An unofficial group of trans and queer community members in Worcester, MA is raising the alarm about a radical feminist organization hosting a conference at Worcester State University, calling the organization and its leadership anti-trans.
The organization, Total Woman Victory, which describes itself as “a quarterly radical feminist newsletter working to amplify the voices of women,” has put together a radical feminist conference called TORCH, that will be meeting for the first time from October 9th to the 11th. The conference will feature an array of speakers and workshops focusing on “theory-building, getting organized, consciousness-raising, and historicizing contradictions.”
Among the small group of women who run TWV is Sathi Patel, who has been the primary organizer of TORCH. Patel, who co-runs a New Afrikan feminist bookstore in Worcester, is an inflammatory figure in leftist spaces in the area, regularly posting anti-trans opinions on Twitter, calling trans women in women’s bathrooms men, worrying about trans mass-shooters, and posting “Trans fad is overrrrrrrrrrr” just days after the murder of Juniper Blessing in Seattle.
“This type of rhetoric is right out of Fox News, it’s pretty startling,” said Rita Mookerjee, an assistant professor at WSU who co-runs the university’s Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department.
In addition to her views expressed on Twitter, Patel was also featured as a speaker at a conference put on by the prominent UK TERF group, FiLiA, which was one of the organizations named in Amnesty International’s now recanted A Growing Threat: the Anti-rights Movement in the UK. Past FiLiA speakers have included Maya Forstater, Stephanie Davies-Arai, and J. K. Rowling.
TORCH itself is not without its own anti-trans speakers. An event program obtained by Assigned Media lists the various workshops, panels, and speakers that will be in attendance. Largely the list consists of local feminist organizers in anti-trafficking, anti-porn, and anti sex-work spaces, as well as several members of the radical feminist group, the Redstockings.
However, also on the list are several notable anti-trans writers and activists: Nevaline Nnaji, editor for the anti-trans anthology She Holds the Line; Kathy Scarbrough, editor for the blog Meeting Ground; and activist, Sasha Graham.
After the conference was announced a month ago, students and staff at WSU expressed their concerns about hosting the event. However, their concerns were seemingly waved off by the university’s administration. “Its institutional cowardice,” said Rita, “it’s so frustrating to work and come into a school that flies the pride flag in the center of our campus and simultaneously permits anti-trans rhetoric, misinformation, disinformation, and foolishness.”
Total Woman Victory did not respond to Assigned Media’s request for comment before publication. We will update our story to include any comment we may receive subsequently.
Valorie Van-Dieman (they/she) is the Associate Editor of Assigned Media. @valorievandieman.bsky.social
