May 16, 2024
On Tuesday, I and several other volunteers with Women’s Declaration International USA (WDI USA) joined other women’s groups for a rally and press conference in support of the plaintiffs in Westenbroek v. Kappa Kappa Gamma (KKG) at the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. In this case, six sorority sisters are suing their sorority for admitting a man.
KKG has a bylaw dating back to 1870 stating that a new member “shall be a woman.” In 2018, it issued a policy document stating that its membership consists of “women and individuals who identify as women.” It was presumably on that basis that KKG admitted a man named Artemis Langford.
As the feminist publication Reduxx explains:
Though Langford had been residing elsewhere at the time of the first filing, women alleged that he would frequently sit in the second-floor common area and had been observed watching the women on multiple occasions.
According to court records, Langford had been voyeuristically peeping on the women while they were in intimate situations, and, on at least one occasion, had a visible erection while doing so.
“One sorority member walked down the hall to take a shower, wearing only a towel … She felt an unsettling presence, turned, and saw [Langford] watching her silently,” the court document reads.
“[Langford] has, while watching members enter the sorority house, had an erection visible through his leggings,” the suit says. “Other times, he has had a pillow in his lap.”
As evidenced by his Tinder profile, Langford is “sexually interested in women.” It was further stated in the suit that Langford took photographs of the women while at a sorority slumber party, where he also is said to have made inappropriate comments.
Last year, federal district judge Alan B. Johnson dismissed the plaintiffs’ complaint. The case is now before the 10th Circuit, where WDI USA has filed a friend-of-the-court brief. The brief makes two main arguments:
The District Court is correct that organizations have an associational right to engage in protected speech but misconstrued the facts and misapplied the law in this case by ruling in favor of KKG.
Sex is grounded in material reality, whereas “gender” (including linguistic derivatives like “gender identity,” “transgender” and “cisgender”) is grounded in regressive sexist stereotypes, and the idea that a man who “identifies as a woman” is in fact a woman is patently harmful to women and girls, including lesbians, as a sex class.
The rally and press conference were organized by the Independent Women’s Forum, who represent the plaintiffs, to coincide with the oral arguments being held inside the courthouse. Some of the other groups in attendance included the Women’s Liberation Front and a group of more than 450 KKG alumni (both of which have also filed amicus briefs in support of the plaintiffs). Several of the KKG alumni who have been speaking out in support of the plaintiffs have had their lifetime memberships in the sorority revoked.
AOL News covered the press conference and I’m pleased that they quoted me accurately:
Women's Declaration International (WDI) USA President Kara Dansky also spoke at the news conference, arguing the fight against the admission of transgender women into female-only spaces is a nonpartisan issue.
"We are leftists, we are feminists. We are lesbians, bisexuals and straight women," said Dansky, who identified herself as a leftist Democrat. "We fight for all women and girls as a sex class."
WDI submitted an amicus brief in support of the six sorority sisters in the case.
The outlet Courthouse News covered the story as well and tweeted an image that includes a WDI USA banner reading: WOMAN = ADULT HUMAN FEMALE.
This is what I said during the press conference:
Good morning. My name is Kara Dansky and I’m president of the US chapter of Women’s Declaration International.
In the fight to protect the sex-based rights of women and girls, people often ask, “Where are the feminists?!” Well I’m here today to tell you that the feminists are standing strong in support of women-only spaces and in support of the plaintiffs in this important lawsuit.
Women’s Declaration International is the leading global organization that works to advance women’s sex-based rights all over the world. It does so by promoting the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights, which challenges the discrimination and oppression we experience from the replacement of the category of sex with that of so-called “gender identity” in law and policy. Our work is grounded in leftist radical feminist principles. We are leftists. We are feminists. We are lesbians, bisexual, and straight women. We fight for all women and girls as a sex class.
Article 8 of the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights reaffirms the need for the elimination of violence against women and girls. This includes the right of women and girls to have female-only spaces. Until recently, everyone in society seemed to understand that men who invaded women’s intimate spaces were rightly shamed and charged with criminal offenses. That understanding seems to have evaporated recently with the embrace of “gender identity,” including in KKG’s perverted policy of admitting not only women, but “individuals who identify as women,” whatever that means. Today, if a man says that he “is transgender” or that he has a “gender identity” different from his sex, our laws, policies, and institutions simply hold the doors wide open for him to enter places where women and girls are nude or otherwise in a state of vulnerability, or relying on the type of community that only all-female spaces provide. It is inhumane that institutions like KKG permit and even encourage this.
We are a nonpartisan organization that works with groups across the political spectrum. Speaking solely for myself, I am a lifelong Democrat who is ideologically left of the Democratic party. From a leftist, radical feminist perspective, so-called “gender identity” is a regressive, sexist, homophobic concept that has no business being enshrined in law or policy.
As we say in our brief in this case, “Sex is grounded in material reality, whereas “gender” (including linguistic derivatives like “gender identity,” “transgender” and “cisgender”) is grounded in regressive sexist stereotypes, and the idea that a man who “identifies as a woman” is in fact a woman is patently harmful to women and girls, including lesbians, as a sex class.”
I am a daughter of the second-wave movement for women’s liberation, which hailed from the political far left. Those feminists didn’t fight to secure women’s sex-based rights only to have them thrown away at the altar of the regressive concept of “gender identity.” So, for anyone tempted to ask, “Where are the feminists,” I’m here today to say that we’re right here, standing alongside these amazing female plaintiffs to say no to men in women’s spaces. Thank you.
Here is one of my favorite pictures of some of the TERFs in attendance for the rally and press conference:
The rally and press conference were both great fun and I hope the 10th Circuit will do the right thing and send the matter back to the District Court to work out why on earth anyone thinks a man ought to be permitted to join a women-only sorority.
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