US rightwing group planned $6m for anti-trans messaging in 2022 midterms

Earlier DU thread: US rightwing group planned $6m for anti-trans messaging in 2022 midterms

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Source: The Guardian

US rightwing group planned $6m for anti-trans messaging in 2022 midterms

Independent Women’s Voice turned resources to fighting trans rights in 10 key swing states, documents reveal

Robin Buller
Sat 17 Jun 2023 13.00 BST
Last modified on Sat 17 Jun 2023 13.36 BST

In the months leading up to the 2022 US midterm elections, hundreds of thousands of Facebook users in swing states were targeted with advertisements asking them to sign the Women’s Bill of Rights – a relatively innocuous-sounding initiative presented as a crusade for women’s empowerment. “The Real Fight For Women”, read one version featuring a woman looking down at a cityscape and flexing her biceps. “We know what a woman is,” proclaimed another, its text hovering over a closeup of the Statue of Liberty.

But the Women’s Bill of Rights is a weapon in a war against gender equity being waged by a conservative non-profit women’s group. Independent Women’s Voice, or IWV, lobbies against the equal rights amendment, criticizes public school curriculum and opposes government-funded parental leave. Recently, they have turned their resources to fighting transgender rights. And, according to documents shared with the Guardian by watchdog True North Research, IWV budgeted nearly $6m to promote anti-trans messaging in 10 swing states in advance of last year’s midterms.

“Do not be fooled by their name,” said Alyssa Bowen, senior researcher and managing editor at True North. “This group is a tool of the right to advance an extremist agenda.”

When Facebook users follow a link to sign the Women’s Bill of Rights, they are taken to a website that promotes traditional gender roles and characterizes transgender people as a threat to women’s success and safety. The page includes a copy of the bill itself, which insists “males and females possess unique and immutable biological differences” and “biological differences … warrant the creation of separate social, educational, athletic, or other spaces in order to ensure safety”.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/17/rightwing-group-anti-trans-messaging-swing-states-womens-bill-of-rights

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