Feminist Current

The transitioning of kids is ever more common these days, despite growing concerns about physical, mental, and social impacts of encouraging youth to identify as the opposite sex. A new documentary film, Trans Mission, explores the background, messaging, and consequences of transitioning kids, through conversations with doctors, experts, parents, educators, and detransitioners.

In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with Jennifer Lahl, founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network (CBC) and a pediatric nurse, whose writing has been published in Cambridge University Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the American Journal of Bioethics. She serves on the North American Editorial Board for Ethics and Medicine, and directed Eggsploitation and #BigFertility, both of which explore the infertility industry. Jennifer's newest documentary film, Trans Mission, is now available to watch on YouTube.

A key concern for women, in terms of the impact of gender identity legislation, has been new policies being rolled out in various countries around the world, allowing males to compete with and against girls in sport. Beth Stelzer is a housewife, a mom, and an amateur powerlifter in Minnesota. She founded Save Women's Sports in 2019. She is currently traveling around the US, advocating for legislation that protects women and girls sports and fighting legislation allowing males who identify as female to compete with and against women and girls.

Meghan Murphy speaks with Beth about the situation in the US, in terms of legislation, and why this fight matters.

Donna Hughes is a Professor at the University of Rhode Island (URI) in the Gender and Women's Studies Department. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence and has long conducted research on human trafficking, particularly the sexual exploitation and trafficking of women and girls. After publishing an article entitled, "Fantasy Worlds on the Political Right and Left: QAnon and Trans-Sex Beliefs" at 4W, the calls for her firing began online. Due to her criticisms of gender identity ideology, the University denounced her with zero conversation. Hughes is a founding member of the recently-launched Academic Freedom Alliance.  She told Inside Higher Ed that her case demonstrates “precisely why the AFA was founded and is so necessary.”

On January 20 2021, President Biden signed the “Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.” Biden’s order chooses to interpret sex broadly as “sexual orientation and gender identity” but does not make any provisions for the physical category of sex, meaning that women and girls may no longer be a legally protected class once the order is implemented.

In response, American feminists are organizing. Courtney Piper, a Former Child Protective Service Specialist, Doula, mother, grassroots  journalist, and spiritual activist, has planned Women Picket DC, set to take place on March 8 — international women’s day — to protest Biden’s executive order and to demand rights as women and girls to single sex spaces and sports.

Meghan Murphy speaks with Courtney about her work and demands.

Last month, on inauguration day, President Biden signed the “Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.” Women across the United States and around the world reacted with anger. This meant, they feared, the erasure of women’s sex-based rights. But the language and impacts of the order are difficult to decipher, for a layperson. In order to clarify, Meghan Murphy speaks with Lauren Adams, legal director of Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF), a US-based women-only organization dedicated to the total liberation of women and girls.