From Cancellation to Inspiration, a Review of We the Women 2024 

By Thistle Pettersen

We the Women was a gathering of activists, musicians, midwives, nomads, and artists in the woods of the Pacific Northwest to hold trainings, workshops, meet and greet, and enjoy each others’ company around the campfire, all the while having the opportunity to eat good food. 

On July 18th at 4:30 AM, my alarm went off and I got up feeling groggy but happy to be leaving my hometown of Madison, Wisconsin for an adventure in California. A local cab took me to the bus stop and the bus took me to O’Hare Airport in Chicago. From there I caught a morning flight to San Francisco. 

I was on my way to the We the Women radical feminist activist event organized by the three lovely women pictured above!

Once landed at SFO, a woman named Holly came to pick me up in a rental car with another woman named Amanda Kovattana, the wonderful author of The Unexpected Penis: Conversations on the Gender Trail. Our conversation was lively the whole way up the coast to our final destination in the woods near Crescent City. We became fast friends, and I came to cherish both of these amazing lesbian activist women who told me much about their TERF adventures in the Bay Area with San Francisco TERF Central and Women Are Real.

Meeting Amanda and Holly was worth the entire trip, but there was so much more to come! When we reached our final destination, 50 other women awaited us and the skillfully planned event unfolded. 

When the organizers of the We the Women gathering asked me if I’d play a set of my original TERF tunes in the Pacific Northwest last winter, it was as if their invitation was raising me from the dead and breathing new life into me after a long, cold battle with horizontal hostility and self-doubt.

You see, not only have I been canceled by Trans Rights Activists (TRAs) and their supporters in Madison, but certain feminists in longstanding organizing circles have also canceled me as I attempted to work among them. I won’t go into the details here. Still, I am sure many sisters reading this review have also experienced or witnessed cancellation among women and felt the rippling negative impact in our communities of friends, family, and lovers in the movement.

The We the Women gathering itself was canceled by another group of women who backed out of an agreement to have it take place on their land due to beliefs that the organizers were somehow supporting the “right-wing.”

Cancellation has become commonplace within our movement circles. We the Women 2024 is an example of a gathering that successfully resisted both external and internal cancellations by other feminists. It is a shining example of how groups and individuals committed to the sex-based rights of girls and women can and should proceed: We all just need to keep on keepin’ on in the ways we can, not quite ignoring bad behavior, but at least attempting to rise above it and jump-start this movement of ours to take us to deeper depths and to greater heights of empathy and solidarity. 

So when I was asked to play a show at a women’s gathering with my feminist peers, my heart began to beat faster and I could feel the blood circulating again to places in my body that needed a lift.

With profound gratitude, I prepared myself for the journey by changing the lyrics from the popular Beach Boys classic Surfin’ USA to my new-fangled version of TERFin’ USA. 

On Friday night of the gathering, I performed an intimate set by the campfire, the vapors and mists rising all around us and my heart beating steadily like a marching drum. Thanks to Via Bailey for stepping up to sound system tech support! She is also the fabulous photographer of many of the photos you see here.

Heather headed up the kitchen crew and provided us with three square meals each day to fuel our feminist fury and discussions. Freda was at TERF Camp round the clock to answer questions, provide information, start the fire, lend a yoga mat, and make sure camp operations ran smoothly. Kelly was also at the camp with her sweet dog Lily at her feet following her around. These three women were the organizers and worked hard to provide a safe and meaningful experience for the 50 women who showed up from Oregon, Washington, and California mostly, but there were a few of us from the Midwest and the South, and K. Yang was there from New York.

On Friday afternoon, the first day of the gathering, Erin Friday talked with us about how to track and write bills to counter the many bills introduced to promote trans politics. She gave us a broad history of the bills in California that led up to what we see now, which is several policies in place that allow men in women’s prisons and children to “transition” without parental knowledge at school. She commented on the strategies of “incrementalism” and “gut and amend” to carve out and shape policies through time to match one’s political goals. The trans side of things has been using such strategies effectively for decades. Ms. Friday emphasized that it is our turn to use them to reverse the trend. 

She listed people and organizations associated with changing policies to further a pro-trans agenda. Sheila Kuehl was an incrementalist who introduced the term “gender identity” to a bill in 1999. Ms. Friday encouraged us to build upon our investigations of bills and people promoting them to learn how to become the fly on the wall, ready to buzz about the heads of policymakers urging them in the right direction. 

Next, K. Yang presented on the money and the crazy medical ethics (more like lack of ethics) behind the trans movement. She also talked about her experiences as a TRA before she renounced her association and joined the ranks of radical feminists. 

Dr. Suzanne Vierling’s presentation the following day included an opportunity to work in small groups. Within these groups, women brainstormed lists of useful experiences and insights to share as we collectively analyzed our current moment and future as feminists.

I missed Freda’s afternoon workshop on Saturday because I volunteered to go to the Airbnb, where Heather was cookin’ up a storm and needed some help chopping veggies and washing dishes.

Freda told me she presented on how to have challenging conversations with people you disagree with but want to be civil with to discuss topics that are frequently pushed into the “no debate/untouchable” category.

There were other presenters and many other amazing women that I got to TERF out with at the gathering. Goldie performed TERF comedy on Saturday night around the campfire; Rain Star sang harmonies and ran the camp kitchen; and four nomadic women parked their vans on the perimeter of the site, shielding our activities from the view of the neighboring campsite.

I left feeling like I had found my home among women in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. I left feeling refreshed and with new energy to rejoin the movement and keep on keepin’ on despite setbacks and challenges. I hope they do another one in 2025! 

My riding companions on the way back to San Francisco were also delightful TERFs from the Bay Area who told me all kinds of stories about San Francisco TERF Central and Women Are Real, two women’s activist groups in the Bay Area. There are literally hundreds of locally connected women TERFin’ around the clock via these two groups! 

Once we finally got to SF, I stayed the night with a Bay Area TERF who showed me around the Mission District. Before taking me to the airport, she took me to the famous Women’s Building founded in 1971, before the Trans Cult had taken hold. She sadly explained to me that the Women’s Building, a nonprofit whose mission it is to serve women and girls, had been captured by the T Cult: the organization no longer refers to women as female and now includes males in their definition of the word “woman.” 

We had a blast walking around the building and looking at the amazing mural, painted in 1994, that included many important women like Rigoberta Menchu, Audre Lorde, and Georgia O’Keeffe. Thankfully, nobody has messed with the mural to add images of men who pretend to be women, but the vibe in the neighborhood definitely revealed the fact that this mighty women’s organization was captured. 

It was deeply satisfying to apply some of the lessons that “stuck” at the We the Women gathering while roaming the streets of SF! 

In conclusion, the We the Women gathering in the Pacific Northwest brought 50 women together for a long weekend to meet, greet, discuss, play music, do art, and plan for our feminist futures in ways that will keep our women strong for years to come. No matter what has happened to you in this world of gender madness, there is a place for you in the movement.

Thistle Pettersen is the founding member of WLRN, an eco-feminist, and a singer/songwriter in her home state of Wisconsin.  Her focus is on arts and culture and the role they play in building liberation and justice movements. You can learn more about Thistle and hear her original music at ThistlePettersen.com