TERFs Are Fêted by Erin Friday
Why The Work We Did Was Important
In this post, to my network, I hid my political message within a fashion post. Fashion (and food) featured in my posts, describing our TERF events, has been a strategy of mine since I joined our band of merry terfers in 2022. It makes the post about a real life event I participated in, rather than a discussion of political points. It was also a party and people like to watch others enjoying themselves.
On Sunday I got to wear an outfit I designed in 2015. I was all into board shorts, at the time, having joined a women’s outrigger canoe club and so I was regularly in and out of the water. These shorts I call my “bard” shorts as in Shakespeare. You know. “To swim or not to swim”.
Though I wore all my other board shorts, this outfit was too embarrassing to wear until, that is, the right pool party came along to be attended by my women’s group. The group that loves costume actions: dinosaurs, jumpsuits, suffragette era dresses, witches, et al. This special pool party was hosted by Erin Friday, lady lawyer, bill writer, tenacious protector of women’s rights and children. Founder of Our Duty, a mom’s group we collaborate with.
She gathered us together after we had swam and eaten, and told us that had it not been for our diligent attendance, sign holding, testifying all those times at the capitol, followed up with video posting, our legislators would still be scrolling their phones, intent on blatantly ignoring her pleas to protect women’s sports, girls in locker rooms, and vulnerable women in prisons.
They believed no one would hold them accountable, especially not Democrats, and not women who they were told would have no conflict with these rights they were granting that tiny minority of boundary crashers. They believed in the righteousness of their progressiveness.
This was very gratifying as no one else, but one of our own, would be likely to acknowledge all the work we put in. It was the perfect time to put on some party clothes. This outfit did make a splash, adding to the fun.
I had some interesting conversations about the electrical grid and how foolhardy it was to rely so heavily on it, and heard the story from one comrade of how she lost her internet connection and was crying because she could not figure out where she was while looking at a bus stop map. A harbinger of crisis to come. My car is still full of maps. I’m so very old school. Way back to Shakespeare.
Facebook doesn’t show how many of your contacts look at a photograph or reads your message, but more of my original contacts liked the post than I expected which made me feel that they, too, wanted to thank me for the work that I have done with our group and with Erin. That these issues relating to women’s rights, that we were defending, were worthwhile and was commendable even if they declined from helping us. Our mutual contacts would see that I have the support of people they know. Many even liked on the picture of the cake with its “Happy Terfing” inscription. Finding low key ways to allow my friends to support me has been my challenge.
The Poster Julie made for Erin was to commemorate a significant moment at a hearing when Committee Chair Bonta refused to hear a testimony from Erin. The photo of Erin, used in this collage, was taken by Bev in Sacramento at one of Erin’s press conferences early in the game. Our favorite fan girl photo of her.
Photos of my before and after modifications of clothing are still a regular feature of my posts, but this particular set I dug out of the archives. Having a well organized photo archive has proven invaluable for this work.
The pool party was on June 8th so I’m almost caught up on our events. One more to go before our big campout retreat conference.