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Robin Tyler is an iconic Radical Feminist lesbian who talked with me about the ways she confronted TERF violence and oppression against trans women. We discussed Tyler’s involvement with the 1973 West Coast Lesbian Feminist Conference. For some context on why this particular conference was so important, Susan Stryker sums it up well:
[Beth] Elliott also served on the organizing committee of the West Coast Lesbian Feminist Conference, planned for April of 1973 in Los Angeles, and she had been asked to perform as a singer in the conference’s entertainment program.
The Gutter Dykes leafleted the conference to protest the presence there of a “man” (Elliott), and keynote speaker Robin Morgan, recently arrived from the East Coast, hastily expanded her address to incorporate elements of the brewing controversy. All of her incorporations seem to have come from separatist material, and none from Elliott and her supporters. Morgan’s speech, titled “Lesbianism and Feminism: Synonyms or Contradictions?” was subsequently published in her memoir Going Too Far: The Personal Chronicle of a Feminist, and it was also widely anthologized. More than twelve hundred Women at the conference—which turned out to be the largest lesbian gathering to date—listened to the speech firsthand. For many attendees, the controversy over Beth Elliott’s participation in the West Coast Lesbian Feminist Conference was their first encounter with the “transgender question,” and what transpired there would inform opinions nationwide. – Trans History by Susan Stryker, pages 103 – 104
Robin Tyler and Patty Harrison were partners in a Radical Feminist comedy duo known as Harrison & Tyler. They were scheduled to perform at the Conference, but TERFs became violent and attempted to physically assault Beth Elliott, an out trans woman, who was also scheduled to perform.
[hr]Cristan Williams: You were at the 1973 West Cost Lesbian Feminist Conference where TERFs had threatened to disrupt the conference?
Robin Tyler: Yes, Harrison & Tyler were performers and we defended Beth Eliot. Robin Morgan came up with this horrible speech and when Beth went on stage to play her guitar and sing, [TERFs] started threatening her. Patty [Harrison] and I jumped on stage and we got hit, because they came onto the stage to physically beat her.
Williams: Oh my god!
Tyler: We stepped up and defended Beth. When Robin Morgan came out against Beth, I said to her, look, you’re bisexual and you’re up here determining who should belong to this movement and who shouldn’t? Both Patty and I thought it was just terrible. It wasn’t like we totally understood transgender people at the time, because we didn’t, but how are you beat someone? It was just disgusting.
Around the time that TERFs were sending death threats to the radical-feminist lesbian-separatist music collective, Olivia Records for being trans-inclusive, Olivia produced Tyler’s groundbreaking comedy album, Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Groom.
Tyler: I produced my first album Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Groom and Olivia distributed it. So, I know Judy [Dlugacz]. I knew the people from Olivia Records and I couldn’t believe it when there was a problem with Sandy Stone! Can you believe it? All of that over Sandy! You know what’s interesting? Rather than fighting who’s oppressing us, TERFs go after the most oppressed people instead of building a coalition. It was all just shocking to me! I think maybe what helped me was that I knew trans guys who were on testosterone back when I was in New York. Maybe when you get to know people personally, it’s hard to hate them, or fear them.
So, [Camp Trans] at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival was good. It was a great chance to get to know trans people personally. Having a space to meet trans women, to talk to them and to do workshops and educate people. That was good!
[hr]In her commentary, Susan Stryker notes that the group of TERFs who were primarily targeting Beth Elliot called themselves the “Gutter Dykes.” TERF pioneer, lecturer, writer and opinion leader, Bev Von Dohre (AKA, “BevJo”) was an active member of the Gutter Dykes at the 1973 Conference and was directly involved with the effort to target Elliot. Von Dohre is somewhat infamous for stating:
[Trans people’s] arrogance and oppressiveness is amazing. It is funny though that they are so used to Feminists immediately bowing before them that they don’t know how to deal with that we don’t care what happens to them. They expect we’ll be shocked to see statistics about them being killed, and don’t realize, some of us wish they would ALL be dead. – Bev Von Dohre, 2010
Von Dohre contributed to a Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival booklet that proclaims itself to be a “Radical Feminist Greetings & Messages for MichFest 2014.” In the booklet she writes:
Radical Feminists NEVER agree to the female-hating trans cult con that men could be women or Lesbians. (We also do not accept “‘trans-paraplegic” able-bodied men who demand to be accepted as paraplegic Lesbians.) This includes not supporting these men appropriating our identity by calling them “transfolk” or “transwomen” or any other terms that give credence to the idea that they are somehow more special than other misogynist female impersonators. Radical Feminists never call men “women” of any kind or “she” or “her,” or call women “men.”
Radical Feminists do not lie, threaten, bully, manipulate, play games, name-call, ridicule, taunt, insult, abuse, or use oppression against other women (such as using classist or racist terms aimed to humiliate women oppressed by classism or racism.) -Bev Von Dohre, Radical Feminist Greetings, pages 12 – 13
[hr]In the next portion of my interview with Robin Tyler, she discusses her first-hand experience with the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival and talks about the TERF violence that lead her to start her own, trans-inclusive Women’s Music Festival.
Next in this series: A TERF’s fist gave rise to trans-inclusive women’s music festivals
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[…] radical feminist Robin Tyler beaten by TERFs, recounting attempted bashing of Beth […]
[…] Robin Tyler, em uma entrevista. […]
[…] “Robin Morgan subiu no palco com esse discurso horrível e, quando Beth subiu para tocar seu violão e cantar, elas começaram a ameaçá-la. Patty e eu subimos no palco e fomos agredidas, porque elas subiram no palco para fisicamente agredi-la. […] Nós subimos e defendemos Beth”, relatou Robin Tyler em uma entrevista. […]
[…] to Lesbian-feminism, feminist collectives and feminist institutions such as the trans-inclusive West Coast Lesbian Conference – at that time, the largest gathering of Lesbian Feminists ever – and the Olivia […]
By Cristan Williams@cristanwilliams
Tumblr TERF, radfem-momma apparently thinks it’s okay to threaten trans kids with murder as long as you lie about the reason.
BACKSTORY:
This post has to do with Tumblr TERFs trying to make the abuse a trans kid experienced by adult MichFest TERFs seem somehow okay. The abuse was witnessed by multiple individuals, specifically members of the Lesbian Avengers and a MichFest performer and member of Sister Spit, Nomy Lamm. The account of what happened to this trans kid is located here (under “The Cycle Continues” section). However, here’s what eyewitnesses said happened at MichFest:
In 1999, Camp Trans was largely facilitated by two chapters of the Lesbian Avengers and as part of the group’s action, they brought a 16-year-old trans girl to the MWMF ticket booth and informed them that everyone in the group was from Camp Trans. Moreover, they explicitly stated that some of their group was trans. While the MWMF sold everyone in the group tickets, the moment the group of Avengers entered the gates, TERFs began trailing the group shouting, “MAN ON THE LAND!” This continued until the TERF group turned into a mob that had surrounded the trans youth, yelling and shouting at her until MWMF security moved everyone to a tent where the trans youth was made to stand in front of the large group of TERFs who spent the next two hours berating her. One adult TERF openly threatened the life of the trans kid without consequence. Afterwards, the youth was marched to the gates of the festival and expelled. I interviewed the Lesbian Avengers about their experience:
[Lesbian Avenger]: About 10 TERFs were waiting for us when we came in. The whole ‘MAN ON THE LAND!’ started as soon as we walked in. I mean, at the time, we’re kids, we’re teenagers and these are all adults. I mean, when I think about it now, it was just so fucked up. We were trying to give out t-shirts and stickers about being inclusive. But, it was getting bad.
[Trans girl in the group]: A huge crowd of yelling people formed around us and I started crying at that point. It got so loud that Nomy Lamm, who was performing there as part of Sister Spit, came over and stood up for us… The crowd and me were walked over to a tent area. The way that it worked was that there was a queue of people who were going to get to say whatever they wanted to say. I remember, specifically, one woman looking right at me and telling me that I needed to leave the Land as soon as possible because she had a knife and didn’t know if she would be able to control herself if I was around her.
Cristan Williams: WHAT? How did people react to that death threat?
[Trans girl in the group]: Because of the way they were queuing, as soon as one person stopped speaking, another would start, so nobody said or did anything about the death threat. At that point, I checked out. At first I was sobbing and [B] was holding my face close to hers, telling me that it would be over soon, but then I just checked out.
[Lesbian Avenger]: The moderator did nothing. It was just a mud-slinging, hatred pouring out. It was just like one by one by one being like, ‘You’re a rapist! You’re raping the Land! You’re destroying womanhood! I don’t know what I’m going to do to you!’ – it was just violent, hatred, and I know that most of it was geared at [the trans girl in the group]. I was up there being attacked, but I wasn’t getting the brunt of it. This went on for at least two hours. At least 30 people were allowed to speak at us, but there were around 75 under the tent, and if you included the people around the tent who were watching and listening, well over 100.
I asked Lamm about what she had observed before the trans kid was forced to stand before the TERF mob to be publicly threatened and castigated. Lamm said that she had known the Lesbian Avengers were going to be there and found them as the TERF mob began to assemble.
Lamm: I was all ‘Oh I’m so happy to meet you’ and then all the sudden it was like we were surrounded by people screaming at [the trans girl in the group], this one woman in particular was going “What is your point? Why are you here?” and I remember standing in front of her and spreading my arms to keep people away from [the trans girl in the group] and I was like “She doesn’t have to talk to you! She doesn’t have to answer your questions! She’s doing a workshop tomorrow, go to the workshop if you want information.” [T]hese women came screaming towards us yelling “We are being raped right now! Penises on the land!” and shit like that.
Williams: Can you talk about how you felt in that moment, standing there with your arms out protecting her from these people?
Lamm: I think I just felt really protective. I was like, “No way! Huh uh! You’re not gonna fuck with this brave [kid] who put herself on the frontlines here!” I felt angry that people couldn’t see that this was a person, a vulnerable young person… I can’t imagine how traumatic that must have been for her.
Lamm’s courage didn’t evaporate once the trans girl in the group was physically safe. During her set on the MWMF stage, she publicly took a stand against the woman-born woman Intention.
Lamm: When I was on stage I said, “I just want to say that including trans women in this space is not going to take anything away, it’s going to add to it. I’ve been in women-only spaces that include trans women and that’s been my experience.” I was surprised that a bunch of people stood up and cheered. It made me feel hopeful.
In a press release dated August 24, 1999, MWMF organizer Lisa Vogel addressed what occurred to the trans youth thusly:
A number of spontaneous gatherings developed where participants discussed and debated the presence of the Son of Camp Trans activists and their actions. Volunteer facilitators helped to structure discussions so that various viewpoints, including those of the Son of Camp Trans, could be heard. The Son of Camp Trans activists scheduled a workshop session for Saturday at noon in the workshop area, and various Festival participants announced their intention to hold community meetings at different locations on Saturday.
Apparently some TERFs on Tumblr are trying to figure out how to justify their long history of actual violence against trans people. Tumblr user radfem-momma wrote and fuckyeah-radicalfeminism reblogged:
“[A]bout the horrible ‘harassment’ of the 16-year-old at Michfest. The kid was participating in a march of trans women onto the land stark naked, but, yeah, it’s radfems who were harming that kid, not the adult trans women who endorsed sexual exploitation of a minor.”
According to these TERFs, this 16 year old trans kid – for some inexplicable reason – was nude in the middle of the group of fully clothed Lesbian Avengers she arrived with. Note that in the above TERF historical account, the trans kid was supposedly with a “march of [adult] trans women.” I guess it better fits the TERF narrative about trans women if adult trans women are portrayed as marching a nude trans kid around MichFest. Consider for a moment the animus that animates both the above quoted lie and the gleeful consumption of this lie by TERFs. How much hate is needed to predispose TERFs to accept – on faith alone – that the above quoted claim about the morality of trans women is plausible?
I want you to think about the ethical collapse it takes for an adult to A.) lie about a traumatized trans kid; B.) gloatingly sexualize this traumatized trans kid; and, C.) promote this falsehood in an effort to justify the actions of an adult TERF who stood up in front of a mob of other TERFs and threatened this trans kid’s life. Consider too that TERFs want – need – you to believe that this macabre ethic represents “radical feminism.” Moreover, I find how eager TERFs are to openly embrace and spread this ethic by liking and reblogging this libelous falsehood chilling.
To set the record straight, I contacted the trans kid (now an adult) and asked her why she had supposedly stripped nude before entering MichFest with the rest of her Lesbian Avenger group. For the record, she replied:
No, I was at no point nude and everyone you spoke to can verify that. I did not shower or remove my clothes at any point outside of a tent (where I changed for bed and in the morning).
I also checked with Nomy Lamm, asking her if she observed the trans kid in question in a state of undress. For the record, she replied:
Absolutely not. That is not what happened. Thanks for checking in about that. [The trans kid] was absolutely wearing clothes.
At this point it should be clear that one of two things is true. Either:
A.) Everyone who witnessed what happened – including a MichFest performer – are all part of a conspiracy to silence the truth that adult trans women – and not the Lesbian Avengers – brought a nude trans kid to MichFest and for some nefarious reason, paraded the kid’s naked body around the festival; or,
B.) TERFs lie.
Here’s the fact claim TERFs are passing back and forth to each other on Tumblr:
For the record, I am not now, nor have I ever been a “MRA.” Since I transitioned before the internet was a thing, I’d be curious to know how radfem-momma came up with this fact claim. Personally, I think that if one’s ethics will allow one to sexualize and monster a trans kid in order to justify a TERF threatening to murder that kid with a knife, I don’t think it would be a stretch for this TERF to lie about why I find the behavior of people like radfem-momma repugnant.
Here’s a list of the other fact assertions radfem-momma et al make:
Tweeting that vacant property a well-known TERF activist was selling online is really fancy and expensive is the same thing as a man stalking a woman in real life.
For years I’ve been a “Men’s Rights Activists” because I document TERF history on TheTERFs.com.
TheTERFs.com doesn’t provide any evidance to prove that TERFs act to harm trans people.
I supposedly wrote an article by Zoe Brain.
TERFS didn’t disrupt the 1973 West Coast Lesbian Conference when:
They issued a death threat to the trans woman who helped organize the Conference [1]
They instructed TERFs to “deal with” the trans woman who helped organize the Conference while at the same time monstering her [2] [3] [4]
They attempted to bash this very trans woman on a Conference stage or that they physically assaulted radical feminists for protecting the trans woman from the beating
Making the claim that a TERF organized a physical assault against Sylvia Rivera isn’t supported by evidence. [5][6][7]
The evidence proves that Janice Raymond didn’t have anything to do with the study that lead to the revocation of public and 3rd party funding for trans medical care and it doesn’t matter anyway because people on the internets say stupid shit.
NOTES:
[1] “Then, when she trashed me in her speech, she referred to my having been ‘begged’ not to attend the conference. That had taken place in a phone call much earlier in the week that began with a request to speak to ‘Mr. Elliott’ and ended with a death threat.” – Nettick, Geri, and Beth Elliot. Mirrors: Portrait of a Lesbian Transsexual. Rhinoceros ed. NY: Masquerade Books, 1996. 256.
[2] “I charge [Elliott] as an opportunist, an infiltrator, and a destroyer—with the mentality of a rapist. And you women at this Conference know who he [sic] is. Now. You can let him [sic] into your workshops—or you can deal with him [sic].” – Blasius, Mark. We Are Everywhere: A Historical Sourcebook of Gay and Lesbian Politics. New York: Routledge, 1997. 429.
[3] “Did I hear [Robin Morgan] right. I did. She said that rather than call for unity, she chooses to call for polarity. I’m confused. I’m still confused. Especially since the announced purpose for the conference is UNITY… I’m angry. I somehow feel betrayed… Now she’s trashing Kate Millet. Now she’s trashing us over the transsexual thing. Now she’s trashing EVERYONE. I can’t believe she ever wrote anything about “sister-hood.” – McLean, Barbara. “Diary of a Mad Organizer.” The Lesbian Tide, May 1, 1973.
[4] “It was like an earthquake – at first, a little earthquake. Then an 8.5…” – Faderman, Lillian, and Stuart Timmons. Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians. New York: Basic Books, 2006. 191.
[5] “Women in the GLF were uncomfortable referring to Rivera – who insisted in using women’s bathrooms, even in City hall – as ‘she.’ Pressure mounted. The year 1973 witnessed a clash that would take Rivera out of the movement for the next two decades… As they passed out flyers outlining their opposition to the ‘female impersonators,’ Rivera wrestled for the microphone held by emcee Vitto Russo, before getting hit with it herself. Rivera explained, ‘I had to battle my way up on stage, and literally get beaten up and punched around by people I thought were my comrades, to get to that microphone.” – Benjamin Shepard, That’s Revolting!, pp 126 – 127
[6] Sylvia Rivera recounted the event: “Jean O’Leary, a founder of Radicalesbians, decided that drag queens were insulting to women… I had been told I was going to speak at the rally. And that’s when things just got out of hand. I’m very militant when it comes to certain things, and I didn’t appreciate what was going down with Jean O’Leary stating that we were insulting women… She told Vito Russo to kick my ass onstage… but I still got up and spoke my piece.” – Susan Glisson (Ed), The Human Tradition in the Civil Rights Movement, p 325
[7] “[T]his incident precipitated yet another suicide attempt on her part… the events of that day in 1973 ultimately took something out of Sylvia Rivera. In the succeeding years, Sylvia Rivera’s participation in ‘the movement’ waned. Although she attended every Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade (with the exception of two) until her death, Sylvia’s formal participation in organizations like the GLF and the GAA came to a halt.” – ibid.
A version of this article first appeared on TheTERFs.com
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About Latest Posts Cristan WilliamsEditor-in-Chief at TransAdvocateCristan Williams is a trans historical researcher and pioneer in addressing the practical needs of the transgender community. She started the first trans homeless shelter and co-founded the first federally funded trans-only homeless program, pioneered affordable health care for trans people in the Houston area, won the right for trans people to change their gender on Texas ID prior to surgery, started numerous trans social service programs and founded the Transgender Center as well as the Transgender Archives. Cristan is the editor at the social justice sites TransAdvocate.com and TheTERFs.com, chairs the City of Houston HIV Prevention Planning Group, is the jurisdictional representative to the Urban Coalition for HIV/AIDS Prevention Services (UCHAPS), serves on the national steering body for UCHAPS and is the Executive Director of the Transgender Foundation of America. Latest posts by Cristan Williams (see all) See Tumblr TERFs justify threatening to murder a trans kid – July 23, 2015 Repeating the cycle at MichFest: The clash of two feminisms – April 12, 2015 Sex, Gender, and Sexuality: The TransAdvocate interviews Catharine A. MacKinnon – April 7, 2015 #mdr-e1 .percent { color: #7B11C6; } .spark1 { background-color: #7B11C6; } #mdr-e2 .percent { color:#17C611; } .spark2 { background-color: #17C611; } #mdr-e3 .percent { color:#115AC6; } .spark3 { background-color: #115AC6; } #mdr-e4 .percent { color:#E01D1D; } .spark4 { background-color: #E01D1D; } #mdr-e5 .percent { color: #DB871A; } .spark5 { background-color: #DB871A; } #mdr-e6 .percent { color: ; } .spark6 { background-color: ; }Thanks for rating this! Now tell the world how you feel through social media.
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Tags: CisprivilegefeminismhateradfemTERFtransphobia
[…] protecting a WCLC trans woman – and TERFs turned on those brave Radical Feminists and physically beat them instead, what does it say about the historical foundation of a contemporary TERF movement who consistently […]
[…] [1] “That time TERFs beat RadFems for protecting a trans woman from their assault” […]
Better this time, thank you for leaving lesbians alone 😉
Also Tyler does not get an unstained name of ‘radical feminist’ or even ‘feminist’ back, only ‘a compassionate individual’, ‘courageous woman’ and ‘apostate’.
You mispelled wish on the article but still… frightening stuff…
ERRATA: *trans medical care [denied] undoubtedly led many a trans female…
[…] with Radical Feminist lesbian icon, Robin Tyler. In the previous piece, Tyler talked about being beaten by TERFs for trying to protect a trans woman from their assault. In this portion of the interview, […]
ENTER: CLOSED FIST ADVOCACY
So the TERF movement, like other historically militant movements, was borne with a closed fist, symbolizing of course militant resistance for an otherwise perhaps just cause. Blacks, browns, other ethnic groups and females have been historically oppressed and it is this “nothing left to lose” conclusion that drives the oppressed toward militancy and always has—a clenched fist obviously represents a fist poised to strike.
A clenched fist and angry boisterous words by someone at street level sufficiently demonstrate an intent to physically offend, often requiring defensive measures. As a young military policeman assigned to a SAC base in the Air Force, our beret—symbolizing combat-training by US Army specs—included a crest with a clenched fist symbolizing power and might during the Cold War. As SAC combat policemen, we were trained to the highest AF standards precisely because we were tasked (and equipped) to protect the highest level resources.
GENDER CANNIBAL(ISM)
Where TERFs clearly went wrong is, rather than target those who truly represent female oppression, they began a 4-decades campaign targeting trans women. Understandably fears of male infiltration by covert agents into their midst were not entirely without merit. All militant groups, for very good reason and public safety, have been infiltrated for the purpose of gathering intelligence. The problem however, with tossing out the vacuum cleaner bag without searching through it is that the diamond ring lost in the carpet would be disposed as well. Those of us that are neither agents nor female oppressors speak up for self and other trans females who have been systematically excluded from our lifelong gender truth based on this superbly fallible “guilty by male association”.
The acronym should never have been TERF but MERF—male exclusionary. The problem with the TERF banishment of trans females is that it never banished agents from their midst. No agent would reveal such a history to draw attention, ever. Their fears of male shadows resulted in efforts that were not and are not for naught 😉 . However noble-intended the early radical feminist movement might have been insofar as mitigating very real female oppression, very early on it too a turn for the worst and adopted the gender cannibalism (ironically an “ism”) by violent expulsion of females (trans), as we now know. Eight years later in 1981, this expulsion would culminate in an even more violent event: medical exclusion for impoverished trans women who were too poor to afford private medical care.
MURDER BY ANY OTHER NAME…
Medical care denied is human life denied, and trans medical care undoubtedly led many a trans female to an early and wholly preventable demise—such a denial led many females (trans) to seek $ for private medical care by exposing themselves to male violence at street level. TERF history is replete with ironies, one more of which is that had Raymond and TERF company not advocated for and succeeded in denying such care, there would have been less male violence, not more.
CA PC Section 187 requires that for the act of murder to have occurred it must meet at least these 3 elements:
(1)…resulted in death…
(2)…began with malice (aforethought)
(3)…lacks a lawful excuse or justification
Has the TERF movement, as a consequence resulted in the deaths of trans females and males denied medical care? History speaks for itself.
Has the TERF movement, with malice aforethought, targeted trans females, and “wished us death”? History speaks for itself.
Has the TERF movement ever, ever had lawful excuse or justification for such deaths that culminated from such malice that still targets (Jeffries) trans females today? Doctors and judges beg to differ.
Are those of us who undergo our civil and medical right to transition part of an “ism” ideology or are we individual persons? Does TERF 4 star general Jeffries truly believe that we don’t know that “ism” is cloak-speak for “ideology”? …like capital(ism) or commun(ism)?
Is Jeffries, like Raymond before, so obsessed with the male anatomy that she sacrifices time and effort to create a volume of propaganda? …propaganda written in “professor-speak” to falsely ascribe to it an air of expert legitimacy, yet armed with words soaked in arsenic?
Will academia and the government once more fall for this Jeffries alphanumeric bag of toxic tricks, like they did for the now-proven-to be-toxic Raymond weapon of trans destruction?
What drives these mad-cow TERFs to obsessing about the very one thing—male appendage—the very one thing that they claim to hate so much that words fail to quantify such hate? While they harp on dicks, who are the real dicks here? Once again, history speaks for them.