PODCAST: The Women’s Human Rights Campaign launches in the US, fighting to save women’s sex-based rights

09/18/20 • 66 min

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On August 16, the Women’s Human Rights Campaign (WHRC) launched its United States chapter. WHRC is an international group of women dedicated to protecting the human rights of women and girls, and opposing the replacement of the category of sex with “gender identity.” The organization is gathering signatures on its Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights, the organization’s founding document.

In the US, feminists are faced with fighting the Equality Act (H.R. 5), passed by a Democratic majority in the House last year. The Equality Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, sex, and gender identity, causing a conflict for the protection of women’s rights.

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Katherine Acosta, recent Co-Chair of the Interim Steering Committee for WHRC USA, and Lauren Levey, a veteran women’s rights activist, and recent member of WHRC USA about the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights, the Equality Act, and how we might shape law in order to protect the rights of women, as well as the gender non-conforming or trans-identified.

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PODCAST: Daphna Morell and Luba Fein on the feminist movement in Israel

The global women’s movement is a force to be reckoned with. The fight against the sex trade has been particularly successful in Israel, where feminists united to pass The Prohibition of Consumption of Prostitution Services Act, a law that imposes fines for consuming prostitution or attempting to pay for it. The law began being enforced in July, making Israel the tenth country to adopt the Nordic model.

To learn more about the feminist movement in Israel, I spoke with two Israeli activists, Daphna Morell and Luba Fein. Daphna is a libertarian and feminist from Tel Aviv, currently living in Portland. Luba is an anti-sex trade activist living in Israel. She is a member of the Women’s Organization Coalition against Prostitution and Trafficking in Israel, and has worked with various NGOs to implement the Nordic model in Israel. Luba is currently working on a book analyzing the history of the Sex Buyer Law in Israel from the perspective of sex trade survivors.

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PODCAST: The Transsexual Empire revisited — Janice Raymond on transgenderism, yesterday and today

In 1979, Janice Raymond published The Transsexual Empire, the first and probably most well-known book articulating a radical feminist analysis of transgenderism. Little did we know, 40 years later, trans activism would become the biggest threat to feminism in decades. She warned us all, early on, and now we are living it: watching women’s sex based right be eroded in order to accommodate gender identity legislation. So much of Raymond’s analysis could have been written today. But it wasn’t

I spoke with Janice recently about the book, how it was received then vs how it is discussed today, the backlash, what we are up against now, and how we can fight back.

Janice is professor emerita of women’s studies and medical ethics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the author of four books, was Co-Executive Director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) from 1994–2007, and served on CATW’s Board of Directors until recently.

I spoke with her over Skype on September 15, 2020.