I absolutely love this story from the LGB Courage Coalition and Graham Linehan, published earlier today, titled “Let’s Grant the Kids Some Grace: Jamie Reed, Cori Cohn, Lauren Leggieri, and Graham Linehan walk into a bar.” It’s written in the first person by Jamie.

It reminded me of a conversation I once had with a woman in a hotel bar that did not go nearly as well. But we have to keep having these conversations if we are ever going to get anywhere in the movement to protect the sex-based rights of women and girls and to stop the abolition of sex.

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This is how the LGB Courage Coalition’s story begins:

I can’t remember if Cori Cohn said to our server, “Can you tell me about your tattoo,” or “That is an interesting tattoo.” She replied that she could tell us the real story, plus the lie she often tells instead. She was a cute, attentive server in a hip restaurant in Indiana. The tattoo was a circle no bigger than a coffee cup, located high on her bicep — inside, a stop light. Just black lines, no color.

“I’ll tell you the lie first,” she said. “It’s a street light because I hate roundabouts.” Then she told us the truth: she used to love Taylor Swift, and this was a lyric from a specific song that she thought would mean something important to her forever. I like a good Taylor Swift song, but I’ve never been enough of a Swiftie to tell you the significance of that street light. She said she regrets the tattoo now. But it’s there forever.

Lauren took a deep breath that ended in a shudder. She told me later that she was bracing for whatever Cori was about to say.

Breathe in, breathe out, and then it happens:

“I know about regret,” Cori said. “I had a sex change when I was 19. It did not work out for me.”

The four of them had a very productive conversation with the server, and then:

I wanted to give her a way out of the conversation, in case she needed one. But I also wanted to invite her to find out more. So I suggested she google “Jamie Reed Whistleblower”. She nodded, then moved out of earshot to check on another table.

Cori and I observed, almost in unison, that she knew all the lingo. Graham looked a little shell-shocked, still getting used to what it’s like to sit next to Cori at dinner as he dances along the third rail of polite conversation with a total stranger. He walks us right up to the verge of getting thrown out. Lauren joked he could probably get us a free meal for the misgendering alone.

Our server reappeared, now TERF-curious.

More productive conversation ensued. The post concludes:

I told her what I believe: that a lot of the traits that get medicalized in kids is, under the surface, homosexuality — and that this whole “gender affirming care” apparatus targets gay people specifically, whether most people intend it to or not. I asked if she recognized the word TERF. She did and repeated it without flinching, feeling no need to perform outrage. Her demeanor changed to that of someone finally being allowed to think out loud without the thought police in the room.

We finished our drinks and dinner, savoring the whole exchange. I left Lauren’s business card for the LGB Courage Coalition on the table. As we walked back to the hotel through the sticky evening air, I felt hope lighten my step.

I encourage everyone to read the LGB Courage Coalition’s entire post.

This reminded me of a conversation I had with a woman at a hotel bar a couple of years ago. That conversation didn’t go nearly as well as the one Jamie, Lauren, Cori, and Graham had with their server. But I hope it planted a few seeds in the woman’s mind.

In October of 2024, I published a post about it for paid subscribers only, titled “A Weekend in TERFLife.” That post is behind a paywall because it contains some personal details. Sorry, not sorry, if you want the juicy bits you’re just going to have to pay for them.

But I do want to recount the conversation itself here, because I think it’s important to talk about how we can engage with strangers on the topics of sex and gender. What works? What doesn’t? What plants seeds? What can take the conversations further? What can make people, in Jamie’s words, “TERF-curious?”

In my view, nothing is more important than opening up our society to having conversations about these topics. We’re never going to get anywhere otherwise.

This is how my story goes …

I was in Denver for a family event in early October of 2024.

One evening, I treated myself to dinner at the hotel bar. All of my family members were doing their own thing, so I was alone. There was a woman sitting next to me, also having dinner alone, and we started chatting.

We had a lovely chat about many things. We bemoaned the state of politics in the US. She told me that she once attended the “sweet 16” party of a teenage girl she knew and found it to be a lovely coming of age celebration. We talked about how great America is in all its diversity, if we could all collectively find a way to appreciate it.

I told her, and this is completely true, that I once stayed in a hotel in Baltimore near the Baltimore convention center. The hotel was hosting: a young woman’s quinceañera, a gathering of Christian black women wanting to promote traditional family values, an Indian Hindu wedding, and a convention of white biker dudes. All the Latinos at the quinceañera, all the Christian black women, all the Indian Hindus, and all the white biker dudes managed to share the same space for a weekend. It was something to see. She seemed delighted in hearing that story. It was, after all, pretty amazing.

I did not tell her that it was during my stay at that Baltimore hotel (it was in May of 2019) that I wrote email messages to Elizabeth Warren’s husband and Kamala Harris’s sister (both of whom I knew personally), begging them to get elected Democrats to knock it off with “gender identity.” But that’s an entirely different story.

Anyway, we talked about how it would be best if people could discuss matters of disagreement respectfully and thoughtfully. I thought perhaps I had made a new friend. I finished my dinner and ordered a drink. At some point, it came time to ask each other what we were doing in town (we were, after all, both having dinner alone at a hotel bar). I told her that I was in town for a family event.

It’s at this point that I need to say that when she told me she had attended a teenage girl’s sweet 16 party, she did not explain what she meant by the word “girl,” nor did I ask. When I told her that I once shared some hotel space with a group of Christian black women, she did not inquire as to what I meant by the word “women.” When I told her that there were also white biker dudes at the same hotel, she did not ask me what I meant by the word “dudes.” When we were just having regular chit-chat, none of those words required any clarification. They never do. Because we all know what they mean.

She then told me that she was there in her capacity as a member of the leadership committee for the SAIGE conference happening at the hotel. I asked her what “SAIGE” meant, and she replied that it was the Society for Sexual, Affectional, Intersex, and Gender Expansive Identities.1

I had a split second to react. And for whatever reason, my brain decided in that split second that my reaction would be to say calmly, “Well, in the spirit of respectful conversation on matters of disagreement, I think I should tell you that I’m a TERF.” Her eyes got wide and she put her fork down on her plate.

I asked her if we could have a respectful conversation about the topics of sex and gender and, to both our credit, we did. Throughout the rest of our conversation, neither of us raised our voice. Neither of us called each other nasty names. She didn’t tell me to die in a fire or kill myself (which is something gender zealots do frequently).

I kicked it off by saying something along the lines of, “I’m a lifelong leftist and a registered Democrat, and I completely support lesbians, gay men, and bisexual people of both sexes, as well as abortion rights, so don’t bother trying to characterize me as some sort of right winger.” She nodded solemnly, seeming to get it.

For the most part, the ensuing conversation consisted of several rounds about what sex is. I said that it’s real and material, that men are male and women are female, the usual stuff. She asked why that’s important to me and I responded that it’s important to me because I care about women and girls as a sex class and about material reality. She kind of looked at me as though she felt sorry for me. I’m fairly sure she thought I was a bit of a simpleton.

I asked her what she thought sex is. Her answer was along the lines of “It’s a spectrum and it’s up to every individual to define it.” I asked her if she really thought that and she confirmed that she did. Every time I challenged her on it, she repeated, “Again, it’s up to every individual to define it.”

So I asked her, “Are you an individual?” Yes, she said. “So,” I asked, “how do you, as an individual, define it?”

I was even giving her the opportunity to give me her own, individual, super special, definition of sex (as though I think that’s a thing)! She couldn’t even manage that.

Every time I asked her, as an individual, to define “sex” because she thinks it’s up to every individual to define, she just replied, “Again, it’s up to every individual …”

This became quite tedious, so I invoked the sweet 16 party she had mentioned, and the following ensued:

Me: Did you say you once attended a girl’s sweet 16 party?

Her: Yes.

Me: How did everyone at the party, including you, manage to know that the girl who was having the party was a girl?

Silence. She looked at me, completely flummoxed. She pushed her plate away. “This conversation is over,” she said.

This is why it matters that during the original conversation, she expressed no confusion about the words “girl,” “women,” or “dudes.” Outside of conversations that are specifically about gender woo, literally everyone knows what these words mean.

We didn’t say another word to each other until I paid my tab and told her to have a nice rest of her evening.

The SAIGE conference got going in earnest the following day. All of a sudden, the hotel was teeming with people wearing pronoun badges and t-shirts bearing the pink and blue “trans” flag. Every time the woman’s gaze met mine, it immediately dropped to the floor.

If you’ve spent any time at all in the land of gender woo, you know that the very presence of TERFs is supposed to make people with “gender identities” feel unsafe. And yet throughout the rest of the weekend, none of the pronoun people seemed to feel unsafe at all. They just kept wandering around wearing their pronoun badges and their “trans” flag t-shirts. No one dropped dead, despite the presence of a known TERF. It’s almost as though their entire movement is made up of lies.

The woman I chatted with over dinner knows what words mean. She knows what sex is. She just couldn’t bring herself to admit it.

At least, she couldn’t admit it in the moment, during our conversation in the hotel bar. But I have to wonder if I managed to plant some seeds in her mind. If maybe, just maybe, in the past two years she has become a bit TERF-curious.

On August 13, a woman named Lorena Biassotti, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Clark County School District, wore a shirt to a public meeting that bore the XX-XY Athletics logo. The logo has become iconic, in part because many women and men who have been rallying outside of WNBA games to support Sophie Cunningham’s strong stance in favor of female-only sports have been wearing similar shirts.

Photo: Fox 5

She was criticized for doing so, and has now threatened to sue the district on 1st Amendment grounds. This post is about that.

But first …

The Democratic primary election for the New Hampshire House of Representatives takes place on September 8. Jonah Wheeler and Peter Leishman are both running unopposed for the seats they currently hold. In 2025, both voted to pass HB 148, which allows businesses in the state to maintain single-sex spaces like bathrooms. He gave a speech on the assembly floor explaining his vote.

A few weeks ago, he gave an impassioned speech about why he feels so strongly about this topic and posted it on X. He emphasized that “gender identity” is illiberal and definitely not progressive. He is absolutely right. I discussed his video in an episode of Woman’s Hour for paid subscribers only.

He tells me that local Dems are attacking him, and calling him “MAGA” and “anti-gay.” Nothing could be further from the truth, and it is high time we drop the popular media narrative that this fight is somehow “MAGA” against a “tiny marginalized community.”

So many groups on the political left have popped up in recent years. There are Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender (DIAG, on whose board I serve) and the LGB Courage Coalition, “a lesbian and gay advocacy group committed to promoting evidence-based medical care, ending the medicalization of gender nonconformity, safeguarding homosexual rights, and building a pathway back for LGB individuals who have undergone medicalization.” There are the radical feminist groups Women’s Declaration International USA and Women’s Liberation Front, both nonpartisan organizations whose members and supporters generally hail from the political left (I have previously served on the boards of both organizations).

Calling any of these groups “MAGA” is lazy and outrageous. “Gender identity” is illiberal. It’s the most regressive ideology I have seen in my lifetime. It’s based on regressive sex stereotypes. It’s sexist and homophobic. It subjects minors and vulnerable adults to harmful hormones and surgeries.

It’s important to note that Jonah is not asking for donations at this time. He tells me that at this point in the race, there’s nothing for him to spend money on.

I can’t publicly back any candidates and I don’t live in New Hampshire, but I will say that this is ridiculous and it has to stop.

Yesterday, the New York Times published an article titled “Most Democrats Don’t Want to Talk About Transgender Athletes. He’s Leaning In. Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts has emerged as a vocal defender of transgender rights as he tries to fend off a primary challenge from Representative Seth Moulton.” It’s about the Democratic primary race for the US Senate in Massachusetts, and the extent to which the candidates either do or do not support “trans.”

For some completely random and utterly no good reason at all, the article quotes Charlotte (Charles) Clymer as saying that Senator Markey is “the only one who is really talking about this front and center.”

For anyone who doesn’t know, Clymer essentially invaded feminism in the early 2010s. He essentially proclaimed himself to be a loud and proud male feminist. Then, it turned out that he treated women absolutely terribly. He once said to a woman:

Stephanie, I’m going to let you in on a little secret that, apparently, no one has had the guts to tell you up to this point in your life: having a vagina does not grant you magical powers of perception and nuance anymore than my penis magically blinds me from the horrors of the world.

In 2018, he decided that he’s a woman named Charlotte and explained his “coming out” in a Channel 4 video while wearing lipstick and earrings.

The UK TERF Magdalen Berns put out an exceptional video about Clymer’s “coming out as a woman.” Magdalen was one of the earliest TERF voices and tragically died in 2019.

Later that year, Clymer tried to use the women’s restroom in a popular DC restaurant and restaurant staff refused to let him. The city eventually made the restaurant change its single-sex restroom policies and pay the city $7000. All because of a man who calls himself Charlotte. He worked at HRC for several years, but as far as I am aware, he currently has no organizational or professional affiliation. I have absolutely no idea why the New York Times thinks his opinion about the 2026 Democratic Senate primary race in Massachusetts is relevant.

The group Women Are Real has unearthed some 2013 footage of then California Representative Tom Ammiano giving a speech in support of his bill AB 1266, the School Success and Opportunity Act.

In his speech, he said: “Transgender boys and girls are not sexual beings. They were born with a certain spirit inside them.” Meg Madden recently used that 2013 speech to explain to the California Interscholastic Federation why it’s unfair to allow boys to play on girls’ teams and be present in girls’ locker rooms.

According to the lovely folks at the National Center for LGBTQ Rights (formerly the National Center for Lesbian Rights, founded in San Francisco in 1979):

The School Success and Opportunity Act‚ Assembly Bill 1266 (2013), authored by California Assembly member Tom Ammiano, ensured that transgender students are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve. The law requires that school districts provide transgender students with access to restrooms, locker rooms, and other sex-separated activities based on their gender identity. By specifically spelling out those protections, transgender students throughout California can reach their full potential and focus on learning.

Translation: Boys get to do whatever they want, girls be damned. Of course I have known about AB 1266 for some time, but I had never heard that 2013 speech by Ammiano, with that creepy language about “trans” kids having special “spirits inside them.” Thanks to Women Are Real for sharing!

Apparently, “Wales’s only transgender clinic has been forced to stop referring patients for operations over concerns that too many people are being sent for treatment.” I can’t see the article because it’s behind a paywall, but if the headline is accurate, this is great news.

Fox News has some interesting analysis from Doug Schoen about why the Democrats still can’t quit “trans.” Schoen is a Democratic political consultant who has worked with Bill Clinton. His main take-away is that the Democratic Party has allowed itself to be taken over by the Democratic Socialists of America. Delightfully, the story includes some footage of the group Tomboys for Sophie standing outside of the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis during a rally to support Sophie Cunningham earlier this month.

This post is about a potential lawsuit to be brought by Lorena Biassotti, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Clark County School District, against the district. She had worn an XX-XY Athletics t-shirt to a public meeting and was allegedly reprimanded for it.

I have some mixed thoughts on this one. Read on to learn more.

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Welcome to Woman’s Hour: the TERF Report.

In this episode, I chat with Emma Thomas, who founded the group Children of Transitioners.

The episode is free and shareable, no paywall.

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Here is a taste:

You can find her on X and at the group’s website.

One of the things we talk about in the episode is that Children of Transitioners was included in a report issued by Amnesty International, which called several UK-based sex-realist groups “anti-rights” (Amnesty has since taken the report down). I wrote about that in a free and shareable post.

Weekly episodes of Woman’s Hour are available to paid subscribers only. Once per month, I publish a free and shareable episode of Woman’s Hour, featuring an interview with a woman who is active in the fight.

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Have a great weekend!

FFS (Female Free Speech) Friday honors women and girls who are speaking out about the harms that “gender identity” poses to women and girls as a sex class. Thanks so much to Amy Sousa (@KnownHeretic on X) for a lovely post appreciating the series.

FFS Friday posts are free and shareable. A paid subscription gets you regular access to much more content and the ability to comment and engage in conversation with other thoughtful people.

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Today’s FFS Friday celebrates the women of the Red Tent Collective, an “international grassroots coalition of women who refuse to be erased. We fight for sex-based rights, truth-telling, and radical resistance in a world overrun by corporate capture and ideological conformity.”

I love the Red Tent Collective, which has been around for several years now. They helped me put together the Democratic Women’s Declaration in 2024. If you’re a Democrat (or former Democrat who left the party due to its insistence on erasing women and girls as a sex class), feel free to add your signature.

They do a lot of things, one of which is to operate the Scarlet Frequency project, where women tell their stories. This is what they say about it on their website:

Welcome to The Scarlet Frequency — the sonic pulse of The Red Tent Collective.

Here, we speak in spells and syllables, through poems that breathe and essays that burn. Each episode is a reclamation: voiced articles that vibrate with truth, recordings from live conversations on X Spaces, and dialogues with thinkers who refuse the silence.

This is not another algorithm-fed podcast. It’s a listening ritual.

A gathering for women who crave depth over dopamine, and who know that liberation begins with language — raw, embodied, and unfiltered.

Any woman can tell her story on the Scarlet Frequency. If you would like to tell yours, give them a shout!

They have tiers of membership, and when you join, your membership dues go to support projects created and run by women.

This is what they say on their main page:

We Know

What a Woman Is.

A grassroots force.

A creative revolution.

A digital shield in a world gone mad.

We are the bridge filling the technological gap in the fight to maintain women and children’s rights.

This is who they are:

To the women of the Red Tent Collective: THANK YOU for all that you do for women and girls. Thank you for the unique skills that you bring to this fight. We are going to win because of fierce women like you. Today’s FFS Friday is for you.

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Among TERF law nerds, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals is known for being extremely hostile to women and girls as a sex class, and to the material reality of sex.

So, I was a bit fascinated to read a decision from August 26 in which that very court ruled that parents have a 1st Amendment right to wear wristbands bearing “XX” to a girls’ soccer game, overruling a previous decision by a lower court that they didn’t. This is a big deal, and this post will be about that.

But first …

Yesterday, I wrote about an important case called Gays Against Groomers v. Garcia, which is about whether people have a 1st Amendment right to speak freely and accurately about sex and “gender” during public hearings.

I explained that the groups Women’s Declaration International USA and the LGB Courage Coalition had filed amicus (friend-of-the-court) briefs encouraging the Supreme Court to take the case. You can find those briefs here and here. As of yesterday, the group Women’s Liberation Front has also filed a similar brief. I love this case and I really hope the Court takes it up.

I got really irritated at Mother Jones for publishing an entire article about the gender zealots who showed up at Barclays Arena in NYC to rally in support of male athletes competing in women’s sports without bothering to mention the countless women (including me) who were there to celebrate female-only sports. So I said this:

You just can’t be bothered to mention the many people on the other side, holding signs like “Democrats for Title IX” and “Feminists for Women’s Sports,” can you? You have to pretend the left-wing critique of “gender identity” doesn’t exist. We see you.

I posted these images:

A lot of people liked the post, so that’s fun.

The group Moms for Liberty has sued a New Jersey school district over its policy of transing kids without parental consent. Good for them! The Supreme Court has already ruled that parents have a fundamental right to know if their kids’ schools are transing them.

Martina Navratilova posted a reply to Enes Kanter Freedom about his being kicked out of a WNBA game for wearing a shirt that read “Woman = Adult Human Female” and the following exchange ensued:

It had been a while since someone had told me to “educate” myself!

There is a prevailing theory that the “trans” movement would never have received any major pushback had it not come after kids, and this post provides some evidence that it’s true:

I would have fought back against the male invasion of women’s sports and spaces even if “trans” hadn’t come for the kids, but “trans” really, truly, should not have come for people’s children. Really bad move, guys.

This post will explore an August 26 decision out of the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals that parents have a 1st Amendment right to wear “XX” wristbands to a girls’ soccer game. That might seem pretty bland, but it’s actually a really big deal. Read on to learn more.

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This post is about a very important case currently before the Supreme Court titled Gays Against Groomers, et al. v. Garcia, et al. I have alluded to this case in previous posts for paid subscribers because I have filed an amicus (friend-of-the-court) brief in the case on behalf of Women’s Declaration International USA. What prompted me to write about it in more detail today is the recent filing of another such brief in the case, this time by the LGB Courage Coalition, Jamie Reed, and Our Duty.

One of the plaintiffs in the case is a woman named Christina Goeke. It was her 2024 testimony in this very case that inspired the launch of my weekly series FFS Friday, a free and shareable series celebrating the women and girls who are speaking out about women’s sex-based rights.

We are all hoping the Supreme Court takes the case and rules that witnesses in public hearings are permitted to speak freely and accurately about sex and “gender.”

But first …

A man who calls himself Jaelynn is running for a spot in the Washington state House. According to the Washington State Standard, he is poised to become the state’s “first openly trans legislator.” This just means that he would become the first man to serve in the state legislature while masquerading as a woman. He’ll probably win.

Oral arguments are scheduled for this Thursday before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in a case about whether men have a right to be held in Oregon’s women’s prison. The 9th Circuit is streaming the arguments, and you can watch them live. I plan to.

In a weird twist, Oregon officials appear to want to maintain single-sex prisons. Amie Ichikawa has posted about the case on X. I wrote about it in a previous Substack post.

This case is vitally important because the 9th Circuit includes the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. If the 9th Circuit decides that Oregon can keep men out of the women’s prison, that will have precedential authority in all of those states. Its reasoning should affect the outcome in the case of Chandler v. Macomber, a case out of California in which the Women’s Liberation Front represents six female inmates who have sued the state over that very issue. WDI USA filed an amicus brief in that case too, along with the groups Women Are Real and Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender (DIAG, on whose board I serve).

I happened to notice that one of the judges on the three-judge panel that will be hearing the arguments in the Oregon case is Judge VanDyke, who once made headlines for explaining that a case out of Washington about whether a female-only nude spa can be forced to admit fully intact men is a case “about swinging dicks.” I wrote about that case here and here. Should he have used such crude language in a legal opinion? Probably not. But, as he explained:

You may think that swinging dicks shouldn’t appear in a judicial opinion. You’re not wrong. But as much as you might understandably be shocked and displeased to merely encounter that phrase in this opinion, I hope we all can agree that it is far more jarring for the unsuspecting and exposed women at Olympus Spa—some as young as thirteen—to be visually assaulted by the real thing.

I’m glad he’s on the panel in the Oregon case about whether men have a right to be housed in a women’s prison, and look forward to listening to the arguments.

Trump has declared that teaching kids that they’re born in the wrong body constitutes child abuse. I certainly think it’s true that teaching kids this is a form of child abuse, but I think it’s a little bit weird for the President of the United States to make this declaration. Generally speaking, prosecutions of child abuse are a matter of state law, and I don’t think the federal government is going to be prosecuting individual teachers criminally. Sorry to everyone who thinks this pronouncement is great news. It is, in a way, but it’s also a bit of posturing.

A UK man who calls himself Rachel has published an essay on Medium titled “Fetishisation of trans women’s bodies,” and using an image of an actual woman in her underwear. This is “Rachel:”

Photo: The Daily Mail

Sorry, I don’t make the rules.

Enes Kanter Freedom is a man who has declared his intention to compete in the WNBA’s 2027 season. He was recently kicked out of a WNBA game in Chicago after wearing a t-shirt stating that a woman is an adult human female, and a Chicago player complained. Amala Ekpunobi has published a nice video about it.

For the record, it was Kellie-Jay Keen who made “Woman = Adult Human Female” a rallying cry back in 2018. Kanter Freedom did not invent this.

Along similar lines, the WNBA has allegedly declared that Kanter Freedom and another man named Royce White are ineligible to compete in the WNBA because they are, well, men. The WNBA has not, to date, explained exactly why these men are not permitted to compete. The WNBA thinks that some men are women, except, evidently, when they don’t. But they haven’t explained where the line is drawn. They haven’t explained why some men can be women but other men cannot be women. If this all sounds completely messed up to you, that’s because it is. You are not the crazy one here.

Royce White’s legal representatives have warned that they intend to sue the WNBA for discrimination on the basis of White’s woman “gender identity.” Because why not?

Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White do not actually believe they are women. Plenty of people have called this entire episode a “stunt” and a “hoax,” which, of course, it is. That’s because all of “trans” is a lie. If some men are women, why can’t Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White be women? What are the rules? Nobody knows.

Jerry Brewer has published a piece in the New York Times criticizing Kanter Freedom and White, in which he has the gall to say:

If the trans athlete debate were an organic, fully woman-led controversy, it could have prompted meaningful conversation, empathy in the pursuit of solutions and thoughtful measures taken after an extended process.

Is he even serious? Jamie Reed and Jennifer Sey have appropriately taken them to task:

With all of that out of the way, this post will go into detail about Gays Against Groomers, et al. v. Garcia, et al. I love this case, and I love the briefs that have been filed in support of the Supreme Court taking the case. Read on to learn more.

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You guys, I think the Democrats are coming for Title IX. They won’t say it out loud, but they’re doing the next best thing by calling for the elimination of sex-based sports. New York District 8 congressional candidate Vance Bostic has said that “all sports should be mixed with gender…100%.” What else could he possibly mean? In this post, I’ll explore that.

But first …

Regular readers know that on August 16, New Hampshire Democrat Jonah Wheeler posted a video on X, in which he said that “gender ideology” is an “illiberal, backwards way of thinking.” Hear hear! Two days later, JK Rowling posted his video, and commented “Every word.”

His video quoted me and talked about how “gender” is just sex stereotypes, before going on to explain the stories of Jonni Skinner, Prisha Mosley, and Claire Abernathy, all young adults whose bodies were harmed by so-called “gender-affirming care” (i.e., hormones and surgeries that cause lifelong pain and other damage). I explained his video and its importance in last week’s episode of Woman’s Hour.

There’s a woman named Amala Ekpunobi, whose YouTube channel I have been following for a while now. She’s a young mixed-race American woman who talks a lot about race and “gender.” She’s a disaffected leftie who abandoned the Democrats (fair enough!). Last week, she featured Jonah’s video in a piece titled “He’s Right: Young Democrat Drops The Mic On Gender Ideology.” She is so sick of the Democratic Party, she can’t quite bring herself to believe that an elected Democrat could speak so sensibly about “gender identity.”

I posted about the video, tagging Jonni, Prisha, and Claire, to let them know that their stories were being heard. I also tagged Amala. This prompted her to follow me and we’ve had a few friendly exchanges on X.

There’s an interesting case bubbling up out of Norfolk, Virginia. Evidently, a female police officer was changing in the women’s changing room at the station and standing in her underwear when a male recruit walked in. That’s when she first learned that the police department had implemented a policy allowing people to use the changing rooms that align with their “gender identities. She is suing the department in state court, and is currently on indefinite suspension without pay. The recruit is “no longer with the Norfolk Police.”

The group Alliance Defending Freedom has sent a letter to the WNBA, stating that the WNBA might be in violation of the 1st Amendment for discriminating against certain fans who display messages in support of female-only sports. The 1st Amendment theory is interesting because the WNBA is a private entity and private entities are not generally bound by the Constitution. However, it’s possible that they are in violation here because their games are played in publicly-funded arenas. I look forward to seeing how this develops.

A court has denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit against WPATH, the American Association of Pediatrics, and the Endocrine Society, so that’s great. As Wesley Yang says:

Discovery in prior lawsuits has already turned up dispositive evidence that gender medicine is a self-conscious fraud promoted by a criminal conspiracy operating within the US medical establishment.

Discovery in this one will yield insanity and criminal malfeasance for which the language barely has the resources to convey.

According to Katrina Biggs (a New Zealand TERF), “the Courts of New Zealand have issued guidelines which advise counsel – i.e. lawyers who fight a case for a client - to use preferred pronouns for clients and witnesses in the courtroom.” This is, of course, silly and outdated. Come on, New Zealand! If all goes as planned, I’ll be in New Zealand in November. Should I end up in court for some reason, I will not be using anyone’s “preferred pronouns.” Let them lock me up if they want to.

The latest “gotcha” question from the gender zealots is to ask TERFs if they can name even five WNBA players. Most of us can’t (though I’m sure some can), and that’s fine. Who cares? We don’t have to be able to name a single player on any team in any league in order to know what a woman is (which they clearly do not). Or, as Jennifer Sey says:

I love how you think this is some sort of own.

I don’t know anyone who has been murdered but I still think people shouldn’t murder other people.

I didn’t know any female boxers in the Olympics in 2024, but I still think men shouldn’t beat them up and win gold.

I can’t name any current gymnasts on the US Team but I still don’t think they should be subject to abuse by coaches.

Plus you should have asked me.

I don’t read every post from Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans, but I read as many as I can. I was very moved by today’s post.

I love her so much, and I’m hurting so much from what she’s doing. The 2 extremes live in the same place

I never thought those eyes that saw me
Would look on me with hate

I never thought those arms that hugged me
Would push me away

I never thought that voice that laughed with mine
Would shout “no debate”

I never thought the sacred path I walked
Could lead to this bleak day

I never thought the breast that nurtured you
Would take such a blow

I never thought the hands that toiled for you
Would be spat at in this way

I never thought the brother that played with you
Would be abandoned in the dust

I never thought the reflection of yourself
Would make you turn your face away

And what is it you’ve turned towards
A glitter painted snake

And what’s the truth you’ve run towards
That claims nature is a lie

And what’s this love you think you’ve found
But envy wrapped in hate

And what’s emerged from this chrysalis
But a death-head moth; not a butterfly

Please subscribe to them if you can. Their posts are free, and written from the perspectives of parents (and other family members) of people who call themselves “trans.” They are one of the best sources for understanding how destructive “trans” really is.

This post is about whether Democrats actually want to eliminate Title IX. Again, they won’t say it out loud, but some seem to be suggesting such an intention by saying things like “all sports should be mixed with gender…100%.” Read on to learn more.

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This post is free and shareable. A paid subscription gets you regular access to much more content and the ability to comment and engage in conversation with other thoughtful people.

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Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham has made headlines and roiled the WNBA after declaring that it is “common sense” to prohibit male athletes from competing in sports that are intended to be female-only.

She said, sensibly:

That’s why you have Title IX. That’s why you have some of the greats in women’s sports. If Title IX and women’s sports weren’t protected, then you wouldn’t hear about any type of women in sport. And so, I think in the future, it’s just really important to protect.

Because Cunningham is tall and blonde, and because she understands that sex is real, outlets from The Daily Beast to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung have cynically dubbed her “MAGA Barbie,” even though she has stated that she is politically in the middle.

Her supporters, too, have been tarred with the orange brush of MAGA-derision: After women and girls at the grassroots organized celebratory rallies outside Fever games, holding ‘Thank You, Sophie!’ signs, CNN published an article titled, “How the right wing decided to care about women’s basketball in Indiana.”

But is the groundswell of support for Cunningham’s common-sense take really coming from the right?

Having attended three of those rallies (Portland, Oregon on July 31, Indianapolis, Indiana on August 14, and New York City on August 22), I can attest that plenty of conservatives have been present—and so have a lot of leftists and feminists, myself included.

In fact, it was self-described “Bay Area liberal and lifelong Democrat” Jean Chadbourne who first swung into action to organize Sophie supporters. I asked Chadbourne, founder of the CA-based group Women Are Real, why Cunningham’s comments had moved her to act.

She said, “Sophie said what everyone knows is true, and she said it with compassion. They tried to burn her for it. I don’t need to agree with her on tariff policy or whatever we should do in the Strait of Hormuz. When I had the idea for that first rally, I just wanted her to know she wasn’t alone.”

Chadbourne reached out to Pacific Northwest-based activist Amy Sousa to help launch the series of rallies. Sousa, a left-leaning feminist who publishes on Substack at The Known Heretic says: “Sophie’s original statement was about girls. Girls’ locker rooms and girls’ sports. This is about more than the WNBA; it’s about the girls who are in junior high, high school, and college. They are the future of the sport and they deserve fairness on the field and privacy in the locker rooms.”

LGB Courage Coalition co-founders Jamie Reed and Lauren Leggieri attended the Indianapolis rally brandishing a banner that read “Chemical castration isn’t medicine. Save girls’ sports. Save boys’ bodies.”

Reed, a pediatric gender clinic whistleblower who has described her politics as “to the left of Bernie Sanders,” makes an argument that few others have articulated: Encouraging young male athletes to compete in girls’ sports creates an incentive to put these boys on puberty blockers and opposite-sex hormones.

Reed tells me that “There is no version of this where medicalizing a boy’s body to let him compete against girls is ‘the safe path.’ I’ve seen what puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones actually do. It’s not a neutral fix—it’s real, permanent, medical harm. So no, this doesn’t protect women’s spaces, and it doesn’t protect the boys either. It’s not a compromise. It’s asking one group to lose their sport and another to lose their health, and calling that fairness.”

Leggieri adds, “People joke about the WNBA being ‘all lesbians’ like it’s a punchline. What it actually shows is that sports has been a refuge for girls who don’t fit the mold—the athletic ones, the tomboys, the ones who got side-eyed everywhere else. That refuge only exists because it’s sex-based. Take away the category and you take away the one place they had to grow up safely into who they are: lesbians like us.”

“Even many left-leaning New Yorkers know something is wrong,” says Dr. Elizabeth Fedak, who runs ROAR Women NYC, a nonpartisan women’s group centered around recognizing the material reality of sex. “Women join because they were harassed, or their child was groomed online to believe they were born in the wrong body, then say they can’t speak up publicly because they’ll lose their family, friends, and jobs. The slightest little objection will get you excommunicated forever.”

She adds, “Our membership covers a broad political spectrum. But no matter where we fall, we’re all disappointed by how much energy New York’s progressive leadership puts into ignoring women’s concerns.”

One supporter of the pro-Sophie events is Jennifer Sey, a former All-Around National Champion gymnast who founded the active wear company XX-XY Athletics in 2024. While CNN described her as a “right-wing advocate,” Sey’s own views and political history are much more nuanced. For decades, she voted for Democrats, but left the Democratic Party to become an independent in 2020. In 2025 she became a Republican, in no small part because of the Democratic Party’s hostility to female sports categories.

About the rallies, Sey says, “I started the brand to shift the cultural conversation. That is exactly what is happening right now. And we want to help amplify it so that people aren’t afraid to speak up anymore. We are the mainstream. And we need to take the culture back with the full force that it was taken from common sense Americans across the political divide.”

As a radical feminist who has been speaking up publicly for women’s sex-based rights for more than a decade now, I have taken some flak for working with women who, like Sey, have left the Democratic Party. I’ve received even more criticism for making common cause with Christian conservative women and women’s groups.

These strategic alliances haven’t shifted my politics. I have been a Democrat since I registered to vote in 1990 (except for a few years when I was a registered Green). As an attorney, I spent years working for criminal justice reform, including during a stint at the American Civil Liberties Union. Up until 2020, I consistently voted for Democrats up and down the ballot. I have never voted for Donald Trump.

I remain a Democrat because although I disagree strongly with the party’s stance on so-called “gender identity,” I remain loyal to the underlying values that made me a Democrat in the first place.

I make no apology for building cross-partisan pro-woman coalitions. It grates, nevertheless, to read our efforts reported as one-sided. For lefty feminists like me, accustomed to getting our news from the New York Times and CNN, it’s come as a bit of a surprise that the most accurate reflection of the broad-based coalition to protect female-only sports and spaces has come from OutKick, part of the Fox News empire.

Reporter Jon Root wrote from Indianapolis:

Shockingly to much of the WNBA and liberal media, this group isn’t just a bunch of conservatives, who completely align on all of their politics. It’s a diverse group of people that represent a beautiful mix of registered Democrats, conservatives and people from a wide range of backgrounds and communities.

It’s not some sort of MAGA coalition, which many love to claim. It’s a group that represents what America should, and used to like: Almost three dozen citizens agree that women’s sports and spaces should remain female, though disagreeing on a litany of other issues, while supporting the one female professional athlete courageously willing to stand up for what’s right.

Brianna Pressley, who attended the Chicago and Indianapolis rallies as a representative of Women’s Declaration International USA (WDI USA, on whose board I served from 2021 to 2024), agrees.

Pressley says, “The moment I learned that Sophie Cunningham had taken a strong and public stance against the inclusion of male athletes in women’s sports, I knew I wanted to support her. I am a feminist whose politics lean left. I support gay marriage and a woman’s right to choose whether or not to have an abortion. I resent that some are trying to paint Cunningham as a ‘MAGA Barbie.’ I don’t know or care what her politics are; this woman is simply speaking the truth about a subject we all learned in 9th grade biology. It’s not rocket science. In the words of Cunningham herself, ‘It’s just common sense.’”

At this point, it’s safe to say that there is a large (and growing) majority of Americans who are willing to speak that common-sense truth. I know that I am. I hope other lefties will speak up, too. Come on in, the water is warm.

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Welcome to Woman’s Hour: the TERF Report.

In this episode, I talk about a video that was posted by Democratic New Hampshire House member Jonah Wheeler earlier this week, explaining his opposition to so-called “gender identity.” To the best of my knowledge, he is the only elected Democrat to have made such a strong statement.

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Here’s a taste:

Links to items mentioned in the episode:

• The video itself

• Dr. Phil episode where I said the thing he quotes me as saying

• JK Rowling’s post of it, saying “Every word.”

• Roísín Michaux post containing a clip of the Dr. Phil episode

• Women Are Real’s post about how we need to take a strong stand, not just find some mushy middle ground

Weekly episodes of Woman’s Hour are available to paid subscribers only. Once per month, I publish a free and shareable episode of Woman’s Hour, featuring an interview with a woman who is active in the fight.

A paid subscription gets you regular access to much more content and the ability to comment and engage in conversation with other thoughtful people.

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Have a great weekend!

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FFS (Female Free Speech) Friday honors women and girls who are speaking out about the harms that “gender identity” poses to women and girls as a sex class. Thanks so much to Amy Sousa (@KnownHeretic on X) for a lovely post appreciating the series.

FFS Friday posts are free and shareable. A paid subscription gets you regular access to much more content and the ability to comment and engage in conversation with other thoughtful people.

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Today’s FFS Friday celebrates all of the women who have been showing up at rallies to protect female-only sports outside WNBA events over the past few weeks.

Of course I understand that there are tons of men out there supporting us too. But FFS Friday is for the women!

Indianapolis rally attendees

Plenty of women have been fighting for female-only sports for a long time. But 2026 is something else!

This time, it started when Sophie Cunningham, a guard with the Indiana Fever, said that she supports female-only sports. She said that “with love is truth” and followed it up with “I said what I said.”

This movement sparked in Seattle in late July, when the Seattle Storm hosted the Indiana Fever.

It continued in Portland when the Fever visited the Portland Fire.

Then it went to Minneapolis. Chicago. Indianapolis.

It was in Atlanta when the Fever played the Atlanta Dream.

It expanded beyond the US when the Fever played the Toronto Tempo.

It continued in Dallas when the Fever visited the Dallas Wings.

It went beyond Sophie herself when women rallied for female-only sports in San Francisco before a game between the Golden State Valkyries’ and the Minnesota Lynx.

It goes to New York tomorrow.

In the words of Amy Sousa, first it was a one-off, then it was a follow-up, now it’s a movement.

We are not an organization. There is not a singular group name that binds us.

We are just women. Women who care about female-only sports and spaces. Women who fight to stop male violence against women and girls. Women who care about the material reality of sex.

And we are only just beginning.

To every single woman and girl who has travelled, mailed placards and pamphlets, donned an XX-XY t-shirt, risked vicious misogynistic violence, and stood firm for female-only sports and spaces at a WNBA event in the past few weeks: We are going to win this. Today’s FFS Friday is for us all.

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This post is about a journalist who has just resigned from The Seattle Times after the Times refused to publish an article he had written about the women and girls rallying to support Sophie Cunningham.

This is great; we have always known that there’s a media blackout on these topics, and this provides evidence.

But first …

A paid subscriber put this comment on my recent post about the upcoming book TERFLandia: How the Global Terven Will Win the Gender Wars:

Can’t wait for your book! I will promote it on Tik Tok. My videos are getting 10-40K views now. It’s not about me, it’s about the message. It’s right on time. Everyone is embracing the word TERF. Everyone! Even men! I’m finishing up Terforia 2 then I’ll get to work and send it to your X inbox. Everyone has woken up! This is the awakened movement. Woke vs. awake! Thank you for all your hard work Kara. People ask, “where are the feminists?” I always say, “they’re on the front lines fighting!”

Thank you! This is why we fight.

For some reason, Facebook seems to think I might be interested in paying to attend a seminar about Judith Butler, because it recently gave me this ad:

I’ll be skipping that one, thanks.

The Canada terven have risen in a big way! On August 18, a pro-Sophie Cunningham rally was held before the Indiana Fever’s game against the Toronto Tempo. A Rebel News truck displaying a large pro-Sophie message was ticketed and fined.

A rally is planned in Sydney this coming Sunday. Sall Grover and Kirralie Smith were both scheduled to speak, but both have backed out due to credible death threats.

Jonah Wheeler, a Democratic Representative from New Hampshire, has posted a powerful video, explaining why he opposes so-called “gender ideology.” None other than JK Rowling posted the video, saying, simply, “Every word.” I could not agree more. You can watch the video here:

If all goes as planned, I will be discussing it during this week’s episode of Woman’s Hour, landing in the in-boxes of paid subscribers tomorrow at 3 p.m. ET.

The person convicted of attempting to murder US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has been sentenced to 73 months in federal prison. His name is Ryan Michael English or, as he would have you believe, Raleigh Jane English. Or, according to The Guardian US, Riley English. He’s a man who calls himself a woman. ABC, NBC, and The Guardian have all reported on this as though the crime was committed by an actual woman. It was not.

A federal court heard arguments on Tuesday about whether a Washington school policy allowing male athletes to compete in girls’ sports should be enjoined (blocked) because it violates Title IX. In the meantime, the US Department of Education is investigating the school over the same thing, and two school officials have been charged with misdemeanors for failing to report an alleged sexual assault by a male wrestler who claims to be a girl. I wrote about the case in June, and the underlying complaint is here.

School officials across the country could save everyone a lot of trouble by just getting boys out of girls’ sports already.

Again, this post is about a journalist who has just resigned from The Seattle Times after the Times refused to publish an article he had written about the women and girls rallying to support Sophie Cunningham.

Read on to learn more.

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This post is about a lawsuit that was recently filed by a Portland, Oregon, mom against her child’s school for introducing her child to so-called “gender identity” ideology. It’s hard to tell, but I think she stands a decent shot at prevailing.

But first …

I received this lovely email message in response to my free post about the Indiana Fever game I attended last Friday. I am sharing it, and using her name, with permission and verbatim.

Hello Kara,

I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate you and I follow everything you are doing for women and girls sports.

I am a conservative Christian republican, but most importantly I am deeply affected by the abuse against women and girls and I speak out against this whenever I can.

I give conservative people your name. Inevitably, people try to blame women for this transgender fetish and I feel furious about this. Comments like, “where are the feminists against men in women’s sports?” and I let them know your name and the tireless work you are doing.

I am in not such a great place financially at this moment but when things change, I will support your work even more.

Thank you and thank you so much,

Eva Small

By the way, I am way pissed off to have men coming into the women’s restroom at Kaiser hospital and into our locker room at 24 hour fitness, I want this to stop but it requires diligence on every woman’s part. God bless you.

This is why we do what we do. We’re going to get this done, together.

I appeared on Sunday on “Free Speech Nation” with Josh Howie to discuss the Sophie Cunningham situation. Thanks so much to GB News for having me!

The US Department of Justice has issued a report concerning its investigation into the California prison system. A summary of its findings:

The Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice and the United States Attorney’s Offices for the Eastern and Central Districts of California (the Department) provide notice, pursuant to the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1997 et seq., (CRIPA) that there is reasonable cause to believe that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF), and the California Institution for Women (CIW) are subjecting prisoners to egregious or flagrant conditions which deprive such prisoners of their rights under the Constitution and Federal law, pursuant to a pattern or practice of resistance to prisoner enjoyment of their rights, causing such prisoners grievous harm. Specifically, CDCR, CCWF, and CIW are violating the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights of prisoners.

The report is not specifically about California’s practice of housing male prison inmates in the women’s prisons, but it suggests that at least someone cares about incarcerated women in California. Amie Ichikawa has explained that it’s an important step. Speaking of Amie Ichikawa, please check out my interview with her from last month; it’s one of my favorite interviews.

The US Department of Health and Human Services has published a report titled Wolves in White Coats, about so-called “gender” clinics using fraudulent billing practices to cover their administration of harmful hormones and surgeries. This is in addition to the Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit against WPATH for essentially the same thing. These clinics are essentially making money by harming kids and then lying about it.

The PodSaveAmerica bros are at it again, discussing amongst themselves whether women should be speaking out about our sex-based rights. I absolutely think men have a seat at this table, and that seat is showing up for women and girls and demanding that men accept all men (including those who call themselves “trans”) in men’s spaces. I am not interested in listening to men go back and forth about whether we should have rights (or talk about them) at all. The group Women Are Real appears to agree with me:

Why the fuck do these knuckleheads think women’s sports exist in the first place? Sorry, lost my calm.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a lower court order “quashing” an administrative subpoena that had been issued by the Justice Department to “QueerDoc,” a “telehealth provider of gender affirming care that treats patients, including minors, who suffer from gender dysphoria.”

“Quash” is fancy legal speak for “void” or “cancel.” When I was a public defender, my clients would frequently ask me to get their criminal charges “squashed.” I thought that was cute, and it is, but it’s not far off. “Quash” does, in fact, mean something along the lines of “squash.” It means “get rid of.” I’m sure my clients would have been quite happy for their criminal charges to be gotten rid of. Sadly for them, that’s not exactly how the system works.

So, here, the DOJ had issued a subpoena in order to obtain documents that might assist it in investigating whether QueerDoc is in violation of federal health care laws. The lower court was like, “You can’t do that,” but the 9th Circuit is like, “Yes, it can.” So that’s good.

Two women wore XX-XY Athletics shirts to the Indiana Fever’s game against the Atlanta Dream on Sunday, and were told by security to cover up the shirts. The WNBA later said that “should not have happened.” The Atlanta Dream agreed with the WNBA that it “should not have happened.”

It’s getting really hard to keep track of all this winning.

The gender zealots have no arguments. None. So they just resort to insults and profanity. Here is an example:

Classy.

There’s a new book out titled Gender Identity: The Career of a Category. It’s written by Rogers Brubaker, a sociology professor at UCLA. I haven’t read it, but I’m sharing it here because somehow I managed to end up in footnote 103 of the book. Someone sent me this screengrab:

I’ll take it.

I came across a strange article in The Atlantic titled “The Wrong Kind of American: The Trump White House needed me—until the fact that I am trans became public.” The link I provided should be a free gift link, so you ought to be able to read it without subscribing. I’m still scratching my head over the article. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Again, this post is about a lawsuit that was recently filed by a Portland, Oregon, mom against her child’s school for introducing her child to so-called “gender identity” ideology. It’s hard to tell, but I think she stands a decent shot at prevailing. Read on to learn more.

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Last October, I announced the upcoming publication of TERFLandia: How the Global Terven Will Win the Gender Wars. At the time, I said that publication was likely this fall and that the Australian publisher Spinifex Press had expressed interest in publishing the book.

I’m excited to announce now that Spinifex is publishing the book, and that it has a projected publication date of October 6.

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Check it out:

If you want to post about this on social media, please do! You’re welcome to tag the contributors: @lesbianpersist @OnChairs @preta_6 @RoisinMichaux @angijones @swannieriv @Vaishax @MariaJBinetti @blackbirdpeeja.

Thanks, as always, to Vaishnavi Sundar for putting this video together, and thanks so much to Spinifex Press for publishing this important record of decades of TERFing, all over the world. Thanks also to the anonymous donor who made it all possible.

In late October, I hop on a plane for my first ever visit to Australia and New Zealand. I can’t wait.

This post is free and shareable. A paid subscription gets you regular access to much more content and the ability to comment and engage in conversation with other thoughtful people. I promise it’s worth it—paid subscribers explained why in the 100th episode of Woman’s Hour: The TERF Report.

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I went to the Indiana Fever game against the Dallas Wings in Indianapolis on Friday. There was a rally to support Sophie Cunningham before the game, and it was exhilarating.

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Entities like CNN can’t stand that a broad-based coalition of women and men are standing up to protect female-only sports.

They literally can’t stand it.

They just can’t help but paint this movement as “right-wing” and “MAGA.”

Check out this headline from earlier this month:

The piece is mainly about how a co-owner of the Seattle Storm once berated and swore at two teenage girls who were watching a game, court side, while wearing t-shirts from the company XX-XY Athletics and holding signs that said, “Thank you, Sophie.”

Sophie, of course, is a WNBA player with the Indiana Fever, who said that it’s common sense to keep men out of women’s sports, which it totally is.

The article states, “The T-shirts were the product of XX-XY Athletics, a brand by right-wing advocate Jennifer Sey dedicated to keeping transgender women out of women’s sports.”

Jennifer Sey is not a “right-wing advocate.” In fact, I suspect that she would not call herself an “advocate” at all; she’s a business owner. She once told me during an interview for Woman’s Hour that she went from being a lifelong Democrat to being a Republican because she did not want the Democratic Party to think that her vote was “getable.” I completely understand this approach. It’s not my approach, but I totally get it.

CNN thinks that the common sense position that men don’t belong in women’s sports is “right-wing.” Acknowledging the truth would likely induce panic attacks.

The entire article is filled with lies about how the people who are supporting Sophie are “right-wing” and “MAGA.” It’s extremely irritating.

So, rather than focus on that, I’m going to focus on the positive, by sharing images and videos of the rally and of the game. These photos and videos are not the highest quality. I don’t know how to edit photos and videos on my phone, and I don’t have time to learn. That’s okay. These are as authentic as it gets.

And, this is just a tiny handful of photos and videos that are out there. There are tons more, floating around on the internet. This is just what I have on my phone.

The rally participants. I’m in the middle, holding signs for Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender. Amy Sousa, a left-leaning feminist, is behind me. To my left is Brianna Pressley, with the group Women’s Declaration International USA.

It’s hard to spot them, but Meghan Murphy and Graham Linehan are both in that photo. I had dinner with them, Amy, and Krista from XX-XY Athletics after the game.

These lovely women are with The Tomboy Project, and they support Sophie Cunningham.

The Tomboy Project and Brianna.

A mom and her daughter next to a life-size poster of Sophie. What’s the mom’s political orientation? I have no idea. More to the point, I don’t care. She’s a mom who brought her daughter to a rally to protect women’s sports and she supports Sophie.

Me and Amy talking about Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender.

Me and a bunch of women with Women’s Declaration International USA.

Amy with the Sophie poster and the lovely people from the LGB Courage Coalition, including co-founder Jamie Reed.

Next, the game.

While Brianna and I were in line to get water, we saw this woman, wearing a Sophie t-shirt. Her political orientation? Again, I have no idea, and I don’t really care. She went to a Fever game wearing a Sophie Cunningham shirt. Good for her!

Me and Amy at the game.

Me and Brianna at the game.

Jamie Reed posted this from inside and said:

We finally have this. I didn’t grow up with this. I didn’t know a world could make such a simply beautiful thing. Women playing sport, against other women, with the world cheering them on in deafening joy. Please fight for this. Because it’s beautiful and it’s ours.

During the game, I was invited to join an X space that a group of Australian TERFs had started. I joined, and was given a mic just as Fever guard Caitlyn Clark scored a lay-up and the entire arena cheered. It was pretty fun.

CNN would eat a bag of rocks before acknowledging the truth that this truly is a broad-based coalition to protect female-only sports. Knowing what a woman is is not “right-wing” or MAGA. I honestly may never forgive the mainstream lefty media for essentially handing Republicans credit for knowing what a woman is.

Do you know who will acknowledge the truth, though? Fox News. A reporter named Jon Root has been at most of the rallies, and he does his best to give the lefty feminists our say.

After the Indianapolis rally, he published a piece titled “Sophie Cunningham supporters rally in Indiana while displaying what makes America great: A diverse coalition of Democrats and conservatives unite to demand the WNBA keep women’s sports female.” That headline is perfectly accurate.

He says:

After traveling to Portland and Chicago, I witnessed firsthand how refreshingly normal Indiana Fever games felt both outside the arena and inside. The crowds were vocally supportive of the women, and the few men accompanying them. Many Fever fans gave the Cunningham rally crowd a thumbs up, some provided encouraging words, and others stopped to take photos with the almost life-size Sophie Cunningham poster.

It was a nice change of pace compared to the radical, profane, aggressive trans protesters they have had to face in other cities.

“Refreshingly normal” is a great way to put it.

He observes, correctly, that:

Shockingly to much of the WNBA and liberal media, this group isn’t just a bunch of conservatives, who completely align on all of their politics. It’s a diverse group of people that represent a beautiful mix of registered Democrats, conservatives and people from a wide range of backgrounds and communities.

It’s not some sort of MAGA coalition, which many love to claim. It’s a group that represents what America should, and used to be like: Almost three dozen citizens agree that women’s sports and spaces should remain female, though disagreeing on a litany of other issues, while supporting the one female professional athlete courageously willing to stand up for what’s right.

He quotes me as saying:

The truth of the matter is, the clear majority of registered Democrats in this country are aligned on these topics.

The problem is that our elected officials are selling out women and girls. They’re selling out children at the altar of a cult.

He asked me what I would say to WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, who put together a “task force” of general managers and team presidents to work out what a woman is (to date, the task force has not succeeded in working out what a woman is).

This is what I said that I would say to her:

There are girls watching today. There are girls that do not understand what Title IX meant in 1972 to women like you, who have benefited from Title IX. You owe these girls a commitment to female only sports.

He quotes Jamie Reed from the LGB Courage Coalition:

I participated in medically transitioning kids… I [now] work to try to stop transitions and I think that it is incredibly tied up with the sports movement right now.

…

This is not a liberal or a right issue. This is also not a gay or straight issue. I’m a lesbian, my entire coalition is gay and lesbians… Most Americans know that [transitioning] kids is not right. This is a common sense American issue where Sophie Cunningham just said what we already knew in the Midwest.

He quotes Amy Sousa as saying that she:

hopes the pressure that we put on them (WNBA), will make them stand up and do the right thing.

You don’t need weeks or months, WNBA. The league is for females only. Just state the common sense that the vast majority of America affirms.

He notes:

This group, which seems to grow every game they rally, is a great example on how to agree to disagree. They find common ground on a vital issue that is affecting women and girls, and yes, boys too, as Jamie Reed and her team emphasized in our conversations.

Thank you, Jon Root.

In contrast to CNN, which is twisting itself into pretzels in order to pretend that all push-back is “right-wing,” this Fox/Outkick article accurately describes the truth of the matter: there is a broad base of Americans across the political spectrum who value single-sex sports and spaces, and we’re not going to shut up about it.

Until this is won, CNN can just keep its head planted firmly in the sand if it wants to. The rest of us will be out here celebrating Sophie Cunningham and each other.

If we can be heard, we will win.

Cheers!

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Welcome to Woman’s Hour: the TERF Report.

In this episode, I talk about what it’s like for a TERF of ten years to watch the entire conversation about women’s sports break wide open. At the center of it is Sophie Cunningham, a guard with the Indiana Fever.

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Here’s a taste:

Links to items mentioned in the episode (there are a lot!):

• My Substack post about Sophie Cunningham

• Women Are Real’s delightful one-minute video of the Seattle Sophie rally

• Image from Portland Sophie rally

• Jennifer Sey X post on her way to Minneapolis

• Article about a young woman at the Minneapolis rally told that she “should have been aborted”

• Photos of Chicago Sophie rally here and here

• Mr. Menno interview of Jennifer Sey and Amy Sousa

• Outkick X post “The WNBA’s 2027 draft class is getting WILD.”

• My X post about all the people who have been saying all along that men should be allowed to compete in women’s sports if they say they’re women, and who are now very angry that man are demanding to compete in women’s sports if they say they’re women

• Andrew Mercado’s X post on men “pretending to be women”

• Royce White X post of himself in a wig

• Helen Staniland X post explaining why a person’s past doesn’t matter in the world of self-ID

• Sall Grover interview on the topic

• WNBA announces a task force to work out what a woman is

• My response to “All it took to collapse an entire sect of gender ideology was two alpha males declaring they identify as women and entering the WNBA draft.”

• PBS movie about the Freedom Riders

• Jennifer Sey’s Substack post about the Women’s Tennis Association

Phew!

Weekly episodes of Woman’s Hour are available to paid subscribers only. Once per month, I publish a free and shareable episode of Woman’s Hour, featuring an interview with a woman who is active in the fight.

A paid subscription gets you regular access to much more content and the ability to comment and engage in conversation with other thoughtful people.

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Have a great weekend!

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FFS (Female Free Speech) Friday honors women and girls who are speaking out about the harms that “gender identity” poses to women and girls as a sex class. Thanks so much to Amy Sousa (@KnownHeretic on X) for a lovely post appreciating the series.

FFS Friday posts are free and shareable. A paid subscription gets you regular access to much more content and the ability to comment and engage in conversation with other thoughtful people.

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Today’s FFS Friday celebrates Kit Kowalski, an Australian TERF, who has been relentlessly fighting for women’s sex-based rights in Australia for several years.

She’s @KowalskiKit on X. Give her a follow!

Things have been rough in Australia for the women fighting to protect the sex-based rights of women and girls. Regular readers know that Sall Grover has been fighting in court for the right to operate a female-only networking app. The Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner, who is responsible for implementing the Sex Discrimination Act, doesn’t appear to understand that women are female. The Courts have consistently interpreted Australian law against Sall.

There are a ton of Australian TERFs, and they’ll be described extensively in the upcoming book TERFLandia: How the Global Terven Will Win the Gender Wars (which is being published by the Australian publisher Spinifex).

When I was locked out of my X account, which had been hacked, Kit was one of two Australian women (Edie Wyatt being the other) who allowed me to log in using their account @DollhouseInOz, until I was able to get my account back. I will always be grateful to them for that.

In 2025, an Australian woman named Kirralie Smith was found guilty of the “unlawful vilification” of two male athletes playing in female sporting teams. Said “villification” constituted referring to men as men. She wrote all about it here.

On August 10, she posted the following about the US men who have announced their intention to join the WNBA:

I invited a team of males to register with Football Australia to expose their ridiculous policy that anyone who identifies as a woman can play in the women’s division.

I was advised by local officials that as long as the men pay their registration fees, they would be accepted.

Before we could register the team, police showed up on my doorstep to issue me with apprehension of violence orders and summons to court for vilification and harassment. All for wanting to expose the lunacy of such policies. There was never an invitation to harm anyone, only to expose the dangerous policies.

I also took images from the public domain, football (soccer) sites, that proved this was happening in NSW. For that I have been ordered to pay $95,000 in damages and pin a confession to all internet pages I operate.

Now it is happening with professional sportsmen in the USA we might finally get some light on the travesty happening in Australia? Good thing this bloke is American and not Australian or he would be in big trouble.

Kit quote-tweeted her, and said:

When international attention turns to the Aussie fightback, I often get the sense that the world is wondering “when will Australian women wake up?”. We’ve been awake for years, but we are shunned by the media, silenced by law enforcement, stymied by a complex and fragmented legal framework that forces us to fight on multiple fronts.

I agree. It’s not that women are asleep, it’s that we’re ignored. Australian women like Kit have been awake for a very long time.

Kit: THANK YOU. We see you, and we know that you are wide awake. Thank you for your tireless support for women and girls in Australia and all over the world. We’re going to win this, eventually, and it will be because of women like you. Today’s FFS Friday is for you.

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This post is about Monday’s news that a federal district court has mostly, but not entirely, dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Attorney General of Minnesota against the Trump Administration over Title IX (which prohibits sex discrimination in education).

But first …

As planned, a task force of team presidents and general managers with the WNBA met yesterday to see if they could work out what a woman is. They were unsuccessful. Jennifer Sey has written an amazing parody of what the task force’s first meeting might have looked like, and it turns out she was not far off at all.

Women’s Declaration International USA (WDI USA, of which I used to serve as President and member of the Board of Directors) has filed two important amicus (friend-of-the-court) briefs in federal court.

• In Gays Against Groomers v. Garcia, WDI USA supports two individuals who used accurate sex-based language during a committee hearing before the Colorado state legislature on a bill to allow convicted felons to legally change their names to match their “gender identities.” When they did so, committee members interrupted and silenced them. In the case of one witness, committee members struck her testimony from the public record. Lawyers with the Institute for Free Speech think this violated the individuals’ free speech rights under the First Amendment, and have taken the case all the way to the US Supreme Court. WDI USA agrees, and emphasizes that the committee members’ conduct was also in conflict with Article IV of the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights. Read more here.

• In Chandler v. Macomber, WDI USA teamed up with Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender (DIAG, on whose board I serve) and the group Women Are Real to support the Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) and six incarcerated women who have sued the state over SB 132, which permits men to be housed in the women’s prison on the basis of their woman “gender identities.” WoLF argues that this violates the women’s rights under the 1st, 8th, and 14th Amendments to the US Constitution. The brief was filed in support of WoLF and the incarcerated women before the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Read more here.

It was an honor and a pleasure to work with all of these groups on these briefs. The Gays Against Groomers brief quotes JK Rowling extensively. We quoted her 2024 statements inviting the Scottish police to arrest her under Scotland’s new “hate speech” law for referring to men as men. I don’t know if JK Rowling had ever been quoted in a brief before the US Supreme Court before, but if not, now she has!

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) has conceded that its Standards of Care Version 8 is just one opinion among many when it comes to the world of so-called “gender-affirming care” for minors and young people. “Gender-affirming care” is a euphemism for hormones and surgeries that poison and harm people.

This new concession comes after years of WPATH (and the AAP and the Endocrine Society) insisting to courts, other medical associations, and, well, everyone, that there was a “strong medical consensus” in favor of such “care.” This is all explained in a June 2025 law review article titled “The Facade of Medical Consensus” about the case of US v. Skrmetti:

Long before Skrmetti, activists understood that to win the controversial legal “battle” on gender-transition treatments for minors, the medical field needed to present “a united front.” Through coordinated efforts, these authoritative groups framed procedures like puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries such as double mastectomies as “standard medical care, supported by major medical organizations in the United States.” This perceived consensus became a powerful tool in litigation, often used to argue that state-level restrictions were medically unfounded and constitutionally suspect. If states enacted laws restricting these procedures for minors, attorneys could seek injunctions, citing a “medical consensus [that] is grounded in a wealth of studies” that undermined the states’ safety concerns. Indeed, after states began enacting such restrictions, opponents described the laws as extreme departures from scientific norms and even alleged that they “make it a crime for doctors to act ethically” and increase the likelihood that “some [transgender-identifying children] will die.”

Between WPATH acknowledging that its Standards of Care are just an opinion and the ACLU being in retreat mode when it comes to self-identification for men in women’s sports, those of us who care about women’s sex-based rights and the material reality of sex might just be on our way to winning.

It has been announced that taxpayers will no longer be forced to pay for so-called “gender-affirming care” for minors through Medicaid. Good (but taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for adults’ “gender-affirming care” either)! If you would like to learn about a recent case in which federal employees are seeking to force taxpayers to pay for their and their kids’ so-called “gender-affirming care,” you can do so here (but there’s a paywall).

The lovely women of the group Canadian Women’s Sex-Based Rights have produced a delightful one-minute video celebrating female-only sports. While we fight for the rights of people to use accurate sex-based language in America, the Canadian women have it much worse. In Canada, you can actually go to jail for so-called ‘hate speech” (which presumably, includes referring to a man as a man).

A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has issued an order allowing the state of Oregon to house male prison inmates in men’s prisons. Readers may be surprised to learn that the very blue state of Oregon is actually fighting to keep men out of the state’s women’s prison (over the objections of male convicted pedophiles, rapists, and murderers). I wrote about the case here. I’m happy to see this development, and I hope it bodes well for the Chandler case, which is also before the 9th Circuit. One of the judges on the panel ruling on the side of Oregon (and against the male convicted pedophiles, rapists, and murderers) is Judge VanDyke. Judge VanDyke earlier this year said that a case involving a man demanding entry into a nude female-only spa is a case about “swinging dicks.” I wrote about the case here.

Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA) was one of eight Democrats who voted yes on HR 2616, the Parental Rights Over The Education and Care of Their Kids Act, in May. I wrote about that bill here and here and here. The bill would mandate that schools obtain parental consent before “transing” a kid. Vindman is a military veteran. He also has national security experience. Yesterday, The Advocate reported that he went to a “predominantly Republican Virginia county Tuesday night expecting to tell local Democrats why they needed to help him win reelection and put their party back in control of Congress,” but that “[i]nstead, the first-term Democrat spent much of his visit defending himself to transgender members of his own party before leaving after a profane confrontation with a constituent.”

Apparently, one person said, ““Congressman, you need to shut up and listen,” to which he replied that he was listening and that he had stayed in the meeting, despite “you all attacking me.” The person then said, “Shut the f*ck up.” This is just how things work in the land of gender flippity-flam. Rep. Vindman did one single tiny thing for sanity by voting to require schools to obtain parental consent before “transing” a kid. That’s it. And that was enough to earn a “shut the f*ck up” from someone in his own party.

Again, this post is about Monday’s news that a federal judge has dismissed most, but not all, of Minnesota’s lawsuit against the Trump Administration regarding Title IX. The administration understands that sex is real, and Minnesota’s Attorney General (Keith Ellison) and Governor (Tim Walz) do not. Minnesota is mostly losing in court, but in some ways, winning. Read on to learn more.

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Thanks to the LGB Courage Coalition’s Weekly News Roundup from Friday, I now know about a class action lawsuit recently filed on behalf of four federal employees who call themselves “trans” and/or nonbinary and one federal employee parent of a kid who calls himself “trans.” The plaintiffs are arguing that they have a right to federal (taxpayer-funded) coverage of so-called “gender-affirming care.” I’ll discuss the complaint below the paywall.

But first …

If you read nothing else today, please check out a Substack post from 2024 titled “Measuring the blast radius of a man in women’s sports.” It’s a guest post on Sarah Barker’s Substack The Female Category. I have been thinking about it since I read it when it was initially published, but I had not been able to track it down because I couldn’t remember the title or the source. I commented on it back then. And yesterday, completely randomly, someone liked my comment and Substack notified me of that fact. So I was able to track down the post itself. It’s amazing. It measures the impact of a single male athlete competing on a women’s team. Please use it when someone says “There are so few male athletes in women’s sports, it doesn’t really matter.” It does matter. Even one male athlete competing on a women’s team has a “blast radius” of an impact.

I put out a free and shareable podcast on Friday celebrating the 100th episode. It’s about why this Substack is important. Feel free to watch, like, and share it.

The Protecting College Sports Act is a bit of a mess. From what I can tell, the White House, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) all support it. The group ICONS, Riley Gaines, Jennifer Sey, and the Alliance Defending Freedom all refuse to get behind it until it’s fixed. A bunch of Congressional Democrats oppose it. What the heck? I know, it’s weird.

I was very confused about it, so I called my friend Kim Jones from ICONS on Friday. The gist appears to be that as written, the bill would exempt the NCAA from Title IX and from state laws that protect female-only sports by making it impossible for anyone to sue schools that allow male athletes to compete in women’s sports. ICONS, Riley Gaines, Jennifer Sey, and ADF (among others) all want it to be amended to close this loophole. I’m happy to be corrected if I’ve gotten that wrong.

It was scheduled for a vote on Friday, and lots of people were very concerned for a variety of conflicting reasons, but the Senate adjourned before voting. So now the Senate has a bit more time to fix it before a vote is taken. However, the reason Cantwell likes it is that it gives the NCAA a pass. If it’s fixed to close that loophole, it will probably lose her support. As I said, it’s all a mess.

Beyond that, all the internet has been able to talk about since Friday is the fact that two male former NBA players have announced their intention to try out for a spot in the WNBA next season. One of them is Enes Kanter and the other is Royce White. Kanter is 6’10”. White is 6’8”. This is all coming on the heels of Sophie Cunningham, a guard with the Indiana Fever, explaining that she doesn’t think girls should have to compete against men.

Mr. Menno did a terrific interview with Jen Sey and Amy Sousa about what I am calling Sophie Fever, which came out on Saturday.

They both know exactly what they’re doing. White’s 5-minute interview is especially worth a watch. He said:

I’m transgender. I’m a woman. I identify as sometimes identifying as a woman for purpose of basketball, professional basketball, so I’ll be declaring for the WNBA draft in 2027 as well.

I think I’d be unstoppable. But I’m a team-first guy. I’m a pass-first kind of player. I do the little things. I led my team in all five major stat categories at Iowa State University, so I do a little bit of everything. I’ll do whatever the coach needs me to do. I’ll do whatever the girls need me to do.

I think it’s only fair.

When asked if there was anything the WNBA could do to keep him out, White said: “I think the WNBA could come out and make a definitive statement about guys with a pair of balls playing in the Women’s Association.” Yes, yes, they could. Your move, WNBA.

After the announcements, all of the people who have been saying for ten years that men should be allowed to compete in women’s sports if they say they’re women are suddenly very upset that men are demanding to compete in women’s sports if they say they’re women. They’re saying this is a “stunt” and a “hoax.” Yes, yes it is. All of “trans” is a hoax, as many of us have been saying for a very long time.

The LGB Courage Coalition has posted a terrific piece about all of this titled “Dear WNBA, It’s Safe to Make Sense Now: So stop virtue-signaling, start SRY screening, and remember the lesbians.”

Speaking of men in women’s sports, please check out and like a video from 2022 by Terven Priestess titled “No Thank You.” I promise, it’s really fun. And if you’d like, check out a different video from 2023 by Francis Aaron titled “Train Harder.” They’re both on the topic of getting men the heck out of women’s sports. Both are great, but I have a slight preference for Terven Priestess’s.

I really appreciated a recent post from Amy Sousa on why the movement to protect women’s sex-based rights and to stop the abolition of sex (my words, but I think Amy would agree with them) is more than any of its individual leaders.

Jennifer Sey has posted a terrific summary of what some female tennis players have been saying about a recent WTA announcement that pro tennis players will be tested for sex.

A woman named Erica Avery got a strong letter published in The Boston Globe on August 3. It concerns a recent Senate primary debate between Massachusetts Democrats Seth Moulton and Ed Markey. She said:

Moulton shouldn’t have backtracked

Seth Moulton is missing an opportunity. He was attacked by a mob and backed down after he spoke out on behalf of women and girls after the 2024 election. What if he had held his ground and stood up for women, children, fairness, science, and free speech? It’s not just liberal feminists like me, but a majority of Democratic voters who are opposed to transgender women playing in women’s sports. Many of us are similarly opposed to transgender women in women’s prisons, and to giving drugs and surgery to healthy gender-nonconforming children. Many Democrats, and even some Republicans, are eager to elect a Democrat who will oppose not only Trump but the authoritarian far-left. That’s definitely not Ed Markey. What a shame it isn’t Seth Moulton.

I did some digging into who she is, and found several articles she has published in local papers, including one from May in the Daily Hampshire Gazette titled “Supporting single-sex spaces isn’t conservative” and another from last year in the Greenfield Corridor titled “A safe city for all” (about the importance of allowing kids who don’t conform to sex stereotypes to grow into healthy adulthood without hormones or surgery). Go Erica Avery!

But this post is about a new class action lawsuit brought by several federal employees, demanding that US taxpayers foot the bill for “gender-affirming care.” The case adds to the growing number of cases that threaten the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, and for that reason, I love it (even though I don’t think taxpayers should have to foot the bill for anyone’s “gender-affirming care”).

Read on to learn more.

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Welcome to Woman’s Hour: the TERF Report. In this milestone episode, I am doing something different!

Typically, weekly episodes are audio-only and available only to paid subscribers. Once per month, I publish a free and shareable interview with a woman who is active in the fight.

In this episode, I use actual video. I invited paid subscribers to submit their own videos explaining why they pay for a subscription. And several did! You can watch them above. It’s free and shareable, so feel free to share it far and wide.

Or, watch a short segment of it here:

A paid subscription gets you regular access to much more content, and the ability to comment and engage in conversation with other thoughtful people.

A new supporter of the group Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender (DIAG, on whose board I serve), recently said this, upon signing up:

TELL US WHY YOU’RE JOINING

WPATH attacking science while majority of board members operate clinics and collect insurance-dollars by the truckload

HOW DID YOU FIND US?

The TERF Report

I’m proud of that.

I mean it when I say that it’s thanks to paid subscribers that I am able to pay the bills. Thanks to all of you, and especially to those who contributed videos! As always, a special thank-you to Vaishnavi Sundar, who edits the episodes and who really outdid herself on this one.

Next week, I’ll go back to posting audio-only podcasts for paid subscribers. But for now, enjoy.

If we can be heard, we will win! Let’s go.

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FFS (Female Free Speech) Friday honors women and girls who are speaking out about the harms that “gender identity” poses to women and girls as a sex class. Thanks so much to Amy Sousa (@KnownHeretic on X) for a lovely post appreciating the series.

FFS Friday posts are free and shareable. A paid subscription gets you regular access to much more content and the ability to comment and engage in conversation with other thoughtful people.

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Today’s FFS Friday celebrates the Women’s Rights Network of Northern Ireland (@ni_wrn), who have stood up in the face of cancellation by Féile an Phobail.

Féile an Phobail is a community arts festival in Northern Ireland. On its website, it says:

Féile an Phobail is Ireland’s Biggest Community Arts Festival. Féile provides a programme of inclusive arts, cultural and community-based activities throughout the year, with its flagship festival, the August Féile being the highlight of Ireland’s festival calendar. Join us this year from 25 July to 09 August as we welcome over 120,000 visitors to our 500+ events. Tá fáilte romhaibh, a chairde!

The Women’s Rights Network of Northern Ireland is part of the broader Women’s Rights Network, a network of women from across the globe with their main presence in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland who promote the human rights of women and girls.

Their website clarifies:

In these articles, ‘human rights’ means the human rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequent United Nations conventions and declarations, and ‘women’ and ‘girls’ mean women and girls by virtue of biological sex. WRN shall, in the interests of advancing its purposes for the benefit of women and girls, restrict membership benefits it provides to women and girls only.

WRN NI applied to host a panel discussion titled “Respect, Rights and Reality - Women’s Voices from Ireland and Europe” during the Féile festival this year. Their application was approved and the panel discussion was scheduled to take place on August 4.

The panel was to include representatives from Women’s Rights Network Northern Ireland, Gaels for Fair Play, The Countess, Sex Matters and Athena Forum, bringing together some of the leading voices advocating for women’s sex-based rights across the UK, Ireland and Europe. It was to explore the issues affecting women and girls and the work being undertaken to protect their sex-based rights. However, in late July, an online campaign from anti-women activists was waged that included abuse, threats of violence, and demands that Féile cancel the event.

WRN NI were abruptly notified via email that the event had been pulled from the festival’s program. Three minutes later, Féile an Phobail announced via social media that they were pulling the event, and their announcement stated that they were “unaware from the initial submission that [the] event would promote campaigns against rights for the transgender community.”

WRN NI have since clarified that their application clearly stated that the discussion would “reflect on developments more than a year on from the For Women Scotland Supreme Court ruling and consider implications for the North of Ireland’s distinct legal framework, including questions of fairness and safeguarding in women’s sport, prisons and service provision.”

WRN NI took legal action which centered on the contract they had with Féile, and a hearing was scheduled for last Wednesday, July 29. The two groups eventually came to an agreement and the legal action was withdrawn. WRN NI agreed that it would hold its panel in another venue.

WRN NI said:

The agreement was not a vindication of Feile’s decision. The proceedings concluded by agreement before the High Court heard the case or made any determination on the merits. There was no judgment that Féile’s cancellation was lawful, justified or correct, and there was no judgment in favour of WRN NI.

Neither side won or lost in court because the case was not determined.

Under the agreement, neither party will pursue the other for legal costs, and Féile has agreed to meet with WRN NI regarding potential participation in future events.

We applied to Féile in good faith because we believe women’s voices and discussions about women’s sex-based rights belong in our community festivals. We continue to believe that. Any future engagement with Féile will be approached constructively, respectfully and in the same good faith.

WRN NI reorganized the event for a hotel in Belfast and sold out of tickets within days. The event featured on BBC News the same evening.

Left to right: Marianne Driessen, Danielle Loughrey, Fiona McAnena, Sorcha nic Lochlainn and Nora Calder

WRN NI have no intention of being silenced or of going away.

To the women of WRN NI: THANK YOU. Thank you for standing in solidarity with women and girls in Northern Ireland, and everywhere. Thank you for refusing to be silenced and for continuing to speak out about women’s sex-based rights. Today’s FFS Friday is for you.

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