We, the members of the Black Women’s Caucus of Women’s Declaration International USA, believe that it is crucial for Black Women to denounce gender identity ideology. This ideology promotes the idea that sex is nothing more than a social construct and that an individual can choose to *be* a man or a woman regardless of her or his sex. Gender ideologues employ the “forced-teaming” tactic against Black women in order to shame us into being work mules for their campaign of male sexual privileges that they call “transgender rights.” While these efforts are masked as progressive and inclusive concepts, gender identity ideology is actually intrusive and harmful to women, and uniquely so to Black women.
Gender identity ideology erases the unique experiences of women and reinforces the harmful stereotypes of femininity and masculinity. It is also incompatible with the fight for women's rights because it allows men access to spaces and activities designated for women such as bathrooms, sports teams, and housing. It has been reported that 1 in 4 Black girls are sexually assaulted before the age of 18 and 35% of Black women report experiencing physical sexual violence. Policies that allow men unfettered access to female-designated facilities put Black women and girls, a demographic disproportionately impacted by male violence, at an even higher risk.
Black women are 2.5 times more likely to be murdered by men than White women and this is why the fight against gender ideology is pertinent for Black women; we are the demographic most in need of protection from male violence. There have already been deadly consequences where an employer ignored a Black woman’s whistleblowing regarding a male who demanded to be recognized as a woman. Monica Archer, a caseworker in a women’s shelter, warned her employers about a client, Harvey Marcelin living as Marceline Harvey, who’d made threats against her and other shelter employees. Archer was fired for speaking out. Marcelin had already served 50 years for murdering and dismembering two women and after Archer’s whistleblowing was ignored, Marcelin was found to have murdered and dismembered a 68-year-old “gal-pal” he had met while living in the women’s shelter.
Marcelin has since been reimprisoned, but locking away criminally-violent men who claim to be women doesn’t end the horror for all women. As of 2021, California has imprisoned men who claim to be women in women’s prisons. Since then, there have been women who have come forward claiming to have been harassed and sexually assaulted by some of these men. Studies have shown that even when men claim to be women, they display a typically male pattern of criminality with respect to violent crimes. Additionally, 49.7% have been convicted of sex crimes. Therefore, incarcerated women are forced to be housed with male criminals of whom half have a history of sexual violence. Since Black women are seven times more likely than White women–and more than twice as likely as Hispanic women–to be incarcerated during their lives, these inhumane conditions of incarceration disproportionately and unfairly affect a maligned and especially vulnerable group of Black women. Being raped while incarcerated amounts to torture at the hands of the state.
Black girls are another vulnerable subset of the Black female population who have already borne the brunt of gender identity ideology. In 1993, Luis Morales, a man pretending to be a woman, along with his boyfriend and fellow member of the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation gang, kidnapped a 13 year-old Black girl named Ebony Nicole Williams. Ebony was brutally and repeatedly raped and tortured by Morales, who was motivated by sexism and racism. Morales’s boyfriend, Carlos Franco, then mercilessly stomped on Ebony’s neck until it was broken before both men packed her petite body into a box, dumped the box near an expressway, and set the box on fire. The violence Morales and Franco inflicted upon Ebony was so extensive that she could only be identified through dental records. In 1996, Morales was sentenced to 25 years in prison for Ebony’s murder. He suggested that he had avoided the rape conviction due to his “gender identity.”
Unlike Ebony, Morales has been able to grow older and pursue happiness. While detained, Morales became a media sensation and noted advocate for the “rights” of incarcerated men claiming to be women and, after a lawsuit in 2003, was granted wrong-sex hormones paid for by the state of New York. Since being paroled in 2018, Morales has appeared as a member of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project’s advisory committee. To honor Ebony’s memory and to protect other Black girls, we stand unapologetically against gender ideology.
The impact of gender ideology is not only being felt in the area of male violence against women. It is also a socio-economic issue. Men overall receive a disproportionate amount of sports scholarship funding compared to women, and Black women and girls make up only 9% of student athletes. Making men who pretend to be women eligible for sports scholarships designated for women and girls further disenfranchises Black women and girls from opportunities to fund their education.
Also, Black women are especially likely to be homeless due to inability to find affordable housing. Classifying men as women further aggravates the disparity. When we include men in female-designated housing programs, we do so at the expense of Black women.
We urge all Black women to denounce gender identity ideology and instead advocate for policies that protect the rights of Black women and girls. This fight is especially crucial for Black women, as we are the demographic most in need of protection from male violence but with the least access to that protection. We must stand up against any movement or idea that seeks to erase our experiences or undermine our fight for equal justice, safety, and dignity.
Black women have spent decades undoing the trauma of colorism, hair texturism, and featurism. We can't then turn around and embrace a movement that encourages self-hate and perpetuates the same standards of femininity that were often used against Black women and girls. We can’t teach our daughters the lie that we can be born in the wrong body and expect them to feel comfortable with their skin color, hair texture, or other bodily features. It is against our best interest as Black women to support gender ideology and we urge other Black women to support women's rights, instead.
~Women’s Declaration International USA- Black Women’s Caucus Lorraine Nowlin, Coordinator View Statement on Website Women’s Declaration International, USA (WDI USA) is the American chapter of a global organization dedicated to protecting women’s sex-based rights. Our founding document, the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights, re-affirms women and girls' sex-based rights as enumerated in the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and subsequent international agreements, and challenges the discrimination we experience from the replacement of the category of sex with that of ‘gender identity’. The Declaration is a clear call to law and policy makers to retain the sex-based biological definition of woman. WDI is a nonpartisan organization which advocates for human rights for women and girls through volunteer political activism. WDI USA does not endorse any action which is unsafe or violates state or federal civil or criminal law. Facebook LinkedIn Twitter Women's Declaration International, USA PO Box 21160 Washington, District Of Columbia 20009 Opt-out Privacy
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