Last month, a group of feminist activists met with various members of Congress to discuss women’s sex-based rights. The group was led by members of the Women’s Liberation Front, an unapologetically radical feminist organization that supports women and girls as a sex class and opposes the inclusion of men in female-only sports and spaces. One of the women in attendance was Irene Lawrence, a board member of Women’s Declaration International USA.
The group’s meeting with Sen John Fetterman’s (D-Pa.) staff in particular could not have gone worse. According to Julia Hing, Fetterman chief of staff Jason Smith reportedly mocked a rape survivor and accused the women of lying about the importance of female-only spaces. When they told him that women are leaving the Democratic Party over such treatment, he reportedly reponded, “Good. Leave. Go.” Then he threw them out of his office.
Liberal activists like these have long formed a core constituency for Democrats. But if Democrats keep asking liberal women to leave their party, then guess what — they will leave. And they are leaving.
The Women’s Liberation Front and Women’s Declaration International USA support the rights of women and girls to have female-only spaces and sports. Both groups oppose the inclusion of men and boys on the basis that men and boys claim to have “female gender identities.” I know this, having previously served on the boards of both organizations.
Women’s Declaration International USA has published a Lesbian Bill of Rights. It has a Black Women’s Caucus that has published a Statement Against Gender Ideology. It has a Desisted and Detransitioned Women’s Caucus that has published a similar bill of rights. All of these groups and statements are grounded in radical feminist thinking and are designed to protect women and girls as a sex class.
Fetterman was among the Senate Democrats who voted to block the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act in March. Before the vote, the group Democratic Women’s Declaration worked with women in nine states to secure meetings with their Democratic senators. Constituents in each of those states requested meetings with their senators to discuss the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. Tennis champion and loyal Democrat Martina Navratilova agreed to meet virtually with any and every Democratic Senator who was willing to discuss the topic.
Every single Democratic Senator we reached out to either ignored or denied their constituents’ meeting requests. And every single one of them snubbed Navratilova. All Senate Democrats, other than Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich), who didn’t cast a vote, voted to block the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.
Since that included Fetterman, perhaps the behavior of his staff is unsurprising, if still reprehensible. He accused women of lying when they said that men are being housed in women’s prisons — which is true, by the way. Men are indeed being housed in women’s prisons. He denied that lesbians deserve their own spaces. He told a bunch of women, most of whom have probably always voted for Democrats, to leave his party.
I can attest to the fact that women are indeed leaving the Democratic Party over this exact issue — and plenty of men, too, although that already gets enough attention. I hear from these women all the time, but don’t take my word for it. Just check out the post-election polling from Blueprint. Check out the New York Times polling from January. Voters across the country have had it with the Democrats, in large part because of the party’s stubborn insistence on embracing gender identity and all things transgender.
In 2023, I published a book warning them that, as a lifelong Democrat, I was extremely frustrated that they were sacrificing women and girls at the altar of gender identity. I warned them of what was coming in November 2024 if they didn’t change course. They didn’t, and here we are.
Kara Dansky is author of The TERF Report newsletter and the book “The Reckoning: How the Democrats and the Left Betrayed Women and Girls.”
