Venice Allan is a mother, jewelry maker and women's rights campaigner with the UK based organization Standing for Women. She spoke with Thistle about the August 30th confrontation between Black Lives Matter protesters and women at Speakers' Corner who had been speaking out about transgender ideology and gender self-id politics. The two groups were made up of primarily women who spoke passionately and expressively with one another in what appeared to be rather negative and nasty encounters from the vantage point of those watching the videos online. But as you will hear in Ms. Allan's account, the tradition at Speakers' Corner is to have heated and lively discussions in a place "like none other I've ever been in" that allows for open, public debate. For Venice, this indeed happened on August 30th, and despite the aftermath and backlash the confrontation has received since then, she is optimistic about how the confrontation impacted both sides in overall positive ways. Thanks for tuning in to feminist community powered radio, WLRN. Please listen, like and share widely as we rely on our listeners to distribute our work.

This month we tackle the topic of women in the Black Lives Matter movement with an interview with black radical feminist, Tracy Neal, from Detroit and commentary from WLRN's Dani Whitaker. In addition to exploring this topic, we'd like to welcome our newest member, Emiliann Lorenzen, who wrote and delivers our world news segment for this month of September. Featured song: Four Women by Nina Simone. Because there were technical difficulties with the interview, we have created a transcript for you to read to make sure you catch every word of Ms. Neal's interview. A big THANK YOU to WLRN's Jenna DiQuarto for offering to transcribe the interview so quickly for us to share with you. You can find it on our Wordpress site under the posting of this podcast. https://wlrnmedia.wordpress.com/2020/09/03/edition-53-women-in-the-blm-movement/ Thanks for staying tuned to feminist powered community radio, WLRN.

The Women's Human Rights Campaign launches in the USA! Enjoy today's special edition about this momentous occasion of women getting organized across the the US to promote the Declaration on Women's Sex Based Rights, a document penned by Sheila Jeffreys, Heather Brunksell Evans and Maureen O'Hara designed to get governments, groups and individuals to adopt women's rights based on sex and not on "gender identity." Hear the song "Killing in the Name of" covered by Brass Against the Machine before enjoying WLRN's Sekhmet SheOwl's greeting that leads the listener to our first interview with Vajra Ma, co-chair of the Interim Steering Committee of the WHRC USA. Vajra Ma is co-founder and president of Shakti Moon Foundation, dedicated to woman as the creator of culture and original guide of humanity. She spoke with Thistle about the origin of the Declaration and the group of women in the US that has embraced it and currently serves as the interim steering committee of WHRC USA. Next, enjoy the song "Are you a Lady?" by Bratmobile before listening to an interview with Carol, a 40 year old detransitioning lesbian who talks about how gender identity ideology impacted her life. Carol spent 4 years identifying as a trans "man" and undergoing medical transition including ingesting testosterone and having her breasts surgically removed. During that time she was perceived as male in social and professional settings. Now in the process of reclaiming her womanhood, Carol is focusing her energy on helping other detrans people find a community, particularly women who don’t conform to gender stereotypes. Finally, don't miss Sekhmet's powerful commentary on the significance of the Declaration and the growing numbers of women worldwide who are signing on. The WLRN collective is proud to take part in the launch of WHRC USA and be a signatory to the Declaration. You can sign too, dear listener! Click on this link and add your name to the growing numbers of signers in the USA and around the world. https://www.womensdeclaration.com/en/ Thanks for staying tuned to feminist community powered radio, WLRN. Please like and share widely as our grassroots handcrafted podcasts only get into the ears of listeners because they are promoted and distributed by YOU!

WLRN's August edition gives the spotlight to Beth Stelzer and Linda Blade of the organization Save Women's Sports. First up, you'll hear our world news segment as written and delivered by WLRN's April Neault before enjoying the song "Y Control" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Then, stay tuned for an interview Dani Whitaker did with Beth Stelzer and Linda Blade of Save Women's Sports to learn about their campaigns to keep males out of women's sports. Finally, keep listening to hear Sekhmet SheOwl's poignant commentary about how female socialization contributes to our need for sex segregated sports and how allowing males to compete with females defeats the purpose of it. Thanks for tuning in to another edition of WLRN's monthly handcrafted podcast. If you like what you're hearing, consider becoming a listener sponsor by signing up to give us a monthly donation of $5 or more. You can do this by clicking on the donate button on our wordpress site here:https://wlrnmedia.wordpress.com/.

Like many feminists, filmmaker Nina Paley has been blacklisted and de-platformed for speaking out in favor of the rights of girls and women. This has happened despite the fact that the content of her work does not overtly challenge trans activism. Recently, however, Paley received a lifetime achievement award from Animikon Fest, an animation festival in Spain, despite them knowing she is blacklisted for her feminist politics. On July 6th, 2020, Thistle sat down with Nina to talk about receiving the award and her experiences of trans activism in her hometown. Ms. Paley makes an important distinction between "trans people" and trans activism in this discussion as well as positing that the best method of dealing with extremists is to ignore them. Nina Paley is the creator of the award-winning animated musical feature films Sita Sings the Blues and Seder-Masochism. She is also a moderator of the popular feminist social media platform, Spinster. Spinster.xyz. She has been deplatformed, banned, and blacklisted for saying penises are male. Thanks for staying tuned to feminist community powered radio, WLRN! Please like, share and comment widely as our grassroots volunteer operation depends on listeners like you to get our work out there and into the femisphere.

On July 1st, WLRN's Danielle Whitaker spoke with author Abigail Shrier about Shrier's career and newly released book called Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters. Abigail Shrier is a frequent contributor to the Wall Street Journal. She holds an A.B. from Columbia College, where she received the Euretta J. Kellett Fellowship; a B. Phil, from the University of Oxford; and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Shrier interviewed almost 200 trans-identified teenagers, trans activists, doctors and parents for her book. In this interview, you will hear Ms. Shrier talk about her writing career and what inspired her to do research on the topic of transgenderism and how it is impacting teenage girls in our society.

We chose July to focus on climate change since it has the reputation for being one of the hottest months of the year. In this edition of our monthly news program, hear the world news written and delivered by WLRN's April Neult before enjoying the song "Flint" by Aisha Fukushima. Next up. hear an interview WLRN's Sekhmet SheOwl did with eco-feminist activist and author, Lierre Keith in which they discuss the importance of the feminist movement to the environmental movement and what mainstream environmental activism is getting wrong. Finally, this month's program is rounded off with poignant commentary from WLRN's Dana Vitalosova who offers her views on the climate crisis and how she is handling it. Thank you for tuning in to feminist community powered radio, WLRN. If you'd like to support our work, please consider clicking on the donate button on our wordpress site and browsing our merch tab to find a nice gift in exchange. https://wlrnmedia.wordpress.com/merch/ Without your support, we couldn't do this important work so THANK YOU to all of our listeners for continuing to share, like and support getting marginalized women's voices on the air.

In this podcast, Thistle interviews Vaishnavi Sundar, a feminist filmmaker from India, discussing how the pandemic has impacted women in her country. Diane Fischer, a massage therapist, shares her experiences as a non-essential worker in Ohio. Sekhmet SheOwl discusses the economic and social impacts of the pandemic on women, emphasizing solidarity and hope for the feminist community. The podcast also addresses the dire situation of trafficked women and explores the broader social implications of COVID-19 on women.

Every month WLRN offers you our world news segment highlighting women's work, health and status from regions all over the globe. Thanks for listening to feminist community powered radio, WLRN.

Hear WLRN's Dana Vitalosova deliver our world news segments for Thursday, May 7th 2020.