Sharon Byrne is a non-profit and government relations expert with over two decades of advocacy leadership experience. She brings to WoLF vital community-building experience and connections; she currently serves as the President of the Santa Barbara United Nations Association and served as a delegate to The UN Conference on the Status of Women and the Generation Equity Forums. Sharon is the author of multiple published articles on women’s rights, including an Op-Ed in The Independent revealing the insidious presence of human trafficking in Santa Barbara. She also serves on the board of the Santa Barbara Women's Health Coalition and has been a vocal advocate for women’s reproductive sovereignty. Sharon was awarded the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office’s Exceptional Civilian Award in 2023 for her work with the Montecito Association in reducing gang violence, preventing human trafficking, and pioneering a model to end homelessness in the county. She holds a Master's Degree in Psychology, a Bachelor's Degree in Management and Economics, and a certificate in Human Rights Consulting from the International Institute for Human Rights. Sharon joined WoLF as Executive Director in 2023. Women's Liberation Front (womensliberationfront.org) |
Discussion items from today's show:
GREAT ARTICLE FROM 2018 THAT EXPLORES THE MOTIVATION BEHIND THE TRANSGENDER TREND:
Who Are the Rich, White Men Institutionalizing Transgender Ideology? (thefederalist.com)
Gender and Sex are not the same!!!!!!!!!!!
If you are tired of fighting over this topic. The answer is: There might be multiple genders but there are ONLY TWO SEXES
gender /jĕn′dər/
noun
- A grammatical category, often designated as male, female, or neuter, used in the classification of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and, in some languages, verbs that may be arbitrary or based on characteristics such as sex or animacy and that determines agreement with or selection of modifiers, referents, or grammatical forms.
sex /sĕks/
noun
- Sexual activity, especially sexual intercourse.
The sexual urge or instinct as it manifests itself in behavior. - "motivated by sex."
- Either of the two divisions, designated female and male, by which most organisms are classified on the basis of their reproductive organs and functions
MAP - Minor Attracted Persons
https://mapcommunity.org
Open MAP Community is a safe, inclusive and democratic space for minor-attracted persons (MAPs) to discuss their sexuality, rights and experiences. Learn about the MAP definition, community guidelines, blog, policy and how to join or donate.
TERF
TERF is an acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist. First recorded in 2008, the term TERF was originally used to distinguish transgender-inclusive feminists from a group of radical feminists and social conservatives who reject the position that trans women are women, including trans women in women's spaces, and transgender rights legislation.
We focus on issues that affect women and girls in the United States and are ignored by mainstream feminist organizations.
OUR MISSION
To restore, protect, and advance the rights of women and girls using legal argument, policy advocacy, and public education.
WE BELIEVE
ABOLISHING GENDER IDEOLOGY
ABOLISHING MALE VIOLENCE
ABOLISHING COMMERCIAL SEXUAL EXPLOITATION
ACHIEVING WOMEN’S REPRODUCTIVE AUTONOMY
To restore, protect, and advance the rights of women and girls using legal argument, policy advocacy, and public education.
WE BELIEVE
- That female humans, the class of people called women, are oppressed by men under a system called patriarchy.
- That patriarchy is organized around the extraction of resources from female bodies and minds in the service of men, including reproductive, sexual, emotional, and labor resources.
- That gender is a hierarchical caste system that organizes male supremacy. Gender cannot be reformed – it must be abolished.
- That overlapping systems of injustice built on misogyny, racism, and wealth inequality must all be dismantled for all women to be free.
- Halt male extraction of resources from female bodies and minds, by regaining reproductive sovereignty, ending male violence including the sexual exploitation industry, and ensuring that women control the material conditions of our lives.
- Disrupt and ultimately end the enforcement of gender, because women’s liberation can only be won when this caste system has been abolished.
- Empower women to organize as a class, including the creation and maintenance of women-only spaces.
ABOLISHING GENDER IDEOLOGY
- We educate about the harms of gender and its centrality to male domination.
- Facilitate a cultural shift away from gender roles and sex-stereotypes.
- Defend sex-segregation of domestic violence shelters and prisons, which affects the most consistently vulnerable, impoverished, and abused women.
- Defend sex-segregation of women’s sports, bathrooms, and locker rooms.
- Support the needs of lesbian and bisexual women.
- Support detransitioners in their struggle to be healed and heard.
- Speak out against targeted censorship and defend free speech for women.
ABOLISHING MALE VIOLENCE
- We seek to combat the global epidemic of male violence.
- Organize visible resistance to rape culture.
- Fight to obtain legal justice for survivors of male violence.
- Fight against the normalization of violent or degrading sexual practices, the eroticization of women’s pain, and toxic relationships.
ABOLISHING COMMERCIAL SEXUAL EXPLOITATION
- We work to abolish prostitution and pornography as forms of violence against women.
- Provide education and support for the Nordic Model of legislation that holds johns and pimps accountable.
- Promote civil remedies for the harms of the pornography industry.
ACHIEVING WOMEN’S REPRODUCTIVE AUTONOMY
- We defend women’s bodily sovereignty.
- Unapologetically support abortion on demand.
- Fight against surrogacy and the commodification of women’s bodies.
- Provide educational materials on relevant legislative proposals.
- Promote the visibility of midwives and doulas.
- Encourage women’s knowledge and self-care of our bodies.
- Speak out against women’s mistreatment in healthcare and lack of adequate treatment.