Women's Liberation Front
Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF), a self-described radical feminist group, is an organization that advocates against trans rights and decries “gender ideology.” Membership is restricted to “adult human females 18 years and older.”[1] WoLF was founded by Lierre Keith in 2013, and earned nonprofit 501(c)(3) status in 2018. The group has “found an increasingly influential platform by teaming up with conservatives who disagree with their support of abortion rights and the ‘reproductive sovereignty’ of women,” according to the Washington Post.'.[2]
WoLF engages in impact litigation, policy advocacy, and public education programming. Over the last few years, the bulk of its program service expenses — from 15% in 2019, to 30% in 2020, to 76% in 2021 — has increasingly gone to supporting WoLF’s legal efforts, which include lawsuits, filing amicus briefs, and rulemaking petitions, according to its IRS filings. WoLF began lobbying activities in 2020, according to tax filings.
The group’s areas of interest include the Equal Rights Amendment (which they oppose), trans-inclusive healthcare (which they oppose), sex work (which they oppose), and reproductive freedom (which they support).
Contents
News and Controversy
Collaboration with Right-Wing Groups
WoLF has collaborated with a number of right-wing groups, including the Heritage Foundation, the Family Policy Alliance, and Independent Women’s Voice. In collaboration with these and other anti-trans groups, in 2019 WoLF released a “Parent Guide on Transgender Issues,” a publication that denounces the legitimacy of trans people and posits that “the transgender phenomenon has gone from a set of ideas to a popular trend.”[3] The guide’s publisher, the Minnesota Family Council, is affiliated with the anti-LGBTQ hate-group Alliance Defending Freedom and the Protestant hate-group Focus on the Family.
WoLF members have participated in panel discussions hosted by the right-wing, notoriously anti-LGBTQ think-tank the Heritage Foundation, usually about issues that touch upon trans rights. In 2017, WoLF member Mary Lou Singleton participated in a Heritage panel discussion called “Biology Isn’t Bigotry: Why Sex Matters in the Age of Gender Identity.”[4] Two years later, WoLF members participated in a Heritage panel in order to voice their opposition to the Equality Act, which would have classified gender identity as a protected category.[5] WoLF’s Natasha Chart appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program to denounce the Equality Act.[6]
WoLF has also collaborated with the Family Policy Alliance, a conservative Christian organization that opposes reproductive autonomy and “the contentious crusade of LGBTQ+ activists to elevate false forms of sexuality, particularly homosexuality, in law and culture.”[7] The two groups filed a joint amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court in support of a Virginia school board’s decision to force a trans student to use a restroom that didn’t align with the student’s gender identity. “Pro-family Christians and radical feminists may not agree about much, but they agree that redefining ‘sex’ to mean ‘gender identity’ is a truly fundamental shift in American law and society,” the groups argued in their brief. “It not only revokes the very rights and protections Congress enacted specifically to secure women’s access to education, but does so in order to extend Title IX to cover men claiming to be women” (emphasis in the original).[8]
In conjunction with Independent Women’s Voice, the advocacy arm of Independent Women’s Forum, WoLF has developed model legislation that they call a “Women’s Bill of Rights.”[9] The model legislation states that “For purposes of state/federal law, ‘woman’ and ‘girl’ refer to human females, and the terms ‘man’ and ‘boy’ refer to human males,” a formulation designed to marginalize trans people.
Opposition to Gender-Affirming Healthcare and Sports
WoLF’s former executive director Natasha Chart has provided testimony against gender-affirming healthcare. In testimony to South Dakota’s House State Affairs Committee regarding legislation that would criminalize medical treatments for trans youth, Chart said, “Please vote yes to forbid the sterilization of these young people.”[2]
In April 2023, WoLF came out in support of the House Republicans’ H.R. 734, or the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” which would prohibit trans athletes from participating in sports leagues that align with their gender.[10] WoLF develops one-pagers and engages in litigation around “single-sex” sports leagues.[11]
Title IX Lawsuit
WoLF filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration in 2016, protesting the administration’s decision to amend Title IX to allow transgender students to access restroom facilities consistent with their gender identity. In WoLF v. United States Department of Justice, et al., WoLF claimed that this policy violated the Constitution and certain Civil Rights statutes.[12] WoLF’s then-board chair Kara Danksy appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program to denounce the policy and discuss WoLF’s collaboration with Christian right-wing groups such as the Family Policy Alliance.[13]
WoLF voluntarily dismissed the complaint after the Trump administration reversed the Obama-era guidance.
Opposition to United Nations’ Report on Gender-Based Violence
WoLF spearheaded a letter, signed by over 40 organizations, calling for the United Nations to abandon what the letter refers to as the “political religion” of gender ideology. The letter was signed by representatives from the Heritage Foundation and Independent Women’s Voice.[14]
Suing California Over Single-Sex Prison Policies
WoLF filed a federal lawsuit — Chandler v. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation — in November 2021 alleging that a California law allowing non-binary people and trans women to request to be housed in women’s prison facilities was unconstitutional.[15] Lambda Legal, the ACLU of Southern California, and the Transgender Law Center are in support of the law protecting trans inmates, which as of June 2023 is ongoing.
Funding
WoLF’s funding is opaque. According to the organization’s annual financial impact reports, most donors appear to wish to remain either entirely anonymous or be identified solely by their first name and last initial.[16]
According to tax filings, WoLF has received the majority of its funding through the following Donor Advised Funds (DAF), which allow donors to give anonymously, and community trusts:
- Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund: $491,250 (2021)[17] and $10,000 (2019)[18]
- Austin Community Foundation Inc, c/o Angel Avery: $10,000 (2020)[19]
- Austin Community Foundation Inc: $40,000 (2019)[20] and $21,873 (2018)[21]
The Washington Post has reported that WoLF received $15,000 from the anti-LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom to fund their legal fight over equitable access to bathrooms.[2]
Core Financials
2021
- Total Revenue: $790,594
- Total Expenses: $581,067
- Net Assets: $376,918
2020
- Total Revenue: $263,901
- Total Expenses: $132,109
- Net Assets: $167,391
2019
- Total Revenue: $58,613
- Total Expenses: $27,570
- Net Assets: $35,598
Personnel
Staff
As of June 2023, WoLF’s website states that personnel consists of four staff members and several contractors. Additionally, as of the same month, WoLF was conducting a search for an executive director.
Staff as of June 2023:[22]
- Hannah Sullivan, Development Director
Former Staff, according to IRS filings:
- Mahri Irvine, former co-Executive Director
- Natasha Chart, former co-Executive Director
- Charlotte Mountain, former Treasurer
- Kacie Mills, former Secretary
- Jennifer Chavez
- Marian Rutigliano [unspecified position]
- Mary Lou Singleton
Board of Directors
Board Members as of June 2023:[22]
- Lierre Keith, Board Chair
- Kacie Moon, Board President
- Beth Lowe, Board Treasurer
- Elizabeth Fedak, Board Secretary
Former Board Members, according to IRS filings:
- April Halley
- Charlotte Mountain
- Kara Dansky
Contact Information
Women’s Liberation Front
1802 Vernon Street NW, #2036
Washington, DC 20009
Email: contact@womensliberationfront.org
Phone: 202-964-0986
Twitter: @WomensLibFront
Facebook: facebook.com/WomensLiberationFront
Youtube: youtube.com/WomensLiberationFront
Instagram: @WomensLiberationFront
Resources and Articles
IRS Form 990 Filings
2021
2020
2019
References
- ↑ Women’s Liberation Front, Join Us, Women’s Liberation Front Website, Accessed June 13, 2023.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Samantha Schmidt, Conservatives Find Unlikely Ally in Fighting Transgender Rights: Radical Feminists, Washington Post, February 7, 2020.
- ↑ Minnesota Family Council, Gender Resource Guide, Minnesota Family Council, Accessed June 13, 2023.
- ↑ Heritage Foundation, Biology Isn’t Bigotry: Why Sex Matters in the Age of Gender Identity, Heritage Foundation Website, Accessed June 12, 2023.
- ↑ Tim Fitzsimons, Conservative Group Hosts Anti-Transgender Panel of Feminists ‘From the Left’, NBC, January 29, 2019.
- ↑ Brianna January, Tucker Carlson Hosted a Coalition of Anti-Trans Advocates From the Evangelical Right and a Fake Feminist Group, Media Matters, May 20, 2019.
- ↑ Family Policy Alliance, Sexual Orientation, Family Policy Alliance Website, Accessed June 14, 2023.
- ↑ Women’s Liberation Front and Family Policy Alliance, Brief of Amici Curiae Women’s Liberation Front and Family Policy Alliance in Support of Petitioner, SCOTUS Blog, Accessed June 13, 2023.
- ↑ Women’s Liberation Front and Independent Women’s Voice, Women’s Bill of Rights, Women’s Liberation Front Website, Accessed June 13, 2023.
- ↑ Brandon Gillespie, ‘Radical feminist’ groups break with Biden, join GOP in support of women’s sports bill: ‘Height of hypocrisy’, Fox News, April 19, 2023.
- ↑ Women’s Liberation Front, Women’s Sports, Women’s Liberation Front Website, Accessed June 14, 2023.
- ↑ Women’s Liberation Front v. U.S. Department of Justice, Case 1:16-cv-00915, U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, Accessed June 13, 2023.
- ↑ Tucker Carlson Tonight, Obama’s Transgender Bathroom Mandate and Strange Bedfellows, Fox News, September 12, 2017.
- ↑ Women’s Liberation Front, Submission to the United Nations Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation And Gender Identity, Women’s Liberation Front Website, Accessed June 13, 2023.
- ↑ Chandler V. CDCR, [1], Women’s Liberation Front Website, Accessed June 13, 2023.
- ↑ Women’s Liberation Front, Impact Report 2021, Women’s Liberation Front Website, Accessed June 13, 2023.
- ↑ Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, 2021 IRS 990 Filing, May 6, 2022.
- ↑ Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, 2019 IRS 990 Filing, June 25, 2020.
- ↑ Austin Community Foundation, 2020 IRS 990 Filing, November 15, 2021.
- ↑ Austin Community Foundation, 2019 IRS 990 Filing, November 10, 2020.
- ↑ Austin Community Foundation, 2019 IRS 990 Filing, November 15, 2019.
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Women’s Liberation Front, Staff and Board, Accessed June 13, 2023.
