In the 1960s Americans were galvanized to support civil rights because violent racists attacked peaceful protestors. If the media showed Americans images of trans rights activists attacking women, support for WDI would skyrocket. I admite these women's decision to rally in dangerous locations.
Yes, non-violent direct action (NVDA) by suffragists was key in helping women to secure the right to vote. I admire the bravery of the women who are protesting in this way--and it needs more media coverage.
Portland used to be a great city for concerts and culture. I never loved it like Seattle or San Francisco…but it's ok, it’s where I live now. My kids identify as Oregonians and I say “no you guys are North Carolinian-Californians! Born in Asheville & LA. “Don't forget it Billy Joe”!I don't protest anything in person but anyone from Portland who went to the protest, I can see why they thought it would be ok this is downtown PDX. Police do nothing but living here we get so used to crime it happened slowly. I think COVID & the continuous protests were starting to get crazy during the summer of 2020. That's when all drugs were decriminalized (it was on the ballot and they are supposed to be funding treatment centers…that didn't happen) and randos started destroying things like the President Lincoln statue…i don't even know if the mob that attacked these women are TRAs or bored criminals. Something needs to change. I just know there is Narcan at every coffee shop and located on every floor of Portland State University.
I live over the border in Washington, about a 40 minute drive into Portland. I spent my most formative teen and young adult years spending time in and loving Portland. A once beautiful city, so quirky and fun, is now a lawless hell scape, with untreated mental illness, drug use, homelessness, and violent activists everywhere. The police seem to do nothing whatsoever. My oldest son lives there and it is quite frankly sad and terrifying to drive in and visit. I’m sure, maybe, that there might still be some great places but if there are, I haven’t seen them. I’d love to be brave enough to attend some of these rallies or even meet up with some like minded people but I’m just a coward.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head, with regard to the importance of media coverage, I noted Kara writing that media coverage was lacking, and I am sure that was a topic of discussion internally. This is a problem we are all facing in combating issues relating to the scourge of gender identity, whether through NVDA or via other means, so it’s not surprising Kara/WDI faced the same problem. I don’t know what the answer is, either specific to that event or generally, other than that we all just need to keep plugging away at this in the ways that make most sense to each of us.
They just need to be live-streaming all their events from multiple 3rd-person perspectives including at least one that is disguised so that it'll capture the violence even after antifa attacks the camera people. And they need to protect themselves better from infiltrators.
Bodycams (1st-person perspective) are fine for proving to the police that you were attacked, but they don't make good primary video for the 6 o'clock news, since they end up mostly being a blur or obscured when the action happens.
We don't know what has been discussed in the planning meetings so excuse me if I'm presumptuous here. There are many techno gizmos that I'm sure would be helpful in any public event such as this. It's not cheap, of course.
Maybe some "burner phones" instead of personal ph full of private info? I'm not very techy but I remember when I attended demos, I went "clean" ie I had an old backpack and only carried stuff I wasn't afraid to lose. $ and keys in my shoe... The olden days...
We can learn much from the events of the past but this is 2023. These women's free speech events are not massive organized protest marches in the street. The TRAs are paid actors. The cops are "not interested." The MSM is paid off to maintain silence. The TransAgenda is part of the push for the enslavement of transhumanism.
Vows of non-violence are just not gonna cut it here in 2023.
"I suspect it’s an extreme avoidance response due to cognitive dissonance" - It's a cult reacting to apostates. If the former cult member cannot be silenced, they must be destroyed, or at least denounced and smeared. While this behavior is ostensibly aimed at the neutral observer, it actually tends to repel the objective party, who can usually recognize the cult dynamic at work, because it is a defense mechanism of the cult mind. Doubt always exists in the believer and constantly banishing that doubt is a core task of the cult. They see the apostates and act out because the alternative is to question the beliefs of the cult, which are now intricately bound up in their own self-images. The words of the apostate are an attack on the very core of their being: "You're denying that we exist!"
I am about to take on what I anticipate to be a liberal onslaught of criticism to a recent response I made--as a liberal--criticizing gender identity education on social media. This perspective helps me, so thank you. I wish it wasn’t so hard to be a dissenting voice.
The instant someone accuses you of making trans kids want to suicide, ask them what kind of social movement threatens suicide if they don't get what they want. The answer of course is a harmful, dangerous cult.
New York Times, move over—the first read every Friday now is Broadview in Brief, with grateful thanks to Kate and Alejandra yet once again for a fulsome round-up!
I’m glad you noted the Portland WDI event. I admire the work WDI has done, and I don’t like to criticize from the armchair, but this choice of action did give me pause. I need to know more about the thinking, so I don’t want to judge, but it did make me think back on Let Women Speak events. While they have encountered violence, too, KJK has responded by taking increasingly stronger precautions to prevent that, and she has cancelled more than one event (I think one may actually have been Portland) on advice that it was too dangerous. The purpose of the events (as I am sure many here are aware), is to create a safe space for women of all POV say their piece. These are often women who have never spoken in public before, and include women of all classes and backgrounds. To achieve that, KJK always works ahead of the time with the police, to assure the events can be successful and women will not be scared away. Here she is describing the precautions she takes in a video prior to her Leeds event: https://twitter.com/ThePosieParker/status/1725529489390649682
On the issue of the new proposed federal foster care rules, I want to thank everyone who spotted my “call” to submit comments, and I hope many were able to do so before the 11/27 deadline. I know the forces to push back against legislation like this are still small, but this set of regs, which I only found out about a few days before passage, demonstrated just how much we need an organization that is focused on tracking such legislation and regulations and sending out calls for action with sample text. I am hoping perhaps Erin Friday and Our Duty may be able to grow into that role. It is certainly sorely needed!
I encourage everyone to read the Taft College OCR decision. For one, the description of facts reads like a Monty Python sketch. Here’s a rundown from the article where I first spotted this: “The funny or horrifying thing, depending on your point of view, is the faculty’s concern and exasperation in response to the student’s protestations. One professor, after meeting with the dean, had the school’s mental-health services contact the student. Another threw up his hands and exclaimed that he was “too old” to use preferred pronouns. A third asked the student if he had ever tried not thinking about his pronouns so much. A fourth suggested that if the student was so upset about inadvertent misgendering, maybe college wasn’t right for him and he should become an activist instead. The supposed civil rights violators here were mostly female, Californian professors, disproportionately a conscientious and progressive lot. Even they couldn’t quite manage to use preferred pronouns every time and seem to have found the demand annoying.”
What I see here is one little raging narcissist driving the whole place crazy, aided and abetted by an OCR that has gone off the rails. Also, just as a side note re Bostock, Kate, it is my understanding that the extension of Bostock to Title IX was an interpretation error by the Biden admin/OCR. While only available to paid subscribers, Kara Dansky does a nice job of analysis of that here: https://karadansky.substack.com/p/why-bostock-v-clayton-county-was One important takeaway from her article is the the Bostock majority opinion explicitly declined to extend its ruling beyond interpretation of Title VII. Here is the language from the majority opinion that addresses that:
“The employers worry that our decision will sweep beyond Title VII to other federal or state laws that prohibit sex discrimination. And, under Title VII itself, they say sex-segregated bathrooms, locker rooms, and dress codes will prove unsustainable after our decision today. But none of these other laws are before us; we have not had the benefit of adversarial testing about the meaning of their terms, and we do not prejudge any such question today. Under Title VII, too, we do not purport to address bathrooms, locker rooms, or anything else of the kind. The only question before us is whether an employer who fires someone simply for being homosexual or transgender has discharged or otherwise discriminated against that individual ‘because of such individual’s sex.’ “
Anyway, thank you so much, once again, Kate and Alejandra, for all your hard and good work—and Kate, I hope the night sky was glorious!
"(KJK)cancelled more than one event (I think one may actually have been Portland) on advice that it was too dangerous."
Not that I'm out there in any street with a WOMAN HERE sign and not that every women's org has to "do it like KJK" but I did wonder why they decided to take it out to the street when the library became "unavailable"? I totally get the energy of wanting to continue the work-in-progress but with TRAs notorious in Portland and cops notoriously absent, how was decision to take it to the street made?
Is this a “blame the victim” thread? “You should know that walking down a dark alley in Portland wearing a Rolex would result in getting robbed.” Perhaps the violent men are the ones needing accountability.
Not at all, at least from my perspective. I have enormous admiration for the work of Kara and WDI and have learned a lot from their work. This doesn’t mean, though, that a shift in strategy might not be warranted going forward. I agree with Unyielding Bicyclist that the intent was an NVDA. That said, assessing and reassessing strategy and tactics subsequent to each action to ascertain how to have the greatest impact is part of how a movement develops (and I believe that was undertaken in this case).
Yeah WDI USA has their own way of doing things and their own narrative they wish to maintain at their events. Which is their right.
At their recent conference in San Fran for example they publicly distanced themselves from the women who were down on the street in front of their hotel standing up to the threatening troons on their behalf. I'm guessing because they didn't want to be blamed for any violence and have it upstage the narrative coming out of the conference.
I just want to say I was upset when I saw one of my favorite Drs was attacked and she’s brilliant & a local and I was shocked. This may seem normal or foolish for women to protest but when it you live here it’s surprising that this happened in broad daylight. They weren’t wandering the streets late at night this was daytime. Fox News etc has been needlessly trashing the city before it got bad and we can’t just stay inside and not go out. But this is not the women’s fault. I’m sad. This made me sad
Will "wandering the streets late at night" ever be an option again? It's even hairy for men now! Not just Portland.
The olden days "Take Back the Night" marches were always my favorite. Women would speak about their experiences of violence, rape, assault. I think there were even some "male allies" there who were OK, not invasive.
How ironic that now women can't even gather to speak their minds in broad daylight! The men who show up are provocateurs, far from allies!
Wanted to pass along an article that seems to sum up the casual approach to hormones as well as some more transhumanist ideas that will only hurt children and babies, can read in full on Wiley
Take the T out, put the T in: Gender affirming hormones in youth
Yes, WDI USA was very brave to hold their event in Portland, which basically guaranteed they would be attacked.
It could have made national news, with irresistible video of defenseless peaceful women being pummeled by black-clad antifas - had they not allowed an infiltrator into their planning meeting. And failed to livestream the event. And failed to set up 3rd-person video. And allowed all of their bodycameras and phones to be taken from them by force, because of their nonviolence pledge.
This is the second time their tactics have failed them at an event where they ostensibly were prepared for violence. They have such great ideas, and such poor execution. I think they are caught in the same freeze-response post-trauma that produces their nonviolence vow. They are seriously in need of good advice.
***What potential foster parent in their right mind is gonna take on a child with this minefield of gender policing attached? One more reason to leave some kids without home.
***Sometimes I get a voice in my head that sez: “So who’s behind this? Who’s $$ is on this?”
It’s talking at me now re: “ At the same time, a trio of trans-identified minors is suing the state for making the process of changing the sex marker on their birth certificates too difficult. “
RE: “aliengender or astrogender, meaning one’s gender fluctuates daily based on the stars.”
ASStrogender = pull it out of ass daily according to horoscope
"[F]emale patients in Australia currently have testicular disorders at a rate of more than 3 to 1 over male patients." This could mean both that trans-identified women are getting T with a fake diagnosis and that men with testicular disorders are being recorded as female. Both are entirely probable and acceptable in our new "queered" world.
"[F]emale patients ... with testicular disorders ...." Ponder that expression. And what about the post-op complications for hysterectomy in male patients?
Very comprehensive newsletter this week, thank you and Lisa so much for your seemingly tireless efforts. The Carolyn Burjoski piece is absolutely Orwellian.
Re Portland:
In the 1960s Americans were galvanized to support civil rights because violent racists attacked peaceful protestors. If the media showed Americans images of trans rights activists attacking women, support for WDI would skyrocket. I admite these women's decision to rally in dangerous locations.
Yes, non-violent direct action (NVDA) by suffragists was key in helping women to secure the right to vote. I admire the bravery of the women who are protesting in this way--and it needs more media coverage.
Portland used to be a great city for concerts and culture. I never loved it like Seattle or San Francisco…but it's ok, it’s where I live now. My kids identify as Oregonians and I say “no you guys are North Carolinian-Californians! Born in Asheville & LA. “Don't forget it Billy Joe”!I don't protest anything in person but anyone from Portland who went to the protest, I can see why they thought it would be ok this is downtown PDX. Police do nothing but living here we get so used to crime it happened slowly. I think COVID & the continuous protests were starting to get crazy during the summer of 2020. That's when all drugs were decriminalized (it was on the ballot and they are supposed to be funding treatment centers…that didn't happen) and randos started destroying things like the President Lincoln statue…i don't even know if the mob that attacked these women are TRAs or bored criminals. Something needs to change. I just know there is Narcan at every coffee shop and located on every floor of Portland State University.
💔
I live over the border in Washington, about a 40 minute drive into Portland. I spent my most formative teen and young adult years spending time in and loving Portland. A once beautiful city, so quirky and fun, is now a lawless hell scape, with untreated mental illness, drug use, homelessness, and violent activists everywhere. The police seem to do nothing whatsoever. My oldest son lives there and it is quite frankly sad and terrifying to drive in and visit. I’m sure, maybe, that there might still be some great places but if there are, I haven’t seen them. I’d love to be brave enough to attend some of these rallies or even meet up with some like minded people but I’m just a coward.
I know. I used to love Seattle.
Me too. 💔
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head, with regard to the importance of media coverage, I noted Kara writing that media coverage was lacking, and I am sure that was a topic of discussion internally. This is a problem we are all facing in combating issues relating to the scourge of gender identity, whether through NVDA or via other means, so it’s not surprising Kara/WDI faced the same problem. I don’t know what the answer is, either specific to that event or generally, other than that we all just need to keep plugging away at this in the ways that make most sense to each of us.
You are right Susan as usual :)
Well, you are kind to add “as usual,” Coastal. I feel less certain about that!
They just need to be live-streaming all their events from multiple 3rd-person perspectives including at least one that is disguised so that it'll capture the violence even after antifa attacks the camera people. And they need to protect themselves better from infiltrators.
Bodycams (1st-person perspective) are fine for proving to the police that you were attacked, but they don't make good primary video for the 6 o'clock news, since they end up mostly being a blur or obscured when the action happens.
We don't know what has been discussed in the planning meetings so excuse me if I'm presumptuous here. There are many techno gizmos that I'm sure would be helpful in any public event such as this. It's not cheap, of course.
Maybe some "burner phones" instead of personal ph full of private info? I'm not very techy but I remember when I attended demos, I went "clean" ie I had an old backpack and only carried stuff I wasn't afraid to lose. $ and keys in my shoe... The olden days...
We can learn much from the events of the past but this is 2023. These women's free speech events are not massive organized protest marches in the street. The TRAs are paid actors. The cops are "not interested." The MSM is paid off to maintain silence. The TransAgenda is part of the push for the enslavement of transhumanism.
Vows of non-violence are just not gonna cut it here in 2023.
"I suspect it’s an extreme avoidance response due to cognitive dissonance" - It's a cult reacting to apostates. If the former cult member cannot be silenced, they must be destroyed, or at least denounced and smeared. While this behavior is ostensibly aimed at the neutral observer, it actually tends to repel the objective party, who can usually recognize the cult dynamic at work, because it is a defense mechanism of the cult mind. Doubt always exists in the believer and constantly banishing that doubt is a core task of the cult. They see the apostates and act out because the alternative is to question the beliefs of the cult, which are now intricately bound up in their own self-images. The words of the apostate are an attack on the very core of their being: "You're denying that we exist!"
I am about to take on what I anticipate to be a liberal onslaught of criticism to a recent response I made--as a liberal--criticizing gender identity education on social media. This perspective helps me, so thank you. I wish it wasn’t so hard to be a dissenting voice.
The instant someone accuses you of making trans kids want to suicide, ask them what kind of social movement threatens suicide if they don't get what they want. The answer of course is a harmful, dangerous cult.
New York Times, move over—the first read every Friday now is Broadview in Brief, with grateful thanks to Kate and Alejandra yet once again for a fulsome round-up!
I’m glad you noted the Portland WDI event. I admire the work WDI has done, and I don’t like to criticize from the armchair, but this choice of action did give me pause. I need to know more about the thinking, so I don’t want to judge, but it did make me think back on Let Women Speak events. While they have encountered violence, too, KJK has responded by taking increasingly stronger precautions to prevent that, and she has cancelled more than one event (I think one may actually have been Portland) on advice that it was too dangerous. The purpose of the events (as I am sure many here are aware), is to create a safe space for women of all POV say their piece. These are often women who have never spoken in public before, and include women of all classes and backgrounds. To achieve that, KJK always works ahead of the time with the police, to assure the events can be successful and women will not be scared away. Here she is describing the precautions she takes in a video prior to her Leeds event: https://twitter.com/ThePosieParker/status/1725529489390649682
On the issue of the new proposed federal foster care rules, I want to thank everyone who spotted my “call” to submit comments, and I hope many were able to do so before the 11/27 deadline. I know the forces to push back against legislation like this are still small, but this set of regs, which I only found out about a few days before passage, demonstrated just how much we need an organization that is focused on tracking such legislation and regulations and sending out calls for action with sample text. I am hoping perhaps Erin Friday and Our Duty may be able to grow into that role. It is certainly sorely needed!
I encourage everyone to read the Taft College OCR decision. For one, the description of facts reads like a Monty Python sketch. Here’s a rundown from the article where I first spotted this: “The funny or horrifying thing, depending on your point of view, is the faculty’s concern and exasperation in response to the student’s protestations. One professor, after meeting with the dean, had the school’s mental-health services contact the student. Another threw up his hands and exclaimed that he was “too old” to use preferred pronouns. A third asked the student if he had ever tried not thinking about his pronouns so much. A fourth suggested that if the student was so upset about inadvertent misgendering, maybe college wasn’t right for him and he should become an activist instead. The supposed civil rights violators here were mostly female, Californian professors, disproportionately a conscientious and progressive lot. Even they couldn’t quite manage to use preferred pronouns every time and seem to have found the demand annoying.”
What I see here is one little raging narcissist driving the whole place crazy, aided and abetted by an OCR that has gone off the rails. Also, just as a side note re Bostock, Kate, it is my understanding that the extension of Bostock to Title IX was an interpretation error by the Biden admin/OCR. While only available to paid subscribers, Kara Dansky does a nice job of analysis of that here: https://karadansky.substack.com/p/why-bostock-v-clayton-county-was One important takeaway from her article is the the Bostock majority opinion explicitly declined to extend its ruling beyond interpretation of Title VII. Here is the language from the majority opinion that addresses that:
“The employers worry that our decision will sweep beyond Title VII to other federal or state laws that prohibit sex discrimination. And, under Title VII itself, they say sex-segregated bathrooms, locker rooms, and dress codes will prove unsustainable after our decision today. But none of these other laws are before us; we have not had the benefit of adversarial testing about the meaning of their terms, and we do not prejudge any such question today. Under Title VII, too, we do not purport to address bathrooms, locker rooms, or anything else of the kind. The only question before us is whether an employer who fires someone simply for being homosexual or transgender has discharged or otherwise discriminated against that individual ‘because of such individual’s sex.’ “
Anyway, thank you so much, once again, Kate and Alejandra, for all your hard and good work—and Kate, I hope the night sky was glorious!
"(KJK)cancelled more than one event (I think one may actually have been Portland) on advice that it was too dangerous."
Not that I'm out there in any street with a WOMAN HERE sign and not that every women's org has to "do it like KJK" but I did wonder why they decided to take it out to the street when the library became "unavailable"? I totally get the energy of wanting to continue the work-in-progress but with TRAs notorious in Portland and cops notoriously absent, how was decision to take it to the street made?
PS Thanks for the paywall, Kara. Meow.
Is this a “blame the victim” thread? “You should know that walking down a dark alley in Portland wearing a Rolex would result in getting robbed.” Perhaps the violent men are the ones needing accountability.
Not at all, at least from my perspective. I have enormous admiration for the work of Kara and WDI and have learned a lot from their work. This doesn’t mean, though, that a shift in strategy might not be warranted going forward. I agree with Unyielding Bicyclist that the intent was an NVDA. That said, assessing and reassessing strategy and tactics subsequent to each action to ascertain how to have the greatest impact is part of how a movement develops (and I believe that was undertaken in this case).
Yeah WDI USA has their own way of doing things and their own narrative they wish to maintain at their events. Which is their right.
At their recent conference in San Fran for example they publicly distanced themselves from the women who were down on the street in front of their hotel standing up to the threatening troons on their behalf. I'm guessing because they didn't want to be blamed for any violence and have it upstage the narrative coming out of the conference.
Lupa, I think Unyielding Bicyclist is right about the intent, and it was wholly noble.
Thank you very much for the update Kate and Alejandra. 💜🤍💚
I just want to say I was upset when I saw one of my favorite Drs was attacked and she’s brilliant & a local and I was shocked. This may seem normal or foolish for women to protest but when it you live here it’s surprising that this happened in broad daylight. They weren’t wandering the streets late at night this was daytime. Fox News etc has been needlessly trashing the city before it got bad and we can’t just stay inside and not go out. But this is not the women’s fault. I’m sad. This made me sad
💔
Will "wandering the streets late at night" ever be an option again? It's even hairy for men now! Not just Portland.
The olden days "Take Back the Night" marches were always my favorite. Women would speak about their experiences of violence, rape, assault. I think there were even some "male allies" there who were OK, not invasive.
How ironic that now women can't even gather to speak their minds in broad daylight! The men who show up are provocateurs, far from allies!
Wanted to pass along an article that seems to sum up the casual approach to hormones as well as some more transhumanist ideas that will only hurt children and babies, can read in full on Wiley
Take the T out, put the T in: Gender affirming hormones in youth
Yes, WDI USA was very brave to hold their event in Portland, which basically guaranteed they would be attacked.
It could have made national news, with irresistible video of defenseless peaceful women being pummeled by black-clad antifas - had they not allowed an infiltrator into their planning meeting. And failed to livestream the event. And failed to set up 3rd-person video. And allowed all of their bodycameras and phones to be taken from them by force, because of their nonviolence pledge.
This is the second time their tactics have failed them at an event where they ostensibly were prepared for violence. They have such great ideas, and such poor execution. I think they are caught in the same freeze-response post-trauma that produces their nonviolence vow. They are seriously in need of good advice.
You know these observations will not be welcomed. I think you are brave in putting your comment here.
There's non-violence and then there's self-defense.
Your observation "they are caught in the same freeze-response post-trauma that produces their nonviolence vow" seems right on to me. Thanks.
Thanks for the great realgender news roundups!
Here are my thoughts for this week.
***What potential foster parent in their right mind is gonna take on a child with this minefield of gender policing attached? One more reason to leave some kids without home.
***Sometimes I get a voice in my head that sez: “So who’s behind this? Who’s $$ is on this?”
It’s talking at me now re: “ At the same time, a trio of trans-identified minors is suing the state for making the process of changing the sex marker on their birth certificates too difficult. “
RE: “aliengender or astrogender, meaning one’s gender fluctuates daily based on the stars.”
ASStrogender = pull it out of ass daily according to horoscope
BB,
Terfosaurus
"[F]emale patients in Australia currently have testicular disorders at a rate of more than 3 to 1 over male patients." This could mean both that trans-identified women are getting T with a fake diagnosis and that men with testicular disorders are being recorded as female. Both are entirely probable and acceptable in our new "queered" world.
"[F]emale patients ... with testicular disorders ...." Ponder that expression. And what about the post-op complications for hysterectomy in male patients?
Very comprehensive newsletter this week, thank you and Lisa so much for your seemingly tireless efforts. The Carolyn Burjoski piece is absolutely Orwellian.