Dear Editor of Our Lives Magazine,

This is a corrective response to an article and sub-heading featured in the latest issue of OLM. It is titled: Madison counter-programs the TERFs, with this subheading: Transgender people face increasing violence and oppression as the latest target of the far-right and its allies. Madison is no exception. 

First of all, Madison has divergent points of view, especially on transgenderism. There are plenty of people from the Madison area objecting to the GI (Gender Identity/Ideology) agenda. These people are herbalists, environmentalists, immigrant rights advocates, community gardeners, teachers, lesbians, anti-war activists who oppose the F-35s and others from our progressive community who read your publication. 

There are some that read your free magazine who are aligned with the international LGB movement. There are no surgeries or hormones needed to be LGB. There were plenty of women and men from the Madison area at the WLRN public library discussion and at the Speakers’ Corner and rally at the Lady Forward Statue afterward.

Secondly, Emily Mills is projecting when she writes that Thistle “carved her niche in Madison through the harassment and denigration of transgender people.” Replace “transgender people” with “lesbians and feminists” and you have a true statement about Ms. Mills. She “all the while states” that she is “defending the rights of “trans and non-binary people.” 

How is repeating the same old thing about a few radio shows on WORT’s Access Hour proof of eternal “bigotry” on our part? What is “bigoted” about feminist news programming?

Political dissent and disagreement are not “harassment and denigration.” We, along with dozens of primarily lesbian and radical feminist women, expressed our political opinions on April 23rd in Madison. This expression hardly constitutes “hate speech” or “harassment” as Mills’ writings suggest. Rather, the international Speakers’ Corner movement and now the American-led #FreeSpeech4Women movement are all about public awareness, dialogue, and open discussion regarding issues of transgender politics that impact the rights and protections of girls and women.

It is obvious that national and local factions are set. That includes the media. For that reason, any media coverage is appreciated during a media blackout on the recent feminist conference, Sisters4Sisters in Madison. Inaccurate reporting is at least covering the issue. Since the publication of Mills’ piece, Fox News has also covered at least a bit of the Sisters4Sisters gathering. You can access that coverage here. 

Mills’ piece is largely a rehashing of things she has already said about us and our associates elsewhere. As before, she does not cite what we and our associates actually say in the radio shows I, Thistle, have produced, nor the songs that I sing. She simply labels a full one-hour radio show as “virulently anti-trans and anti-sex worker” and then is done with it. I recommend that she begin to listen to the shows themselves and that she argues point by point about the ideas, rather than just calling us names. That would be real journalism. 

Understanding that this is too lengthy to be published as an LTE, please consider hosting us as guest writers. 

There are fortunately some examples of real journalism in our Madison community such as WLRN’s article published the first time Ms. Mills ran her libelous piece called TERF Wars in your publication in 2018. As WLRN did in that article, I will refer the reader to the actual “bigoted” radio shows themselves so that a full exploration of the “hate speech” can take place by the reader.

In 2014, 2015, and 2018 I produced three feminist, woman-centered shows that aired on WORT 89.9 FM’s Access Hour slot and that contain multiple women and lesbians speaking about gender identity politics, the creation of women’s culture, and more. 

As far as Mills’ most recent piece in your publication, she refers to the recent MMSD School Board race and that Laura Simkin won but she fails to mention that she won 80% of the vote against a “non-binary/trans” candidate and that she ran on a “School Safety” campaign. Simkin, a married lesbian with a child in the district, is pro-trans and did not center her run on “gender identity” politics.

Disagreement and open debate/dialogue are not “harassment and denigration.” Calling out an individual woman again and again for the same “crimes” of interviewing women on the community radio station years ago IS. 

OLM is a weapon of indoctrination that is aimed at the LGB community as it pushes acceptance of the trans/queer agenda, which is highly political.

Please consider having us contribute a guest column to Our Lives NEXT MONTH so that we may offer our point of view to the readership in our community. 

Thank you, Thistle Pettersen & Mary Jo Walters