Democratic Women’s Caucus Ignores Women Speaking Out About “Gender Identity” Around the World: Global Call to Action

On April 19, 2024, the Democratic Women’s Caucus (DWC) issued a statement concerning Title IX rule changes announced by the U.S. Department of Education that same day. The DWC states on the mission page of its website:

The Democratic Women’s Caucus (DWC) is composed of all the Democratic women in the House of Representatives. The DWC is dedicated to the advancement of full equal rights, economic opportunity, improved health and safety, and elimination of laws and policies with discriminatory or disparate impacts for women and girls, and works to achieve these goals through legislation, advocacy, and educational efforts.

Women’s Declaration International USA (WDI USA) agrees with this mission statement and is pleased that there is a group of women in the U.S. House of Representatives purporting to stand up for women and girls.

The DWC’s April 19 statement concerning the recent Title IX rule changes focuses exclusively on provisions of those changes that strengthen protections for survivors of campus sexual assault, harassment, and discrimination. WDI USA agrees with those aspects of the rule changes.

Surprisingly, the DWC’s statement did not mention the fact that the Department’s Title IX rule changes also redefined sex to include the nebulous and sexist concept of “gender identity” for all Title IX purposes. Given that this redefinition will have disastrous consequences for women and girls as a sex class, we thought this omission was significant.

We are asking women all over the world to:

1. Bring as much attention to this situation as possible globally by sharing it with women’s groups and members of the media; and
2. Contact the DWC to share your concerns about this glaring omission.

On April 29, 2024, the U.S. chapter of Women’s Declaration International sent the following email message to the Chairwoman and the Vice Chairwoman of the DWC:

Dear Chairwoman Frankel, Vice Chairwoman Fernandez, and other members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus,

We are the U.S. chapter of Women’s Declaration International (WDI USA). We appreciate your message that we can “count on the Democratic Women’s Caucus to fight for all girls and women in our country and around the world.” We especially appreciate your commitment to abortion rights, which is consistent with Article III of the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights (the Declaration). We work to advance the Declaration throughout U.S. law and policy. 

As explained below, we would like to meet with your organization, possibly with Scottish Member of Parliament Joanna Cherry, with whom we are in contact.

The Declaration reaffirms women’s sex-based rights, including women’s rights to physical and reproductive integrity, and the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and girls that result from the replacement of the category of sex with that of “gender identity” or the redefinition of sex to include “gender identity.” We are a nonpartisan organization, but our supporters generally consider themselves to be liberal, very liberal, or progressive. Of our roughly 6000 supporters, around 30 percent are Democrats and 34 percent are Independents (many having left the Democratic Party, no doubt due to opposition to the Party’s support for “gender identity”). Only seven percent are Republicans and the rest are either unaffiliated or prefer not to say.

We noted with interest your statement concerning the Department of Education’s recent finalization of the June 2022 proposed changes to the Title IX implementing regulations. We completely agree that the provisions that strengthen protections for survivors are an improvement over, in your words, “the draconian Trump-era Title IX rule, which made it more difficult for students to report and get support after experiencing sexual assault, harassment, and discrimination.” We expressed support for this change during a telephonic meeting with OMB in 2022, shortly after the proposed changes were announced.

We noticed that your statement did not mention the provisions of the now-finalized June 2022 proposed rules that redefine sex to include “gender identity” for all Title IX purposes. We addressed that in a statement published a few days after the rules were finalized.

We also noticed that your November 2023 statement urging the Department to finalize the June 2022 proposed rules redefining sex to include “gender identity” for all Title IX purposes was signed by 64 House Democrats (which is fewer than one quarter of all House Democrats). As you no doubt know, your Senate colleagues published an open letter in September 2022 supporting the Department’s redefinition of sex to include “gender identity” for all Title IX purposes. That letter was signed by 19 Senate Democrats (fewer than half of all Senate Democrats).

It is impossible to speculate about any Congress member’s reasons for supporting (or not supporting) the Department’s redefinition of sex to include “gender identity” for all Title IX purposes, but we wonder if a clear majority of Congressional Democrats understand how deeply unpopular the Department’s redefinition is with the general electorate. WDI USA worked with SurveyUSA last year to conduct polling on these topics. Across the political spectrum, four out of five voters nationwide say that the word “women” means adult humans who are biologically female. Eighty-four percent of voters say an all-female high school basketball team should face opponents who are female only and 85 percent say when a female gym member is showering and changing in the women’s locker room, the other users in the locker room should be female only.

As you may know, Joanna Cherry is a Member of Parliament (MP) in Scotland and a member of the Scottish National Party. She is also a lesbian. On Lesbian Visibility Day, she posted a video of a speech she gave in Parliament about the harms that “gender identity” poses to women as a sex class and to lesbians in particular. Her speech is quite persuasive, and we hope you’ll take a few minutes to watch it.

Our president, Kara Dansky (copied), has spoken with MP Cherry in person, and MP Cherry has expressed interest in meeting with female Congressional Democrats to discuss this topic. Given your clear commitment to fighting “for all girls and women in our country and around the world,” we hope you might consider speaking with her and we would be happy to arrange such a private meeting. Even if you are not interested in meeting with MP Cherry at this time, Ms. Dansky lives in Washington D.C. and would be happy to meet with your organization privately at any time. We would also be happy to arrange a virtual meeting at your convenience.

WDI is a global organization with hundreds of country chapters. The Declaration has nearly 40,000 signatures from 160 countries in collaboration with over 500 organizations. Reem Alsalem is the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls and she also opposes the Title IX changes. On December 27, 2023, she issued a statement denouncing these changes and calling them a contravention of international human rights obligations. Just today, she issued a new statement, saying, “The erroneous redefinition of ‘sex’ through these implementing regulations constitutes a grave setback that will increase the vulnerability of the majority of women and girls to incursions into their privacy, including voyeurism, sexual harassment and physical and sexual attacks, by effectively removing single sex spaces.” She notes further, “It is my hope that the U.S. Government will act swiftly to reverse course. My mandate stands ready to provide support and advice in this regard.” We are in contact with the Special Rapporteur directly. 

We look forward to receiving your response to this message. If we do not receive a response by May 17, we plan to publish this letter and share it with our feminist colleagues around the world. 

In solidarity in fighting for women and girls globally,
The WDI USA Board of Directors
Kara Dansky
Katherine Kinney
Irene Lawrence
Lauren Levey
Lorraine Nowlin

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The DWC states the following on the main page of its website:

Our message to women is simple: you can count on the Democratic Women’s Caucus to fight for all girls and women in our country and around the world.

Given that noble mission, we hoped the DWC would take note of both Special Rapporteur Alsalem’s strongly-worded statements about the Biden Administration’s Title IX rule changes and MP Cherry’s expression of willingness to meet with women members of Congress to discuss this important topic.

Unfortunately, however, we did not receive a response to our message by the May 17 deadline and so have decided to make this matter public. We are disappointed that the DWC has chosen to ignore the voices of prominent women around the world who are speaking out about the dangers that “gender identity” poses to women and girls.

We are asking women all over the world to:

1. Bring as much attention to this situation as possible globally by sharing it with women’s groups and members of the media; and
2. Contact the DWC to share your concerns about this glaring omission.

The DWC can be reached at [email protected]. You can also find them on X at @DemWomensCaucus. 

The Board of Directors of WDI USA
Kara Dansky
Katherine Kinney
Irene Lawrence
Lauren Levey
Lorraine Nowlin

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