In May, we decided to pause this Substack for a month as all our team members were overloaded with work and life responsibilities to keep up with our publication schedule. When we regrouped, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling West Virginia v. BPJ had just came down, scoring a big win for women’s fairness in sports. This ruling follows United States v. Skrmetti, in which the Court ruled that states have legal power to prohibit puberty blockers and hormonal therapy as gender identity medical treatments for minors.
Across the pond, the UK Supreme Court has ruled that “sex” under the UK Equality Act means biological sex. A new statutory guidance to enforce the ruling is coming into effect now. The Cass Report began a much-needed halt to medical sterilization and mutilation of kids, and compelled the slumbering masses to rethink whether these practices are scientifically-based at all.
Today, the public is much more aware of the harms and inequities caused by the transgender movement. The spectacle of Lia Thomas at the US NCAA National Swimming Championship and Imane Khelif at the Olympics showed the world what invasion of women’s sports and spaces by men who call themselves women is really about. JK. Rowling taking a firm stance in defense of women’s sex-based rights gave women’s side a huge boost. Other voices, including Julie Bindel, Helen Joyce, Riley Gaines, Martina Navratilova, Sharron Davies, Kara Dansky, detransitioners, and the unsung high-school college and female athletes who dared to speak up because coward and callous adults failed them, have all helped to bring the problems to the public’s consciousness.
When this Substack began in 2022, the world was at a different place. Only a small group of feisty women, many of whom radical feminists, were aware of the gender identity movement’s rapid dismantling of women’s rights. We started this Substack because we felt an urgency to release what was happening to the public. While the erosion of women’s rights and spaces is still happening, it is also true that the urgency of our work—namely, to raise awareness—has diminished. We realized that our efforts on this front would be more effective elsewhere. The demand of regular news reporting is keeping us from expending our efforts in other ways.
To that end, we’ve decided to end our News Roundup. We will keep this Substack up as historical record as proof that this atrocity really happened, and for commentary articles when we feel we have something to say. We want to thank you all for being here with us, especially those who believed in our work enough to pledge for paid subscriptions. Although we never felt the need to monetize, your pledges gave our morale a big lift. And though our News Roundup is ending, we’re still here with you in this fight.
Below, the co-founders and team members of this Substack want to share their final thoughts with you:
Soh Heriot
As the co-founder of WAHF alongisde Georgia O'Keefe, I can tell you that the origin of WAHF actually began with Ovarit. And my personal journey to Ovarit began with a feeling I can only articulate as political and intellectual homelessness.
Over the years we’ve spent a lot of time documenting what has broadly been called “gender ideology.” Honestly, over time I came to see that issue as less of a cause than a symptom. It is a manifestation of a much, much larger problem. And that is that our institutions are, for whatever reason, failing us.
Gender ideology became the clearest example of several institutional trends converging at once:
Identity politics: We are obsessed with sorting people into narrow categories and treating those categories as though they define us. Race, sex, sexuality, etc. These have become political identities instead of simple facts about individuals. Instead of encouraging solidarity as it purports to do, this framework encourages people to see themselves primarily as members of competing groups with competing grievances.
The manufacture of “gender identity” as an immutable social class exemplifies that shift. But even if you believe in the value of grouping people into those other social classifications (race, sex, sexuality, etc.), “gender identity” is not among them. Identifying outside one’s sex is not membership in a distinct oppressed class. It reflects psychological distress of some kind, maybe rooted in trauma, obsessive thinking, personality pathology, sexual paraphilias, autism, or one (or more) of a host of other conditions. Saying, for example, that “trans women” can’t compete in sports isn’t discrimination when these men and boys continue to have the freedom to play sports, as long as it’s not in a category exclusively created for women and girls.
Ideology over evidence: I saw this firsthand when I returned to graduate school in the early 2020s. On the very first day, in a health field, we were explicitly told that a core principle of our education was to center and promote designated minority groups. Scientific inquiry was explicitly expected to serve a political narrative rather than test it. The only hypotheses we were allowed to test were ones for which the conclusion was already decided. And then this “science” was used to deride and dismiss any and all skepticism on the subject.
Medicalization of ordinary human suffering: Modern psychology suffers from major methodological problems (e.g. the replication crisis), and yet it wields enormous cultural authority. Every discomfort requires a diagnosis. And every diagnosis becomes an identity. And every identity demands validation. Strengthening one’s community, family, resilience, personal responsibility, cosmic acceptance — no, no, no. You see, those are, at best, secondary to therapy, medication, and endless navel-gazing. Nowhere is this more obvious than in gender “medicine”, where legitimately serious psychological distress is met with irreversible medical intervention to literally surgically alter one’s reflection in the mirror rather than reconcile the person looking back.
Transhumanism: Whether through technology, medicine, or the rising integration of digital identities into real life, there is a belief that reality should conform to our personal desires instead of the other way around. Gender ideology fits naturally within that worldview. It is an attempt to lord over nature itself. It arrogantly ignores the truth that biology just is. No amount of language or technology changes what we fundamentally are. And trying to replace reality with simulation, rather than liberating us as transhumanism promises, instead traps us in a shallow imitation of being.
Misogyny: For years I resisted reducing the world to “oppressors” and “oppressed,” because, as I said in my first bullet, I think identity politics is bullshit (and you’d think that I as a black woman would be exactly the kind of person who needs it the most). But the thing is, rejecting identity politics doesn’t necessitate pretending that things like racism and sexism aren’t real. Misogyny is very real. In fact, women’s rights remain uniquely vulnerable because they are rooted in material reality rather than abstract identity.
Even here in the free and developed West, women continue to fight over control of our bodies, our spaces, our safety, and our dignity. We see it in the objectification of women through pornography, in the literal sale of women’s organs through surrogacy, in attempts to redefine womanhood itself, and so much more. And while the women who are the loudest about these issues get labeled as shrill harpies, it is ONLY because of the incessant voices of those women that we don’t live in cultures where women are legally subordinate. History and present-day countries in less developed parts of the world very clearly support the argument that women’s equality is never the default of society.I mean, even in 2026 in liberal democracies like ours here in the USA, there are people who sincerely long for a return to policy that affords women less independence. I’m not saying that there aren’t societal issues that only affect men, but I have yet to see policy, or genuine advocacy for policy, here or anywhere in the world that restricts men from voting or going to school or driving or managing their own money or assembling in public…just because they’re men.
After years of paying attention to all of this, I just fucking can’t anymore.
These issues matter hugely. But constant vigilance is exhausting. Living inside the news cycle, cataloguing every new headline, every new policy, every new absurdity... it genuinely takes something out of you.
But it’s not completely hopeless. Actually, I feel peace in walking away because I’ve come to a very cliche conclusion: that the very best you can do in life is to be the change you want to see in the world. But do it in a way that you personally can sustain.
Some people are built for public activism. They have the energy, the platform, and the temperament to keep speaking loudly year after year. We need those people. Like I said, they are our strongest defense against forces that would be happy to stamp out our rights and personhood completely.
Others, like me these days, have different priorities. I’m a single mom with two very young daughters. Most of my energy goes into building a peaceful and stable life for us. For now at least, that means that living my values, and role modeling those values for my girls, is how I argue for them.
Also, just noticing things. And you, too, must keep noticing things because awareness is its own form of resistance. Don’t accept obvious falsehoods because they’re fashionable, and never ever surrender your ability to think critically.
If WAHF helped even a small number of you notice what you otherwise would have missed, or if it helped you feel a little less alone in noticing things, then I think this newsletter has served its purpose.
Thank you for reading and for caring enough to pay attention ❤️
Georgia O’Keefe
I still remember the chilling atmosphere for those who didn’t subscribe to transgender ideology when Soh Heriot and I began this Substack. Conservatives hadn’t yet caught on to what was happening to politicize it. Cancel culture was at its height. The voices of those who objected, mainly a very small group of liberal women and an even smaller minority of men on the left, were heavily suppressed.
For all the political rhetoric today about Trump, dictatorship, and the end of democracy, I myself have never felt more stifled by oppressive authoritarianism and censorship than I did between 2019 and 2024, when the government, mainstream news, social media platforms, and institutions of every kind—from schools and workplaces to hobby Facebook groups—would clamp down on and punish the slightest deviation from the accepted narratives of transgender ideology.
The stranglehold of transgender ideology on society has broken. But I’m still angry. Jimmy Kimmel is up on stage wailing with a smug face about being a victim of censorship, but where is the outcry for those who suffered real career losses for speaking up for women and for biological facts? What about ordinary people like us who write for this Substack? There is no acknowledgment at all of the oppressive silencing imposed upon us by those who pushed transgender ideology. For “normie” liberals who aren’t terminally online, there isn’t even any awareness of the heavy-handed censorship and personal destruction unleashed upon us by those whom they believe to be the “good people” (i.e., not “right-wing”.)
I’ve been a staunch believer in women’s rights ever since I can remember. In high school and college, I proudly called myself a feminist when many women shunned that label. I interned at feminist organizations. I led feminist groups on campus. I was there when society first began to understand that domestic violence is no different than other types of assault, that stalking is not romantic but life-threatening to women, and consent still matters when two people are on a date and even between husbands and wives. I was there when maternity leave without fear of job loss was codified into law, and women were achieving parity in workplaces at most levels, if not yet at the executive level. During the decades of the 1990s and 2000s, the world was finally becoming equal for women in advanced countries and societies.
For a while, I retreated from the feminist front. I thought things could only get better. The discovery of what transgender ideology was doing to women made me pay attention again. And when I did, in 2017, “feminism” became something I could not recognize at all.
But looking back, I never quite fit in the feminist circle. My belief in and support of feminism is grounded in the day-to-day reality women face. I care deeply about fair treatment and equal opportunities for women. In retrospect, I was always at odds with feminism as an ideology and academic theory. I always felt women would be empowered not by majoring in women’s studies but in finance.
When I was in law school, I attended a talk by a group of female law professors about women in the legal profession. When I asked what should a female lawyer do if the client is from a country where men won’t work with women and the female lawyer loses out on opportunities to her male colleagues, the professors mumbled and couldn’t give an answer. At that moment, I realized they were in an ivory tower. They were professors specializing in theories of women’s rights and the law, not professors in contracts or real estate. To them, my question might as well be one from outer space. I might as well be asking them what I should do if I were abducted by aliens.
When I joined Reddit’s r/gendercritical (and subsequently Ovarit after Reddit banned r/GC), I learned that feminist ideology had merged with transgenderism, DEI, Marxism, and various other new ideologies by way of “intersectionality”. The merger with transgenderism is especially devastating as it rendered legacy women’s organizations voiceless in the face of total dismantling of women’s hard-won rights. Intersectionality has rendered them useless when discrimination against women occurs anywhere in the world. Feminism was defeated not by conservatives, but by surrender of voice and power by those in pursuit of ideological fever dreams.
Outside of the ideological bubble, “feminism” has been bandied about by corporations as a slogan to sell products, by Hollywood to sell movies purporting to tout “girl power”, by youths to air grievances and slights no matter how small, and by misogynists as the root of all evil to blame for everything wrong under the sun.
Today, I call myself a women’s rights advocate. There is no longer a common understanding of what is “feminism”.
I would like to get back to supporting women in their fight against sexism, discriminations, and exploitations relating to real life matters for women generally. Not ideological theorizing about the patriarchy and identities, or lofty, unattainable missions of separatism and liberation from men, or suicidal ideas of “equity” that willfully sacrifices the lives of women in pursuit of righting perceived injustice against “oppressed” groups.
There are actually many issues today that directly affect women’s day-to-day lives. Gender critical feminists are still tied up in the fight to stop transgender ideology’s erasure of women’s rights. We have a dire void of a representative voice for women. As Soh Heriot said above, women’s rights have a habit of eroding if not continually defended. Who will step in to fill this vacuum?
I hope it will be us—you, me, and all our subscribers. Now that we’ve ended our work of News Roundup, I hope it will free up my time to write about the bread-and-butter issues impacting women today. In the next few weeks, I plan to launch a new Substack to do precisely that. I considered writing right here in the WAHF Substack. However, my opinions may not align with every subscriber. I may not be radical enough, or too radical. I think it would be better to share my diverging thoughts in its own space. From time to time, if appropriate, I will cross-post my articles here.
When my Substack is ready to launch, I will announce it here. So don’t leave yet. Stay tuned. For now, follow me on Substack Georgia O'Keefe
Althea
It is with real disappointment that we say goodbye, for now, to this newsletter.
When I first connected with WAHF, I was driven by deep frustration at the oppressive silence surrounding women’s issues, children’s safety and gender ideology, while possessing an urgent need to share what so many were seeing: the documented harm being done to children, women, and LGB people. The damage was shocking precisely because it had been hidden. The push was top-down, institutional, and relentless. Alarm bells were ringing everywhere.
That core problem has not gone away. Gender ideology is only one front in a larger assault, one that seeks to suppress freedom of speech, erode parental rights, redefine woman out of legal existence, and annihilate the hard-won rights women have gained. Governments and institutions that were meant to protect us have instead conspired against those very duties. Attacks on democracy itself have moved into the open. Women, often the fiercest defenders of children, have been targeted because they stand in the way of indoctrination and exploitation. Those behind this agenda are not giving up.
Yet something important has shifted. The suffocating blanket of silence has begun to lift. More voices are speaking out. The light is shining on the darkness.
This work succeeded for as long as it did because we worked together, and women must continue to do. We lightened each other’s load and held the space when it mattered most. But life has its own relentless demands. The work grew heavier, and we found ourselves increasingly unable to meet it while still giving our families, health, and other responsibilities the attention they deserve. Eventually, it became too difficult to continue at the level this project requires.
The good news is that the light we helped shine is now brighter and reaching farther. The conversation has widened. Many more people are awake and speaking.
Everyone must now fight this in their own way, with the gifts and energy they have. Please keep shining the light, in your homes, your communities, your workplaces, and your platforms. Do not let it dim.
Thank you for reading, for sharing, and for standing with us. This is goodbye for now, not farewell forever.
Lila Jones
2022: Down the Rabbit Hole
I saw the erasure of women, the violence against women and children, the dangerous and bullying cancellation of sex-based reality and the filthy perpetrators and funders of this harm through a 1984 dystopia called “transgenderism.”
I felt isolated and alone. I read more and more of women worldwide speaking out against this thought virus, and in doing so, losing their jobs, their standing, and being called bigots and haters. Losing their security as they spoke out on behalf of girls and women locally and globally.
In 2022, I was on Terf Twitter and Substack, trolling and obsessively learning more and more outrageous acts of harm. I looked around me at rainbow pins, and pedophile flags, and blue haired girls in binders with pimpled and whiskered faces and cracked voices and I was afraid. Afraid for them. Afraid to speak out. Are you looking, I wanted to scream, how can you take your children into a nursery school or church festooned with TQ+ banners?
I had subscribed to Women: Adult Human Female and awaited the weekly round-up of injustice and crimes against women, fueling my knowledge and ire. The same historic crimes against women continued and grew - rape, tribal injustice, Islamism, murder, spousal abuse, surrogacy, and poverty. But now new criminals threatened women, like a many headed Hydra, striking everywhere and all at once - women were being forced to secede what security or safety they may have had to men. Men dressed as women. Men claiming special inner powers of woman-ness.
And these men and boys were not only succeeding in harming women and girls —claiming their spaces, their sports, threatening their sanctity at gyms, pools, in shelters, in prisons, in spas and hospitals BUT moreover these perpetrators had all the support. A large faction of women and children openly supported these heinous cheats and criminals. As did politicians, lawyers, teachers, coaches, police, universities, and school boards. Parents were losing their children to online groomers and in school manipulators. What could I do?
I was planning my own Substack when Women: Adult Human Female put out a call for a volunteer. Joining a team of anonymous women, women I have never met, women with busy lives, also undercover on their views of these injustices, to read, and write and publish a newsletter was a Godsend. I did even more research and reading; and things were even worse than I thought. I felt compelled to convey the horrors and to speak up through the newsletter, but also in my circles, and through women’s forums and supporting legal actions and giving donations. I am grateful to this “band of sisters” that gave me courage and voice to participateand educate.
I am grateful to every reader and follower. We are stronger now, more confident,more loud. There has been meaningful change and safeguarding measures are being taken. Young girls and teens and their parents are speaking out.
The threat of cancellation in our own lives is dissipating.
Any timidity I had, is gone. Any tiptoeing around these issues, is gone. Coddling?
None. My courage and sense of justice and willingness to fight are peaked.
Stay peaked!
With Deep Gratitude,
Lila Jones
Thank you so much for all that you have done! And thank you for keeping the substack as a historical record. The future generations will simply no believe us when we tell them what went on. Your record will help establish the truth, and resist any attempts to whitewash it.
THANK YOU for everything. I post frequently on The Free Press re- misogyny and gender ideology. I have been inspired by you, and I also understand the need to take of yourselves. We carry on.