Women's Liberation Radio News

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.

This is WLRN's four year anniversary edition! First up, hear Danielle Whitaker introduce the topic for this month's podcast: women's rights in the Green Party USA and in particular, what is happening to the Georgia Green Party because they decided to sign onto the Declaration for Women's Sex-based Rights. https://www.womensdeclaration.com/ Next, hear WLRN's Dana Vitalosova deliver our world news segment right before the song "Tell it Like it Is" by Tracy Chapman. Following the news, hear an excerpt of an interview Thistle did with Georgia Green Party Co-Chair, Denice Traina and then another excerpt with former Green Party member and candidate, Elaine Mastromatteo, pictured in our cover image for this month. Both women talk about their involvement in the Green Party and comment on the status of women's rights. Next, enjoy the song "Sleep to Dream" by Fiona Apple. Finally, don't miss WLRN's Sekhmet SheOwl's scathing commentary on the state of American electoral politics in general as it relates to women, and the particular situation facing the Georgia Green Party. To sign the Declaration on Women's Sex-based Rights go to: https://www.womensdeclaration.com/. To sign the statement and join the Dialogue Not Expulsion Caucus to support the Georgia Green Party go to: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd3NBNll6DU4VBnWyMhofVZpl2hQiqzpF1K9LRVk5mNbHcVSg/viewform?fbclid=IwAR26Iefym7vUjrE8zaZHVHdz1JDzLagW9woo4W1KBhGVFAIGpki32OIakB4 CORRECTION: Denice Traina contacted us to tell us she was mistaken about Winona LaDuke still being a member of the Green Party. LaDuke ran with Ralph Nader as a Green in 2000 but has not since been a Green. Thank you for staying tuned to feminist community powered radio WLRN! If you'd like to donate to help keep us airborne, please visit our wordpress site and click on the donate button. https://wlrnmedia.wordpress.com/

Peggy Luhrs is a lesbian feminist and social justice activist from Burlington, Vermont. She recently cancelled a public library discussion scheduled by the group Gender Critical Vermont, due to condemnation and threats by trans activists. She was a key mover and shaker of the early LGB movement in Burlington, is a member of the Women's International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF) and also produces the monthly program Feminist Media Review for the Center for Media & Democracy. Thistle interviewed Ms. Luhrs via skype on April 10, 2020 to ask her about her experiences in her hometown fighting off defamation and attacks by local trans activists. In this interview, you will hear Ms. Luhrs' detailed account of being escorted out by police at an event held by the Peace & Justice Center of Vermont. https://www.pjcvt.org/who-we-are/#board Video coverage of Ms. Luhrs' encounters at the event is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDuO1cwTg5M&feature=youtu.be WLRN is proud to highlight the work of lesbian feminist activists like Peggy. Her story is compelling yet becoming far too common in today's trans agenda dominated world. For more information about Peggy's activist career see https://www.vermontwoman.com/articles/2019/0919-DW/06-lesbianfeminism/luhrs-pride.html.

Tally's Lullaby Karen Marie Garrett Waiting Karen Marie Garrett Galweyo--We Call You Carolyn Hillyer Track 3 Jennifer Kriesberg Bird Calls The Nones Ancestor Song Carolyn Hillyer Calling All Angels KD Lang and Jane Siberry Light of My Light Ferron Shipwreck Chris Pureka The Whole World is Burning Jennifer Berezan My, My Ferron You are not alone Mavis Staples Love Throw a Line Patty Griffin My Love Is Alive Anastacia Best of My Love The Emotions I'll Be Your Shelter Taylor Dayne You Gotta Believe The Pointer Sisters Ain't No Mountain High Enough Diana Ross Oooh Child Beth Orton Make Sacred Space Shawn Carol Holding Space Crysy Matthews If it wasn't for the women Alix Dobkin Face the Music Meg Christian Track 1 Invocations to Free Women Ruth Barrett Rise Above Your Raising Diona Devincenzi Welcome back, sisters, to another hour of women’s music. I hope you are well and finding ways to stay centered and soothed wherever you are on this troubled planet. I’m Tamia Phoenixx, your DJ, and this time, in these times of the COVID19 pandemic, when so many of us are isolated at home or at least 6 feet from one another, I wanted to offer a tether to one another and to Spirit through an extended hour of womens liberation music. As Radical Feminists we have varying concepts about the Female Divine in our lives, some notion that gives us a sense of being connected to something bigger. My friend Sandy calls the divine, Dyke Energy. Other friends name Her, Goddess, SheWho, The Mystery, She Source, The Mother of Us All, She of 10000 Names.... Whatever name you give the Light of your Light, as Ferron would say, in this next hour and a half, I hope the music I’ve selected might invoke your particular connection to the spiritual fuel of Female Power.

Venice Allan is a woman’s rights campaigner who set up a series of talks on gender identity ideology, We Need To Talk, in 2017. She now works with Posie Parker at Standing For Women, a campaign to maintain the dictionary definition of ‘woman’ as an adult, human female. Thistle spoke with Venice last week via skype to get her thoughts on the current British feminist movement and what women are up to in the UK when it comes to women's rights.