WoLF was founded by author and activist Lierre Keith, who currently serves as its chair.[13] As of 2021[update], WoLF reported having nearly 1,000 members across the United States.[14]
The Women's Liberation Front's activism finds its source in second-wave feminist tendencies, such as those of Mary Daly and Janice Raymond, which consider transgender identities untrue and say that women are defined by "their biology and by having 'survived girlhood'", rather than by gender identity.[3] While considered a fringe group by the mainstream progressives, who say the group conceals an essentially discriminatory right-wing ideology under the guise of feminism,[3] the organization has found influence through collaboration with conservative groups on shared legislative views.[3][15]
In August 2016, WoLF filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration for its directive on Title IX permitting students to use bathrooms based on their reported gender identity.[18] In their filing, WoLF stated that the Obama administration equated the terms "sex" with "gender identity" without evidence, and that by doing so the administration contradicted the intent of Title IX.[18] Following the election of Donald Trump, the directive was withdrawn. The suit ended in voluntary dismissal after WoLF withdrew from the suit in March 2017.[19]
In November 2021, WoLF filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation over its policy of permitting transgender, non-binary, and intersex prisoners to be detained in facilities corresponding to their gender identity.[21]
In 2016, WoLF received a $15,000 donation from the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative Christian organization that opposes abortion and LGBT rights.[22]
In 2019, three members of WoLF appeared on a panel with conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation. The panel focused on the Equality Act, legislation pending in Congress that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.[1] Progressives criticized WoLF's participation in the panel, which included Jennifer Chavez reading "from a letter that described increased transgender visibility and acceptance as 'a social contagion all over the internet'".[1][2]
In June 2022, several groups opposing trans rights, including WoLF, ADF, WDI USA, and Family Research Council, organized a rally called "Our Bodies, Our Sports" in Washington, D.C. Lindsay Schubiner, an expert on right-wing extremism, said the event is part of a larger threat to democracy, and an attempt to legitimize and spread transphobia.[24]
^Hachey, Isabelle (June 12, 2019). "La femme qui dérange". La Presse. Archived from the original on October 18, 2021. Retrieved October 18, 2021. Fait étonnant, celles qui luttent avec le plus de véhémence contre les droits des transgenres ne sont pas des machos frustrés, mais… des féministes de gauche. Elles ont même un nom : les TERF, acronyme anglais pour « trans-exclusionary radical feminists ». [Surprisingly, those who fight with the greatest vehemence against transgender rights are not frustrated male chauvinists, but left-wing feminists. They even have a name: TERF, an English acronym for "trans-exclusionary radical feminists". In the United States, they formed WoLF, the Women's Liberation Front, and spoke of transgender people as a "social contagion".]
