MADISON, May 7th, 2022 — Hear Emiliann Lorenzen report on the Speakers’ Corner event held in Madison, WI on April 23rd from her coverage in WLRN’s world news segment this month before hearing a collage of the speeches made by the dozens of women who showed up.
On April 23rd, an estimated 100 women and trans activists gathered at the top of State Street for an event modeled after the famous Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park, London, where ordinary citizens debate the issues of the day.
In contrast to how citizens often behave in London, the trans activists used noise-makers, bull horns, and whistles to attempt to silence the women speaking. Despite this, Jenna DiQuarto and K. Yang took charge of the situation, and WLRN was able to produce high-quality video and audio of the women speaking, even with the distractions and noise all around them.
Thistle Pettersen applied for and received a City of Madison permit for the event, but the police did not honor the permit, saying that their higher priority was to “keep the peace” by allowing the trans activists to take up the permitted space in a disruptive manner.
In this audio segment dedicated to the Madison Speakers’ Corner, you will hear the police speaking with Jenna DiQuarto, K. Yang, and Thistle, as the police explain and we question them about them not honoring the permit.
At the beginning of the event, the women decided to get up on the steps in front of the giant TRA banner and begin singing “Woman, adult human female” in a rousing chorus. Upon discovering that the TRAs did not retaliate against this bold move, the women and TRAs began to mix and mingle a bit, as women attempted to have open dialogue and conversation with some of them.
View the entire event here.
“The Madison Speakers’ Corner was the largest direct confrontation I’ve seen between an organized group of women and trans rights activists so far here in America. I’ve been to and helped organize a number of protests in this country and this is the first I’ve seen anything of this magnitude. The fact that women were physically blocked by men from the space we reserved and were being denied our right to free speech while the police stood down and let us be drowned out with misogyny, physical abuse (pushing, encircling women, hitting us with signs) and violent threats, demonstrates with precise clarity that this agenda is about male entitlement and using male violence to silence and intimidate women from standing up for ourselves or holding any boundaries.
Speakers’ Corners, like the one held in Madison, are a powerful way for women to claim space in the public realm and to make our voices heard. Women will not be silent in the face of a global corporate, government, and technologically led colonizing of our female sexed bodies. If women don’t have safety, if women don’t have a choice, if women have no voice, then there will be NO peace. Stand up now and defend women and girls!” ~ K. Yang (The Deprogrammer)
There were no local or national media present for this historic event since there is a well-documented media blackout in Madison of lesbian and radical feminist views, news, and commentary.
Hear excerpts of the speeches in this segment produced and narrated by Jenna DiQuarto after enjoying a rousing chorus of “If it wasn’t for the Women” by Alix Dobkin.