ANOTHER DAY OF FIGHTING THE GENDER WARS
August 12, 2021
On August 10, 2021, I made a trip to Loudoun County, Virginia, about an hour outside of Washington, D.C., to attend a rally outside the school board building, and then to testify before the Loudoun County Public School board (LCPS) against proposed policy 8040.
The day itself, and subsequent developments, can serve as a warning about what is in store for all of us, all over the world, as we continue in our fight against “gender identity.”
For reference, proposed policy 8040 can be found in its entirety here. It states, among other things:
This has quite a few district parents very angry, and for good reason. A June meeting got quite a bit of media attention after the school board stopped the parents from speaking and silenced discussion. Kellie-Jay Keen covered the meeting on her YouTube channel. At a previous meeting that same month, student Jolene Grover had spoken out against the policy, telling the board, “Everyone knows what a boy is, even you!”
Even though I do not live in the county, one parent, Natassia Grover (Jolene’s mother), encouraged me to register to testify. I had gotten to know Natassia through prior work with a group called Hands Across the Aisle – Women in Coalition. Natassia is a Republican who has listened carefully to radical feminists on the left and is uncompromising in her use of language. In 2019, I stood with her and others outside the U.S. Supreme Court to fight for the rights, privacy, and safety of women in the employment context while an angry man yelled at us with a bullhorn to “GO HOME HOMOPHOBE!” The man never made it clear what we were saying that he thought was homophobic.
Back to Loudoun County …
Natassia picked me up at the Rosslyn metro station in Virginia at around 1:30 p.m. and we arrived at the school board building at around 3:00 p.m. That’s when things started to get strange.
I had not been to a meeting at this particular school board before, so I was not sure what to expect. As we pulled onto the property, I could see that there were several large parking lots. There were what appeared to be armed security guards directing traffic. I didn’t know whether that was strange or not, but Natassia told me that she had never seen anything like it at a Loudoun County school board meeting, and she has attended several of them. One guard approached our vehicle. Natassia stopped the car and put the window down. The guard asked her if she was there as a member of “the public.” She seemed confused by the question, because everyone who was there to speak is a member of “the public.” She said yes, and he directed us toward one of the parking lots. We parked the car and entered the area.
The majority of people there appeared to be parents who were concerned about a variety of topics, from school choice to mask mandates, from Critical Race Theory to vaccines. I handed out several fliers promoting the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights, and most people were very glad to hear about it. I would estimate that there were approximately 100 parents there to protest on a number of issues, and they were all opposed to policy 8040. Across a field, there were maybe 15 or so people there to speak out in favor of policy 8040. They held pink, white, and blue flags and wore rainbow-colored socks. They seemed a bit sad (and a little pathetic). They were mostly quiet and talked among themselves.
Shortly before the rally, I spoke with an ABC reporter named Heather Graf who was there to report on the ground. She asked me why I was there, and I told her that I was there to stand with parents who were opposed to obliterating single-sex spaces. This is the newscast that ended up being reported from the event by that particular outlet (it’s the second video in the article). My interview with her has never seen the light of day, to the best of my knowledge, and is lost forever.
The rally began at around 3:15 p.m. A few people spoke, and then it came time for Natassia to introduce me. Her introduction included this:
“People in our movement often ask, ‘Where are the feminists? Why aren’t feminists speaking out about the erasure of women and girls?’ Well, here is a feminist who works day in and day out to protect women and girls. Kara has told me personally that she is willing to die on this hill and she is here today to stand with us.”
I am ever grateful to Natassia for introducing me this way, and I have to wonder if this is precisely the reason that ABC omitted my interview from their newscast.
This is what I had to say:
I meant it when I said that there are countless Democrats who are furious at our party leadership for what they are doing on the topic of “gender identity” and I have no regrets about sharing that information with this group of conservative Republicans and Libertarians. It is true that I hear from such Democrats every day. They are absolutely furious that party leadership would propagate something so insidious as the notion that some men can be women. So many of us are completely fed up. Maybe one day our party leadership will listen to us.
At approximately 4:15 p.m., the weather got interesting. There were thunderous booms and enormous flashes of lightning. This went on for at least an hour, with no sign of actual rain. I’ll explain why this is relevant in a moment.
After we spoke at the rally, Natassia and I made our way to the building entrance. We knew that certain new security precautions were being taken, but neither of us was entirely sure what to expect. When we got to the entrance, we learned several things:
There were private, armed security guards monitoring the entrance.
Speakers were only being permitted to enter the building 10 at a time.
Speakers would be admitted to the hearing room one at a time, and there would be no public audience in the hearing room at all.
Before entering the building, each speaker would be patted down and subjected to a wand search.
Natassia was astonished. She told me that previously, the county sheriff’s office had been in attendance, which is standard operating procedure for public meetings in the county. They never interfered with anything, and there had never been pat-downs or wand searches. At previous meetings, people were free to go in and out of the building at their leisure. The limitations on attendance did not appear to have anything to do with COVID-19 precautions (masks were not required).
But then it seemed as though the rules kept changing. At first, speakers were told that we would each have one minute to speak. Then, at the last minute, we were told that we would each have two minutes to speak. It’s nice that they expanded our speaking time, but why the sudden rule change? After announcing that they were only allowing ten speakers in at a time, they allowed 20 speakers in at a time. Then it went back to ten, with no reason given. It was eerie. It gave us all the feeling that they wanted us all to know that the rules were constantly subject to change, with no notice, and no public input. They definitely wanted to let us know who was in charge.
It is hard to know exactly what to make of all of this, but it certainly seems to be the case that the board knew that policy 8040 is extremely unpopular and was actively stifling public discussion about it by adopting unprecedented security measures designed to frighten concerned residents and parents into not speaking out. At a school board meeting.
While we waited for our turn to be wand-searched, and while we continued to experience ominous thunder and lightning, I was contacted by a local Fox News reporter named Katie Barlow. Katie stated that she wanted to interview me about my work with the Women’s Human Rights Campaign and wondered why I was interested in Loudoun County. Katie and I stepped aside and conducted a brief on-camera interview. It was windy, but there was still no rain at this time.
Eventually, Natassia and I were both wand-searched and permitted to enter the building. Here is an image that someone snapped of me being searched:
We stood in line inside, waiting our turn to testify. While we did, I noticed a women’s room nearby and decided to take the opportunity to use it. I told Natasha as much, and she asked, “Do you want me to stand guard?” I had to take a moment to take in what was happening. We were in a school board building, preparing to testify about the importance of protecting women-only spaces. We knew that there were men on the premises who claim to “identify as women,” preparing to testify in favor of obliterating women-only spaces. Because of that, a woman had to offer to stand guard at a women’s restroom so that a woman could go into it by herself, without men invading it. This is where we are.
Also while we waited in line, we caught a glimpse of one of our opponents in line ahead of us. His name is Willow. This is a photo of Willow standing in line to speak in favor of obliterating women-only spaces, while wearing a very sparkly mask:
A complete video of the entire hearing can be found here. Natassia speaks at approximately 1:51:40. She begins her remarks by telling the board members, “You are exhausting,” and goes on to criticize the members of the board who are fathers for not caring about their daughters’ safety. She has addressed these board members numerous times and is tired of having to tell them what the word girl means. I spoke immediately after her. You can watch it at the link, but if you would prefer to read, this is a record of what I had to say:
“My name is Kara Dansky. I am the President of the U.S. chapter of the Women’s Human Rights Campaign, which can be found at www.womensdeclaration.com. Although I lead a nonpartisan organization, I am here speaking solely for myself. I am a lifelong Democrat and a feminist. My priority is the rights, privacy, and safety of women and girls, which will be obliterated if you implement Policy 8040.
LCPS claims to be committed to providing an equitable, safe, and inclusive learning environment for all students. To do this you must protect female students as a distinct category.
All across the country, female prisoners are being forced to share locked prison cells with male prisoners, including convicted sex offenders, on the basis of the male prisoners’ so-called “gender identity” because of policies like 8040.
Please don’t do this to female students in Loudoun County. In an era of “me too,” young women deserve better.
There are countless Democrats all over the country who are furious at our party’s leadership because of policies like 8040. I hear from them every day.
Consider the impacts on young lesbians. Consider how horrible it must be for teenage same-sex attracted girls to be told that “some girls have penises.”
As a Democrat and a feminist who fights to protect women’s sex-based rights, I am imploring the members of this board to vote no on Policy 8040.”
I also submitted written remarks, which are longer and more detailed. The full text is available here.
By the time Natassia and I had finished speaking, the rains had come. When we got to the building exit, we could see that it was coming down in buckets, and people were crowding under an awning for protection. The board officials refused to allow these people into the building, and instead made them stand outside, either in the rain or, for those who could fit, under the awning. Others chose to flee to their cars, forfeiting their opportunity to speak.
We had a choice: try to get a space under the awning or brave the elements. I was tired. Natassia looked at me and asked, “Do you want to brave it?” I had an umbrella with me, but she didn’t, and I didn’t want to make her run back to the parking lot in the rain, so I told her that we could wait. She said, “Nah, it’ll be fun.” So we took off our shoes and ran, barefoot, through the parking lot to the car, where we arrived, soaking wet. It was all worth it.
The next day, I scoured the internet for my Fox News interview, but it was nowhere to be found. So I texted Katie Barlow, the Fox reporter, to ask if there was a clip available. This was her response:
This may not be true. It had not yet started raining during our interview. This is a photo that Natasha took during the interview:
No rain.
[EDIT: It has been brought to my attention that it is possible that I am misunderstanding Katie’s response. It is possible that my interview got bundled into a different segment that also included other bits that were recorded when people were all getting drenched. This is a fair point and I have edited the piece accordingly.]
A few other interesting things happened that day that I did not learn about until the next day. For example one teacher quit her job, on the record, during her testimony, in a show of defiance against the board’s totalitarianism. I also learned that the board ended the meeting without a vote, and decided to reconvene the next day.
On August 11, the board voted to approve the policy.
So, to recap:
A county school board has adopted a proposal to obliterate single-sex spaces, knowing that the proposal is wildly unpopular among county residents and parents.
At one recent hearing about the proposal, speakers were silenced and discussion was terminated.
At a subsequent hearing about the proposal, board officials suddenly implemented security measures, none of which local residents had ever been subjected to.
During a rally before that meeting, a reporter interviewed me, and then, after hearing that I am a feminist and a Democrat, failed to publish the interview.
Some of the new security measures included private armed security guards (with familiar local law enforcement officials noticeably absent), armed parking lot patrol guards, individual wand-searches, and unprecedented (even during the pandemic) limitations on who was permitted to be present at the hearing.
Fox’s reporting on the event conspicuously omitted the sole radical feminist voice at the event.
How is it that this one particular issue is leading us headfirst into totalitarian measures like this? Maybe because when you’re hellbent on propagating a blatant lie, totalitarian measures are your only resort.
To readers who insist on fighting back against gender insanity: PLEASE DO NOT STOP FIGHTING. Our overlords can’t ignore all of us, forever. The lie of “gender identity” is eventually going to die an even more dramatic death than Prohibition and the overlords will live in infamy.
UPDATE: This is Natassia in the hearing room while the board was voting to obliterate single-sex spaces on Wednesday night:
