If the Georgia Green Party is dis-accredited and the GRP fails to oppose it, I will feel that my membership is in jeopardy. We cannot engage one another with an attitude of suppression or expulsion. This attitude leads to the name calling and character assassination that we have seen here and on the Green Round Table. These issues are very nuanced. If we cannot talk to fellow greens about these issues, how will we reach the general public? Let’s give the slogans a rest and stop accusing each other of phobias and hatred. This is not productive.
Feminism has a long history with many tendencies. For most of that history all feminists recognized the oppression of women to be based on their biological identity, and thus, deserving rights on that basis. Women are targeted because of their bodies, not how they express their gender. For women who have been assaulted, it is critical to their recovery and resistance to understand that it is not their own fault. Feminism teaches women to love their bodies and resist social pressures to meet the expectations of others.
The Lavender Caucus is not merely advocating for the inclusion of trans rights into the family of human rights. They advocate REPLACING sex-based rights with gender-based rights. While this allows for the inclusion of trans gender people, it takes away the right to self-identification and self-organization from women who consider their female bodies an important part of their identity.
The Lavender Caucus does not merely want trans people to have the right to use whichever pronouns they want, but to change the dictionary definition of a woman (an adult female) in all situations and circumstances. Imagine how difficult this would make research into women’s health.
The Lavender Caucus believes there should be unrestricted access to gender re-assignment medical treatment for minors. In Massachusetts, you can’t even get a tattoo until you are 18 years old without parental consent. Gender re-assignment is a much bigger decision. Any age we pick would be arbitrary, but surgery and hormone treatment should not be the first option. The first step should be compassion and affirmation while young people discover their own identity. Young people need to hear that they will be loved and accepted exactly as they are. The platform should not impose a one-size-fits-all way to handle minors who may be transitioning.
The division of sports by sex has been a cornerstone of fair play since the beginning of women’s sports. Sports is very competitive with real consequences for scholarships and college admissions. Gender expression has no impact on athletic performance. The Lavender Caucus doesn’t merely want to ensure that trans people have access to playing sports, they literally want to force women to compete against people with male bodies.
There is a better way. Fight for trans rights, queer rights, and intersex rights on their own terms. Don’t lump them all together with women. Title Nine and the Americans with Disabilities Act are great models to draw from. The approach of the Lavender Caucus creates unnecessary competition between cis-women, trans, and queer folk. They are not fighting for trans right. They are using trans rights to whip people up for a faction fight and to split the party.
We must be a party that runs on clear rules. Nothing in the GPUS platform takes a position on any of these issues. The Georgia Green Party has not violated any requirements of the GPUS bylaws. If they are dis-accredited on such a flimsy basis it will spell the end of de-centralization and grassroots democracy. It will smash party unity, our ability to run candidates, and our ability to fight for anyone’s rights.
I do not claim to have the final word on every possible situation. I do not advocate kicking people out of the party who disagree with me. I do not accuse people who disagree with me of being phobic, hateful, or stooges of the far right.
This resolution is not about taking a position on these issues. But it will be an important re-affirmation of our values and how we conduct ourselves.
I’d rather be in a party that practices respectful dialogue and grassroots democracy than a party that has all the “correct” slogans already spelled out for me.

Indeed, Elizabeth!
The “River Chapter” rolls deep!!!

Just as Carole O., I and our chapter find it disturbing that those claiming to be in alignment of the 10 Key Values, and standing up for women’s rights, choose to single out and disparage other women and a gay man in the GRP, as well as a disabled, black, Muslim transgender person and antagonize an intersex, blind, transgender person on the GPUS National Committee. I might add that “disturbing” is quite an understatement in regards to witnessing this kind of behavior from two of the authors of this proposal and another supporter of the DNE hodgepodge, consisting of a majority of non-greens (since it has been said “clique” is not a preferred term referring to the DNE).

The PVC knows what solidarity looks like.

When not too long ago, our Party’s female co-chair was also unfairly singled out by CERTAIN, FEW members, the PVC showed up to stand with her unflinchingly.

We are not afraid to show up again and stand unflinchingly with our female co-chair and in solidarity our trans siblings who are being threatened by a campaign that we are beginning to believe is coming from outside the party to strip them of their human rights and protection from hate crimes.

David,
Is the root of the issue that the AC does not have enough tools in their tool box? If so, a proposal for more tools would have worked toward that issue.

Please read for understanding. No one was called a Nazi.
I want to know why you just called for ONE co-chairs opinion.

So, grass roots at the member level , What is the polling with ACTIVE GRP members for your proposal?

As a new member I find the proposal that you put forward divisive and wasting our much need energy towards productive action. I’m starting to think there might have been intent towards this.

If more discussion instead of “nothing or expulsion” is wanted, a proposal towards giving more tools to the AC is what should be put forward. Come on David, as a fellow IT person, root cause analysis.

I stand with the river chapter in that Trans Rights are Human Rights.

Juan said he would prefer you leave voluntarily if you persist in insisting trans women are not women. That’s not what a purge looks like. The PV chapter has said repeatedly, we do NOT want to be in a party that allows anti-trans ideology. I, as co-chair am in agreement with my chapter. Is David Keil insisting we don’t have a right as a chapter to make that decision or that I as co-chair have to be neutral in this decision?

I wrote yesterday: “Cordially noting Juan’s comments and asking him and others if their objective is to ‘run out of’ the Green-Rainbow Party all those with whom they differ about the current StateCom proposal that challenges the expulsion of the state party of Georgia.”

Juan replied: “Would you welcome a nazi into the party?”

Again, no one should be expelled for their ideas here and no one is said to be Stalinists.

Again, do the PVC and the GRP female co-chair advocate running those who favor this StateCom motion out of the GRP?

That’s not even what Juan said, David. We all can read. His comment is right below David’s for all to see. I can’t believe we are going to have to deal with this for a couple more weeks when we could be getting work done! Withdraw this proposal already!
This proposal does nothing but sends a symbolic statement that the GRP aligns with GA and with anti-trans ideology (to which the Pioneer Valley chapter said THEY WOULD LEAVE if it passed. They didn’t say "expel David’, but you know this David yet can’t help but to further antagonize.
You also know that the AC has no other options or ways to deal with states but to dis-accredit. You were told this during tue Alsaks situation. You were told to perhaps propose to change the rule to add other mechanisms to deal with states when they violate and most people would support that proposal. Just about every other. National delagye from almost every other state understands this and would support this.
But no…here you are with this proposal to align the GRP with anti-trans ideolofy instead of one that would give the AC other ways to handle this.
We see you. We know it’s not de-accredidation you worry about. Maybe you should have explained this better to your co-sponsors and floor manager. Like O said before, we will NOT allow you to force anti-trans ideology into our party.

While I don’t support using the term Nazi, I recall people from my chapter being accused of being Stalinists for their views on the DNE by David K. A double standard has been emerging regarding who gets to use what language in making their arguments. From what I’ve heard about last Monday’s Roundtable, women were called hysterical and misogynists for being upset over the harm they see our trans siblings suffering. Again, this was not called out by the DNE backers. Maybe try applying the standards you apply to others to yourself.

A Pioneer Valley chapter member has stated that those who support a motion to StateCom, that he opposes, should be expelled as, in his words, “nazi”. The proposal in question challenges the expulsion of another state party from the Green Party US.

It’s now for the Pioneer Valley chapter to comment on this development. Our Green tradition is to hear proposals, vote on them, and move on to waging election campaigns and participating in social movements. One of our values is grassroots democracy. We don’t expel members for voting for proposals.

Has the Pioneer Valley chapter begun to explore other political affiliations than the Green-Rainbow Party?

The female co-chair of the Green-Rainbow Party belongs to that chapter. Is she caught between her responsibilities to the GRP and responsibilities to her chapter?

Would you welcome a nazi into the party? And yes I’d rather not be in a party with people who don’t believe trans women are women. This has been made clear time and time again in the GRP stances and has only become an issue since you’ve made your way into the party. So yes if you’d leave voluntarily I’d prefer that so that we can get back to talking about real.issues that affect real lives instead of your pet project.

We are in the midst of a pandemic, police and government brutality runs rampant, people are literally starving and struggling to survive, our planet is dying, and here we are wasting our energy on this. Don’t try and twist this into what you would like it to be….It’s all rooted in GAGP anti trans positions and your backing of those stances or will you publicly state that you don’t agree with them?

Cordially noting Juan’s comments and asking him and others if their objective is to “run out of” the Green-Rainbow Party all those with whom they differ about the current StateCom proposal that challenges the expulsion of the state party of Georgia.

Correction I meant political history not pitiful sorry about that

David, I wish I can say that I genuinely trust your intentions here but upon researching you this anti trans crusade seems to be your thing. You and Linda are a pair in several.left wing parties/orgs and are championing the women’s declaration/anti trans crusade so much so that you were run out of the socialist party for doing the exact same thing. I have several connections not only within the party but nationally and internationally and have gotten so much feedback from so many sources that I can not take your word in good faith.

Ypu can say what you want about deaccreditation but your pitiful histpry/actions speak otherwise. You found a weak spot and have taken advantage of it within our party and have taken advantage of that. but I for one will not allow you to try and rewrite your own political history and let you guise your clear alterior motives behind you supposedly being passionate about deaccredidation. The correlation was clear as day for anyone wo watched last night and I’m happy to connect anyone who wants to understand further what is going on here

Thank you to Jamie, Sean, and Juan for your comments in this StateCom forum and last night. The round table last night was difficult, but it’s a difficult issue and we may not find the consensus that we want. I appreciate Maha’s invitation to Margaret Elisabeth, for the Lavender Caucus, and to the leaders of the Georgia GP. I think that we are having success in starting this difficult dialogue.

The essay by Margaret Elisabeth has an interesting take on “the surprising nexus between radical feminists and Christian Right culture warriors.” Would feminism be improved if it were to embrace gender? There is a lot to discuss.

The GRP is in solidarity with transgender people against discrimination and harassment. There is a debate among Greens, however, on the definition of the word “woman”. Do we need to take a vote on whose definition is right?

My main concern is that we avoid fracturing our party over definitions and ideologies. If we expel Georgia, which state will be next? Will GRP members be next?

Our language about each other needs to value all members. I didn’t like seeing the words “TERFs” and “fascists” in the chat last night to describe fellow Greens. We can disagree without name calling.

Let’s continue this discussion in a spirit of building a strong alternative party that runs candidates, offers solutions to problems, and participates in social movements.

Im not sure why the links did not transfer and half of the statement did not copy and paste, but here are the links to back up by previous comment

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/29/im-credited-with-having-coined-the-acronym-terf-heres-how-it-happened

https://www.hrc.org/resources/violence-against-the-trans-and-gender-non-conforming-community-in-2020

https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2017/02/08/radical-feminists-team-up-with-right-wing-evangelicals-to-oppose-trans-rights-protections/

https://archive.is/w1EyY

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/09/04/radical-feminists-and-conservative-christians-team-up-against-transgender-people.html

https://medium.com/@ranibaker/the-calculated-republican-trans-bathroom-wedge-strategy-archive-38de9765c074

http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2015/06/24/the_family_research_council_s_anti_trans_policy_paper_is_intellectually.html

https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/gloucester-county-school-board-v-gg-womens-liberation-front-and-family-policy

https://www.aclu.org/cases/gg-v-gloucester-county-school-board

https://youtu.be/GEMkvmhyu9U

https://thinkprogress.org/the-800-pound-gorilla-of-the-christian-right-89b8cfca7051

http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2014/04/adfs-kellie-fiedorek-opposing-lgbt-equality-is-just-like-what-rosa-parks-did.html

https://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/11/19/this-right-wing-legal-powerhouse-wants-to-make/201629

https://skeptic78240.wordpress.com/2014/03/14/gods-plan/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pink_Swastika

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transsexual_Empire

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheila_Jeffreys#Books

http://www.advocate.com/transgender/2016/6/01/james-dobson-be-man-shoot-transgender-woman-bathroom

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatches/2015/08/18/dobson-gay-marriage-will-destroy-christianity-hitler/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/16/jim-daly-focus-on-the-family-gay-marriage-abortion_n_1968026.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/12/evangelicals-immigration-reform_n_1590751.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/16/jim-daly-focus-on-the-family-gay-marriage-abortion_n_1968026.html

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/lawsuit-seeks-to-prevent-uw-fetal-tissue-clinic-from-releasing-workers-names/

https://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2017/03/29/california-files-felony-charges-against-anti-abortion-center-for-medical-progress/

http://www.npr.org/2016/01/28/464594826/in-wake-of-videos-planned-parenthood-investigations-find-no-fetal-tissue-sales

https://www.transadvocate.com/terf-supports-anti-gay-activist-group_n_10335.htm

https://soundcloud.com/cristan-williams/fact-checking-trans-student

https://soundcloud.com/cristan-williams/fact-checking-trans-student

http://theterfs.com/2017/03/03/terflogic-defund-planned-parenthood-because-they-dont-force-trans-men-to-identify-as-women/

Sorry. Ignore my last post. Here is their statement with the hyperlinks:

“Observer Esco has suggested that people ‘follow the money’ in these discussion so let’s try to figure out where our opponents are coming from on this issue and follow the money to see where it leads us. I encourage you to click on the included hyperlinks in the text for more information about those topics under discussion.

When you read the ignorant statements about transgender people being promulgated by our opponents, have you ever wondered where they get this stuff? The answer, often, is feminists.

In fact, the surprising nexus between radical feminists and Christian Right culture warriors has been with us a long time. In the 1980s, anti-porn feminists like Catherine McKinnon and Andrea Dworkin teamed up with anti-porn conservatives like Edwin Meese, leading to the passage of laws censoring sexual speech in the name of protecting women. In the last decade, anti-prostitution feminists have joined forces with fundamentalist Christians to prosecute sex workers under the aegis of sex trafficking laws. In 1986, for example, Dworkin testified—without any evidence to support her claim—that 65 to 70 percent of women involved in sex work had been victims of incest of child abuse. She claimed that “snuff films,” pornography showing women actually dying, were commonplace, when in fact they were an urban legend. And MacKinnon argued that pornography is equivalent to rape.

They made these statements not at arcane academic conferences, but in front of the Meese Commission, and similar entities in Canada. They worked together with right-wing organizations like the Eagle Forum and Concerned Women for America. And, as described in Nadine Strossen’s Defending Pornography, the far left-far right alliance succeeded in passing laws limiting the distribution not just of pornography but of a wide variety of texts and films—including, ironically, two of Dworkin’s own books.

And now, some essentialist feminists have provided the pseudo-philosophical basis for fundamentalist Christians’ anti-transgender laws. Not all feminists, of course; in fact the term “TERF” was coined by a cisgender radical feminist in 2008 specifically to distinguish radical feminists who welcome transgender women as women, and those who don’t.

Cole Parke, LGBTQ & Gender Justice researcher at the left-leaning think tank Political Research Associates, has been tracking what Parke describes as a “symbiotic relationship” between TERFs and the Christian Right. Parke cited, for example an April 2016 op-ed by Jennifer Roback Morse (president and founder of the right-wing Ruth Institute) where she said she’s reading “very interesting book” called Gender Hurts, by Sheila Jeffreys, writing “I would not have expected to agree with a radical lesbian feminist. However, in this case, I absolutely agree with her: Jenner was never a little girl. I don’t care what kind of fantasy life he has. I was once a little girl. So was Jeffreys. Jenner never was.”

Meanwhile, the author of that book, Jeffreys, approvingly cites the anti-trans scholar Paul McHugh, who was responsible for shutting down the gender identity clinic at Johns Hopkins University and is frequently cited by right-wing scholars and writers. Closing the circle, McHugh cited Jeffreys in a recent anti-trans position paper published by the American College of Pediatricians.

To be clear, writers like Jeffreys and Raymond do not represent the majority of feminists, or of radical feminists. On the contrary, the status of transgender women has been a long, intra-feminist controversy that reached its greatest boiling point in the cancellation of the famous (infamous?) Michigan Womyn’s Festival (MichFest) over the question of whether or not to allow transgender women to attend the women’s-only festival. MichFest shut its doors rather than allow trans women to attend. Jeffreys is the principle author of the so-called Women’s Declaration of Sex Based Rights which GA has signed on to.

But the alliance with anti-transgender forces on the right has further reaching implications. The rhetoric itself is vitriolic, and surely has contributed to the increase in reported violence against transgender people, including a record number of 44 murders in the United States in 2020, according to the Human Rights Commission. But it also has led to numerous anti-transgender laws, most notoriously North Carolina’s absurd, evidence-free, and dangerous crackdown against transgender people using bathrooms that correspond to their gender identities.

The rhetoric surrounding North Carolina’s law is couched in the language of TERFs: transgender women, in particular, are described as being men in disguise, either because of a psychological disorder or a pathological desire to assault women. Conservative religious writings likewise deny the existence of transgender people as a category; last year, for example, the Southern Baptist Convention said that trans people do not exist.

The Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) is a supposedly radical feminist activist group which, as noted by Pink News, shows “little evidence of campaigning on any women’s issues unrelated to transgender people”. They claim to “lobby for pro-choice legislation” and for “women’s autonomy”, but somehow evidence of (or calls to) action for such purposes are completely absent from their website (archived here so you don’t have to give them pageviews) outside that vague mission statement blurb. What you do see, however, is a lot of collusion with not-exactly-feminist-friendly right-wing media which is interesting when you realize where their funding comes from.

The anti-LGBT Religious Right has been actively synchronizing their message with and adopting the terminology of anti-transgender feminist academics for a few years now. The goal is to divorce their position from the stodgy backward-seeming prudish views that they believe lost them the culture war on gay marriage and adopt a language and message that will more easily infiltrate and divide progressive circles. This sparkly modern makeover is one activists like WoLF are more than happy to provide. The Religious Right has been consciously shifting their position away from gay marriage towards transgender rights since the 2014 Southern Baptist Conference. Despite their deep belief that family values are threatened by “feminism, gay rights, and trans activism”, Religious Right Groups like the Family Research Council have gladly latched onto anti-trans statements by gay congressman Barney Frank and the academic work of anti-trans feminist academic Janice Raymond to bolster their position. It’s classic wedge-issue strategy.

Let’s get back specifically to WoLF, however, who received a $15,000 grant from Religious Right group Alliance Defending Freedom and collaborated in a joint countersuit with Family Policy Alliance in opposition to Gavin Grimm’s now delayed Title IX suit. This isn’t a secret. A November 5, 2016 email to supporters described the former as follows:

“WoLF Board member Kara Dansky applied for and received a $15,000 grant from the Alliance Defending Freedom, a group of conservative lawyers who are representing states and parents in lawsuits similar to ours across the country. Also pretty darn phenomenal.”

More about the Alliance Defending Freedom group who wrote the infamous NC ‘bathroom’ bill here: https://youtu.be/GEMkvmhyu9U

Alliance Defending Freedom is a huge Religious Right evangelical Christian non-profit law firm which, quote, “seeks to recover the robust Christendomic theology of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries.” Nervous yet? The firm has become a massive force for years now in helping develop and hammer out “religious freedom” legislation, seeking to bypass any LGBT employment, housing, medical or public accommodation protections through a “religious belief” exception clause. They literally consider the act of refusing service to LGBT folks as a form of civil rights activism not unlike that of Rosa Parks. This firm, which Women’s Liberation Front received funding from, literally advocates the return of sodomy laws, which we should remind you were only struck down federally in 2003.

Alliance Defending Freedom was founded by James Dobson and Alan Sears. James Dobson may sound familiar to some of y’all following anti-LGBT legislation but let’s talk about Sears for starters.

Alan Sears is the co-author of the book The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing The Principal Threat To Religious Freedom Today. It’s a complete mess of a book advocating for gay conversion therapy, obsessively documenting supposed transgressions of varying degrees from “homosexual activists” and suggesting that any attempts to codify protections for gay people in the law is an assault on the freedom for Christians to practice their religion. Considering anti-trans activists spend all day advocating for anti-trans conversion therapy, obsessively documenting supposed transgressions of varying degrees from “trans activists” and suggesting that any attempts to codify protections for trans folks in the law is an assault on the freedom of women, you can see where the game plans start to converge. Books with a similar message, like The Pink Swastika, are, with a few minor word alterations practically identical to anti-trans ideological treatises like Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male and Gender Hurts.

And James Dobson… where do we begin? James Dobson advocates murdering trans women attempting to use the restroom. He claims proponents of gay marriage are literally Hitler. That’s probably a good start. He’s the founder of the group Focus On The Family, also known as Family Policy Alliance, as in WoLF’s partners in the Gavin Grimm counter-suit. This group also advocates gay conversion therapy, changing immigration laws to deport LGBT refugees back to countries that will torture, jail or execute them, and is dedicated to undermining abortion laws and restoring 1950s-style family values.

So, we are pretty clear that Women’s Liberation Front is actively working with groups with goals absolutely opposed to anything feminism should support right?

On January 12, 2017, leaked WoLF board meeting notes came to light that have made even other anti-trans feminists concerned:

“The board voted unanimously to engage Imperial Independent Media to fundraise for WoLF on a 20% commission basis, and to authorize Natasha to enter into a contract for these services on behalf of WoLF.”

Imperial Independent Media is run (according to related LinkedIn profiles) by a man named Zachary Freeman, a Focus On The Family-related activist who was most recently in the news over a lawsuit to gather and distribute names of employees at abortion clinics by having them turned over to the Religious Right anti-abortion activist group Center For Medical Progress. The Center For Medical Progress recently had 15 felony charges filed against them for invasions of privacy and illegal recordings made of abortion clinic employees. These recordings were used in sting videos to propagate the completely debunked “fetal-tissue sale” meme that weighed heavily in arguments to defund Planned Parenthood the past year.

This is distinctly important to note because Freeman/Imperial Independent Media has entered into a commission-based agreement with each other. The fundraising activities of one will financially benefit the other.

This is not the first time TERFs have worked with anti-feminist/LGBT groups in targeting transgender kids. In 2014, TERF attorney, Cathy Brennan and her “radical feminist” organization worked with the anti-abortion/LGBT group the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) in targeting a 15-year-old trans girl, resulting in the youth being placed on a medical suicide watch. This group completely made these allegations up and then proceeded to harass and bully a child until she had to be hospitalized. https://soundcloud.com/cristan-williams/fact-checking-trans-student

If you can stomach it, you can read what TERFs themselves claim their aims and goals are at TheTerfs.com, a watchdog site that monitors the anti-trans hate movement representing itself (not infrequently, to mainstream media) to be radical feminism itself. To demonstrate how completely anti-feminist WoLF and their TERF allies are, they wish to defund Planned Parenthood because, well, read for yourselves:

http://theterfs.com/2017/03/03/terflogic-defund-planned-parenthood-because-they-dont-force-trans-men-to-identify-as-women/

Observer Esco has suggested that we all ‘follow the money’ on the issue of transgender rights in our society and I believe that the information which I’ve provided here establishes the links between the Christian Right, TERFs and the anti-feminist group WoLF to a sufficient enough degree that we should all be quite alarmed.

I believe that Observer Esco, Delegate Trainia and Delegate Cooper from Georgia have explained their position quite well and I believe that Delegate Keil and Delegate Thompson have articulated their support of this position clearly and without equivocation.

I believe we have a duty to oppose their anti-trans, anti-feminist and anti-Green agenda as beings of moral conscience and as Greens. I ask Greens throughout our entire Party to support the National Lavender Green Caucus and human rights advocates everywhere as we consciously confront systems of oppression and fight for full inclusion, equality and liberation for us all.

~Margaret Elisabeth
Co-Chair, Steering Committee, Green Party United States
BMRC/BRPP/PCSC Liaison
They/Them

From Co Chair Elisabeth of rhe National Lavender Caucus
“Colleagues,

Observer Esco has suggested that people ‘follow the money’ in these discussion so let’s try to figure out where our opponents are coming from on this issue and follow the money to see where it leads us. I encourage you to click on the included hyperlinks in the text for more information about those topics under discussion.

When you read the ignorant statements about transgender people being promulgated by our opponents, have you ever wondered where they get this stuff? The answer, often, is feminists.

In fact, the surprising nexus between radical feminists and Christian Right culture warriors has been with us a long time. In the 1980s, anti-porn feminists like Catherine McKinnon and Andrea Dworkin teamed up with anti-porn conservatives like Edwin Meese, leading to the passage of laws censoring sexual speech in the name of protecting women. In the last decade, anti-prostitution feminists have joined forces with fundamentalist Christians to prosecute sex workers under the aegis of sex trafficking laws. In 1986, for example, Dworkin testified—without any evidence to support her claim—that 65 to 70 percent of women involved in sex work had been victims of incest of child abuse. She claimed that “snuff films,” pornography showing women actually dying, were commonplace, when in fact they were an urban legend. And MacKinnon argued that pornography is equivalent to rape.

They made these statements not at arcane academic conferences, but in front of the Meese Commission, and similar entities in Canada. They worked together with right-wing organizations like the Eagle Forum and Concerned Women for America. And, as described in Nadine Strossen’s Defending Pornography, the far left-far right alliance succeeded in passing laws limiting the distribution not just of pornography but of a wide variety of texts and films—including, ironically, two of Dworkin’s own books.

And now, some essentialist feminists have provided the pseudo-philosophical basis for fundamentalist Christians’ anti-transgender laws. Not all feminists, of course; in fact the term “TERF” was coined by a cisgender radical feminist in 2008 specifically to distinguish radical feminists who welcome transgender women as women, and those who don’t.

Cole Parke, LGBTQ & Gender Justice researcher at the left-leaning think tank Political Research Associates, has been tracking what Parke describes as a “symbiotic relationship” between TERFs and the Christian Right. Parke cited, for example an April 2016 op-ed by Jennifer Roback Morse (president and founder of the right-wing Ruth Institute) where she said she’s reading “very interesting book” called Gender Hurts, by Sheila Jeffreys, writing “I would not have expected to agree with a radical lesbian feminist. However, in this case, I absolutely agree with her: Jenner was never a little girl. I don’t care what kind of fantasy life he has. I was once a little girl. So was Jeffreys. Jenner never was.”

Meanwhile, the author of that book, Jeffreys, approvingly cites the anti-trans scholar Paul McHugh, who was responsible for shutting down the gender identity clinic at Johns Hopkins University and is frequently cited by right-wing scholars and writers. Closing the circle, McHugh cited Jeffreys in a recent anti-trans position paper published by the American College of Pediatricians.

To be clear, writers like Jeffreys and Raymond do not represent the majority of feminists, or of radical feminists. On the contrary, the status of transgender women has been a long, intra-feminist controversy that reached its greatest boiling point in the cancellation of the famous (infamous?) Michigan Womyn’s Festival (MichFest) over the question of whether or not to allow transgender women to attend the women’s-only festival. MichFest shut its doors rather than allow trans women to attend. Jeffreys is the principle author of the so-called Women’s Declaration of Sex Based Rights which GA has signed on to.

But the alliance with anti-transgender forces on the right has further reaching implications. The rhetoric itself is vitriolic, and surely has contributed to the increase in reported violence against transgender people, including a record number of 44 murders in the United States in 2020, according to the Human Rights Commission. But it also has led to numerous anti-transgender laws, most notoriously North Carolina’s absurd, evidence-free, and dangerous crackdown against transgender people using bathrooms that correspond to their gender identities.

The rhetoric surrounding North Carolina’s law is couched in the language of TERFs: transgender women, in particular, are described as being men in disguise, either because of a psychological disorder or a pathological desire to assault women. Conservative religious writings likewise deny the existence of transgender people as a category; last year, for example, the Southern Baptist Convention said that trans people do not exist.

The Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) is a supposedly radical feminist activist group which, as noted by Pink News, shows “little evidence of campaigning on any women’s issues unrelated to transgender people”. They claim to “lobby for pro-choice legislation” and for “women’s autonomy”, but somehow evidence of (or calls to) action for such purposes are completely absent from their website (archived here so you don’t have to give them pageviews) outside that vague mission statement blurb. What you do see, however, is a lot of collusion with not-exactly-feminist-friendly right-wing media which is interesting when you realize where their funding comes from.

The anti-LGBT Religious Right has been actively synchronizing their message with and adopting the terminology of anti-transgender feminist academics for a few years now. The goal is to divorce their position from the stodgy backward-seeming prudish views that they believe lost them the culture war on gay marriage and adopt a language and message that will more easily infiltrate and divide progressive circles. This sparkly modern makeover is one activists like WoLF are more than happy to provide. The Religious Right has been consciously shifting their position away from gay marriage towards transgender rights since the 2014 Southern Baptist Conference. Despite their deep belief that family values are threatened by “feminism, gay rights, and trans activism”, Religious Right Groups like the Family Research Council have gladly latched onto anti-trans statements by gay congressman Barney Frank and the academic work of anti-trans feminist academic Janice Raymond to bolster their position. It’s classic wedge-issue strategy.

Let’s get back specifically to WoLF, however, who received a $15,000 grant from Religious Right group Alliance Defending Freedom and collaborated in a joint countersuit with Family Policy Alliance in opposition to Gavin Grimm’s now delayed Title IX suit. This isn’t a secret. A November 5, 2016 email to supporters described the former as follows:

“WoLF Board member Kara Dansky applied for and received a $15,000 grant from the Alliance Defending Freedom, a group of conservative lawyers who are representing states and parents in lawsuits similar to ours across the country. Also pretty darn phenomenal.”

More about the Alliance Defending Freedom group who wrote the infamous NC ‘bathroom’ bill here: https://youtu.be/GEMkvmhyu9U

Alliance Defending Freedom is a huge Religious Right evangelical Christian non-profit law firm which, quote, “seeks to recover the robust Christendomic theology of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries.” Nervous yet? The firm has become a massive force for years now in helping develop and hammer out “religious freedom” legislation, seeking to bypass any LGBT employment, housing, medical or public accommodation protections through a “religious belief” exception clause. They literally consider the act of refusing service to LGBT folks as a form of civil rights activism not unlike that of Rosa Parks. This firm, which Women’s Liberation Front received funding from, literally advocates the return of sodomy laws, which we should remind you were only struck down federally in 2003.

Alliance Defending Freedom was founded by James Dobson and Alan Sears. James Dobson may sound familiar to some of y’all following anti-LGBT legislation but let’s talk about Sears for starters.

Alan Sears is the co-author of the book The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing The Principal Threat To Religious Freedom Today. It’s a complete mess of a book advocating for gay conversion therapy, obsessively documenting supposed transgressions of varying degrees from “homosexual activists” and suggesting that any attempts to codify protections for gay people in the law is an assault on the freedom for Christians to practice their religion. Considering anti-trans activists spend all day advocating for anti-trans conversion therapy, obsessively documenting supposed transgressions of varying degrees from “trans activists” and suggesting that any attempts to codify protections for trans folks in the law is an assault on the freedom of women, you can see where the game plans start to converge. Books with a similar message, like The Pink Swastika, are, with a few minor word alterations practically identical to anti-trans ideological treatises like Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male and Gender Hurts.

And James Dobson… where do we begin? James Dobson advocates murdering trans women attempting to use the restroom. He claims proponents of gay marriage are literally Hitler. That’s probably a good start. He’s the founder of the group Focus On The Family, also known as Family Policy Alliance, as in WoLF’s partners in the Gavin Grimm counter-suit. This group also advocates gay conversion therapy, changing immigration laws to deport LGBT refugees back to countries that will torture, jail or execute them, and is dedicated to undermining abortion laws and restoring 1950s-style family values.

So, we are pretty clear that Women’s Liberation Front is actively working with groups with goals absolutely opposed to anything feminism should support right?

On January 12, 2017, leaked WoLF board meeting notes came to light that have made even other anti-trans feminists concerned:

“The board voted unanimously to engage Imperial Independent Media to fundraise for WoLF on a 20% commission basis, and to authorize Natasha to enter into a contract for these services on behalf of WoLF.”

Imperial Independent Media is run (according to related LinkedIn profiles) by a man named Zachary Freeman, a Focus On The Family-related activist who was most recently in the news over a lawsuit to gather and distribute names of employees at abortion clinics by having them turned over to the Religious Right anti-abortion activist group Center For Medical Progress. The Center For Medical Progress recently had 15 felony charges filed against them for invasions of privacy and illegal recordings made of abortion clinic employees. These recordings were used in sting videos to propagate the completely debunked “fetal-tissue sale” meme that weighed heavily in arguments to defund Planned Parenthood the past year.

This is distinctly important to note because Freeman/Imperial Independent Media has entered into a commission-based agreement with each other. The fundraising activities of one will financially benefit the other.

This is not the first time TERFs have worked with anti-feminist/LGBT groups in targeting transgender kids. In 2014, TERF attorney, Cathy Brennan and her “radical feminist” organization worked with the anti-abortion/LGBT group the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) in targeting a 15-year-old trans girl, resulting in the youth being placed on a medical suicide watch. This group completely made these allegations up and then proceeded to harass and bully a child until she had to be hospitalized. https://soundcloud.com/cristan-williams/fact-checking-trans-student

If you can stomach it, you can read what TERFs themselves claim their aims and goals are at TheTerfs.com, a watchdog site that monitors the anti-trans hate movement representing itself (not infrequently, to mainstream media) to be radical feminism itself. To demonstrate how completely anti-feminist WoLF and their TERF allies are, they wish to defund Planned Parenthood because, well, read for yourselves:

http://theterfs.com/2017/03/03/terflogic-defund-planned-parenthood-because-they-dont-force-trans-men-to-identify-as-women/

Observer Esco has suggested that we all ‘follow the money’ on the issue of transgender rights in our society and I believe that the information which I’ve provided here establishes the links between the Christian Right, TERFs and the anti-feminist group WoLF to a sufficient enough degree that we should all be quite alarmed.

I believe that Observer Esco, Delegate Trainia and Delegate Cooper from Georgia have explained their position quite well and I believe that Delegate Keil and Delegate Thompson have articulated their support of this position clearly and without equivocation.

I believe we have a duty to oppose their anti-trans, anti-feminist and anti-Green agenda as beings of moral conscience and as Greens. I ask Greens throughout our entire Party to support the National Lavender Green Caucus and human rights advocates everywhere as we consciously confront systems of oppression and fight for full inclusion, equality and liberation for us all."

Angela Davis on Women’s Liberation and the recognition of trans women (AS women)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=npba484SebA

From my friend Cora who votes GRP.

For the past 10 years, I have been a devoted feminist organizer. I have been involved
with organizing feminist panels, actions against sexual and gender-based violence, feministeducation and workshops. I am about to begin a Master’s program in Women’s and Gender Studies. I am also a cisgender woman or a so-called “woman-born-woman.” I am a survivor of
multiple forms of sexual and gender-based violence. And I know, unquestionably that transwomen are women. If the Green Party or any social justice movement wants to truly embody feminist values, then it unquestionably uphold the view that trans women and are and rejecttrans exclusionary radical feminism (TERF).

Including and supporting trans women in our feminist movements and spaces does not hurt cisgender women or take away from issues we face. Instead, it unifies women and creates solidarity between women, rather than dividing us.

TERF ideology creates unnecessary and sour divides between women through its claim
that the issues trans women are facing are fundamentally different than the issues cis women face It is true that trans women (especially Black and Brown trans women) experience forms of state and vigilante violence that cis women do not, precisely because they are trans women. However, the underlying issues that women face affect trans women, just as much as they do cis women, such as misogyny, sexual harassment, sexual violence, domestic violence, lower wages than their male counterparts, employment discrimination, body image issues, eating disorders,
access to reproductive healthcare, access to education, etc.

Acknowledging that trans women
are women does not hurt cis women. What actually harms us is divisive TERF ideology that misidentify trans women as our oppressors, rather than patriarchy,
TERF ideology relies on many reductive ideas about womanhood that hurt and exclude cis women, as well as trans women. TERF ideology claims that womanhood is determined by genitalia, menstruation, and the ability to give birth. There are many cis women who do not menstruate and cannot give birth or get pregnant due to various medical conditions (PCOS,Endometriosis, and many others). Furthermore, “biological sex” as we commonly think about it,
is far more complicated than a binary between so-called “male” and “female”

There are many people (including many cisgender women) who are Intersex and whose secondary sex characteristics fall outside the binary of “male” or “female.” All that is to say, womanhood is
not determined by body parts.The argument that affirming trans women as women is akin to white people claiming to
“transracial” people of color is fallacious at best and dangerous at worst. Race is fundamentally different from gender. While both categories are socially constructed, race is tied to intergenerational and biological histories that gender is not. White people cannot lay claim to the
intergenerational trauma from chattel slavery, colonialism, and systematic white supremacy that people of color experience. Gender is shaped by our culture and the modern gender binary has deep roots in colonialism. Therefore, building anti-colonial movements requires affirming our
trans sisters as women.

Ultimately, TERF ideology inflicts massive harm on social justice movements by pitting
women against one another. As cisgender feminist, I proudly stand beside my trans sisters and know that trans women are women without question. I urge the Green Party to abandon and cut ties with any TERF movement or space. Affirming trans women as women is an unequivocally
feminist action and I trust the Green Rainbow party to make the right call here.

Cora Seagal

The George amendments employ several transphobic expressions, and rely on pseudo-science and outright lies about trans people, trans medical care, and trans kids. What’s even more striking is how their core arguments are pretty much identical to the anti-trans propaganda of the alt-right, of Neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and many Trumpist Republicans. So what we see is that the Georgia GP has chosen to basically side with some of worst forces in right wing fascism and white supremacy. These arguments and ideas they are using come from the very same forces of hate the GRP opposed on the Ballot Question 3 initiative. So this is more than just a difference of opinion; this represents on outright opposition, the adoption of a policy that does harm and endangers the lives of the most vulnerable.

That it does so with pseudo-feminism makes it even worse. This argument depends on reducing women to genitals and organs, to biology. It means adopting Western white colonial ideas of gender, and ignoring the wisdom of indigenous cultures, including many Native American tribes, who saw three or even four genders, and did not confine these definitions to ideas about genitals. It means siding with those colonists who sought to destroy Native culture, believing third or fourth genders were “perversions.” It means ignoring many leading feminists who have a much broader definition of womanhood and gender, to define womanhood by biology alone.

As someone with male privilege, I wont tell cisgender women how they should feel about their own safety, or about “women-only” sports or spaces. I will, though, ask that they look at history; see that transgender women and transgender people more broadly have never been the enemy. Instead, patriarchy always has as its ugly sibling homophobia and transphobia. Defining “women” as only biological, and using that to harm trans people in this way, it does not liberate women. It does, though, ironically, enshrine white supremacy, colonialism, and patriarchy more deeply into our national institutions.

The Georgia GOP refused to consult queer Greens about this, and for a year they refused dialogue with those they’ve harmed. Instead they’ve doubled down. Their Facebook page alone is an almost endless wall of transphobic bigotry.

I now understand why some trans friends told me to avoid the Green Party, why they said it wasn’t safe for trans people. I want them to be wrong. Are they?

Any attempt to dialogue with the voices of transphobia and hate as a valid point of view, any attempt to treat as “just a difference of opinion” the hateful propaganda and pseudo-science of the ugliest white supremacist fascist wing of the Republicans, would constitute an abandonment by the Greens of any claim to moral leadership on human rights.

Do not compromise on this. Do not throw queer folk under the bus by ignoring the year’s worth of harm the Georgia GOP has intentionally and repeatedly engaged in. Any tolerance of their hate, any attempt to see it as simply an alternative, as an acceptable opinion, will be a scar on this party that may never ever go away.

Also disaccrediation is the responsibility of the delegates upon reccomendation y from the accreditations commitee which did an investigation and came to disaccredtation as a solution to Georgia’s violation of the GPUS 10 key values and platform however this in the power of delegates not state parties. In taking this stance we are saying that our values dobt matter if any state decides to take hateful.stances. pro violence anti women, pro fascist chapters can pop up anywhere and the GRPs stance based on this proposal is to say we’ll let’s have a discussion. So what do we stand for? Some people like myself or some of the anti trans crusaders are fighters who stand up for our beliefs and will entertain such conversations however in my last race I got over 100,000 votes or 3.9% of the vote statewide and in that group I can assure you their were trans individuals who voted for our candidates because of our forward thinking and stances on issues affecting the trans community. Because they believed that hate or those who take hatwful.stances aren’t welcome here and yet here we are having a conversation about whether or not Green Party chapters that take hateful anti lGBT stands should have a say or home within the party.

As well written as this order may be or what it claims to be pushing, upon understanding where the Georgia GP issue stems from anyone can see what it’s trying to do.

Opinions are rooted in feelings and feelings of hate or disdain are real . When I was a young gay man I’d be called names every day and one night while.walki g home I had a gun put to my head and beaten down and was called a F****t who deserves to.die" several times by a group.of guys. Was their opinion of me not rooted in hate or bigotry and go completely against our 10 key values.
These individuals saw me as beneath them.and that I didn’t deserve to live a life free of hate. When I read anti trans legislation. I am.often reminded of this and I cry for my brothers and sisters who are trans who have it 10x harder. When I see the actions of the Georgia Gp and their anti trans push I see hate I am reminded of all the trans men and women who have been murdered or fear for their lives.

I was raised by my grandmother. Women shaped me and who I am today. They are my.mentors, mothers, friends allies, etc. I believe that women deserve all the same equal.rights as anyone else. I know of the pain and fear that women have from.their experiences and again I cry and see hate and it hurts me deep inside

One of my main reasons for joining the GRP was because I found a home where it didn’t matter who I was and where I came from.but that my voice mattered. A party that stood against Hate and walked the walke leading the charge on several forward thinking issues.

Today I question that and I am not.the only one. I can only speak for myself but I will.not hesitate to expose the GRP for being anti Lgbt+ no matter how much you say it actions speak louder than words and the actions and beleifs of a few are poisoning the entire party.

Oh Maureen don’t try and twist this for anything else then what it is. Let’s not ignore the fact the reason the Georgia GP is up for disaccreditation to begin with is because of their anti trans stance and a year of no resolution between Georgia GP and National. Let’s not ignore the fact that you along woth a few others have stood by anti trans crusaders who have sided with the Georgia GP on this issue. It’s no surprise that these same anti trans crusader now want to have a conversation around discussion vs disaccreditaton triggered from.the Georgia GPS actions . If a party goes against our values and platform abd no solution is resolved ypunwould suggest no consequence and continued discussion instead os tanding up and saying that what they did is wrong and you will not stand for it. Just know I see you and am dissapointed in your cognitive dissonance

Thank you David Gerry for giving us something concrete to consider. I believe “evidence of good faith efforts” is a low bar to meet. Nevertheless, I wonder how well the GRP and other state parties would fair if we actually reviewed this standard for every state. Perhaps it should be done, but fairly, with clear standards and fore-warning. Not selectively to prosecute a faction fight.
The Georgia Green Party platform amendments begin with this:
“We believe that it is possible for responsible policy makers to weigh the conflicts between
existing law and the demands of those campaigning for the legal protections of trans-identified
individuals, and to find nuanced approaches which will protect the latter without gutting from
the former the gains that women have made for the protection of the sex-based rights of
women under the law.”
Perhaps they get some of those nuances wrong. Perhaps their language is not politically fashionable. But at least they are looking beyond slogans to really consider these issues from the perspective of satisfying everyone’s needs. This seems like a good faith effort to me. On the other hand, it’s hard for me to believe that those who rush to condemn them are really interested in changing minds. That’s not how dialog works.
I look forward to hearing from the GA Green Party tomorrow evening at the Green Round Table discussion. Let’s ask them what else they are doing to meet this standard of GPUS affiliation.
I hope we can all agree that there’s no such crime as “violation of platform” which can be used to dis-accredit a state party.

This is to address the idea of a chapter, such as Pioneer Valley, withdrawing from the Green-Rainbow Party because of a position that the GRP could take. We have seen that idea suggested by several members.

First, I would like to express sadness about the despair that I hear from fellow members when they think of our differences of opinion. And I appreciate their frankness about what arises in their minds.

I am confident that in spite of our differences we can coexist in the same party. We have big challenges to face together on many issues, around racism, war, workers’ rights, women’s rights … and rights of trans people. We have election campaigns to run.

I’d like to ask these fellow members what specific concerns they have about our proposal to StateCom. It would place the GRP on record in favor of a “no” vote on a particular motion, to dis-accredit the Georgia state party, if such a motion comes to the National Committee, which could happen in May.

What is alarming about the proposal to StateCom? How can we address our differences without your breaking away from the GRP and without anyone being expelled from it? We need the contributions of every member.

I can address later some members’ questions to me about Facebook discussions from a year ago and about a group that gathers GPUS supporters from the US and different countries who are for discussion rather than expulsion.

One of the criteria for being an affiliated state party of the GPUS is
10. Evidence of good faith efforts to empower individuals and groups from oppressed communities, through, for example, leadership responsibilities, identity
caucuses and alliances with community-based organizations, and endorsements of issues and policies.
list end

Full legal and political rights for all is not a balancing act. It applies equally to all. It’s not complicated. I hope everyone reads the two articles linked in Elizabeth’s comment. One from our own Dr. Margaret Flowers. Trans rights are human rights. My rights as a cis woman are not negated by that statement. I find it alarming that there are people in the GRP who think they are.

The Georgia party had over a year to bring their platform back in line with national. They refused to even discuss it until after the complaint was taken up by the AC. Accusing the people whose rights are under attack of being bullies is grossly unfair. My hope is the people who submitted this proposal do some deep soul searching about the hurt this has caused to our trans members.