Green Party Feminists Removed from Green Party Women's Caucus
By Thistle Pettersen, member of the Green Party of Wisconsin
This is to report that Kerri Bruss, Green Party member from Wisconsin, and myself, were removed from the Green Party's National Women's Caucus listserv by Ann Link, Co-Chair of the National Green Party Women's Caucus on October 11, 2020.
In Ms. Link's letter to me informing me of my removal she writes:
"This is a notice that you have been removed from the National Women’s Caucus email list for violating caucus bylaw III.2 – respect for diversity and respect for NWC members. This is because of a series of posts you sent initiating discussion on the groups WoLF, FIST and the WHRC USA and similar content, which denies that people should have the right of self-determination with regard to gender identity and sex. This right is supported by our platform and a statement approved by our caucus. These posts have created a threatening environment in our caucus, which should be a safe and supportive place for all our members."
I had barely participated on the listserv before my removal, and as she points out above, my "crime" was to "initiate discussion on the groups WoLF, FIST and WHRC USA", all women's feminist groups that are active in the US women's movement.
There were long drawn-out "discussions" on the listserv, after my mention of those three groups, that amounted to male members of the women's caucus claiming to be "harmed", and a handful of female caucus members supporting those men.
The caucus supposedly includes a hundred members or more and the listserv shows evidence of perhaps three dozen or more participating, based on the outcomes of recorded votes, yet it was only five or six women, along with the two men, who dominated the discussion of gender identity politics and asserted that we must agree that men can be women in order to move forward. If you can't agree to that, then you are going against trans ideology, which reigns supreme in the National Women's Caucus due to a few who dominate.
Apparently, we have not been ousted from the National Women's Caucus as a body, but just excluded from the listserv where discussions and decision-making for the caucus happens. Not sure what this means other than my and Kerri's participation has been curtailed, which is not at all democratic nor conducive to having a functioning and diverse caucus.