April 26, 2024

Idavox

The Media Outlet of One People's Project

Christian Fundamentalist financial backing of Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist groups

Yeah, this shoe dropped a few days ago. If you are fighting for trans rights this was kinda expected right? Andy Ngo took an interest in the Seattle event by this crew, so you KNOW something reeked!

On February 1, 2020, a group calling itself Women’s Liberation Front held an event in Seattle, Washington called “Fighting The New Misogyny.” Also going by WoLF, this group posits itself as “radical feminists […] dedicated to the total liberation of women.” This Seattle event was met with protests from local activists, who objected to the trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) content on display. A common tactic among TERFs is to try and drive a wedge between trans groups and the rest of the greater queer community. This is done for a multitude of reasons, but most popular are arguments that trans people are not legitimately queer, do not belong in the queer community or are otherwise hindering the advancement of lesbian, gay and bisexual civil rights. In reality, many TERF and trans-exclusionary LGB groups are working to advance the goals of conservative christian and explicitly anti-gay hate groups by supporting this bigoted wedge issue.

WoLF makes portions of its financial filings public on its website, and has information for FY2017 and FY2018 available for download as PDFs. These are copies of form 990-N, which are proof that the organization does not need to file a 990 or 990-EZ because their total yearly income was less than $50,000. The relevant information, however, is their address. In 2017, they listed their address as 1800 M Street NW, Unit 33943, Washington DC 20033. An internet search for this address produced a link to a ProPublica entry for the FY2017 990 form for Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly Alliance Defense Fund).

There is no embedding of this massive file, but you can read the entirety of the Alliance Defending Freedom form 990 for FY2017 at ProPublica by clicking this link.

In the “Grants And Other Assistance” portion of the filing, entry 13 is occupied by a $15,000 grant to Women’s Liberation Front, 1800 M Street NW, Unit 33943.

Alliance Defense Fund is a SPLC-listed anti-gay hate group, founded in 1993 by James Dobson (founder, Focus on the Family), D. James Kennedy (founder, Coral Ridge Ministries), and a host of other Christian fundamentalist extremists. Its current chairman is Michael “Mike” P. Farris, who is the founder of Patrick Henry College and the Home School Legal Defense Association. “Irony” does not even begin to encompass the alliance between a group that nominally supports feminist causes and an industry of theocratic Christian fundamentalists that seek prison time for people who exercise reproductive freedom.

It is little wonder then, that a group that takes $15,000 from a SPLC-listed anti-gay hate group also produces articles claiming to have “no confidence in LGB leadership.” Rather than accomplish its intended goals of de-legitimizing trans people, WoLF has succeeded in calling its own legitimacy as an advocate for womens’ rights into question through its alliance with extreme Christian theocrats.