What an amazing time to fight for women and girls and the material reality of sex

Welcome to the resistance

November 2, 2024

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Friday November 1 was an amazing day, as women all over the world stood up for women and girls as a sex class.

It was a global protest against the new German self-ID law that came into effect that morning in Germany. This is what the law does:

Much more information and a compelling video are available here, where German women said: 

On November 1st 2024 the German Self-ID law („Selbstbestimmungsgesetz“) will come into force. We are calling for women around the world to join our protest against this harmful legislation. From 12:05 til 4 p.m. in the afternoon we will be protesting in front of the Bundeskanzleramt in Spreebogenpark in Berlin. We ask our feminist sisters to show their solidarity and protest on the same day in front of German embassys [sic] and consulates of their country.

And women heeded the call!

If I understand correctly, “12:05” is a reference to “too late” in German. The idea is that it’s too late for Germany because the law has already passed, but it’s not too late elsewhere. We were encouraged to post images and videos on X using the hashtags #WomenRise and #SelfIDHarms. And it worked. From X this morning:

I don’t know exactly when and where things kicked off (probably New Zealand), but I know that women protested in at least the following cities: Amsterdam, Berlin,  Brisbane, Brussels, Cardiff, Chicago, Dublin, Edinburgh, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Manchester, Milan, Oslo, Paris, Rio De Janeiro, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Wellington.

I was in D.C.

A few of us began the day at the German embassy, where we delivered a letter to the ambassador explaining the problems with the law. Here is a video of me and Margot Heffernan, Vice President of the Women’s Liberation Front, outside of the embassy:

We were happy to deliver the letter to the ambassador, but the German embassy is located in a very residential area of D.C. that gets almost no foot traffic, so at the designated time of 12:05, we took our message to a different area, where we would be likely to engage with members of the general public: the Supreme Court. Here is a video we took there:

There weren’t many of us, but we made an impact. Countless people came by to tell us they agree with us. Others were curious to know what we were talking about and we were ready with handouts and fliers to explain. Many knew about the German self-ID law and agreed that it is bonkers (to use a technical term). Those who didn’t know about it received an education and then agreed that it is bonkers. Only a tiny handful of people expressed outrage that we would take such a strong stand for women and girls because “trans women are women” (or whatever). 

After about an hour, we took our message to the U.S. Capitol. Security wouldn’t let us stand on the Capitol Plaza with our signs, so we planted ourselves on a grassy area (where we were permitted to be) on Independence Avenue, across the street from two House office buildings so we could catch House staff leaving their offices to start their weekends. We engaged with more members of the public and House staff. Here is a video I took while we were there.

A news crew from the magazine Intrieste stopped by to ask what we were doing. They interviewed both me and Margot and captured video of our signs and banner.

A woman stopped at the intersection rolled down her window to shout, “It’s amazing that it has to be said that a woman is an adult human female these days!” We thanked her and she smiled.

X is full of images and videos of women protesting.

London:

Manchester, England: 

Cardiff (I think), Wales: 

Chicago:

Brussels:

Paris:

Los Angeles: 

And, of course, Berlin:

And so many more. I think my favorite was the San Francisco women, who sang a fabulous song after delivering a letter to the consulate:

Plenty of women who couldn’t join a protest in person got involved in their own ways, online. JK Rowling got in on the fun, being her usual hilarious self.

It was a phenomenal day.  

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Later today, the Women’s March will return to Washington D.C. 

In 2022, the Women’s March posted: “Trans women are women. That’s it. That’s the tweet.” Feminists were outraged and told them so. In response, the Women’s March dug in its heels, posting: “Stay mad,” with a cartoon image of a woman’s face labeled “Little Miss Fuck the TERFs.” On top of that, it posted, “We got some transphobes BIG mad the other day so let us spell it out for you: ‘Women’ is a term that encompasses cis & trans women. When we talk about ‘people who can give birth,’ it’s because those people aren’t all women! They’re girls, trans men, & non-binary ppl.” 

At some point after I complained to them, this happened:

I’ll be joining some of the women who participated in yesterday’s DC action at the Women’s March today. Our plan is to cheerfully and casually hand out business cards of Women’s Declaration International USA, which contain a QR code directing people to the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights, which proclaims that only women and girls are female. 

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I’ve been saying for years now that if we can be heard, we will win.

We’re starting to be heard. We’re going to win. Cheers!