July 17th, 2024
The U.S. chapter of Women’s Declaration International (WDI USA) denounces all forms of political violence, including the shooting of former President Donald Trump that took place on Saturday, July 13, 2024 (and the tragic death of an innocent bystander). In civilized societies, citizens debate and decide policy using words and ballots, not physical violence.
In the immediate wake of the shooting, the political chattering class (across the political spectrum) pounced.
The most common narrative on the political Right was that the shooting was the fault of Democrats, “the Left,” and the media.
Apparently, a lot of X users took the opportunity to lament that the shooter had missed. Left-leaning media outlets generally either tried to downplay the shooting or use it as an opportunity to tear apart Republicans for not doing more on gun control. Given that this was an attempted political assassination that resulted in the death of an innocent person, we do not think any of this is appropriate or acceptable, let alone helpful.
Early reports described the shooter as a member of the supposedly far-Left group antifa (which consists primarily of violent male bullies):
“Mark Violets,” in fact, is an English translation of Marco Violi (the man in the image). Violi is an Italian sports writer and video blogger and not, in fact, the shooter.
Apparently, some people even decided to blame Israel for the shooting:
All of this is extremely irresponsible, and undermines the dispassionate and clear-headed discussion essential to a functioning democracy.
It later came out that the actual shooter was Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. It has been confirmed that Crooks was a registered Republican who, three years ago, made a $15 contribution to Act Blue, a PAC that raises money for Democratic candidates.
It turns out that many of the early reports, on all sides, were irresponsible, manipulative, and/or outright wrong. These inaccurate reports and mischaracterizations do nothing but fuel already inflamed emotions during a thorny election year.
WDI USA believes in reasoned discourse, nonviolent advocacy, fair and accurate language, and, of course, democracy. All of this is undermined by the use of political physical violence and inaccurate, manipulative discourse.
___
WDI USA volunteers have been on the receiving end of both political violence and inaccurate, manipulative political discourse.
WDI USA is a nonpartisan organization; we are not aligned with any political party. That said, the majority of our supporters consider themselves to be liberal, very liberal, or progressive. Of our roughly 6500 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 are radical feminists. We are often referred to as TERFs. The acronym “TERF” was originally intended to mean “trans exclusionary radical feminist.” That characterization is inaccurate because radical feminists fight for women and girls as a sex class—including women and girls who are struggling to accept themselves as female (and would likely refer to themselves as “transgender men” or “nonbinary individuals”). We think of TERF as meaning something more along the lines of “tired of explaining real facts” or “tirelessly explaining reality to fools.”
Over the years, we have been subjected to numerous attacks, threats of violence, and instances of physical violence when we have tried to speak out publicly about the threats that men (including men who claim to have a woman “gender identity”) pose to women and girls. The vast majority of those who threaten and/or inflict violence against us are men. In December 2022, our president Kara Dansky participated in a public speak-out opposing the housing of men in women’s prisons; a man assaulted her with an umbrella and threw a raw egg at her head (while other men assaulted other women with pies). Throughout the course of 2023, WDI USA held a series of speaking events in Florida, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Portland. In Philadelphia and San Francisco, we had to be protected by armed police officers against mobs of men (and women) who were screaming at us and threatening to attack us physically; the only reason we were spared is that the police did their jobs. In Portland, the police did not do their jobs, and we were physically attacked. Several of us were tear-gassed, and had to go to the hospital. A man threw a can filled with liquid directly at WDI USA board member Irene Lawrence, who was badly bruised. The mob also stole many of our phones and our banner declaring that a woman is an adult human female.
Our attackers were almost exclusively men. They were not, however, conservative men. Conservative men, for the most part, do not object when we say that a woman is an adult human female (though they object to many other of our positions and are no champions of women’s rights). Our attackers were men on the political Left.
This is nothing other than political violence perpetrated by men against Left-leaning women.
We have also been mischaracterized ad nauseum over the years by similar men (and their female supporters), news media, and traditionally left-leaning advocacy groups.
In a 2023 blog post, the National Organization for Women (NOW) described WDI USA as “anti-trans bigots disguised as feminists.” A Norwegian magazine has called WDI a “hate group.” Others describe us as “far right” or “fascist.” The Southern Poverty Law Center lists us in its 2023 “brief history of key events in the development of the contemporary anti-LGBTQ+ pseudoscience network.” These are outright lies. There is nothing hateful about standing up for women and girls. We are not “far right” (quite the contrary). We cannot be “anti-LGBTQ+” because many of us are lesbians or bisexual women. We do disagree that a man can be a type of woman or vice-versa. There is hardly anything “pseudoscientific” about that. The language often used to describe us is manipulative and outright wrong.
WDI USA stands firmly in support of nonviolent advocacy and we invite anyone who disagrees with us to engage with us in a spirit of good-faith discussion, honest disagreement, and ethical debate. It is time for all of society, regardless of political orientation, to denounce the use of political violence and irresponsible and manipulative language to accomplish political goals. Democracy requires nothing less.
I am not in the USA nor am I American but I fully support you all in every one of your articles and advocacy.
I am not a liberal or a Democrat, nor am I a Republican, but I support anyone standing up for the rights of my two daughters – and my niece, sisters, mother, aunts, grandmother, myself – as well as any future granddaughters I may have.
Phenomena that impact every second of a person’s life, like women’s actual RIGHTS should not be a “political issue”; no one should be voting on whether or not we maintain our rights, because they are INHERENT (we’re born with them). This was the problem with gay marriage being on the ballot so many times in the first place and why it took a Supreme Court ruling to right the wrong of gay marriage being illegal…we should NOT be voting on whether or not an adult is “allowed” to marry another adult. It is their RIGHT. No one who isn’t gay should get a vote on that – not should any male be casting a vote against women’s rights. To do so is mob rule – not democracy.
Though I may not agree with some political issues that are quite obvious by reading your blog, you’re supporting women, and for that, I’m behind your cause and I will be for life.