Tag a TERF Day - Portland TERF Rally Ends Early After Contact With Reality

Two years ago today, November 19, 2023, a flock of TERFs tried to throw a transphobic shindig at the Hollywood branch of the Multnomah County Library. The group behind it was Women’s Declaration International USA (WDI-USA): a trans-eliminationist, pseudofeminist outfit that cosplays as “radical feminists” while working hand-in-glove with the far right.

 Before the event even started, over 100 community members showed up to shut down the hatefest. And it worked. Beautifully. The TERFs retreated in under 30 minutes, sporting an impressive sampler platter of soup, silly string, pie, eggs, and at least one freshly applied Anarchy A. They later tried to claim the soup was mace, because nothing says “we’re oppressed!” like lying about canned tomatoes.

WDI-USA spends its days pushing anti-trans laws, pumping out propaganda, collaborating with far-right groups, and citing antisemitic authors. The “feminism” is basically window dressing for a movement obsessed with policing gender and partnering with bigoted extremists.

The TERF event was set to start at noon, and by 12:23pm, they were already walking out of the area covered in a variety of food items, looking about as defeated as they must have felt.

The only real casualty? The library closed for the day, which understandably frustrated neighbors who rely on it. Counter-protesters left a note explaining what happened: 

"Today, Genocidal anti-trans organizers attempted to meet at this library.100+ community members organized to prevent them from using our Public Space to erase our neighbors. Unfortunately the disruption caused the library to close. We regret the inconvenience.”

WDI has branches in 50 countries, and their influence isn’t just local. According to Rose City Antifa (RCA), the Portland event was booked under the name “Women’s Liberation Front” (WoLF), another anti-trans org with deep ties to WDI-USA. Through leaked planning materials and infiltrated meetings, RCA identified WoLF and WDI organizers including Lierre Keith, founder, board chair, and long-time transmisogynist fixture.

WDI-USA president (at the time) Kara Dansky, who also served on WoLF’s board, repeatedly shows up in legislative efforts to restrict trans healthcare, especially for trans youth. Leaked emails in a “2600 pages of hate” report tie her to even more anti-LGBTQ groups. And in leaked audio about the 2023 Portland event, organizers admit their whole “protecting women and children” branding is a PR costume designed to hide their anti-trans agenda. Their goal? To stage a scene where they play “peaceful victims” attacked by “violent trans activists.”

In planning materials that got leaked for the 2023 Portland event, WDI-USA and WoLF organizers openly admitted that the event’s stated focus, “protecting women and children,” was deliberately chosen to mask their anti-trans agenda. In audio leaked to RCA, organizers are heard saying “we’re trying to just make it be very clearly about protecting women and kids, and we’re not even really trying to use the word ‘trans,’ because that’ll make the crazies look even crazier.” The WDI-USA and WoLF coordinators envisioned this event as an opportunity to publicly play the role of peaceful, defenseless women’s rights activists violently attacked by their opponents. 

WDI-USA Zoom 2 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Excerpt from a WDI-USA direct action planning Zoom meeting

Internet Archive

Dansky isn’t shy about her alliances. She boasts about being on Tucker Carlson’s show “something like 10 times,” and frequently cites Jennifer Bilek, an antisemitic conspiracy theorist who claims Jewish billionaires invented trans people (yes, really). Bilek promotes Holocaust deniers, reptilian conspiracy theorists, and neo-Nazis. This is the intellectual ecosystem of WDI-USA.

Dansky is close with, and frequently cites the work of, antisemitic and anti-trans writer Jennifer Bilek. Bilek, who was previously associated with Deep Green Resistance (the environmental activism group founded by Lierre Keith) believes that a secretive group of billionaires are responsible for the existence of trans people, often singling out Jewish billionaires George Soros, Martine Rothblatt, and Jennifer Pritzker. Bilek has promoted the work of David Icke, creator of the “Reptilian” conspiracy theory, notorious Holocaust denialist, and a proponent of the profoundly influential antisemitic work “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” Bilek has also praised and shared the work of neo-Nazis like Keith Woods, responsible for theories such as “Transhuman Judaism” – Woods himself has appeared alongside alt-right fascist Richard Spencer on Spencer’s own podcast.

Trans-eliminationist pseudofeminist ideology is largely based on the absurd, conspiratorial theory that trans women are violent sexual fetishists attempting to infiltrate feminism and violently “colonize womanhood”, as Kara Dansky puts it. Dansky frequently states that she believes “transgender does not exist” (to quote her directly), and that trans people are engaged in a sinister collective lie about their identities. Like Jennifer Bilek, Dansky adheres to a conspiracy theory in which the trans rights movement is an invention, manufactured by a “gender identity industry” of corporate billionaires to generate profit and — again, in Dansky’s own words — “obliterate life as we know it”. Hers are clearly the views of someone very far down a conspiracy “rabbit hole,” and thus not worth attempting to refute here point by point; we include these details only to illustrate the ridiculous foundation upon which her ideology and organization have been built. What has been described as the terf-to-fascist pipeline is a consequence of the slippery slope of conspiratorial right-wing radicalization and bigotry; once a person swallows an elaborate lie scapegoating one marginalized demographic (in this case, trans women), conspiracies about other groups appear more palatable. - RCA

TERF ideology relies on the disgustingly false and bigoted conspiracy that trans women are predatory men infiltrating feminism, a delusion Dansky cranks up to eleven, insisting “transgender does not exist” and that a “gender identity industry” is trying to “obliterate life as we know it.” Once someone buys into one elaborate bigotry, conspiracies about other marginalized groups slot in effortlessly. That TERF-to-fascist pipeline isn’t hypothetical, it’s paved with emails, podcast appearances, and leaked Zoom calls.

While Dansky was on the board, WoLF accepted funding from the Christian nationalist legal group ADF, the same ADF behind overturning Roe v. Wade and multiple devastating anti-LGBTQ+ Supreme Court cases. WoLF also partnered with the Family Policy Alliance and the Heritage Foundation to create an anti-trans “Gender Resource Guide” for parents.

In 2019, the Heritage Foundation hosted a panel of trans-eliminationist pseudofeminists and ’liberals’ in opposition to the Equality Act’s inclusion of gender identity as a protected class. Among the panelists were Kara Dansky and Jennifer Chavez, both WoLF board members at the time.” (RCA).

WDI-USA also boosts the work of Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (Posie Parker), a proudly anti-trans, anti-abortion figure who happily appears alongside white nationalists (see also: this). In the past she has baselessly accused a pro-LGBTQ+ actor of being a pedophile simply for supporting his nonbinary child… textbook far-right “groomer” rhetoric. Parker has also served as a special advisor on WoLF’s board.

At one of her rallies in Tacoma, where Lierre Keith was also present, rally-goers maced counter-protesters and called the cops on high school students. WDI-USA didn’t denounce the violence. They praised it, framing the actions of the trans-eliminationists as “non-violent resistance.”

So yeah, Portland didn’t just shut down a little library meet-up. The community successfully blocked a recruitment event for a global, extremist, genocidal anti-trans network. And they did it with humor, solidarity, and a truly impressive assortment of pantry items.