Tag: Transgender & Transphobia

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Cathy Brennan interviewed on radical feminism and “transphobia”

Cathy Brennan is a long-time radical feminist lesbian activist working for equal rights for gay people, trans people, and women. Mark Angelo Cummings (FTM transman) and Jessica Lynn Cummings (MTF transwoman) interviewed Brennan for the July 24 episode of Transition Radio TV. Despite her work in the real world to protect trans rights and end male violence against women, children, and gender noncomforming people, Brennan has become a popular target of what the hosts term “keyboard warriors” who attack and tear down potential allies. These “transactivists” have threatened to rape and to kill Brennan and many other radical feminists expressing their analysis of gender. Brennan and the Cummings explore this radical feminist analysis that one can not simply “identify” out of this oppressive caste system, and the irony of heterosexual men who identify as women bullying and threatening actual women with whom they disagree.

Brennan speaks with clarity on the history of gay, lesbian, and queer culture; ongoing homophobia and male violence; why the interests of lesbians don’t always align with the goals of others in the GLBTQ movement, which she says has become a men’s-rights movement; and why women need women-only space to meet and organize.

The interview is an excellent antidote to the smears across the internet about Cathy Brennan and her supposed “hate speech” or “transphobia.” Brennan’s long-time experience with queer culture and human rights activism, and her resultant wisdom, is a breath of fresh air if you’ve ever wallowed through the trans hostility online.

By giving Brennan a platform to discuss these important issues, and by calling out abusive individuals and behavior within the trans community, the Cummings model what we all need to do in in our various environmental and social justice circles. We can’t build a healthy movement while being undermined by aggressive or mentally ill individuals sabotaging relationships by fostering horizontal hostility. We need to identify and expel such people from our communities, with zero tolerance for abusive behavior. Besides damaging our internal dynamics, such individuals make our movement look childish and non-serious to outside observers, potentially discrediting the goals towards which we work.

Watch the video interview below, and check out the recently featured Meghan Murphy interview for more on how horizontal hostility and labels like “transphobic” are used to silence women.

Interview of Meghan Murphy

Ernesto Aguilar, a former DGR member, interviewed Meghan Murphy of Feminist Current for Women’s History Month in March 2013. Murphy presents a clear and articulate analysis of the current state of online feminism – strengths and weaknesses, successes and works in progress, allies and backlash. She spoke extensively on the destructive tendency of online discussions to turn into horizontal hostility, and the ongoing pattern of silencing women:

I don’t think that attacking and harassing feminists online counts as activism, or as supporting women, even if you kind of pretend you’re doing it on behalf of women. Regardless of how you frame it, it’s still about woman-hating, and it’s about anti-feminism, and that’s not progressive. If you’re a man and you’re harassing or silencing women, you can’t pretend to be a progressive person or a person who cares about liberty or human rights or women’s lives or the well being of women. That’s not what allies do.

Later in the interview, she gets specific about a prominent silencing mechanism:

There’s this thing that’s become popular in the feminist blogosphere, and that’s this overuse of the phobia language. I think that’s a big problem. It’s become common practice to label any [feminist] critique as a phobia. You hear things like “kink phobia”, or “whore phobia”, “transphobia”, on and on and on. And I’ve personally been accused of all of these things, and I don’t hate or fear prostituted women or trans people or kinky people.

What I want to have is conversations, and this is just another way to shut down conversation, and it’s a part of the bullying that goes on in some parts of online feminism. It’s about keeping people in line, and it’s about keeping conversations restricted within narrow boundaries. If you don’t like what someone says, you can call them some version of “phobic” and you can call someone a bigot and everyone shuts up. These are kind of the magic words that put fear in every feminist’s heart, because they know that if they’re called one of these things – some kind of “phobic” – that no one will stick up for them, because everyone else is afraid of being labeled by association. Everyone’s afraid to have real conversations, because they see what happens, and they see what happens to other feminists, and they don’t want that to happen to them.

Listen to the entire interview embedded below (originally posted at Feminist Current). And for elaboration on the tactic of shutting down feminist discourse by threatening to apply vague but powerful labels, see the latest article at Feminist Current: “How ‘TERF’ works”, by Sarah Ditum.

Download mp3

What Is a Woman? – New Yorker article

The New Yorker just published “What Is a Woman? – The dispute between radical feminism and transgenderism” by Michelle Goldberg. Her piece provides a good summary of the differences in political analysis between radical feminsts and liberal transgenderists, from their different views on gender and whether “girl brains” exist to the real-world effects on women. Having interviewed Lierre Keith and Rachel of DGR, other radical feminists veteran and new, and prominent transactivists, Goldberg provides a useful introduction to this decades-old debate.

The article makes clear the need for women to have women-only safe spaces for meeting, organizing, and letting down their guard. Goldberg describes the pattern of threats against and silencing of women who question queer theory, from deplatforming to cancelation of venues to straight-up death threats. (The article does not attempt to cover transactivists’ pattern of physically assaulting women who disagree with them.) The article quotes Sandy Stone, a man who identifies as a woman: “I am going to have to say [to women who want women-only spaces], It’s your place to stay out of spaces where transgender male-to-female people go. It’s not our job to avoid you.” Sandy’s statement perfectly illustrates the male entitlement behavior radical feminists are working so hard to dismantle.

Read the whole article to better understand radical feminism & transgenderism, and accusations of transphobia against Deep Green Resistance

For more information, see:

Robert Jensen: Some Basic Propositions About Sex, Gender and Patriarchy

Robert Jensen, a radical activist and professor in Austin, TX, wrote an article last month on the debate within feminism on transgenderism. His piece clearly presents the disagreements between radical feminists, who view gender as a patriarchy-enforcing social construct to be abolished; and the transgender movement, with a more liberal approach of encouraging individuals to choose their own gender roles without challenging the larger system.

The goal of radical feminism is a world without hierarchy, in which males and females would be free to explore the range of human experiences—especially experiences of love, whether sexual or not—in an egalitarian context.

[…]

Nothing in a radical feminist analysis minimizes the social and/or psychological struggles of—nor provides support for violence against—people who identify as transgender or people who do not conform to patriarchal gender norms but do not identify as transgender. Radical feminism is not the cause of those struggles or the source of that violence but rather advocates for an egalitarian society with maximal freedom without violence.

Read the whole article: Some Basic Propositions About Sex, Gender and Patriarchy. You can also listen to Robert Jensen on RAGE Radio: “Community, Collapse, and Despair”, on Derrick Jensen’s Resistance Radio, and in the video “Talking Radical in a Mainstream World.”

Feminist Current – smart analysis of feminist issues

Meghan Murphy at Feminist Current writes a steady column of insightful and incisive articles from a strong feminist perspective, and regularly interviews women and men on a broad range of feminist issues. She lives in Canada, so some of her focus is specific to that country, but most of it is relevant to all of North America and the rest of the world. Smart and often funny, her analysis from current events to issues fought by feminists for decades is always worth the read. She also does a good job of moderating comments, so the space is useful and safe for women and feminist allies to have productive discussions.

Last summer, Murphy interviewed DGR’s Rachel and Lexy Garza in the podcast Deep Green Resistance Under Attack, and has provided outstanding coverage in general of the backlash to radical feminism by Men’s Rights Activists, trans/queer activists, and other misogynist attackers of women. You can see all the available Feminist Current podcasts or read the most recent Feminist Current articles. We highly recommend taking some time to peruse the site and its contents!

Radfems Respond

Several Deep Green Resistance members participated in Radfems Respond the weekend of May 24th 2014, in Portland, OR. The event was facilitated by Samantha Berg, with the goal of providing safe space for discussion:

Hey social justice activists!

Are internet flamewars bumming you out?

Do interactions on social media sometimes make you feel like you’ve entered a fighting pit?

We’re tired of the lightless heat, too. That’s why Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) has arranged for a public dialogue on two of the most controversial issues facing modern feminism, abolishing prostitution and ending gender.

On Saturday May 24 we will honor Memorial Day weekend with a political ceasefire and call for the opening of peace talks. In the spirit of honest, respectful engagement, you are invited to come ask radical feminists any questions on these subjects you may have wanted to ask but were too intimidated by rancorous internet interactions.

Please join us at Multnomah Central Library in Portland for what will be a thought-provoking day for everyone who wants clarification on what radical feminists really think about prostitution and gender.

The panelists shared important information, concepts, and experiences around radical feminism, well worth watching and reading. You can see videos of three of the presenters, and read transcripts from two of those three:

Lierre Keith



Keith speaks on the difference between liberals and radicals.

Rachel



Watch the video above, or read Rachel’s “This Is What I Said At Radfems Respond for her analysis of a radical conception of gender and her experience expressing these politically challenging ideas.

Heath Atom Russell

Read Russell’s “Radfems Respond, WoLF, and MRAs” to learn of her personal experience transitioning to be a transman, then detransitioning, and the backlash she received from the queer community for developing a critique of gender

Other Panelists

Kathleen Barry and Dawn Schiller also spoke, but were not recorded.

Backlash

Samantha Berg’s “The City of Roses Shall No Longer Tolerate Feminism” gives an excellent overview of the threats and backlash from local queer activists, angry that radical feminists were gathering to speak.

Protect Women, Feminism, and Free Speech

Call for Support! Protect Women, Feminism, and Free Speech
The past few days have seen a massive smear campaign against radical feminists such as Rachel and Lexy Garza of Deep Green Resistance. This smear campaign was launched in the aftermath of an attack on Deep Green Resistance members (one of whom was Lexy).

When feminists, supportive women and other allies responded with fury and uproar about this attack, it triggered a backlash from those who accuse DGR and other radical feminists of being transphobic. We are not transphobic, and will be further responding to these allegations.

These accusations made against us were followed by violent threats (including threats of death and sexual assault). DGR members who made similar comments would be immediately removed from the organization. This behavior is unacceptable. Now, these people have begun to contact venues for a speaking tour that Rachel is planning for next month. They have used lies and threats to coerce these venues to cancel several engagements.

Stand UP FOR WOMEN and AGAINST BULLYING AND HARASSMENT!
Let’s band together and support DGR and Rachel and help her keep her speaking engagements. A form letter is available at the link below for those who want to prevent these events from being cancelled. We urge you to consider standing against censorship. Women with controversial and salient platforms most certainly have an eager audience awaiting them, despite contrary opinion.
Support Rachel

WE NEED SUPPORT AND SECURITY!
If you would like to host the Resistance Rewritten Tour in your location please contact deepgreenresistance@riseup.net. We are calling out to feminists and allies to fight back against bullying. Don’t let the bullies stop these important words from being heard.
We will be heavily increasing security at upcoming events in order to keep Rachel and other speakers safe. This costs money, so if you can help us out with security please donate at the link below, and share this message widely!
http://www.gofundme.com/resistancerewritten

STAND UP!
This is another example of the continued threats of harassment and calls to silence those who have spoken out and organized in support of radical feminism. Deep Green Resistance will not tolerate threats of violence or attempts to intimidate or silence women. The actual and immediate threat against females as a class is continued brutalization and repression by males as a class. The real reason for this oppression is the inherently toxic violation imperative that we call ‘masculinity,” and it is on these issues that our focus will remain, despite ongoing attempts to foment horizontal hostility. Ultimately, we defend women only spaces: some of the only spaces left for women to effectively organize and resist their own oppression. We stand in solidarity with all groups and individuals who fight to end the oppression of women under patriarchy.

Criticism of the politics raised by the transgender movement is very different than a wholesale hatred of people who choose to transition. This nuance is very often missed by the very same people spamming venues with blanket declarations of transphobia.

Resistance Rewritten Tour Description
It’s often repeated that “history is written by the victors.” The colonist and the slave owner, the warmonger and the CEO alike use their stolen power to control which stories are remembered, taught, and celebrated – and which are distorted, suppressed, and in some cases, forgotten altogether.

Spanish philosopher George Santayana put it rather more bluntly when he wrote that “history is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren’t there.” But it is not enough to dismiss mainstream historical narratives as irrelevant. We must ask- what has been omitted, and why? When we look past the rosy fiction to the buried truth, we begin to uncover a true history of resistance that is still unfolding.

In the era of catastrophic biodiversity loss, toxification, and climate change, the world is facing challenges of unprecedented magnitude, and we are running out of time. The stakes could not be higher. Will we fall prey to the lies of the powerful and miss our chance at victory, or can we write a brighter future by learning from resistance movements of the past?

Incidents This Weekend

Three incidents occurred at the “Law and Disorder Conference” in Portland May 11 and 12 concerning Deep Green Resistance and transgender/queer activists. A lot of lies have been told about these incidents. We need to tell the facts of what physically happened.

Two women were tabling, handing out DGR literature and selling books. A group of five transgender/queer activists came up to the table. One of the male queer activists began shouting at the women, using aggressive language. This man made threatening gestures toward the women. He grabbed and defaced table materials. When one of the women went to protect the materials, he marked her arm and hand as well.

This conference states it has a policy of safe spaces, but “safe spaces” evidently doesn’t apply to women, because although most people in the room had no choice but to hear the shouting, no one, including the organizers, intervened to stop this man and his aggressive behavior.

A half an hour later, a male DGR member tried to engage in respectful conversation with these queer activists. They began chanting at him and insulting him, culminating in them throwing trash and food at his head.

The next day, Sunday, the DGR crew went back, for more tabling, and an angry mob of queer activists again approached the table, yelling and cursing at them, and demanded that they leave. Once again, for all their talk of “safe spaces,” the organizers did not intervene, nor provide a safe space.

You will see that throughout all of this, the DGR members were respectful and courteous. They tried to de-escalate. Nonetheless, they were the recipients of bullying, threats, and silencing.

One of the organizers, Brandon Speck, witnessed much of this, and at least pretended to express concern for the women. He originally said that the perpetrators would not be invited back next year. He also promised that he would write up a statement of solidarity with the victims condemning the attacks. He further promised to run this statement by the victims before publishing it. He was not telling the truth. He did not run the statement by the women, and the statement he did publish indeed blames the DGR members for their own victimization. Women from all over responded en masse to this by pointing out that this was the classic victim-blaming that characterizes patriarchy and misogyny. The thread was deleted, and the organizer falsely claimed this was because of “violently transphobic comments.” This was as much a lie as their original release blaming the victims. The only violence in the comments was directed at DGR members.

DGR has never threatened anyone, and has a Code of Conduct that disallows making threats against people. Any DGR person who behaved as violently as any of the queer activists did at this conference would be immediately banned from DGR. Instead, what has happened is a barrage of threats against DGR members, up to and including mass beheading. And yet these comments are allowed to remain.

We ask everyone to stand in solidarity with all victims of patriarchal, male-pattern violence, starting with the women who were subjected to this at the Law and Disorder conference.