Transgendered start Change.org petition against lesbian-run group

**Elspeth** · 02-01-2014, 03:15 AM

Petition Started to Encourage Southern Poverty Law Center to Label ’Gender Identity Watch’ as Hate Group
http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?...&sc3&id=154850

History was made in a most unexpected way in late 2013 when the petition titled "Southern Poverty Law Center: Monitor Gender Identity Watch as a Hate Group" appeared at Change.org. At press time, the petition had garnered more than 7,000 signatures.

The petition raised many eyebrows, receiving an outpouring of support from within the transgender community. Gender Identity Watch (GIW) was founded and is run by Cathy Brennan, a Maryland based attorney with a long history of involvement in the radical lesbian feminist movement.

Many of the comments posted in response to the Change.org petition accuse Brennan of outing transgender people to their employers, publishing the names and addresses of transgender people, and celebrating transgender suicides.

Brennan is profiled on RationalWik.orgi, a website which, according to it’s homepage "analyzes pseudo-science and the anti-science movement," as well as "documenting the full range of crank ideas." Many of the individuals featured on RationalWiki.org are conservative, anti-gay Christians.

According to RationalWiki.org, Brennan claims that no transgender people were killed during the Holocaust because the word didn’t exist at the time. The site also claims that Brennan contacted a transwoman’s personal physician and further reports that Brennan has networked Pacific Justice Institute, a conservative Christian organization, in the Institute’s now debunked claim that a transgender teen was harassing other students at a girl’s restroom in a Colorado school. Pacific Justice Institute’s home page states its goals as "defending religious freedoms, parental rights, and other civil liberties."

Scrolling through GIW’s homepage reveals posts in which transwomen are referred to as "men pretending to be women." Lesbian identified transwomen are referred to as "pretendbians."

Brennan’s issue with the trans community is vague at best. She claims that transwomen are "erasing female identity and histories."...