of you on the Common, some TERF graffiti has been popping up. We are doing our best to remove any stickers and signs from FIST, a known transphobic group. If you find anything while attending The March, please inform one of our volunteers. We unequivocally believe that trans women are women. If any TERF harassment happens at the March, find a volunteer immediately and we will deal with it with the ferocity of a thousand burning suns.”

FIST — Feminists in Struggle — is a group that has lesbians as some of its primary organizers. It was lesbians who planned this intervention of our own march. We had no plans to “harass” anyone. Contrary to the Boston Dyke March’s accusations, it’s worth noting that at no point have Boston FIST members (who proudly claim responsibility for this action and hope that more new members will join us) EVER mentioned anything about trans people, at any point! Our stickers simply said: “Don’t Disappear the L! Lesbians are XX-female-symbol who love XX-female-symbol”! Two things:

  1. Our principles of unity clearly state that we want human rights for all people, including trans and gender nonconforming people! Everyone deserves basic human rights. But we want to say that lesbians matter. Do they think that we don’t love gender nonconforming lesbians, all lesbians, for existing? Do they not realize that many lesbians are gender nonconforming, aside from the fact that simply existing as a lesbian is inherently at odds with gender roles?
  2. We were talking about LESBIANS. A lesbian is a female human being with exclusive same sex attraction (to other female human beings). THIS is what the so-called “Dyke March” of Boston has claimed is “transphobia”. They want us to think it’s wrong to be a lesbian. They’re also afraid to admit this fact, and have their followers see that they took down these shamelessly pro-lesbian stickers, which is why they never specified what was on the stickers nor did they include photographs. They had to deceive their followers into thinking that what they took down was “anti-trans” instead of pro-lesbian. Their response only confirms what we already know, which is that Boston Dyke March is a HOMOPHOBIC, LESBIAN-HATING astroturf group that needs to cut out the bullshit and let real lesbians exist. Maybe even fucking celebrate our own existence, for once? Hence the need for intervention — and maybe the start of some accountability within the lesbian community. We need lesbians who are brave enough to live and love as out lesbians, in the full meaning of that word.

Where is your warrior spirit, lesbians? Are we going to let straight people take our march? Or will you join us and co-create? You can start by downloading and printing these stickers to distribute and place everywhere.