Feminists in Struggle

On March 25, 2023, FIST sent a statement to the Missouri legislature supporting a bill that would ban medicalized transition for children under 18.  The letter declared in part, "Child transition involving puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries that remove or modify healthy body parts are extremely sexist and homophobic practices.  They disproportionately harm a growing number of girls, most of whom are same sex attracted, i.e., are likely to become lesbians, and girls that don't fit in with sex stereotypes of traditional "femininity" imposed on them by a sexist society. Medical transition is experimental, cosmetic, and doesn't cure anything.  Instead, it results in sterilization, prevents proper development of brains and bones, and causes other permanent physical disabilities and shortened life spans.  No child is born in the wrong body! As feminists solidly on the Left, we call for saving the tomboys and future lesbians and feminists as well as all children struggling with being different from these permanent medical harms." The bill passed the Missouri Senate and is now pending in the House. If it passes, it will join a number of other states that have passed similar laws. According to ABC News, "At least 11 states -- Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah -- have passed laws or policies that restrict gender-affirming care for people under the age of legal majority, which is the threshold for legal adulthood." FIST is highly appreciative of the work of Scott/Kellie Newgent who has been traveling all over the country working on bills to protect children and who encouraged our participation in this campaign.  Please support her work at trevoices.org. Read the full article

Dozens of women and their male supporters including FIST members helped organize a candlelight vigil and rally on March 8th 2023 for International Women's Day in downtown San Diego. The demonstration highlighted women's demands for restoration of women's right to abortion nationally, the registration of the ERA into the Constitution that has already been ratified by 38 states and is being held up by the Biden administration, and an end to male violence against women and girls. Ann Menasche. a co-coordinator of FIST, spoke at the rally urging that women should utilize their own voices and mobilize in the streets, rather than rely on politicians or judges.  Menasche said, "We have the power to change the world, sisters, and there is no better time than now", and led the crowd in a chant made popular by Iranian feminists, "Woman, life, freedom." Andrea Gabay a grassroots feminist activist and organizer for Femme Fight Club, also spoke and was interviewed by a local TV station. The coalition of local feminist groups plan to organize other protests in defense of women's rights in San Diego. Read the full article

Feminists In Struggle continues its series with a forum on abortion rights: "After Dobbs and the continuing threat to women's reproductive rights, how do we develop a strategy to regain and secure the right to abortion nationally?"  Tickets on sale now! FEMINIST FORUM: STRATEGIES FOR WINNING BACK WOMEN'S ABORTION RIGHTS Tickets, Sat, Mar 25, 2023 at 1:00 PM | Eventbrite Here is our exciting panel of speakers: Andrea Gabay is a grassroots activist who first volunteered in 2020 while living in New York City. She was an active volunteer doing food drives and composting at GrowNYC environmental program to empower New Yorkers to secure a healthy environment. She also supported many marches throughout NYC, including many BLM movements and was involved with Women's March in Manhattan. Andrea brought her activist work back with her to San Diego, where she organized a march/rally in January 2023 as part of the national Women's March. Wendy Murphy , J.D. is an impact litigator specializing in women's and children's civil and constitutional rights. She won landmark Title IX cases against Harvard, Harvard Law, and Princeton between 1992 and 2010 that led to the revolutionary 2011 Dear Colleague letter; and sued the Trump and Biden Administrations in federal court to advance women's rights. She also won landmark cases to improve privacy rights for women crime victims and testimonial rights for disabled crime victims. She is adjunct professor of sexual violence law and law reform at New England Law Boston where she directs the Women's and Children's Advocacy Project under the Center for Law and Social Responsibility. She is well known for her legal advocacy in support of the Equal Rights Amendment.  See our ERA-FIST brochure, "Why We Need the ERA" on which Wendy collaborated, and her book, From Suffrage to Inequality. Ann Menasche is a San Diego civil rights attorney, grassroots activist, lesbian, and long-time feminist who is a founding member and co-coordinator of the national radical feminist organization, Feminists in Struggle. She is also co-chair of the Green Alliance for Sex-Based RIghts. She has fought for access to safe legal abortion in the years before Roe and in the decades that followed. In the 1980's she led a landmark case against an anti-abortion center or "fake clinic" for consumer fraud and won. She also helped organize Marches for Women's Lives in San Francisco that drew tens of thousands of people. Ann was recently fired from her civil rights job for asserting that abortion bans harm women as a sex and has filed a wrongful termination law suit against her previous employer as a result. JOIN US FOR THIS IMPORTANT DISCUSSION! Read the full article

  Nina Paley is the creator of the award-winning animated musical feature films Sita Sings the Blues and Seder-Masochism.  Seder-Masochism is a film loosely following a traditional Passover Seder and events from the Book of Exodus, retold by Moses, Aharon, the Angel of Death, Jesus, and the director’s own father. But there’s another side to this story: that of the Goddess, humankind’s original deity. Seder-Masochism resurrects the Great Mother in a tragic struggle against the forces of Patriarchy.  She also has written a book, The Seder Masochism: A Haggadah and Anti-Haggadah.  Her newest project is Apocalypse Animated, illustrating the Book of Revelation. Ms. Paley has been deplatformed, banned, and blacklisted for saying penises are male. Carol A. Bouldin, LMFT Carol has worked in the mental health field with individuals, groups, and families in a variety of settings including inpatient, outpatient, corrections, substance abuse, and private practice, specializing in women abused as children. She is a longtime feminist and utilizes a feminist therapy approach in her work with women. Carol has done research on Christian orthodoxy, attitudes towards women, shame, and rightwing authoritarianism,and is interested in the psychological impact of patriarchal religion on women and girls. Role of Patriarchal Religion in the Global Oppression of Women Resource List Read the full article

On February 26th feminists in the UK kicked off a week of global events to bring attention to the threat to women and girls from male criminals placed in female prisons around the world. Photos from these events will be uploaded to the Internet and sent to the media worldwide. Women and girls in prison, jails, and juvenile detention centers are among the most vulnerable in the world. Allowing male criminals who identity as women into female prisons puts women and girls at risk of serious assault, rape, and even death. The policies allowing men in women’s prisons are based on unscientific ideas that humans can change their biological sex. The goal of this global effort is to raise awareness of the harmful policies that place incarcerated women and girls in living conditions with dangerous male criminals. In the UK, 49% of the male criminals who identify as women are rapists, sex abusers, and pedophiles. Why are such men allowed access to this most vulnerable population of women and girls who often have a history of having been sexually victimized? In January 2021 SB 132, the so-called "Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act", took effect in California, which allows male prisoners who self-identify as "trans" to be housed in women's prisons, putting women prisoners at serious risk of harm without regard to their safety. The San Francisco BayView National Black Newspaper published a letter by Ayanna Green to Scott Weiner, the author of the bill, and cc'd to Governor Newsom, among other officials, pointing out the blatant unfairness to women prisoners.  If you agree with Ayanna Green, please let them know. On February 27, women gathered in Redwood City, CA to initiate the US effort to shed light on the reckless policies that place incarcerated women and girls at risk from male criminals who identify as women. Rallies are planned by Keep Prisons Single Sex USA throughout the country. FIST members participated in the protest at the San Mateo County building in Redwood City, and also participated in a similar protest in Chicago on March 6th. We must stand together and stop these abusive policies worldwide. Read the full article

On February 26th feminists in the UK kicked off a week of global events to bring attention to the threat to women and girls from male criminals placed in female prisons around the world. Photos from these events will be uploaded to the Internet and sent to the media worldwide. Women and girls in prison, jails, and juvenile detention centers are among the most vulnerable in the world. Allowing male criminals who identity as women into female prisons puts women and girls at risk of serious assault, rape, and even death. The policies allowing men in women’s prisons are based on unscientific ideas that humans can change their biological sex. The goal of this global effort is to raise awareness of the harmful policies that place incarcerated women and girls in living conditions with dangerous male criminals. In the UK, 49% of the male criminals who identify as women are rapists, sex abusers, and pedophiles. Why are such men allowed access to this most vulnerable population of women and girls who often have a history of having been sexually victimized? In January 2021 SB 132, the so-called "Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act", took effect in California, which allows male prisoners who self-identify as "trans" to be housed in women's prisons, putting women prisoners at serious risk of harm without regard to their safety. On February 27, women gathered in Redwood City, CA to initiate the US effort to shed light on the reckless policies that place incarcerated women and girls at risk from male criminals who identify as women. Rallies are planned by Keep Prisons Single Sex USA throughout the country. FIST members participated in the protest at the San Mateo County building in Redwood City, and also participated in a similar protest in Chicago on March 6th. We must stand together and stop these abusive policies worldwide. Read the full article

Katherine M Acosta is a lifelong feminist, a sociologist, filmmaker and writer. She has a BA in Women’s Studies (before it was “gender studies”!) and a PhD in Sociology. She was co-chair of the steering committee for Women’s Human Rights Campaign USA (now Women’s Declaration International USA) during its early formation. Katherine is critical of women’s organizations working closely with the religious right and has written an article, Blinded by the Right: Feminist Advocacy & Working with the "Pluto-Theocracy" warning of the dangers of doing so. Read the full article

During World War I, Alice Paul and her sister suffragists called out the hypocrisy of President Wilson and the US government in denying the rights of women at home while claiming to be fighting a war for freedom and democracy abroad.  So little has changed. President Biden is beating the drums of war, proposes an unprecedented $770 billion dollar military budget, and risks nuclear confrontation between the great powers, all in the name of “freedom” and “democracy.” Meanwhile, women in the U.S., who make up a majority of the poor, are denied housing, health care, equal pay, and accessible, affordable childcare. Even the pandemic-related child tax credit program that provided government relief to low-income families has been allowed to expire. We are poised to lose Roe vs. Wade, which will have a devastating effect on women’s freedoms with little action from the White House. Biden has also failed to take the simple step of instructing the archivist to publish the Equal Rights Amendment already approved by the requisite 38 States, which would put women’s sex-based protections into the Constitution. His administration is thus undemocratically depriving us of a crucial tool to challenge our continued second-class status as a sex. Those who are familiar with the history of U.S. wars abroad over the past century, have long known that U.S. foreign policy has everything to do with oil and empire and not a scintilla to do with democracy. Our military-industrial complex is a destructive money-making machine; it is the epitome of patriarchy in action, fighting to maintain status as the biggest bully on the block with no regard for human beings or their rights. Our government has repeatedly spearheaded the overthrow of democratically elected governments from Chile to Guatemala to Iran, rained untold destruction on Vietnam to prevent the people there from determining their own future, and currently counts as its closest allies (and arms to the teeth) the military dictatorship of Egypt, the religious fundamentalist sexual apartheid Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the ethnic apartheid regime of Israel. The decades-long occupation of Afghanistan not only failed to liberate the women there from the Taliban, but instead murdered 71,000 civilians, mostly women and children, and after the U.S. finally withdrew its troops, the imposition of murderous sanctions is now threatening the civilian population with mass starvation. We must call out this hypocrisy today loudly and clearly, just as Alice Paul did more than a century ago.  Fortunately, women around the globe are recognizing that war is not in our interests. Medea Benjamin of the women-led organization Code Pink, long a voice of the U.S. peace movement, has been speaking out against the threat of war with Russia over Ukraine, as well as demanding diplomacy and an end to NATO expansion. On February 15th a group of women from the United States and Russia released a joint statement, "Independent American and Russian Women Call For Peace" raising their voices against militarism and war and calling for diplomacy and peace. They wrote: “We are women from the United States and Russia who are deeply concerned about the risk of possible war between our two countries, who together possess over 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons. We are mothers, daughters, grandmothers, and we are sisters, one to another. Today we stand with our sisters in Ukraine, East and West, whose families and country have been torn apart, have already suffered more than 14,000 deaths…For the U.S. and Russia, the only sane and humane course of action now is a principled commitment to clear, creative and persistent diplomacy – not military action…We stand together and we call for peace. Stand with us.”  Thank you, sisters! Read the full article

We've already tackled Mary Wollstonecraft and Simone de Beauvior, saw two great films, one on Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, "Not for Ourselves Alone," and “The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter”, an outstanding film on the women who went to work in the factories during WWII, and are moving into discussing the founding documents of the Second Wave. If you missed signing up by the deadline and would like to join us for consciousness raising and stimulating discussion as we learn our history, just fill out the “Contact Us” form at feministstruggle.org and specify that you would like to register for the series and we will make the arrangements. Read the full article

Feminists In Struggle presents an important discussion about the attacks on women in academia who dare to question gender ideology in our Feminist Forum: Attacks Against Academic Freedom Targeting Women in Academia. The forum will take place through Zoom on Saturday, January 29th at 1:00-3:00 p.m. Pacific time (4:00 p.m. Eastern Time). $5 tickets can be purchased on Eventbrite SPEAKERS: Dr. Kathleen Stock - Until October 2021, Kathleen Stock was a Professor of Philosophy at University of Sussex. She is the author of Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism (Fleet/Little Brown 2021). She regularly discusses gender identity ideology and its effects on women and girls in public writing and speaking, and was awarded an OBE for services to higher education in 2020. For an excellent review of her book, see Robert Jensen's Making Sense of Sex and Gender  Dr. Devin Jane Buckley left academia after finding it to be ideologically hostile to her intellectual and political interests. She received her Ph.D. at Duke University where she studied philosophy and literature. She also holds two undergraduate degrees, one in neuroscience and another in philosophy from Boston University with publications, awards and honors across disciplines. Dr. Buckley uses her training as a writer and philosopher to advocate for women’s sex-based rights as a freelance writer for 4W and as a board member at Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF). She is currently studying for law school in hopes that litigation and future legislation may bring victories for women’s rights, even if academia has helped erase them. Read the full article

Here we are on the brink of a New Year and though worries abound, it is good to reflect on some of the year's accomplishments, one of the main ones being gender critical people waking up around the globe and daring to come out publicly.  We want to acknowledge GenderCriticalComingOutDay, a hashtag that trended on Twitter, and encourage anyone who can safely do so to join the chorus of tweets! While you're on Twitter, follow us @feministstruggl. To all the good actions outlined at the Gender Critical Coming Out Day website, we wish to add calling and writing in to news networks who push gender ideology and let them know you do not agree and that you want them to cover the other side of the story--the detransitioners, the desisters, the girls and women denied their athletic achievements by transgender athletes, the women and girls harmed by the invasion of safe spaces, all the ways in which women and girls are being erased and our rights denied by this dangerous ideology. We need to arm ourselves for the fight in the New Year by continuing to fight for our sex-based rights by pressuring the Biden Administration to publish the Equal Rights Amendment and legislation to ensure that abortion remains safe and legal, and that WOMEN are acknowledged as the only people who get pregnant. Please join us for our upcoming educational series and Feminist Forums! Merry Yuletide and Winter Solstice All, Feminists in Struggle Read the full article

At the FIST forum on abortion rights last week we heard from Merle Hoffman, founder and CEO of Choices Women’s Medical Center in NY, that clinics can register with various abortion funds to serve women who cannot afford the procedure or need to travel long distances to obtain the care they need.  The severe restrictions in Texas have increased the need for donations to abortion funds. Choices has already served more than a dozen women from Texas.  With sheer grit, abortion funds persist in the state despite the vigilante law that encourages citizens to turn in anyone helping a woman get an abortion after 6 weeks of pregnancy. The National Women’s Law Center has identified the following groups already on the ground helping to keep access to abortion in Texas.  We encourage donations. - Bridge Collective – abortion fund in Central Texas. - West Fund – abortion fund serving West Texas and New Mexico. - Frontera Fund  – abortion fund serving the Rio Grande Valley. - Buckle Bunnies Fund – mutual aid organization for Texans who need abortions. - Texas Equal Access Fund  https://teafund.org/ – abortion fund for Texans. - Fund Texas Choice – fund to cover transportation costs in Texas. - The Afiya Center    – includes an abortion fund centering Black women and girls in Texas. - Lilith Fund  – abortion fund for Texans. - Clinic Access Support Network  – abortion fund for women who need abortions in the Houston area. - Keep Our Clinics  – support for independent abortion clinics. - Jane’s Due Process – helps young Texans navigate parental consent laws to access abortion.   Read the full article

Feminists in Struggle (FIST) presents our women-only Feminist Education Series (part one): OUR RADICAL FEMINIST ROOTS from January through August of 2022. We will be reading and discussing articles and books and viewing movies from our feminist herstory covering both the First and Second Waves of Feminism. There will be brief presentations and small group discussions at each session to raise consciousness and build sisterhood. We are also presenting two panels of "veterans" from the Feminist Movement sharing their experiences and where we should go from here. See the attached flyer or the Eventbrite page for more details! The sessions will occur on the 2nd and 4th Fridays of every month on Zoom: 5:30 to 7:30 Pacific, 7:30 to 9:30 Central, and 8:30 to 10:30 Eastern. Copies of many of the written materials will be provided. We will also make suggestions about where other books and materials may be obtained free or at a reasonable price. The series is free for dues-paying FIST members // $25 for non-members // $15 for low-income non-members - PRICES ARE FOR THE WHOLE SERIES. Tickets can be purchased through Eventbrite here. Knowledge is power! Please join us! In solidarity, Feminists in Struggle Read the full article

Tickets are $5 with some free tickets available at eventbrite. Women have always had and will continue to have abortions. The Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision of 1973, though limited from a feminist perspective, was a great defeat for anti-abortion forces. Those forces have been hard at work chipping away at our right as women to control our reproductive capacity ever since. It seems likely the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade this term. If that happens, how do we fight to keep abortion services safe and make them accessible? Featured speakers: Merle Hoffman founded one of the first abortion clinics in the U.S. in New York in 1971. She wrote a book about her experiences, Intimate Wars: The Life and Times of the Woman who Brought Abortion from the Back Alley to the Boardroom, she edited a feminist quarterly, On the Issues Magazine, a Magazine of Feminist, Progressive Thinking on reproductive rights for more than a decade, and formed the Choices Global Institute to help underserved women in the U.S. and abroad find women's health services. Kathy Scarbrough has been active in feminist and left organizations since the late 1970s. Currently, she is a member of FIST, supporter of Redstockings and co-editor of Meeting Ground Online. 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. Read the full article

Tickets are $5 with some free tickets available at eventbrite. Women have always had and will continue to have abortions. The Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision of 1973, though limited from a feminist perspective, was a great defeat for anti-abortion forces. Those forces have been hard at work chipping away at our right as women to control our reproductive capacity ever since. It seems likely the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade this term. If that happens, how do we fight to keep abortion services safe and make them accessible? Featured speakers: Merle Hoffman founded one of the first abortion clinics in the U.S. in New York in 1971. She wrote a book about her experiences, Intimate Wars: The Life and Times of the Woman who Brought Abortion from the Back Alley to the Boardroom, she edited a feminist quarterly on reproductive rights for more than a decade, and formed the Choices Global Institute to help underserved women in the U.S. and abroad find women's health services. Kathy Scarbrough has been active in feminist and left organizations since the late 1970s. Currently, she is a member of FIST, supporter of Redstockings and co-editor of Meeting Ground Online. 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. Read the full article

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.

We carried our beautiful FIST banner ("Our bodies, our spaces, our sex-based rights") in the spirited march of several thousand along the waterfront, and distributed over 100 fliers containing FIST's abortion statement and some FIST brochures. One woman came up to us and offered to take photos of our banner. The word "woman" was not buried at this event. Women, their rights and nothing less. Men, their rights and nothing more! Read the full article